A Young Boy Growing up in the Midst of a Civil War, Now Ambassador for Human Rights

CLEARWATER, Fla., June 15, 2017 -- On Monday June 12^th, United for Human Rights, a non-profit organization sponsored by the Church of Scientology, hosted an in-depth briefing on human rights violations in Africa. Mr. Joseph Yarsiah, Youth for Human Rights (YHR) Director for Africa, spoke to a core group of YHR staff and volunteer at the United for Human Rights Center about how learning his human rights quite literally saved his life!

After growing up during a civil war in West Africa at the age of 9, Mr. Yarsiah’s young mind was already engraved with horrific images of child-soldiers killing families. The killings included people of all ages and creeds; and he soon learned that guns don’t discriminate when you are in their gun-sight.

In 2005 Mr. Yarsiah decided to look online for help where he found Youth for Human Rights International, attended a human trafficking awareness conference that was being held in Ghana, and found what soon became to be his new passion for life, fighting for human rights. For 12 years Mr. Yarsiah traveled all over Africa and the United Stated advocating for everyone’s 30 human rights from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“My rights and yours collectively will usher in and support the next civilization. Unless we defend the rights of others today, we risk protecting ours alone in vain,” stated Joseph Yarsiah at Monday night’s briefing in the United for Human Rights Center in Downtown Clearwater.

The evening concluded with a meet-and-greet with Mr. Yarsiah, and a call-to-arms of the volunteers to bring human rights awareness to Clearwater, Tampa Bay and all of Florida.

United for Human Rights Florida has partnered with over 500 schools, educators and organizations over the past two years since it opened its headquarters in downtown Clearwater to teach the community their human rights, and inspire them to become advocates for peace.  

For more information about United for Human Rights or to schedule a tour of the Human Rights Center, please call (727) 467-6960 or email [email protected].

United for Human Rights:

United for Human Rights (UHR) is an international non-profit, non-religious educational program which promotes the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UHR’s purpose is to teach youth their human rights and create advocates for tolerance and peace. UHR is sponsored by the Church of Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology Founder and strong supporter of human rights wrote, “Very few governments have implemented any part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These governments have not grasped that their very survival depends utterly upon adopting such reforms and thus giving their peoples a cause, a civilization worth supporting, worth their patriotism.”

Cristian Vargas
(727) 467-6960