Bahá’í World/Volume 26/The Bahá’í International Community, 97-98
 | The text below this notice was generated by a computer, it still needs to be checked for errors and corrected. If you would like to help, view the original document by clicking the PDF scans along the right side of the page. Click the edit button at the top of this page (notepad and pencil icon) or press Alt+Shift+E to begin making changes. When you are done press "Save changes" at the bottom of the page. |
THEBAHA’i
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Activities 1997—98
he Bahá’í International Community represents more than five
million people in at least 235 countries and dependent territories, and its 175 national and regional affiliates work through a variety of fora to give practical expression to the Bahá’í Faith’s central principles of peace and justice. Among the wide range of issues it addresses, the Community is especially concerned at this point with four major themes: human rights, moral development, the advancement of women, and global prosperity. Whether at the local, national, or international level, these foci give shape and substance to the Bahá’í International Community’s activities.
Both the Community’s United Nations Office and its Office of Public Information play important roles in the promotion of this work. A presence at the United Nations (UN) for almost half a century, the Bahá’í International Community supports the organization’s programs and shares Bahá’í perspectives on global issues at its meetings and conferences and with other non-governmental organizations (NGOS). The Office of Public Information also represents the Community internationally, disseminating information
39
[Page 40]
,;,,L1-rlll -l-_
T rig BAHA't WORLD
about the Bahá’í Faith around the world and overseeing production of the award-winning newsletter One Country.
United Nations
The Bahá’í International Community maintains offices at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, as well as representations to United Nations regional commissions in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, and Santiago and to UN offices in Nairobi, Rome, and Vienna. In 1988 the Bahá’í International Community established an Office of the Environment and in 1992 an Office for the Advancement of Women as departments of its United Nations Office.
As an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 1970 and with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) since 1976, the Bahá’í International Community is able to participate in a wide range of UN activities. This status has allowed the Community to offer Bahá’í perspectives on the work of the UN and its agencies and to work with other NGOs to support UN efforts. As a result it has become recognized as a leader within the NGO community at the UN.
In recent years, national Bahá’í communities have become increasingly engaged in the substantive work of the UN. Through their participation in the series of global conferences held throughout the deoade, they have joined in efforts to address the most pressing issues facing the global community, working at times in partnership with their governments and with like-minded organizations of civil society.
Human Rights
The focus for Bahá’í human rights activities is twofold: to protect the right of Bahá’ís to practice their Faith and to promote respect for a full range of basic human rights and responsibilities. The promotion of human rights is a major concern because, in the Bahá’í View, there can be little hope for peace and global order without a universal willingness to respect and safeguard the rights of all people.
Protecting the religious freedom of Bahá’ís throughout the world is a major aspect of the work of the Bahá’í International Community office in New York and the primary focus of the office
40
[Page 41]
Bahá’í INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
in Geneva, which work through the UN offices, commissions, and committees that monitor compliance with the various UN human rights agreements. For almost twenty years, the Bahá’í International Community, working in concert with National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world, has directed international attention towards the persecution of the Bahá’í community in Iran. The Community continually provides the UN and national governments with reliable information regarding the current status of the beleaguered Iranian Bahá’í community. Unfortunately, despite promises of increased religious tolerance from the new President of Iran, the situation of the Bahá’ís in that country has not yet improved.1
So important is the role of National Spiritual Assemblies in defending Bahá’í communities that, for the second year, several National Spiritual Assemblies were invited to send representatives to a seminar on the diplomatic work related to the defense of the Bahá’í community. This year’s seminar, held in September 1997 in Acuto, Italy, brought together representatives of twenty-seven National and Regional Spiritual Assemblies, and representatives of the Bahá’í International Community’s United Nations Office, the Office of Public Information in Haifa, and the Bahá’í World Centre. The primary Objective of this year’s seminar was to coordinate the ongoing efforts by the Bahá’í International Community and certain National Spiritual Assemblies—mostly from European Union countries—to defend the Bahá’í community in Iran. The gathering also provided a venue for national representatives to share experiences and exchange Views.
The Bahá’í International Community submitted three written statements to the fifty—third session of the Commission on Human Rights, held March—April 1998, which were circulated as official UN documents. One addressed the protection of minorities, another the rights of the Child, and the third the human rights situation of the Bahá’í community in Iran. The plight of the Bahá’ís in Iran was also addressed in an oral intervention during
1. Developments during the past year in the human rights situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran are treated at length in a separate article 011 pp. 51—60 of this volume.
41
[Page 42]
TH; Bang WORLD
the Commission’s deliberations. The Community and other NGOs jointly presented a proposal for a World Conference to Combat Racism and offered a joint statement on the right to development. At the forty-ninth session of the Sub—Commission 0n the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, held August 1997, a combined oral statement was offered on minorities and religious intolerance.
National Spiritual Assemblies have been strong supporters of human rights in their own countries. With the approach of the fiftieth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1998, Bahá’í communities around the world began to consider suitable Observances and initiatives. These efforts were stimulated in October 1997 by the distribution of a special packet of information on human rights, prepared by the Bahá’í International Community’s United Nations Office. Designed to encourage Bahá’í communities to participate in the UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1995—2004), the packet offers suggestions on how to become involved in promoting human rights education. This was part of a continuing effort to encourage Bahá’í communities to raise public consciousness of the need to respect and defend the rights of all. These efforts bore fruit in Latin America in the form of regional seminars held in J anuary 1998 in Paraguay and El Salvador to explore ways to promote human rights education.
En vironment, Deve10pment and Global Prosperity F ive years after the historic Earth Summit in Rio de J aneiro, fiftythree Heads of State met in New York at the fourteenth Special Session of the UN General Assembly to assess progress toward implementing Agenda 21, the global program for environmental protection and economic development adopted in Rio. NGOs in attendance, including representatives of three National Spiritual Assemblies and the Bahá’í International Community, enjoyed significantly greater access to these proceedings (held in New York 23—27 June 1997) than at any previous session of the General Assembly. NGOs were allowed both to offer suggestions at government negotiating sessions and to address the plenary session. The Optimism that marked the Earth Summit in 1992 was, however, noticeably absent from these proceedings. Despite
42
[Page 43]
¢7+4 477:» J A A74 Lv IA A i .1 l 7;; .» 1i, . L 7 ‘- Jigi L W, L 1. 7 _ , iii, 4,_J=_~l 4‘74, » .Jmllbu; £4“.me
Bahá’í INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
positive developments, including a continued rise in world food production, a slowdown in population growth, and a number of regional improvements in environmental quality, many of the trends and problems that faced leaders in Rio remained unabated or had actually worsened. The most serious disappointment was that the promised increase in aid from the wealthier nations of the North to the nations of the South had not materialized. In fact, the level of aid actually declined during the past five years.
Although for some the frank acknowledgement by many government representatives that Rio’s promises had not been realized marked this meeting as a failure, others saw reasons for hope. Chief Bisi Ogunleye of the Nigerian Countrywomen’s Association declared, “It is people that can save the world, not governments.” Lawrence Arturo, Director of the Bahá’í International Community’s Office of the Environment, suggested that the level of honesty on the part of governments was a sign of a new level of maturity in the international system. “It is only from such a process of frank consultation,” he said, “that a new level of genuine international cooperation can emerge.”
Perhaps the most exciting and potentially ground—breaking meeting in which the Office of the Environment participated was the World Faiths and Development Dialogue. This gathering, convened in February 1998 at Lambeth Palace in London and cohosted by the President of the World Bank and the Archbishop of Canterbury, brought together spiritual leaders from nine major religions and traditional development experts for two days of consultation on the relationship between material and spiritual development.2
Other notable meetings included the International Ecology Congress, sponsored by the government of Kazakhstan in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 21—24 April 1997. Dr. Arthur Dahl, author of the book T he Eco Principle, represented the Bahá’í International Community and was one of three Bahá’í speakers at this gathering, which drew some two hundred to three hundred NGO representatives and
2. The full story of this historic gathering appears on pp. 61—70 of this volume, and one of the papers contributed by the Bahá’í International Community, Valuing Spirituality in Development, can be found in its entirety on pp. 233259.
43
[Page 44]
TILE BAHAii Wm
participants from the scientific community. The Community also attended the Commission on Social Development, held 10—20 February 1998 in New York, and the Forum on Human Solidarity, Human Settlements and Global Ecosystems associated with the Fifth Annual World Bank Conference on Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development in Washington, DC, held 8 October 1997.
Bahá’í youth continued to be active in UN fora. The Community was represented in Seoul, Korea, at the UNEP Global Youth Forum in June 1997 and again in February 1998 at the Second Session of Consultations in Preparation for the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth, scheduled for August 1998 in Braga, Portugal. Immediately after the government meeting the Community took part in the International Youth NGO Meeting held to prepare for youth participation in the Braga conference.
Advancement of Women
This year witnessed the end of an era. Mary Power, who served as Director of the Office for the Advancement of Women since its establishment in 1992 and who worked in the Community’s United Nations Office in New York for more than twenty-five years, retired on 30 June 1997. The outpouring of love and respect showered on her at her retirement included a number of testimonials from Bahá’í colleagues and the men and women with whom she had served over the years at the UN. Ruth Bamela Engo—Tjega, Senior Liaison Officer for the Office of the Special Coordinator for Africa and Least Developed Countries in the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development and fellow founder of the Advocates for African Food Security: Lessening the Burden on African Women F armers, testified to the unique place Mary Power had won in the hearts of African women. “Mary adopted Africa at the United Nations,” she said. “Africans made her their ‘Mother’s kitchen’ and believed that they owned her.” Ms. Engo-Tjega captured the unifying power of Mary’s presence by describing her in a poem as “consensus, respect of conflicting perspectives, part of us all.” Ms. Power will continue to be involved in efforts to improve the status of women the world oven
44
Left to right are Meredith Krashes, aide to the BICS Office for the Advancem ent of Women, Mary Power, outgoing Directon and Bani Dugal Gujral, the Office 19 new
Director.
The new Director of the Office for the Advancement of Women is Bani Dugal Gujral, who has served in the New York office since 1994 as an Alternate Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the UN. Ms. Dugal Gujral, a native of India, has a law degree from the University of Delhi and a master’s degree in environmental law from Pace University in New York State.
Under its new director, the Office for the Advancement of Women continued to provide leadership within the NGO community, spearheading efforts to bring girls to speak on their own behalf to the Commission on the Status of Women. For the first time in its fifty-one-year history, the Commission heard testimony directly from two girls as it began to consider the issue of “the girl Child,” one of four themes on the agenda for its forty-second session. Months of preparation by the Sub-Task Force on the Participation of Girls, of which the Bahá’í International Community was Convenor, ensured that the girls’ contributions would be heard.
Following the plenary session, “Listen to Girls,” a speak-out organized by the Working Group on Girls of the NGO Committee on UNICEF, was attended by an audience of several hundred, including many of the official delegates. Fifteen girls, aged thirteen to eighteen, from Armenia, Brazil, Chile, the Gambia, Nepal, Singapore, the UK, and the USA were selected and sponsored by a number of NGOs. They spoke, sometimes through tears, about such problems as teen pregnancy, female genital mutilation, and lack of educational opportunities for girls in their countries—and about ways governments and NGOs might make
45
[Page 46]
T 1&3 Bahá’í WORLD
a difference. The girls’ interventions had a significant impact on delegates, bringing home the concrete realities and difficulties of life for girls from a number of regions of the world. They also underscored the urgent need for the Beijing Platform for Action to be implemented in ways that can engender positive effects in the day-to-day lives of girls.
Miriam Lyons, who facilitated the girls’ speak-out, credited the democratic selection process developed by the working group with identifying extraordinary girls “as diverse in socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds as were the countries that they had come from.” She noted that “each girl arrived confident in her knowledge of what needed to be told about the situations of girls in their countries and equipped with the skills to tell it.” She also remarked on the extraordinary level of cooperation and support within the group: “They wanted to listen and learn from one another and knew how to do it.” A dessert reception at the Bahá’í Offices provided Government representatives from the girls’ countries and staff from UNICEF and the UN Division for the Advancement of Women with the opportunity to meet and converse informally with the girls.
Statements made by the Office this year included “Creating an Enabling Environment for Empowering Girls,” presented to
F ifteen girls from eight diflerent countries addressed a speak-out organized by the Working Group on Girls of the NGO Committee 012 UNICEF during the forty—second session of the Commission on the Status Of Women at the United Nations, March 1998.
46
Bahá’í INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
the Commission on the Status of Women, and a joint statement on the family, presented at the Commission for Social Development. UNICEF requested, for publication, a paper based on the Bahá’í contribution to a discussion on “Rebuilding the Community around Children: Principles, Values and Resources,” which had been held in Geneva in March 1997.
In preparation for the Commission on the Status of Women, the Community attended two Expert Group Meetings: one on Adolescent Girls, held October 1997 in Addis Ababa; the other on Gender—based Persecution, held November 1997 in Toronto. The Community was also represented at the eighteenth session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and at the Seventh Triennial Conference of Pacific Women, sponsored by the South Pacific Commission, held during June 1997 in Noumea, New Caledonia.
Throughout the world, the number of Bahá’í national offices and committees established to promote the advancement of women has grown steadily. In March 1998, more than forty such agencies, operating under the auspices of Bahá’í National Spiritual Assemblies around the world, received copies of the first “postBeijing” newsletter published by the Office for the Advancement of Women. The newsletter is seen as a way for the Office for the Advancement of Women to share information about activities at the UN and for National Offices to communicate with one another about successful local and national initiatives undertaken on behalf of women.
Meetings
Meetings and UN sessions monitored by the Bahá’í International Community this year, other than those already discussed, include the following: the Commission on Human Settlements, held AprilMay 1997 in Nairobi; the Economic Commission for Africa, held May 1997 in Addis Ababa; the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, held April 1997 in Bangkok; the World Health Assembly, held May 1997 in Geneva; and the Executive Board of the World Health Organization, held May 1997 in Geneva; the Substantive Session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, held June—July 1997 in Geneva; meetings of the UNICEF Executive Board, held June and September 1997 in New York; the
47
[Page 48]
TILE Bahá’í WORLD
fiftieth annual DPI/NGO Conference: Building Partnerships, held September 1997 in New York; the Executive Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Program, held October 1997 in Geneva; the Commission on Sustainable Development in New York, both the Intersessional meeting, held February 1998, and the sixth session, held April 1998.
The Community attended the meeting of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on the Right to Development, held September 1997 in Geneva. It followed Sub—Commission Working Groups on Indigenous Populations, Minorities, and Contemporary Forms of Slavery, and the Commission Working Group on the Drafting of a Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups, and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Much of the work of NGOs in consultative status with the UN is carried out through NGO committees and task forces that address specific issues. During this last year, the Bahá’í International Community held the chairmanships Of the New York NGO Committee on Human Rights and the New York CONGO (Committee Of Non-Govemmental Organizations in Consultative Status with ECOSOC) Chairs Task Force on UN Reform and Increasing Access to the UN. In Geneva the Community chaired the CONGO Sub-Committee 0n Freedom of Religion, Conscience, and Belief.
Public Information
The Bahá’í International Community’s Office of Public Information is responsible for coordinating and stimulating the public information work of the worldwide Bahá’í community. Based at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, and with a branch office in Paris, the Office of Public Information engages in a wide range of activities. During 1997—98 the Office continued its work of maintaining dialogue with leaders of thought, government, and industry by welcoming some 2,396 dignitaries, media representatives and other special visitors from over seventy-seven countries to the Bahá’í World Centre. Among the Visitors were the Prime Minister of Israel, the Vice President of Uganda, twenty—two Ambassadors to Israel and four members of Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset. Journalists, Ministers, and Parliamentarians from Albania, Armenia, Germany,
48
[Page 49]
BAHA'E INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Hungary, Nepal, New Zealand, and the United States also Visited the Bahá’í Shrines and gardens, as well as mayors from cities in Denmark, Germany, Israel, and Romania.
This year the Office of Public Information embarked on a groundbreaking effort to promote civic concord across Eastern Europe. F ollowing the restructuring of the republic of Yugoslavia in 1995, the European Union and other European countries banded together to bridge ethnic and cultural rifts by initiating the “Royaumont Process,” the purpose of which is to develop social stability and “promote good neighborliness” in southeastern Europe. By sponsoring small-seale initiatives to restore dialogue in civil society, culture, the arts, science and technology, the Process hopes to stimulate implementation of its sister initiative—the Dayton Peace Accords.
The European Union Chose to draw upon the experience of the Bahá’í International Community to develop the moral education component of the Process. “The Happy Hippo” television show, conceived and implemented by Bahá’í journalist Shamil F attakhov and first broadcast in Russia,3 will serve as a flagship element of the Royaumont effort to promote moral awareness. Each show centers around a short skit involving young people facing a moral dilemma. The skit, which is performed in front of a live audience, pauses just before the dilemma is resolved. The host of the show then asks audience members how they would resolve the situation, giving them the opportunity to consult on challenging ethical concerns. Plans to produce the show throughout Royaumont member countries are in development.
One Country, the official newsletter of the Bahá’í International Community, entered its ninth year of publication. Published quarterly in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and German, it reached an estimated 33,000 subscribers in at least 180 countries. During 1997—98, One Country won an “Award of Excellence” for its overall content and design from the Apex ’97 Awards for Publication Excellence. Coverage in One Country included stories on the “World Faiths and Development Dialogue”
3. See The Bahá’í World 1996—97, pp. 229—233 for more information about “The Happy Hippo Show.”
49
[Page 50]
TEE BAHAJ WORLD
held between the World Bank and major world religions at Lambeth Palace in London, and the United Nations “Earth Summit +5” meeting in New York. Major feature reports included stories about a grassroots development work among the Karen people by the Bahá’í community of Thailand, 21 literacy proj ect in Cambodia that also aims to promote peace and empowerment among its participants, and a series of stories on the work of the New Era Development Institute in India, which takes a distinctive approach to vocational education by striving to instill a new Vision of community service in its students. Stories also reported on the efforts of Bahá’í youth around the world to promote a new Vision Oft01erance Via the arts, and efforts by Bahá’í communities to prepare for the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Conclusion
Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.”4 The Bahá’í International Community is an emblem of the unity of the Bahá’í world, working simultaneously on the local, national, and international levels to further the ideals of global peace and security. By disseminating the cumulative knowledge gained from Bahá’í initiatives in social and economic development, consulting with leaders of thought and governments around the world, and contributing to UN fora, the Bahá’í International Community hopes to increase awareness of and help implement solutions to the multitudinous challenges facing humanity during this “age of transition.”5
4. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1994), p. 286.
5. Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: Selected Letters (W ilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1991), p. 170.
50
