Mr. Ivan Arjona-Pelado : President European Office of the Church of Scientology for Public Affairs and Human Rights
I would like to express my gratitude to Your Excellencies from the Representative Missions to the UN from Estonia, Finland, Republic of the Philippines and Slovak Republic.
Mr. Luis Alberto Alarcon, Mr. Thierry Valle, distinguished Ambassadors, and all those NGOs supporting and attending to this event, ladies and gentlemen.
CENTRAL to SCIENTOLOGY BELIEFS is a CONVICTION that all HUMANKIND is entitled to INALIENABLE RIGHTS.
Early in his research into the human mind and spirit, author, humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard emphasized that spiritual freedom and enlightenment were all but unattainable goals to individuals denied their most fundamental human rights.
Accordingly, he wrote the Code of a Scientologist, calling on all members of the religion to dedicate themselves “to support true humanitarian endeavors in the fields of human rights.” In doing so, he laid the groundwork for what has become a global movement of advocates for the human rights of all people, regardless of their social condition, ethnicity or religious affiliation.
Today, Scientologists on five continents engage in collaborative efforts with government agencies and nongovernmental organizations to bring about broad-scale awareness and implementation of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the world’s premier human rights document.
We welcome the participation and collaboration of all who share the goal of a world where human rights are an everyday reality for all.
In fact The Creed of the Church of Scientology. written by L. Ron Hubbard shortly after the Church was formed in Los Angeles on February 18, 1954, succinctly states what Scientologists believe.
And will partially quote:
We of the Church believe.
That all Men (and we mean the species) of whatever race, color or creed were created with equal rights.
- inalienable rights to their own religious practices and their performance.
- inalienable rights to their own lives.
- inalienable rights to their sanity.
- inalienable rights to their own defense.
- inalienable rights to conceive, choose, assist or support their own organizations, churches and governments.
- inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others.
- inalienable rights to the creation of their own kind.
That the souls of Men have the rights of Men.
It is with all the beforementioned in mind, that we not only urge our own people to KNOW, LEARN and APPLY the UDHR, but we also make sure everyone around us get to know them. It is our duty to engage civil servants, diplomats, with people from different beliefs and non believers, to make sure that the Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion can be enjoyed by every human being, and it is in this light that we have fought for this right and others at the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the OSCE and even the United Nations Human Rights Council, defending Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and every other existing religion and ways of belief.
All the religions and organized ways of thought, are responsible to make these rights something as common as breathing, as their application is what gives us the oxygen to further improve of life, culture and society.
We should all be UNITED for HUMAN RIGHTS, we should all STANDUP4HUMANRIGHTS. Lets share our success stories, lets use the materials provided by many, to make Human Rights, in this 70th Anniversary of the UDHR, a sustainable reality well in its way.
