"HUMAN RIGHTS HERO AWARDS"

SHOW EFFECTIVE ACTION IS POSSIBLE AMID VIOLATIONS

• Colorado one of 20 states represented at national Human Rights event in Washington D.C.

"Through great courage, diplomacy, intelligence and persistence," said Leisa Goodman, of the Church of Scientology Human Rights Department, "there are people who show by their effective action that something can be done towards making human rights a global reality. The people being honored with the first Human Rights Hero Awards show by their personal examples what a difference one person can make."

The cause and the examples drew dignitaries and advocates - from legislators to religious leaders and teenager organizers - from 20 states, to attend the event at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington D.C. on Tuesday night.

A Colorado human rights organization, Rocky Mountain Youth for Human Rights, was represented at the event by adult leader Susan Gaut, of the Church of Scientology here in Colorado. Rocky Mountain Youth for Human Rights is dedicated to teaching local youth what the 30 basic human rights are, as written in 1948 by Eleanor Roosevelt in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The youth club also runs human rights projects in Colorado, such as raising money for Hurricaine Katrina victims - an application of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration.

"It really doesn't matter whether we're talking about a starving family in Nepal, a family that lost everything to a hurricane or a teenager on the streets of Denver. All people have basic human rights and these must be made known and they must be acted on in order to change conditions in this or any other society," explained Gaut. Ms. Gaut attended the D.C. event and hosted youth member, Skyler Hardy, a delegate and Hero Award nominee from New Mexico, who now wants to start his own Youth for Human Rights Club in Albuquerque.

Presenting the awards were actresses Anne Archer and Jenna Elfman, at a ceremony sponsored by rights groups including Youth for Human Rights International, the International Foundation for Human Rights and Tolerance, the Church of Scientology Human Rights Department, and a group newly organized by M. Archer, Artists for Human Rights.

The awardees chosen this year were youth and adults working at a grass-roots level to deal with human rights violations around them. Tamara Batalha helped Miami parents whose children had been mislabeled "learning disabled," get those children off psychiatric drugs and succeeding at study. Another, Judith Lahai-Momoh, founded a Texas group, "Saving Lives Through Alternative Options," which has helped the "most despised" in our country - - poor immigrants with AIDS - - protect their rights as human beings. Lai-Lai is a young pro-rights rapper whose positive message has won independent film awards. And UCLA student Vanessa Alfaro piloted and implemented a human rights education program in schools at her own school and throughout her area, that in turn helped groups in African countries like Liberia and Uganda.

The organizers share an emphasis on wide understanding of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as a vital element in long-term human rights reforms, here and abroad.