The Church of Scientology of Rome and Association for Human Rights and Tolerance of Italy co-hosted a human rights conference and open house May 30, 2013, that spotlighted plight for the people of Tibet.

Tibetan exile and human rights advocate Mr. Gelek Yakar, president of the Mandala Project Center, was the special guest speaker at a human rights conference and open house May 30, 2013, at the Church of Scientology of Rome.

He appealed to the civic and community leaders attending to take up the cause of Tibetan people, going into great detail about violations of their basic human rights.

As part of his program to foster human rights, Yakar has seen to the translation of the booklet What are Human Rights? into the Tibetan language. The booklet is a key component of the human rights education program the Church supports and it will be used by the Association for Human Rights and Tolerance of Italy in their project to bring human rights education to the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India.

The conference concluded with a ceremony for good luck and fortune in which Yakar presented of the white scarf—a Tibetan symbol of good luck and friendship—to Church staff and Association volunteers.

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.

The Church of Scientology of Rome dedicated its new Church in the Casalotti de Boccea district in October 2009. It has been configured to service Scientologists on their ascent to greater states of spiritual awareness and freedom and to serve the entire community as a meeting ground of cooperative effort to uplift citizens of all denominations.

The Church of Scientology published Scientology: How We Help—United for Human Rights, Making Human Rights a Global Reality, to meet requests for more information about the human rights education and awareness initiative the Church supports. To learn more, visit Scientology.org/HumanRights.

Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream,” and the Scientology religion is based on the principles of human rights. The Code of a Scientologist calls on all members of the religion to dedicate themselves “to support true humanitarian endeavors in the fields of human rights.”