Have you ever heard of an organization called "Youth For Human Rights"?  I hadn't until just a few minutes ago, when I saw a TV ad they were running on cable station TVLand.

So what do I know that I didn't fifteen minutes ago?  I know that "Equality Under the Law" is "Human Right Number 7."

I also know that "Youth For Human Rights International" is a front organization for the Church of Scientology (http://www.scientology.org/html/opencms/cos/scientology/en_US/news-media/print/briefing/2005/hr/050505.html) , and directly linked to the United Nations so-called "Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

But a quick visit to the group's website (www.youthforhumanrights.org) told me all I really needed to know.  Like most such organizations, they are dedicated to bringing young people on board by appealing to their generally good nature and then misinforming them.  No - stop... Let me correct that.  They're playing on their naivete and LYING TO THEM!!

Here's how.  Take a quick look at the YFHRI website and read their "Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Abridged Version."   Then read two other things:  The FULL TEXT of the so-called "Universal Declaration Of Human Rights" (to their credit, it IS on their website) and the definition of "abridged".  (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/abridged)

Did you catch item Three in that definition?  If you missed it, here it is:  "3 : to shorten by omission of words without sacrifice of sense " (emphasis added)

Well, by my reading, that ain't no "abridged" version, it's the "dumbed down" version.

Let's take just one simple example, in Item 14: 

14.	The right to asylum. If we are frightened of being badly treated in our own country, we all have the right to run away to another country to be safe.

Well, not really.  If you read the actual text, they have omitted this little gem: "(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. "  (emphasis added)

I guess if you've crossed the U.N., there's NO place to hide.

And that's just one of the host of travesties in their "abridgement".  (well, in the real document actually...)  But then, I guess when you're trying to rally the kids, the facts don't matter.  At least not to the Scientologists or the U.N.