From an early campaign promoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to an international educational movement reaching communities across the world, United for Human Rights has developed through nearly three decades of advocacy and education. Geneva has been part of that journey almost from the beginning.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 with an ambitious promise: that the fundamental rights it set out should belong to everyone, everywhere.
But declarations only fulfil their purpose when people know what they contain.
That conviction lies at the heart of the movement that eventually became United for Human Rights—a movement whose roots extend back to the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance, developed further with the creation of Youth for Human Rights International in 2001, and ultimately expanded into a worldwide educational campaign for people of all ages.
Throughout that evolution, one city has repeatedly provided a bridge between community-level education and the international human rights system: Geneva.
The roots: human rights and tolerance
The story began in the late 1990s with the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit initiative dedicated to promoting human rights, tolerance and greater public understanding of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
From 1997, the Foundation supported campaigns and educational activities aimed at taking human rights beyond the world of lawyers, governments and international institutions and making them meaningful to ordinary people. Its work gained particular relevance as the international community approached the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration in 1998. Contemporary accounts describe activities in the United States and internationally, including Europe, built around increasing public awareness of the Declaration and its principles.
The approach established during those years would remain remarkably consistent: education was seen as one of the most effective ways of building respect for human dignity and preventing violations before they occurred.
It was from this human rights and tolerance work that a new initiative with a particular focus on young people emerged.
Youth for Human Rights—and an early connection with Geneva
In 2001, educator Dr. Mary Shuttleworth founded Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI).
Born and raised in apartheid-era South Africa, Shuttleworth had experienced a society in which discrimination was embedded in everyday life. She became convinced that education was essential if future generations were to understand not only their own rights, but also their responsibility to respect the rights of others.
Youth for Human Rights grew out of the work being carried forward through the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance. Early descriptions of the initiative specifically place its creation within Shuttleworth’s work for the Foundation, and the two organizations continued collaborating on human rights education activities during the following years.
From the beginning, however, YHRI had a distinctive purpose: to make the thirty articles of the Universal Declaration understandable and relevant to children and young adults.
And Geneva entered the story in YHRI’s very first year.
In 2001, an international essay initiative invited young people to consider the question: “What are human rights?” Winners from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Austria travelled to Geneva, where their work was recognized. An awards gathering took place at the President Wilson Hotel, beginning an association with the city that would continue for decades.
A decade later, when Youth for Human Rights returned to the same hotel for its 2011 International Human Rights Summit, organizers recalled it as the room where the movement had been launched ten years earlier.
Geneva was a natural setting. Home to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Palais des Nations, diplomatic missions and a large international civil-society community, the city offered a unique environment in which human rights education could meet the institutions charged with promoting and protecting those rights internationally.
Turning thirty rights into practical education
During the following years, Youth for Human Rights expanded its educational activities internationally.
Its approach was deliberately accessible. Rather than asking students to begin with complex legal texts, it developed materials that presented the Universal Declaration through straightforward language, film, discussion, classroom activities and community events.
The movement eventually produced the What Are Human Rights? booklet, teaching resources, online courses and a series of 30 short films, each illustrating one of the thirty articles of the Universal Declaration.
Another important production was The Story of Human Rights, a short film tracing the historical development of human rights and explaining how the Universal Declaration came into being.
Alongside educational materials came an increasingly international program of events, educational tours and Human Rights Summits.
The International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance remained part of this developing human rights network. In 2006, for example, the Foundation, Youth for Human Rights International, Artists for Human Rights and the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International jointly supported the Human Rights Heroes Awards at the Rayburn Congressional Building in Washington, D.C.
In 2007, Mary Shuttleworth was also identified as President of the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance during a Los Angeles initiative addressing human trafficking. The Foundation, YHRI, Artists for Human Rights, the Church of Scientology International Human Rights Department and public and civil-society partners worked together on the event.
These collaborations illustrate how the original human rights and tolerance campaign gradually developed into a broader international educational movement.
United for Human Rights broadens the mission
As the initiative grew, one fact became increasingly evident: the need for understandable human rights education was not limited to young people.
On the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the broader United for Human Rights (UHR) initiative was established.
Its purpose was to bring the same educational approach to people of all ages and to provide resources that individuals, educators, organizations and public bodies could use to promote knowledge and application of the Universal Declaration.
Youth for Human Rights International continued its particular focus on youth, while United for Human Rights provided a wider framework for the movement.
The underlying philosophy remained unchanged: human rights should not be abstract principles known only to specialists. They should be understood by the people to whom they belong.
Geneva becomes an international platform
The relationship with Geneva now entered a new phase.
In 2009, the International Human Rights Summit came to Geneva. Human rights advocates, officials, members of the diplomatic community, NGOs and young delegates gathered for three days focused on implementing the Universal Declaration and strengthening human rights education.
The Geneva gathering also marked the international premiere of The Story of Human Rights, created to explain in accessible terms where human rights came from and why the Universal Declaration matters.
A year later, the summit moved into one of Geneva’s most symbolic settings.
In 2010, youth delegates carrying the flags of their countries entered the Palais des Nations for the seventh annual International Human Rights Summit. Contemporary reporting records more than 60 youth delegates, together with over 50 UN diplomats and representatives of supporting organizations. Discussions included the role of education in advancing human rights and the work then taking place within the Human Rights Council on human rights education.
The significance was more than ceremonial.
Young activists who had been promoting human rights in their own communities were able to present their work in the international environment where governments and civil society discussed many of the same issues.
Geneva hosted the summit once again in 2011.
That year’s gathering brought together youth delegates from 30 countries, representatives of Permanent Missions, human rights NGOs and civil-society leaders. Around 250 participants filled the President Wilson Hotel event hall, according to the organizers.
By then, Geneva had hosted the International Human Rights Summit for three consecutive years—2009, 2010 and 2011.
The city’s relationship with the movement had developed from an early youth awards gathering into sustained interaction with the international human rights community.
Building human rights education in Switzerland
The international summits were accompanied by activity on the ground.
Youth for Human Rights groups developed in Geneva and Lausanne, later joined by activity elsewhere in Switzerland. Volunteers organized educational presentations, public-awareness campaigns, Human Rights Day initiatives and events promoting knowledge of the Universal Declaration.
Swiss volunteers also advocated greater attention to human rights education in schools and collaborated with other civil-society organizations.
Geneva therefore came to serve two complementary functions: a local centre for education and community engagement, and an international platform for dialogue with diplomats, NGOs and the United Nations human rights community.
That connection was again evident in 2013, when Mary Shuttleworth and volunteers from the Geneva chapter spent a week in the city as part of the 10th Youth for Human Rights International World Educational Tour.
They held meetings with staff from diplomatic missions accredited to the United Nations and with representatives connected with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at Palais Wilson.
The objective reflected the movement’s original purpose: to find partners capable of bringing human rights education to still wider audiences.
Seventy years of the Universal Declaration
A major new chapter came on 10 December 2018, exactly seventy years after the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration.
That day, the Palais des Nations hosted the conference “70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A Commitment from Civil Society.”
The event brought diplomats, NGOs, human rights advocates, religious representatives and other members of civil society together to consider how the principles of the Declaration could be translated into practical commitment.
The Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the United Nations in Geneva reported that the conference was organized by a group of civil-society organizations spearheaded by United for Human Rights International, Fundación Vida Grupo Ecológico Verde and Fundación para la Mejora de la Vida, la Cultura y la Sociedad. The Philippines joined other Permanent Missions in supporting the initiative.
Human rights education occupied a central place in the program. Andrew Chalmers, representing United for Human Rights International, participated in the panel devoted to knowing and understanding the Universal Declaration in order to put it into practice. The program also included the screening of The Story of Human Rights.
Other panels addressed freedom of religion or belief, interfaith cooperation and the contribution of civil society to defending fundamental rights.
The 2018 gathering was particularly fitting in light of the movement’s history.
Seventeen years after the first Youth for Human Rights activities brought young people to Geneva, United for Human Rights was back at the centre of the international human rights community, helping convene civil society and diplomatic representatives around the document that had inspired the movement from the outset.
A movement built through partnership
The development of United for Human Rights has been made possible through partnerships at many levels.
Over the years, its educational activities have brought together teachers, young people, NGOs, community organizations, government representatives, diplomats and human rights advocates from widely different cultural and professional backgrounds.
The Church of Scientology and individual Scientologists have also provided longstanding support to United for Human Rights and Youth for Human Rights International—a relationship both programs publicly acknowledge. That support has helped make educational materials available internationally and enabled volunteers and partner groups to carry out human rights education initiatives in communities around the world.
At the same time, the history in Geneva illustrates the breadth of the movement’s engagement: Permanent Missions, UN personnel, NGOs, educators, faith communities and grassroots advocates have all participated at different stages.
The common point has been the Universal Declaration itself.
From a campaign to a global educational movement
In 2026, Youth for Human Rights International marked 25 years since its creation.
What began as an educational initiative focused on young people had by then become part of a worldwide movement promoting knowledge of the Universal Declaration through United for Human Rights and Youth for Human Rights International.
The path from the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance, through the creation of Youth for Human Rights International, to the broader mission of United for Human Rights reflects an organization and a campaign adapting as their reach expanded.
But one principle has remained constant: human rights education is not an academic exercise.
Knowing that freedom of expression, equality before the law, freedom of thought and belief, education, privacy and protection from discrimination are human rights can change the way people understand both their own dignity and the dignity of others.
That is why the Universal Declaration has remained at the centre of the initiative.
And it is also why Geneva has mattered so much to its history.
From young essay winners arriving in the city in 2001, to international summits, gatherings at the Palais des Nations, meetings with diplomatic missions and the 70th-anniversary civil-society conference in 2018, Geneva has repeatedly been the place where grassroots human rights education has met the international system created to protect those same rights.
The institutions and programs have developed over the years. The audience has expanded from young people to entire communities.
The purpose, however, remains compellingly simple:
to make human rights known well enough that people can recognize them, respect them and stand up for them.
This is the story of the authentic, original and real NGO United for Human Rights.