- to documents list
In May and June of 1899, 26 nations signed the Hague Convention on the Settlement of International Disputes, described as "the first general international conference concerned with building a world system based on law and order". In that same summer, Ethel Jenner Rosenberg became the first Briton to accept the Bahá'í Faith in her own country, following the earlier example of her friend, Mrs Mary Thornburgh-Cropper, who had just returned from visiting 'Abdu'l-Bahá** in the Holy Land.
Ethel Rosenberg and Mary Thornburgh-Cropper would have been familiar with the ideas with which the delegates at the Hague had struggled. 'Abdu'l-Bahá had explained Bahá'í teachings on global order, based on the oneness of the human race, as far back as 1875. National governments, he had written, "must conclude a binding treaty .... In this all-embracing Pact the limits of each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the principles underlying the relations of governments towards one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of every government should be strictly limited ..."(*)
Today, following two World Wars, progress toward this global order is clearly visible. Representatives of all the nations of the world meet at the United Nations, which by its very existence and the expectations placed on it, demonstrates the need for some sort of global organisation. Since its founding, the United Nations has adopted and secured acceptance of more than 40 declarations and conventions on human rights, prevention of genocide and torture, discrimination based on race, gender or religious belief, and the eradication of hunger and malnutrition. The Bahá'í community has participated in the non-governmental activities of the United Nations from the first, making recommendations on many of the conventions and the better functioning of the U.N. itself.
Yet despite the great increase in international co-operation which the last century has seen, despite the global perspective which increasingly informs debate on many international issues, the process of change instigated over the past hundred years is still defined by the ideological struggle between those who take a global, planetary view of events, and those who hold to older attitudes, seek to protect national or partisan interests, and who equate advocacy of global governance with conspiracies for world dictatorship.
Partisan interests over-ride the basic need for simple justice in human affairs. Yet justice, done and seen to be done, is the only firm foundation for peace between nations. Without justice, honesty, and fair-mindedness in its drafting, no international agreement can be relied upon. A sense of "wrongs not righted" can destroy the finer feelings in human nature. Civil wars, ideological struggles and national hatreds, are rooted all too often in ancient injustices and sufferings.
Reflecting this truth, human history has been a record of competition and domination, and it would be hard to find a nation whose history and foreign policy reflect the principles of universal brotherhood, and the true equality and nobility of all humankind. The importance of some form of international governance to arbitrate and adjudicate national rivalries, global environmental concerns, and issues of human rights, whether racial, religious, or gender, is now being increasingly recognised.
Inextricably linked with the national and sectional interests that hinder a global approach to problems facing humanity, are the competitive economic policies and dogmas that underpin governmental strategies around the world. Policies which see humankind in basically economic terms - as 'units of consumption or production' - ignore the essential qualities which define humanity and provide a fertile soil in which racism, social division, and crime can flourish. Such policies should recognise that a fundamental purpose of society is to provide an environment for the development of individual potential, linking their theories to individual motivation, a commitment to service, and the spiritual dimension of each human being. Such an approach, however it is couched in technical economic terms, can radically transform many disturbing aspects of our present day society.
The British Bahá'í community has played a full role within the wider global Bahá'í community in making known the Bahá'í teachings on the oneness of humankind. 'Abdu'l-Bahá twice visited the British Isles, and the diversity of his audiences as much as the record of his many talks during those visits illustrate the importance of unity for the future of humanity. One of the most important of his expositions on the theme of unity was written in response to a resident of Edinburgh. Bahá'ís were among the founder members of the League of Nations Union, and an eminent early British Bahá'í, Lady Blomfield, played a large part in helping Eglantyne Jebb, founder of the Save the Children Fund, to get the very first piece of international legislation accepted at the League of Nations, the "Declaration of Geneva" for the "salvation of the world's starving and refugee children".
In recent years, members of the Bahá'í community have played an increasing part in organising, and supporting national and international projects promoting the oneness of humankind. Either as delegates directly representing the Bahá'í Faith, or as representatives of other organisations whose work they actively support, British Bahá'ís have worked to foster a global vision of all aspects of life on Earth. With the encouragement given in Bahá'í community life to local initiative rather than dependence only on central direction, many of these initiatives have sprung from individual Bahá'í communities committed to the belief that "the Earth is one country and mankind its citizens"(*).
Examples of such projects include: sponsorship and promotion of World Citizenship projects in schools; the work in eastern Europe and South America of teams of Bahá'í medical specialists from the Baha'i Health Agency UK, arranging the distribution of aid, exchange of personnel and twinning of hospitals and in training local practitioners; organising festivals, meetings and displays emphasising the importance of family unity during the International Year of the Family.
The community is also active in sponsoring activities such as World Religion Day and One World Week to foster good relations between followers of different faiths; promotion of inter-faith dialogue through membership of the World Congress of Faiths and the Inter Faith Network, with both of which Bahá'ís have been associated from their earliest days; and, in many localities, participating in and promoting Agenda 21, the plan for social and economic development within a just and environmentally sustainable future, drawn up by 179 governments at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.
At a national level, the Bahá'í community in London provides support to many internationally-oriented activities, such as the revival of the World Forestry Charter Gatherings, first started by pioneer environmentalist (and Bahá'í), Richard St Barbe Baker, the 1994 meeting of which was held at St James Palace and opened by HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
The National Bahá'í Women's Committee was in 1995 approved as an associate member of the Women's National Commission.
The British Bahá'í community was one of the Non-Governmental Organisations accredited to the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen March 95) where its delegates helped to distribute the Bahá'í International Community's statement, "The Prosperity of Humankind", which addresses the issues of social and economic development and the evolution of global society and world peace. More recently, the Bahá'í community participated prominently in the Habitat II Conference in Istanbul. British Bahá'ís have been actively involved in other similar U.N. summits and conferences, and with Global Forum 94, in Manchester.
In 1994, British Bahá'ís were invited by the One World Trust to help re-establish the Parliamentary Group for World Government which now hold regular meetings in the House of Commons. The Bahá'í community played a key role in the Conference on Global Governance in November 1996 attended by ninety representatives from ten nations, including Sir Shridath Ramphal, co-chairman, Commission on Global Governance. British Bahá'ís are active in the work of the European Bahá'í Business Forum, which participates in United Nations-arranged meetings of Non-Governmental Organisations.
Such activities, important though they are, are not all that is required to make the oneness of humankind a reality. Individual conduct must also be transformed. In a century that has seen the establishment of an unprecedented number of international humanitarian organisations, we have also seen a general debasement of human character. Reversing this moral decline is essential to the establishment of unity and co-operation.
The essential oneness of the human race can only be realised when the spiritual dimension of human nature is also taken into account. This can be understood as the source of those qualities that transcend narrow self-interest. Such qualities, while not contrary to material well-being, include love, compassion, forbearance, trustworthiness, courage, humility, co-operation and willingness to sacrifice for the common good. Only by touching the human spirit, Bahá'ís believe, will the oneness of humankind be able to be fully realised.
We have come a long way since the hesitant steps of the first Hague Conference, though much must still be done before the dream of a world at peace with itself can be realised. The experience of the Bahá'í community shows such a dream is possible. Drawn from many nations, cultures, classes and creeds, engaged in a wide range of activities serving spiritual, social and economic needs, it represents and rejoices in the diversity of the human family, while conducting its affairs through a system of commonly accepted consultative principles, and cherishing equally all the great outpourings of divine guidance in human history. It draws and shares its inspiration from the emphatic promise of Bahá'u'lláh, "These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the 'Most Great Peace' shall come"(*).
* quotations from the Bahá'í Writings
** Sir 'Abdu'l-Bahá Abbas (1844 -1921) son of the Founder of the Bahá'í Faith and its head 1892 -1921
Additional reading and references: The Universal House of Justice The Promise of World Peace Bahá'í World Centre, 1985; Bahá'í International Community The Prosperity of Humankind U.K. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1995; Bahá'í International Community Turning Point for all Nations, a Statement on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations Bahá'í International Community, 1995; Khursheed, A. The Seven Candles of Unity, the Story of 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Edinburgh U.K. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1991.
Written by Andrew Gash for the U.K. Bahá'í Centenary.
- to documents list
- to Home Page