Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) was formed in 2001.

In support of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education 1995-2004, Youth for Human Rights International's first project was to launch a European-wide Essay Writing Contest for youth between the ages of eight and eighteen, in coordination with Friends of the United Nations. Three young people from Hungary, Czech Republic and Austria won a trip to Geneva, home of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, to receive their awards on October 11, 2001.

YHRI has also begun to tackle the problem of human trafficking or "modern-day slavery," a type of crime that now affects an estimated 27 million people, mostly women and children worldwide. YHRI has held a number of seminars and roundtables on human trafficking, including one in Los Angeles attended by a representative of the U.S. Department of Justice and another at Cape Coast in Ghana, on the site where, until two centuries ago, hundreds of native Africans were imprisoned in filthy dungeons before being transported as slaves to the Americas.

Due to the success of various YHRI campaigns, government officials have begun integrating YHRI educational materials into their programs. The National Human Rights Commissions of Mexico and New Zealand have adopted the programs, which they regard as a valuable resource in overcoming human rights abuses suffered by youth in their countries.

With the expansion of YHRI and its message that human rights should be learned when still young has come a demand for more information from all over the world. To fill this need, in February 2004 YHRI representatives set out on a 45,000-mile World Educational Tour. In the space of five weeks, YHRI delegates traveled to both well-populated and far-flung locations, including Tokyo; Bangkok; Accra, Ghana; Georgetown, Guyana (South America); and Mexico City to increase the understanding of human rights among youth and to found new YHRI chapters. Along the way, YHRI representatives met with senior government officials, visited local towns and villages, and distributed to both parents and children copies of What Are Human Rights? and YHRI's educational flier on AIDS. At each stop, they asked the children to write short accounts of what they understood of human rights and why these are so precious.

During the World Educational Tour, director Taron Lexton, then aged 19, filmed many of the scenes for UNITED, YHRI's award-winning human rights music video. Two thousand volunteers, including 150 actors, donated their time to the movie project, which contains footage from 13 countries. UNITED is truly a youth undertaking, with the crew comprised mostly of teenagers and teenage rappers adding their brilliance with a song about human rights. First shown inside the United Nations headquarters in New York in August 2004, UNITED's honors include "Best Human Rights Film" at the Taglio Corto Film Festival in Florence, which is co-organized by UNESCO. Most important, the message of the film, available in 15 languages, reaches across barriers to youth of all races and ethnics. Educators and community leaders consider UNITED a unique tool to develop human rights awareness among young people.

In 2006, Youth for Human Rights International began its 3rd annual world tour to promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as part of their campaign to make human rights a fact through implementing human rights education around the world.

The tour consisted of 30 events, each one releasing one of the 30 PSAs, in cities in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

While YHRI operates as an independent and secular corporation, it feels that it is vital to work with other like-minded secular and faith based organizations. It has therefore worked with many organizations through the years, some of which can be seen on the "YHRI Collaborators" page.

One collaborator YHRI is especially grateful to is the Human Rights Office of the Church of Scientology International, which has contributed invaluable assistance in helping produce and print or publish many of its educational materials and in helping disseminate the materials to the public along with joining YHRI for occasional public education events.

See the Endorsement and Recognitions