{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-archive-page-jsx","path":"/archive/55/","result":{"pageContext":{"strings":{"about":"About","additional_articles":"Additional Articles","administration":"Administration","africa":"Africa","all_bahaiorg_sites":"All Bahai.org Sites","all_sites":"All sites","all_sites_arising_serve":"Arising to Serve","all_sites_arising_serve_caption":"A film recounting highlights of the 41 regional Bahá’í conferences called by the Universal House of Justice in 2008","all_sites_bahai_org":"The official website of the worldwide Bahá’í community","all_sites_bahai_org_library":"Bahá’í Reference Library","all_sites_bahai_org_library_caption":"The authoritative online source of Bahá’í writings","all_sites_bahaullah_org":"The Life of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_bahaullah_org_caption":"A photographic narrative of the life of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_bic":"Bahá’í International Community Representative Offices","all_sites_bic_caption":"The official website of the Bahá’í International Community’s Representative Offices. The site contains news and information about recent activity and provides access to BIC statements, reports, and other publications","all_sites_bicentenary":"Bicentenary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_bicentenary_bab":"Bicentenary of the Birth of The Báb","all_sites_bicentenary_caption":"The official international website for the bicentenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_frontiers_learning":"Frontiers of Learning","all_sites_frontiers_learning_caption":"This film captures the insights and experiences of people from four communities across the world whose efforts to build vibrant communities are at the frontiers of learning","all_sites_light_to_the_world":"Light to the World","all_sites_light_to_the_world_caption":"A feature film about the life and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_media_bank":"Bahá’í Media Bank","all_sites_media_bank_caption":"Photographs available for downloading","all_sites_national_communities":"National Bahá’í Communities","all_sites_national_communities_caption":"A page containing links to the websites of many national Bahá’í communities from around the world","all_sites_news_bahai_org_caption":"The official news website of the worldwide Bahá’í community","all_sites_title":"Official Bahá’í Sites","all_sites_universalhouseofjustice_org":"The Universal House of Justice","all_sites_universalhouseofjustice_org_caption":"Information about the Universal House of Justice and selected statements and letters","all_sites_widening_embrace":"A Widening Embrace","all_sites_widening_embrace_caption":"A documentary film about the community-building efforts of the Bahá’í world","americas":"Americas","android":"Android","archive_results_to_of_a":"Results","archive_results_to_of_b":"to","archive_results_to_of_c":"of","asia":"Asia","back_to_story":"Back to Story","bahai_international_community":"Bahá'í International Community","bahai_media_bank":"Bahá’í Media Bank","bahai_reference_library":"Bahá’í Reference Library","bahai_world_centre":"Bahá’í World Centre","bahai_world_news_service":"Bahá’í World News Service","bahai_world_news_service_bwns":"Bahá’í World News Service (BWNS)","bahaiorg_home":"Bahai.org Home","bahais_semnan":"The Bahá’ís of Semnan","battambang_cambodia_house_worship":"House of Worship in Battambang, Cambodia","battambang_cambodia_temple":"Battambang, Cambodia Temple Inauguration","before_downloading_terms":"Before downloading please refer to the [Terms of use](/legal/).","bic_un_office":"Bahá’í International Community\nUN Office","brief_history":"Brief history","bwns_noTranslation":"BWNS","cdn_documentlibrary_path":"http://dl.bahai.org/bwns/assets/documentlibrary/","cdn_images_path":"//bwns.imgix.net/","chile_house_worship":"Chile House of Worship","chile_temple":"Chile Temple Inauguration","close":"Close","closed_doors_denial_education_iran":"Closed Doors: Denial of Education in Iran","comma":",","comprehensive_report":"Comprehensive report","contact":"Contact","contact_h1":"Contacting the Bahá’í World News Service","contact_h2":"Contacting Bahá’í institutions","contact_h3":"Reporting technical problems","contact_information":"Contact Information","contact_p1":"General inquiries about BWNS can be directed to [news@bahai.org](mailto:news@bahai.org). Information regarding news and media contacts is available in the [Media Information](/media-information/) section.","contact_p2":"The Bahá’í Faith is established in more than 100,000 localities in virtually every country and territory around the world. At the national level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are guided by National Spiritual Assemblies, and a list of websites for many national Bahá’í communities can be found at the [National Communities page](https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/) on Bahai.org.","contact_p3":"To report a technical problem with this site, please send a detailed description and screenshot of the issue, along with the address of the page where it occurred, to [webmaster@bahai.org](mailto:webmaster@bahai.org). Please note that this email address exists to receive reports of technical problems with the site and it is not possible to respond to other queries through this facility.","copy_link":"Copy Link","did_not_match_any_documents_showing_results_for":"did not match any documents. Showing results for","did_you_mean":"Did you mean:","download":"Download","download_highest_resolution":"Download highest resolution","email":"Email","email_address":"Email Address","enlarge":"Enlarge","error_page":"Error Occurred","error_page_p1":"Sorry. An error has occurred with your request. It would help us if you let us know what you were trying to do when this error occurred by using our [contact form](https://www.bahai.org/contact/).","europe":"Europe","featured_stories":"Featured stories","featured_videos":"Featured videos","follow_updates_via_instagram_twitter":"Follow the Bahá’í World News Service on Twitter and Instagram for regular updates and stories","from_bwns_archive":"From the Bahá’í World News Service archive","get_notified_stories":"Get notified of stories","highest_resolution":"Highest resolution","historical_photographs":"Historical photographs","homepage_feature_audio_h2":"Recent podcast episodes","homepage_feature_audio_h3":"Audio versions of stories","homepage_feature_audio_p1":"Selected audio content from around the globe","homepage_feature_h1":"Subscribe to BWNS Updates","houses_worship":"Houses of Worship","human_rights_iran":"Human Rights in Iran","images":"images","ios":"iOS","iran_news_stories":"Iran News Stories","key_terms_facts":"Key terms and facts","latest_headlines":"Latest headlines","latest_video_category":"Latest","legal":"Legal","legal_h1":"Privacy","legal_h2":"Terms of Use","legal_information":"Legal Information","legal_li_1":"They must at all times be attributed to the Bahá’í World News Service.","legal_li_2":"Photographs and stories cannot be used in any way (including, without limitation, suggesting an association with or endorsement of any product, service, opinion or cause) that conflicts with the intent and premise of the original source.","legal_li_3":"Photographs may be edited for size only. Captions must remain with the photographs at all times.","legal_li_4":"The Bahá’í World News Service will not be responsible to any person or organization for any liability for any direct, incidental,  consequential, indirect, or punitive damages that may result from any access to or use of the stories and/or photographs on our site.","legal_li_5":"Although this blanket permission to reproduce BWNS material is given freely such that no special permission is required, the Bahá’í World News Service retains full copyright protection for its stories and photographs under all applicable national and international laws.","legal_p1_1":"On this Web site we try to ensure your privacy. We collect only personal information provided by you on a voluntary basis, in order to respond to your queries and to send you any additional information and material that you request.","legal_p1_2":"Visitors to this Web site are not tracked, except to produce aggregate statistical data that does not identify individual users. Where we must use cookies to provide essential functionality, these are not used to track your use of the site or to store personally-identifiable information. Steps have been taken to ensure that all information collected from you will remain secure, free from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Please keep in mind that if you leave this site via a link, the other site may have a different policy regarding privacy.","legal_p1_3a":"We occasionally update this privacy policy and encourage you to review it periodically. If you wish to correct your personal information, or have questions regarding this policy, please send an email message to","legal_p1_3b":"or call the Bahá’í World News Service at +972 (4) 835-8412, between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. GMT +2, Sunday through Thursday.","legal_p2_1":"All stories and photographs produced by the Bahá’í World News Service may be freely reprinted, e-mailed, posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by any individual or organization, subject to the following restrictions:","legal_p2_2":"The Bahá’í World News Service is an agency of the Bahá’í International Community, a nongovernmental organization that represents and encompasses the five million members of the Bahá’í Faith.","links_other_websites":"Links to other Web sites","listen":"Listen","listen_bwns":"Listen to BWNS","load_more_results":"Load more results","media_bank":"Media Bank","media_information":"Media Information","media_information_about_bwns":"About BWNS","media_information_administration_h2":"International","media_information_administration_h3":"National","media_information_administration_h4":"Local","media_information_administration_p1":"The Bahá’í Faith is administered by a series of elected bodies at the local, national, and international levels. There is no class of ecclesiastics or clergy.","media_information_administration_p2":"The Universal House of Justice is the international governing council of the Bahá’í Faith. It is the supreme administrative body ordained by Bahá’u’lláh in His book of laws. The Universal House of Justice is elected every five years at the International Bahá’í Convention, where members of the National Spiritual Assemblies (see below) around the world serve as delegates. The Universal House of Justice was first elected in 1963. Its permanent seat is on Mount Carmel in Haifa.","media_information_administration_p3":"At the national level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are administered by the National Spiritual Assembly, a nine-member elected council responsible for guiding, co-ordinating, and stimulating the activities of Local Spiritual Assemblies and individual members of the Bahá’í community within a given country. The responsibilities of a National Spiritual Assembly include channelling the community’s financial resources, fostering the growth and vibrancy of the national Bahá’í community, supervising the affairs of the community including its social and economic development activities and its properties, overseeing relations with government, resolving questions from individuals and Local Spiritual Assemblies, and strengthening the participation of the Bahá’í community in the life of society at the national level.","media_information_administration_p4":"At the local level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are administered by the Local Spiritual Assembly. Each Local Assembly consists of nine members who are chosen in annual elections. As with all other elected Bahá’í institutions, the Assembly functions as a body and makes decisions through consultation. The responsibilities of the Local Spiritual Assembly include promoting the spiritual education of children and young people, strengthening the spiritual and social fabric of Bahá’í community life, assessing and utilizing the community’s resources, and ensuring that the energies and talents of community members contribute towards progress.","media_information_administration_p5":"In addition, the Bahá’í Faith has **counsellors**, appointed to five-year terms by the Universal House of Justice, who serve as advisers in countries and regions around the world. Currently there are 90 such counsellors assigned to specific countries or regions, and an additional nine counsellors who constitute the membership of the International Teaching Centre at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa.","media_information_administration_p6":"The Bahá’í International Community is a non-governmental organization that represents the worldwide Bahá’í community. It has been registered with the United Nations (UN) as a non-governmental organization since 1948. It currently has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), as well as accreditation with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). The Bahá’í International Community collaborates with the UN and its specialized agencies, as well as member states, inter- and non-governmental organizations, academia, and practitioners. It has Representative Offices in Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva, Jakarta, and New York.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_li_4_a":"the Seat of the Universal House of Justice,","media_information_bahai_world_centre_li_4_b":"the International Teaching Centre,","media_information_bahai_world_centre_li_4_c":"the Centre for the Study of the Texts,","media_information_bahai_world_centre_li_4_d":"the International Archives Building.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p1":"The spiritual and administrative center of the Bahá’í Faith is permanently established in the Acre-Haifa area of northern Israel, following the explicit instructions of Bahá’u’lláh.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p2":"The burial place, or shrine, of Bahá’u’lláh near Acre and that of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa are the holiest spots on earth for Bahá’ís. Other sites associated with the life of Bahá’u’lláh as well as the burial site of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are revered by Bahá’ís as holy places.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p3":"The shrines are the object of pilgrimage for thousands of Bahá’ís each year.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p4":"The administrative offices are positioned in an Arc across Mount Carmel in Haifa and include:","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p5":"Also in Haifa are the Bahá’í International Community’s Secretariat and Office of Public Information.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p6":"The Bahá’í World Centre is known for the gardens surrounding the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh near Acre, and also for the gardens and terraces surrounding the golden-domed Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p7":"At this time the Shrine of the Báb is open to the public.","media_information_brief_history_p1":"The Bahá’í Faith traces its origin to 1844 and the announcement by a young man, Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad, in Shiraz, Persia (now Iran), that He had been sent by God to prepare humanity for a new age and the imminent appearance of another Messenger even greater than Himself.","media_information_brief_history_p10":"During the 40 years of His exile, Bahá’u’lláh revealed a series of books, tablets, and letters that today form the core of the **holy writings of the Bahá’í Faith**. Comprising the equivalent of some 100 volumes, the writings of Bahá’u’lláh describe the nature of God and the purpose of human existence, give new religious laws, and outline a vision for creating a peaceful and prosperous global society.","media_information_brief_history_p11":"In His will, Bahá’u’lláh named His eldest son, ‘Abbás Effendi (1844-1921), as the head of the Bahá’í Faith and authorized interpreter of His teachings. ‘Abbás Effendi, known to Bahá’ís as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (“Servant of Bahá”), became well-known in the Haifa/Acre area for his charitable works, and he also traveled through Europe and North America to encourage nascent Bahá’í communities and to proclaim Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings to the general public. The writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are considered part of the sacred scriptures of the Bahá’í Faith.","media_information_brief_history_p12":"‘Abdu’l-Bahá passed away in 1921. In his will he had designated his grandson **Shoghi Effendi** (1897-1957) as his successor, with the title of **Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith**. During the ministry of Shoghi Effendi, the religion spread around the world, and its local and national administrative institutions were established. With the passing of Shoghi Effendi in 1957, the line of hereditary leaders of the Bahá’í Faith came to an end.","media_information_brief_history_p13":"Following provisions established by Bahá’u’lláh, in 1963 the **Universal House of Justice** was elected to direct the affairs of the worldwide Bahá’í community. The nine members of the Universal House of Justice are elected every five years by the members of the Bahá’í national administrative bodies around the world.","media_information_brief_history_p2":"Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad took the title of the **Báb** (meaning “Gate” in Arabic) and said the one whose coming He foretold would be the universal Manifestation of God sent to inaugurate an age of peace and enlightenment as promised in all the world’s religions.","media_information_brief_history_p3":"The Báb’s teachings, which spread rapidly, were viewed as heretical by the clergy and government of Persia. More than 20,000 of His followers, known as Bábís, perished in a series of massacres throughout the country.","media_information_brief_history_p4":"The Báb Himself was publicly executed in the city of Tabriz on 9 July 1850.","media_information_brief_history_p5":"Bahá’ís consider the Báb to be both an independent Messenger of God and the forerunner of **Bahá’u’lláh** (“the Glory of God” in Arabic), who is the founder of the Bahá’í Faith.","media_information_brief_history_p6":"Bahá’u’lláh, whose name was Mírzá Husayn ‘Alí, was born into a noble family in Tehran on 12 November 1817. In His mid-20s, He declined a life of privilege and became one of the leading disciples of the Báb.","media_information_brief_history_p7":"In 1852, in the course of the persecution of the Bábís, He was arrested, beaten, and thrown into an infamous dungeon in Tehran. After four months, He was released and banished from His native land – the beginning of 40 years of exile and imprisonment.","media_information_brief_history_p8":"He was first sent to Baghdad, where He and His companions stayed for 10 years. In 1863, on the eve of His further banishment to what is now Turkey and then to the Holy Land, Bahá’u’lláh announced that He was the Universal Messenger of God foretold by the Báb.","media_information_brief_history_p9":"In 1868, Bahá’u’lláh arrived in the Holy Land with about 70 family members and followers, sentenced by the Ottoman authorities to perpetual confinement in the penal colony of Acre. The order of confinement was never lifted, but because of the growing recognition of His outstanding character, He eventually was able to move outside the walls of the prison city. He lived His final years at a country home called Bahjí, where He passed away in 1892. He was interred there, and His shrine is the holiest place on earth for Bahá’ís.","media_information_description":"Contacts, facts, style guide,\ngeneral information, and photos","media_information_h1":"National and local","media_information_h2":"International","media_information_h2_a":"Bahá’í World News Service","media_information_h2_b":"Bahá’í International Community","media_information_h2_c":"Bahá’í International Community - United Nations Offices:","media_information_h2_e":"For languages other than English:","media_information_houses_worship_li_1":"Wilmette, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1953.","media_information_houses_worship_li_2":"Kampala, Uganda. Opened in 1961.","media_information_houses_worship_li_3":"Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1961.","media_information_houses_worship_li_4":"Frankfurt, Germany. Opened in 1964.","media_information_houses_worship_li_5":"Panama City, Panama. Opened in 1972.","media_information_houses_worship_li_6":"Apia, Samoa. Opened in 1984.","media_information_houses_worship_li_7":"New Delhi, India. Opened in 1986.","media_information_houses_worship_li_8":"Santiago, Chile. Opened in 2016.","media_information_houses_worship_li_9":"Battambang, Cambodia. Opened in 2017.","media_information_houses_worship_li_10":"Norte del Cauca, Colombia. Opened in 2018.","media_information_houses_worship_li_11":"Matunda Soy, Kenya. Opened in 2021.","media_information_houses_worship_li_12":"Tanna, Vanuatu. Opened in 2021.","media_information_houses_worship_li_13":"Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Opened in 2023.","media_information_houses_worship_li_14":"Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Opened in 2024.","media_information_houses_worship_p1":"Bahá’u’lláh designated Bahá’í Houses of Worship as spiritual gathering places for prayer and meditation around which will cluster social, humanitarian, educational, and scientific institutions. Eight continental, two national, and four local Bahá’í Houses of Worship have been built.","media_information_houses_worship_p2":"The physical structure of a House of Worship comprises a central building—a House of Worship—along with several dependencies. While the House of Worship forms the focal point of worship in a geographical area, its purpose is not solely to provide a place for prayer. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained that, through the provision of education, healthcare and other services it is also to support the social and economic progress of the community and afford shelter, relief and assistance to those in need. In this connection, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá anticipated that subsidiary branches—such as a hospital, school, university, dispensary, and hospice—would gradually be added to a House of Worship. Bahá’u’lláh refers to the House of Worship as a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, Arabic for “dawning place of the mention of God.”","media_information_houses_worship_p3":"Bahá’í Houses of Worship are located in:","media_information_houses_worship_p4":"Plans are underway to build a national House of Worship in Brazil, Canada, and Malawi. A local House of Worship is also being constructed in Batouri, Cameroon; Bihar Sharif, India; Kanchanpur, Nepal; and Mwinilunga, Zambia. At the local level, meetings for worship are held regularly in Bahá’í centers and in the homes of believers all over the world.","media_information_key_terms_facts_h1":"Name of the religion and of the organization – the Bahá’í Faith","media_information_key_terms_facts_h2":"Founder of the Bahá’í Faith – Bahá’u’lláh","media_information_key_terms_facts_h3":"Year of founding – 1844","media_information_key_terms_facts_h4":"Head of the religion – the Universal House of Justice","media_information_key_terms_facts_h5":"Number of Bahá’ís – more than 5 million","media_information_key_terms_facts_h6":"Description of the religion and key beliefs","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_a":"the unity of the races and elimination of prejudice,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_b":"the equality of women and men,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_c":"universal education,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_d":"the elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_e":"a spiritual solution to economic problems,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_f":"establishment of a universal auxiliary language,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_g":"the harmony of science and religion,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_h":"the independent investigation of truth,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_i":"the creation of a world commonwealth of nations that will keep the peace through collective security.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p1_a":"The Bahá’í Faith is an independent world religion.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p1_b":"A member is called a Bahá’í (plural: Bahá’ís). It is also correct to say that someone is a “member of the Bahá’í Faith,” a “follower of the Bahá’í Faith,” a “follower of Bahá’u’lláh,” or a member of the Bahá’í community of a given locality.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p1_c":"The term “Bahá’í International Community” refers to the non-governmental organization that represents the worldwide Bahá’í community. It has been registered with the United Nations (UN) as a non-governmental organization since 1948. It currently has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as well as accreditation with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). The Bahá’í International Community collaborates with the UN and its specialized agencies, as well as member states, inter- and non-governmental organizations, academia, and practitioners. It has Representative Offices in Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva, Jakarta, and New York.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p2":"Bahá’ís consider Bahá’u’lláh to be the most recent in a line of great religious teachers, or Messengers of God, that includes Abraham, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Krishna, Muhammad, Moses, Zoroaster, and others. Bahá’u’lláh—the name is Arabic for “Glory of God”—was born in 1817 in Tehran, Iran, and passed away in 1892 in Acre, Israel. The coming of Bahá’u’lláh was announced by the Báb (Arabic for “Gate”), also considered by Bahá’ís to be a divine Messenger.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p3":"There are a number of important dates in the establishment of the Bahá’í Faith, but the first announcement by the Báb of the new religion came in 1844.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p4":"The Universal House of Justice is the international governing council of the Bahá’í community, an elected body of nine men. Its seat is at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel. Around the world, in almost all countries, a National Spiritual Assembly oversees the affairs of the Bahá’í Faith in that country, and Local Spiritual Assemblies oversee local affairs.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p6_a":"The Bahá’í Faith is an independent, monotheistic religion established in virtually every country of the world. Bahá’ís believe that the world’s major religions represent unfolding chapters in God’s teachings for humankind, and that the writings of Bahá’u’lláh represent God’s guidance for this age.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p6_b":"Bahá’u’lláh’s central teaching is the unity of humanity under one God.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p6_c":"Among the many Bahá’í principles are the following:","media_information_key_terms_facts_p7":"For more information, see [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org).","media_information_li_a_1":"Phone (office): +972 (4) 835-8412","media_information_li_a_2":"E-mail, for news inquiries: [news@bahai.org](mailto:news@bahai.org)","media_information_li_b_1":"Mr. Saleem Vaillaincourt (London)","media_information_li_b_2":"Senior information officer","media_information_li_b_3":"Phone (office): +1 (212) 803-2544","media_information_li_b_4":"E-mail: [media@bic.org](mailto:media@bic.org)","media_information_li_c_1":"Ms. Bani Dugal (New York)","media_information_li_c_2":"Principal Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations","media_information_li_c_3":"Bahá’í International Community","media_information_li_c_4":"Phone: +1 (212) 803-2500","media_information_li_c_5":"After-hours phone: +1 (914) 329-3020","media_information_li_c_6":"E-mail: [uno-nyc@bic.org](mailto:uno-nyc@bic.org)","media_information_li_d_1":"Ms. Simin Fahandej (Geneva)","media_information_li_d_2":"Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations","media_information_li_d_3":"Bahá’í International Community","media_information_li_d_4":"Phone: +41 (27) 798-5400","media_information_li_d_5":"After-hours phone: +41 (78) 880-0759","media_information_li_d_6":"E-mail: [geneva@bic.org](mailto:geneva@bic.org)","media_information_li_e_1":"Persian – Simin Fahandej, +41 (27) 798-5400","media_information_li_e_2":"French – Rachel Bayani, +32 (475) 750394","media_information_li_e_3":"To arrange other languages +972 (4) 835-8412","media_information_media_contacts":"Media Contacts","media_information_p1":"Editors, journalists, and other media professionals are encouraged to contact the National Office of the Bahá’ís of their own country. See [National Communities](https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/).","media_information_p2":"BWNS reports on major developments and endeavors of the global Bahá’í community.","media_information_p3":"Information about the Bahá’í Faith is available at [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org/)","media_information_p_native":"The website for BWNS is located at [news.bahai.org](https://news.bahai.org/)","media_information_photographs_p1":"To arrange for photographs, you are encouraged to contact the office of the National Spiritual Assembly of the  Bahá’ís of your country. See [National Communities](https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/).","media_information_photographs_p2":"For more information, or for international photographs, contact the Bahá’í World Centre:","media_information_photographs_p3":"Phone: +972 (4) 835-8412  \n            E-mail: [news@bahai.org](mailto:news@bahai.org)","media_information_photographs_p4":"Photographs here may be downloaded and published, with photo credit given to the Bahá’í World Centre. [Terms of use](https://news.bahai.org/legal/).","media_information_photographs_p5":"Additional photos are available through the [Bahá’í Media Bank](https://media.bahai.org/). Images attached to articles in the [Bahá’í World News Service](https://news.bahai.org/) main site may also be downloaded.","media_information_photographs_p6":"Photographs of Bahá’ís imprisoned in Iran are available in the [Iran Update](/human-rights/iran/iran-update/photos.html) section of this Web site.","media_information_sidecontent_h1":"Bahá’ís in Iran","media_information_sidecontent_li":"Updates, background, photos","media_information_statistics_p1":"There are more than 5 million Bahá’ís in the world.","media_information_statistics_p2":"The Bahá’í Faith is established in virtually every country and in many dependent territories and overseas departments of countries. Bahá’ís reside in well over 100,000 localities. About 2,100 indigenous tribes, races, and ethnic groups are represented in the Bahá’í community.","media_information_statistics_p3":"There are currently 188 councils at the national level that oversee the work of communities. A network of over 300 training institutes, offering formal programs of Bahá’í education, span the globe.","media_information_statistics_p4":"Of the several thousand Bahá’í efforts in social and economic development, more than 900 are large-scale, sustained projects, including more than 600 schools and over 70 development agencies.","media_information_statistics_p5":"There are currently 14 Bahá’í Houses of Worship – in Australia, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Germany, India, Kenya, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Uganda, the United States, and Vanuatu. Plans are underway to build a national House of Worship in Brazil, Canada, and Malawi. Local Houses of Worship are also being constructed in Batouri, Cameroon; Bihar Sharif, India; Kanchanpur, Nepal; and Mwinilunga, Zambia. At the local level, meetings for worship are held regularly in Bahá’í centers and in the homes of believers all over the world.","media_information_statistics_p6":"The Bahá’í International Community has been registered with the United Nations as a non-governmental organization since 1948. It currently has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as well as accreditation with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). The Bahá’í International Community collaborates with the UN and its specialized agencies, as well as member states, inter- and non-governmental organizations, academia, and practitioners. It has Representative Offices in Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva, Jakarta, and New York.","media_information_statistics_p7":"Bahá’í writings and other literature have been translated into more than 800 languages.","media_information_statistics_p8":"Each year, around one million people visit the Bahá’í Shrine, terraces, and gardens on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.","media_information_statistics_p9":"In Iran, where the Bahá’í Faith originated, there are now about 300,000 Bahá’ís, constituting the largest religious minority in that country.","media_information_style_guide_h1":"Pronunciation guide","media_information_style_guide_h2":"Style guide and glossary","media_information_style_guide_p1":"**Bahá’í:**   Ba-HIGH  \n            **Bahá’u’lláh:**   Ba-ha-ul-LAH  \n            **Báb:**   Bahb (Bob)  \n            **‘Abdu’l-Bahá:**   Abdul ba-HAH  \n            **Naw-Rúz:**   Naw Rooz  \n            **Ridván:**   REZ-vahn","media_information_style_guide_p2_1":"**‘Abdu’l-Bahá** (1844-1921) – The son of Bahá’u’lláh who was the head of the Bahá’í Faith from 1892 to 1921. Bahá’u’lláh in His will had designated ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as His successor. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá occupies a special station as the authoritative interpreter of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and as the perfect example of how a Bahá’í should live. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá traveled widely through Europe and North America from 1911-1913, explaining his Father’s teachings in talks, interviews, and addresses at universities, churches, temples, synagogues, and missions for the poor. (Bahá’ís capitalize pronouns—for example, “He”—that refers to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá out of respect for his special station. Such pronouns are not capitalized in this guide in deference to international journalistic style and also to avoid confusion with Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb, who are considered to be divine Prophets.) For more information, see [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_10":"**Bahá’í Faith** – The correct term for the religion is the Bahá’í Faith. It is an independent, monotheistic religion established in virtually every country of the world. It is not a sect of another religion. In a list of major religions, it would look like this: Hinduism, Zoroastrianism,  Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Bahá’í Faith.","media_information_style_guide_p2_11":"**Bahá’í International Community** – The Bahá’í International Community is a non-governmental organization that represents the worldwide Bahá’í community. It has been registered with the United Nations as a non-governmental organization since 1948. It currently has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as well as accreditation with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). The Bahá’í International Community collaborates with the UN and its specialized agencies, as well as member states, inter- and non-governmental organizations, academia, and practitioners. It has Representative Offices in Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva, Jakarta, and New York. For more information, see [bic.org](https://www.bic.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_12":"**Bahá’í World Centre** – The spiritual and administrative center of the Bahá’í Faith, comprising the holy places in the Haifa/Acre area in northern Israel and the Arc of administrative buildings on Mount Carmel in Haifa. The Bahá’í World Centre itself uses the spelling “Centre”; elsewhere both “Centre” and “Center” are used, depending on the custom of the country.","media_information_style_guide_p2_13":"**Bahá’u’lláh** – The founder of the Bahá’í Faith, who lived from 1817 to 1892, considered by Bahá’ís to be the most recent divine Messenger, or Manifestation of God, in a line of great religious figures that includes Abraham, Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Moses, Muhammad, Zoroaster, the Báb, and others. Bahá’u’lláh was born in Tehran in present-day Iran, and passed away near Acre, in what is now Israel. “Bahá’u’lláh” is a title that means the “Glory of God” in Arabic; His name was Mírzá Husayn-‘Alí. His writings, which would equal about a hundred volumes, form the basis of the Bahá’í teachings. For more information, see [Bahai.org](http://www.bahai.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_14":"**Bahjí** – The place near Acre where the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh (His burial place) is located, as well as the mansion that was His last residence and surrounding gardens. It is a place of pilgrimage for Bahá’ís. The word “Bahjí” is Arabic for “delight.”","media_information_style_guide_p2_15":"**children’s classes** – Classes in moral education, open to all, that are provided for children, operated at the community level by the Bahá’í training institute.","media_information_style_guide_p2_16":"**Convention** – See [International Bahá’í Convention](#internationalbahaiconvention) and [National Bahá’í Convention](#nationalbahaicconvention).","media_information_style_guide_p2_18":"**counsellor** – An adviser appointed by the Universal House of Justice who serves in a particular geographic area or at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa. At present, there are 90 counsellors assigned to specific countries or regions, and nine counsellors who form the membership of the International Teaching Centre at the  Bahá’í World Centre. Appointments are for five years.","media_information_style_guide_p2_19":"**devotional meetings** – Gatherings, often in people’s homes, for prayers and to read the sacred writings of the Bahá’í Faith and other religions. Usually undertaken as an individual initiative.","media_information_style_guide_p2_2":"**accent marks** – Bahá’í, Bahá’u’lláh, and other names are written with accent marks, but many publications and websites do not have the facility for using such marks.","media_information_style_guide_p2_20":"**fast, the** – A period during which Bahá’ís abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sundown during the Bahá’í month of ‘Alá’, from 2 March to 20 March. Bahá’u’lláh enjoined His followers to pray and fast during this period. The sick, the traveler, and pregnant women, among others, are exempt.","media_information_style_guide_p2_21":"**feast** – See [Nineteen Day Feast](#nineteendayfeast).","media_information_style_guide_p2_22":"**Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith** – See [Shoghi Effendi](#shoghieffendi).","media_information_style_guide_p2_23":"**Haifa** – The city in northern Israel that, along with nearby Acre, is the location of the Bahá’í World Centre. The international administrative buildings of the Bahá’í Faith (including the Seat of the Universal House of Justice), the Shrine of the Báb, and surrounding terraces and gardens are all located on Mount Carmel in the heart of Haifa.","media_information_style_guide_p2_24":"**Holy days** – Eleven days that commemorate significant Bahá’í anniversaries. The nine holy days on which work is suspended are the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, the Birth of the Báb, Declaration of the Báb, Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh, Martyrdom of the Báb, Naw-Rúz, Ridván (a 12-day festival, of which the first, ninth and 12th days are holy days). The other two holy days are the Day of the Covenant and the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. *See names of individual holy days.*","media_information_style_guide_p2_25":"**Holy Land** – The area associated with present-day Israel, which is holy to a number of religions, including to Bahá’ís. The resting places of Bahá’u’lláh near Acre and of the Báb in Haifa are, to Bahá’ís, the holiest spots on earth.","media_information_style_guide_p2_26":"**International Archives Building** – One of the buildings at the Bahá’í World Centre on Mount Carmel in Haifa. The repository of many sacred relics of the Bahá’í Faith, it is visited by thousands of Bahá’í pilgrims each year.","media_information_style_guide_p2_27":"**International Bahá’í Convention** – A gathering every five years of delegates from around the world to consult on the affairs of the Bahá’í Faith and elect the members of the Universal House of Justice. Members of the National Spiritual Assemblies serve as delegates.","media_information_style_guide_p2_28":"**International Teaching Centre** – One of the institutions at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa. The International Teaching Centre has nine members, all counsellors appointed by the Universal House of Justice. Appointments are for five years.","media_information_style_guide_p2_29":"**Local Spiritual Assembly** – At the local level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are administered by the Local Spiritual Assembly. Each Local Assembly consists of nine members who are chosen in annual elections. As with all other elected Bahá’í institutions, the Assembly functions as a body and makes decisions through consultation. The responsibilities of the Local Spiritual Assembly include promoting the spiritual education of children and young people, strengthening the spiritual and social fabric of Bahá’í community life, assessing and utilizing the community’s resources, and ensuring that the energies and talents of community members contribute towards progress.","media_information_style_guide_p2_3":"**Acre**– English rendering of the name of the city north of Haifa where Bahá’u’lláh was exiled in 1868. He lived in or near the city until His passing in 1892. Bahá’ís often use the Arabic name, ‘Akká, which was the name in general use during the time of Bahá’u’lláh. In Hebrew the name is Akko.","media_information_style_guide_p2_30":"**Mount Carmel** – In Haifa, Israel, site of the Bahá’í World Centre, including several Bahá’í holy places, the most important of which is the Shrine of the Báb, and the buildings housing the administrative offices of the Bahá’í World Centre.","media_information_style_guide_p2_31":"**National Bahá’í Convention** – In each country, the annual gathering of elected delegates to discuss the affairs of the Bahá’í Faith in their jurisdiction and to elect the members of the National Spiritual Assembly.","media_information_style_guide_p2_32":"**National Spiritual Assembly** – At the national level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are administered by the National Spiritual Assembly, a nine-member elected council responsible for guiding, co-ordinating, and stimulating the activities of Local Spiritual Assemblies and individual members of the Bahá’í community within a given country. The responsibilities of a National Spiritual Assembly include channelling the community’s financial resources, fostering the growth and vibrancy of the national Bahá’í community, supervising the affairs of the community including its social and economic development activities and its properties, overseeing relations with government, resolving questions from individuals and Local Spiritual Assemblies, and strengthening the participation of the Bahá’í community in the life of society at the national level.","media_information_style_guide_p2_33":"**Nineteen Day Feast** – An administrative gathering at the local level. The term refers to a spiritual “feast” of prayers,  consultation and fellowship. It is held every 19 days, on the first day of each Bahá’í month.","media_information_style_guide_p2_34":"**pilgrimage** – Each year thousands of Bahá’ís undertake pilgrimage, during which they forge a profound and lasting connection with the spiritual and administrative centre of their Faith, located in the Haifa-Acre area of what is now northern Israel. Bahá’í pilgrims pray and meditate at the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh and the Shrine of the Báb, as well as in the beautiful gardens that surround them. They also draw inspiration from the time spent at various historical sites associated with the lives of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi, as well as from visits to the edifices dedicated to the worldwide administration of the Bahá’í Faith.","media_information_style_guide_p2_35":"**progressive revelation** – The central belief that Manifestations of God have successively provided the guidance necessary for humanity’s social and spiritual evolution.","media_information_style_guide_p2_36":"**Regional Bahá’í Council** – In some countries, the National Spiritual Assembly assigns certain of its functions to Regional Bahá’í Councils, which serve a designated geographical area within the land in question. The responsibilities of a Regional Council may include carrying out policies of the National Spiritual Assembly, supervising progress of particular plans and projects, and taking steps to stimulate and coordinate the growth of the Bahá’í community within the region.","media_information_style_guide_p2_37":"**Shoghi Effendi** (1897-1957) – The head of the Bahá’í Faith from 1921 to 1957. His title is Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. He is the grandson of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the great-grandson of Bahá’u’lláh. For more information, see [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_38":"**Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh** – The resting place of the mortal remains of Bahá’u’lláh, located near the city of Acre in what is now Israel. The shrine is the holiest spot on earth to Bahá’ís and a place of pilgrimage.","media_information_style_guide_p2_39":"**Shrine of the Báb** – The resting place of the mortal remains of the Báb, located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. It is a sacred site to Bahá’ís and a place of pilgrimage.","media_information_style_guide_p2_4":"**‘Akká, Akko** – See entry above for “[Acre](#acre)”.","media_information_style_guide_p2_40":"**study circles** – A study circle is one of the principal elements of the process of distance education offered by the [Bahá’í training institute](https://www.bahai.org/action/response-call-bahaullah/training-institute). It is a small group that meets regularly to study the institute course materials.","media_information_style_guide_p2_41":"**Universal House of Justice** – The international governing council of the Bahá’í Faith. It is the supreme administrative body ordained by Bahá’u’lláh in His book of laws. The Universal House of Justice is elected every five years at the International Bahá’í Convention, where members of the National Spiritual Assemblies around the world serve as delegates. The Universal House of Justice was first elected in 1963. Its permanent seat is on Mount Carmel in Haifa.","media_information_style_guide_p2_5":"**Arc** – An area on Mount Carmel in Haifa, shaped like an arc, where the major international administrative buildings of the Bahá’í Faith, including the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, are situated.","media_information_style_guide_p2_6":"**Báb** – The title, meaning “Gate,” assumed by Siyyid ‘Ali-Muhammad, the Founder of the Bábí Faith and the Forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh. Considered by Bahá’ís to be one of the twin Manifestations of God associated with the Bahá’í Faith. Born on 20 October 1819, the Báb proclaimed Himself to be the Promised One of Islam and said His mission was to announce the imminent coming of another Messenger even greater than Himself, namely Bahá’u’lláh. Because of these claims, the Báb was executed by firing squad in the public square in Tabriz on 9 July 1850. His remains were hidden in Iran for many years before being taken to Haifa/Acre in 1899 and buried on Mount Carmel in 1909. For more information, see [Bahai.org](http://www.bahai.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_7":"**Bábí Faith** – The religion founded by the Báb. After 1863 and the announcement by Bahá’u’lláh that He was the Messenger whose coming had been foretold by the Báb, the Bahá’í Faith gradually became established and most followers of the Báb began to call themselves Bahá’ís.","media_information_style_guide_p2_8":"**Badí‘ calendar** – The Bahá’í calendar, consisting of 19 months of 19 days each, with the addition of intercalary days known as Ayyám-i-Há. The number of these intercalary days varies according to the timing of the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere in successive years. The first day of the year corresponds to the spring equinox. The Bahá’í era (B.E.) begins with 1844, the year of the Báb’s declaration. For more information, see [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org/action/devotional-life/calendar).","media_information_style_guide_p2_9":"**Bahá’í** – (1) A noun referring to a member of the Bahá’í Faith. The plural is Bahá’ís. (2) An adjective describing a person, place, or thing related to the Bahá’í Faith. Examples: a Bahá’í book, the Bahá’í community, a Bahá’í holy day, a Bahá’í holy place.","media_reports":"Media Reports","menu":"Menu","meta_description_bwns":"The Bahá’í World News Service - BWNS - The official news source of the worldwide Bahá’í community, reports on major developments and endeavors of the global Bahá’í community.","minutes_short":"min","mobile_app":"Mobile app","national_bahai_communities":"National Bahá’í Communities","news_email":"news@bahai.org","news_service_home":"BWNS Home","no_matches_for":"No matches for","no_results_for":"No results for","number_of":"of","oceania":"Oceania","official_news_site":"Official news source of the worldwide Bahá’í community","one_country":"One Country","other_bahai_sites":"Other Bahá’í Sites","other_sites":"Other sites","other_stories":"Other Stories","overview_section":"Overview of this Section","page_link":"Page link","photographs":"Photographs","photographs_download":"Photographs for download","podcast":"Podcast","podcast_available":"Podcast available","podcast_description_bwns":"Reporting on major developments and endeavors of the global Bahá’í community.","podcast_p1":"The Bahá’í World News Service (BWNS) podcast reports on major developments and endeavors of the global Bahá’í community.","podcast_subscribe":"Subscribe to the BWNS podcast for additional audio content.","print":"Print","privacy":"Privacy","recent_articles":"Recent Articles","recent_headlines":"Recent headlines","recent_media_reports":"Recent media reports","recieve_stories_email":"Receive stories via email","related_stories":"Related Stories","results":"Results","return_top":"Return to top","rss":"RSS","search":"Search","search_bahai_reference_library":"Search the Bahá’í Reference Library","search_bahaiorg":"Search Bahai.org","search_news_service":"Search the News Service","section_shrine_of_abdulbaha_description":"Read reports on the progress","section_shrine_of_abdulbaha_title":"Coverage of Construction Work of the Shrine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá","see_all":"See All","seven_bahais_leaders":"The Seven Bahá’í Leaders","share":"Share","share_this_article":"Share this article","share_this_page":"Share this page","show_more":"Show more","sign_up":"Sign Up","slideshow":"Slideshow","social_media_name_instagram":"Instagram","social_media_name_instagram_account":"bahaiworldnewsservice","social_media_name_twitter":"Twitter","social_media_name_twitter_account":"bahainews","special_reports":"SPECIAL REPORTS","special_reports_shrine_construction":"Coverage of construction work for the Shrine of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá","statistics":"Statistics","story_archive":"Story Archive","style_glossary_pronunciation_guide":"Style guide, glossary and pronunciation guide","subscribe":"Subscribe","subscribe-confirmation-message":"Thank you for your interest in Bahá’í World News Service (BWNS)","subscribe-souble-optin-email":"You will receive an email shortly, asking you to confirm your subscription.","subscribe_bot_submission":"This doesn't look like a human submission.","subscribe_check_email":"Please check your email to confirm your subscription!","subscribe_email_exists":"This email already exists! 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(Baha’i World Centre photo)","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"A historic Baha’i conference in Frankfurt last weekend brought to mind an earlier gathering in the same city a half century before – one that was also a milestone in Baha’i history.\n\nLast weekend’s event in Frankfurt was one of the current series of 41 conferences around the globe marking the half-way point of a five-year effort involving establishment of community-building activities in tens of thousands of neighborhoods and villages. So far some 75,000 people have participated in the gatherings.\n\nBy comparison, the five Intercontinental Conferences of 1958 came half-way through a 10-year program to establish the Baha’i Faith in every country and major territory in the world. Total attendance 50 years ago was about 5,400 people.\n\nThe announcement of the 1958 gatherings – in addition to Frankfurt they were to be held in Kampala, Uganda; Sydney, Australia; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Chicago in the United States – was one of the final acts of Shoghi Effendi, head of the Baha’i Faith from 1921 until his passing in November 1957.\n\nAlthough he died unexpectedly two months before the conferences began, Shoghi Effendi himself planned many of the details, including naming his personal representative to each of the gatherings and announcing the special gifts he would send, among which were provisions for a photograph of Baha’u’llah to be viewed by all of those in attendance.\n\nLike the current conferences, the earlier gatherings had as two of their objectives the celebrating of achievements in Baha’i work as well as deliberating on how to continue to meet goals.\n\nIn addition, three of the 1958 host cities were sites of soon-to-be-built Baha’i temples, and Shoghi Effendi – the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith – had announced that he would send precious and historic items for the foundation-laying ceremonies.\n\n**The difference of a half century**\n\nThe plan of growth that covered the period of 1953-1963 concentrated on diffusion, and it carried the Baha’i Faith throughout the world. More than 100 countries and territories were opened in the first year and by the end of the decade the Faith had been brought to most nations. The number of national governing bodies grew from 12 to 56, and communities were established in more than 11,000 individual localities.\n\nRecent plans concern the multiplication and enrichment of activities at the local level. The number of localities today is nearly 10 times that of 1963, and current efforts are focused on establishing study circles, devotional gatherings, and activities for children and young teens not only for Baha’is but for the wider community in all of these areas.\n\nMany similarities, however, exist between the conferences then and now. Representatives of the head of the Baha’i Faith – Shoghi Effendi in the 1950s, the Universal House of Justice now – addressed every gathering.\n\nSpecific planning for future work was a key element on each agenda – attendees in 1958 viewed Shoghi Effendi’s maps depicting progress at the midpoint of the 10-year plan, and current attendees are consulting on programs of growth in key areas.\n\n"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The sheer size of the conferences was notable both times. The Frankfurt gathering of 1958 drew 2,300 people, more than most of the current conferences but exactly half the number of participants in last weekend’s event in the same city.\n\nAnd the Sydney conference two weeks ago attracted 5,400 people – equal to the total for all the gatherings in 1958 and nearly 20 times the 300 participants that convened in Sydney 50 years ago.\n\nIn 1958, the five conferences were scheduled with one every two months, beginning in January and winding up in September. The current series of 41 gatherings began on 1 November, with up to four conferences held every weekend for 18 consecutive weeks.\n\n**Highlights from 1958**\n\nAn unexpected feature of the conferences in 1958 was the opportunity it afforded the Baha’is to come to terms with the sudden loss of Shoghi Effendi.\n\nOne writer called the Kampala conference “a magnet to the sorrowing Baha’i world.”\n\nShoghi Effendi’s widow, Ruhiyyih Khanum, was his designated representative to that gathering.\n\n“Poignant indeed was her presence,” wrote a chronicler at the time. “The heart, the light, the life” of all the sessions, said another.\n\nRuhiyyih Khanum herself offered a tribute to Shoghi Effendi at the conference, and told the gathering, “I hope that each one of you will go back from this conference … just like a blazing fire … and create a worthy memorial to our beloved Guardian.”\n\nOther noteworthy facts from the 1958 conferences:\n\n–  More than half the 2,300 people who attended the earlier Frankfurt gathering traveled from Iran for the event. At this month’s event in that city, a gift of red roses onstage represented the Baha’is of Iran.\n\n–  Just as people were gathering in Jakarta for the conference in Indonesia, government permission to hold the gathering was rescinded. Two planes were chartered, and all the people who could travel went to Singapore, then part of Malaya, where arrangements were hastily made for a gathering. Official accounts of the conference list it as taking place in both Jakarta and Singapore.\n\n–  Eleven Baha’is with the rank of Hand of the Cause of God, one of whom was Shoghi Effendi’s personal representative, attended the Frankfurt conference of 1958.\n\n–  Three of the five venues in 1958 were also sites of conferences in the current series – Frankfurt, Sydney, and Chicago.\n\n–  Four of the earlier venues are sites of Baha’i houses of worship. The temple near Chicago had been completed in 1953. Foundation-laying ceremonies were held during the conferences in Kampala and Sydney, and those temples opened in 1961. The house of worship near Frankfurt opened in 1964.\n\n**Memories**\n\nAt least nine people – and possibly more – at last weekend’s gathering in Frankfurt were also at the conference in 1958.\n\nUta von Both of Germany spoke of the earlier event in a presentation this past weekend. The 2,300 participants in 1958 represented 57 countries, she told the audience. She said one of the themes had been the need for Baha’is to move to new areas, and 133 people committed themselves to such a move.\n\nIan Semple of Switzerland recalled how the representative of Shoghi Effendi, Amelia Collins, stood by the photograph of Baha’u’llah as people approached to view it, distributing rose water to each person.\n\nUrsula Grossmann, originally from Germany and now living in Finland, said the flavor of the two gatherings was different.\n\n“The conference in 1958 was much smaller than the one today, and the countries from the east weren’t allowed to join,” she said. “Today that is possible – we have representatives from Macedonia, Kosovo, Hungary, Poland, and others present, and that gives a whole new atmosphere.”\n\nFoad Kazemzadeh of Germany, who attended the 1958 conference as a youth, remembered it thus:\n\n“The Baha’is had lost their dearly loved Guardian only a few months before. How eagerly they listened at the conference to the tribute which Hand of the Cause Amelia Collins paid to their beloved Shoghi Effendi in her personal recollections.\n\n“Especially for the many, many believers who had come from Iran, her words were a solace to their wounded hearts. It is such a shame that due to the suppression of the Baha’is in Iran, no one could come this time. The bouquets of red roses that you see on the different stages are a sign that their empty places are sorely felt.”"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567574-69301frankfurt20.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Amelia Collins, center, was the representative of the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith at the July 1958 gathering in Frankfurt. Other Hands of the Cause present, from left, were Jalal Khazeh, Enoch Olinga, Zikrullah Khadem, Adelbert Muhlschlegel, Hasan Balyuzi, John Ferraby, John Robarts, Hermann Grossmann, and Ugo Giachery. Also present but not pictured was Musa Banani. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567572-69302kampala10.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Baha’is of Africa at the intercontinental conference in Kampala, Uganda, January 1958. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567571-69303kampala20.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Ruhiyyih Khanum, who served as the representative of the Guardian at the Kampala conference in January 1958, is shown with others at the gathering. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567571-69304kampala30.jpg"},"imageDescription":"William Sears, Baha'i Hand of the Cause, greets people attending the Kampala conference in 1958. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567583-69305sydney10.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Mrs. Clara Dunn, Baha'i Hand of the Cause, participates in the foundation-laying ceremony for the Baha’i House of Worship in Sydney, Australia. The ceremony was held during the intercontinental conference in Sydney in March 1958. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567571-69306chicago10.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The Eighth Street Theatre in the city of Chicago served as the venue for the third of the intercontinental conferences of 1958. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567580-69307chicago20.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Dr. Ugo Giachery, the Guardian’s representative to the Chicago conference in May 1958, shows the map made by the Guardian to outline progress of the 10-year plan. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567573-69308chicago31.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Attendance at the conference in Chicago in 1958 was 1,660. This year’s gathering there drew 2,340 people and was one of six conferences in the United States, one of 13 in the Americas. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567574-69309singapore10.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The conference for Asia was moved to Singapore at the last minute when it proved impossible to convene the gathering in Jakarta. It was held in September 1958. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567576-69310singapore20.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Leroy Ioas was the representative of the Guardian to the intercontinental conference in Singapore in 1958. (Baha’i World Centre photograph)"}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Related content"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":692,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":690,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":689,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":692,"evergreenUrl":"cambodia-hosts-2-100-baha-is-historic-gathering","title":"Cambodia hosts 2,100 Baha’is at historic gathering","description":"Some 2,100 Baha’is from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam gathered in Cambodia’s second-largest city for a historic conference that had citizens...","date":"2009-02-03","customDateline":null,"city":"BATTAMBANG","country":"CAMBODIA","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567535-69200.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567535-69200.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Greeters in traditional costumes from the participating countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam welcome people arriving to the Baha'i conference in Battambang.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Some 2,100 Baha’is from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam gathered in Cambodia’s second-largest city for a historic conference that had citizens of all four nations sitting side by side to discuss service activities in their communities.\n\nThe gathering last weekend was one of a series of 41 Baha’i conferences being held in major cities around the world. The events began on 1 November in Lusaka, Zambia, and will conclude on 1 March in Kiev, Ukraine.\n\nMore than 67,500 people have participated in the conferences, with only six of the 41 events still remaining.\n\n"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"In Battambang, a representative of the provincial government, Aem Thoeurn, addressed the conference and emphasized the diverse nature of the gathering.\n\n“The unity of religion and the harmony of its followers is essential for peace,” he said. “Your gathering here is proof that this is possible.”\n\nHe expressed the wish that “each one of us will bring this (spirit) back to our own people.”\n\nAs in many of the cities hosting the conferences, Baha’i organizers in Battambang were challenged to find a venue large enough for all participants. The Battambang city hall fit the bill, with 1,500 people filling the main auditorium and others watching proceedings by video link from tents set up outdoors.\n\nA simultaneous conference was held last weekend in Auckland, New Zealand, where 1,700 people from 10 countries and Pacific island groups gathered.\n\nAll the conferences are being held at the call of the Universal House of Justice, the head of the Baha’i Faith. The purpose is to celebrate achievements in community-building and make plans for future work. This includes devotional gatherings; children’s classes; and programs for the moral education of young people.\n\nFor links to reports and photographs from the conferences held to date, go on the Web to:\n\nhttps://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567537-69201.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In addition to the gathering in Cambodia, a simultaneous conference was held in Auckland, New Zealand, for 10 countries and island groups in the Pacific."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567538-69202.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In Auckland, a crew of volunteers helped keep everything running smoothly for the large conference."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567537-69203.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Prom Kimleang of Cambodia was one of the 2,100 participants at the Battambang conference."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567535-69204.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Colorful native costumes were much in evidence at the regional Baha'i conference in Battambang."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567535-69205.jpg"},"imageDescription":"A young man from Laos who traveled to Cambodia for the conference studies a message to the gathering from the Universal House of Justice."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Related content"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":690,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":689,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":691,"evergreenUrl":"bahai-international-community-deplores-destruction-khavaran-cemetery","title":"Baha'i International Community deplores destruction of Khavaran cemetery","description":"The destruction earlier this month of a cemetery in Iran used for the mass burial of hundreds killed in the aftermath of the Islamic revolution...","date":"2009-01-30","customDateline":null,"city":"GENEVA","country":"SWITZERLAND","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The destruction earlier this month of a cemetery in Iran used for the mass burial of hundreds killed in the aftermath of the Islamic revolution in 1979 is an outrageous violation of human dignity, the Baha'i International Community said today. More than 50 Baha'is were among those buried at the site.\n\n\"The destruction of the Khavaran cemetery by government agents goes against all concepts of respect for the dead in any culture, including values preached in Islam,\" said Diane Ala'i, the representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.\n\n\"We join with other human rights groups inside and outside of Iran in condemning this shameful deed, which is yet another sign of the intolerance of the current Iranian regime,\" said Ms. Ala'i.\n\nLocated southeast of Tehran, the Khavaran cemetery was used as the burial site for hundreds who were killed in the early years of the Iranian revolution.\n\nEarlier this month, a group of unidentified individuals using bulldozers demolished an area of the cemetery known as the \"graveyard of the infidels,\" the area where many of the people executed in the early years of the revolution were buried.\n\nReports indicate the group clearly represented a branch of the government. It was also reported that the officials told the cemetery custodian that the parcel was being demolished to develop a green space or park.\n\nHuman rights groups inside and outside of Iran have since registered protests.\n\nOn 20 January 2009, Amnesty International called on Iranian authorities to \"immediately stop the destruction of hundreds of individual and mass, unmarked graves in Khavaran, south Tehran, to ensure that the site is preserved and to initiate a forensic investigation at the site as part of a long-overdue thorough, independent and impartial investigation into mass executions which began in 1988. ...\"\n\nIranian human rights advocates, including Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, have also condemned the cemetery's destruction.\n\n\"We have recently learned that Khavaran cemetery, where the victims of the illegal massacre of political prisoners in the 1980s and especially 1988 are buried, has been destroyed by some officials,\" the Human Rights Defenders' Centre said in a statement issued on 25 January, according to Agence France-Presse. \"The Human Rights Defenders Centre condemns this ugly and appalling act and notes that everyone including the authorities is required to maintain the dignity of the dead.\"\n\nAt least 50 Baha'is were buried in the same section of the cemetery, all victims in the early 1980s of the government's campaign to systematically persecute Iranian Baha'is for their religious beliefs.\n\nSpecifically, it is known that eight members of the national Baha'i governing body killed on 27 December 1981 are buried there, along with six members of the Baha'i Spiritual Assembly of Tehran, killed on 4 January 1982. It is likely that other Baha'is were buried there, too.\n\nAccording to a Baha'i whose husband is buried at the site, most of the graves in that section of the cemetery were unmarked, designated only by numerical row markers.\n\n\"They called it the place for 'infidels,'\" said the widow, who currently resides outside of Iran. \"They just gave us row numbers, and that is how I knew where my husband was. But there were no markers and we were not allowed to identify which grave was which.\"\n\n*(Editor's note: On 9 February 2009, after additional verification had been received concerning the identities of Baha'is who were buried in the Khavaran Cemetery, the number given in the first paragraph was raised accordingly.*\n\n*On 19 August 2015, a further correction was made to the 11th paragraph of this story, to more accurately reflect the number of Baha'is buried in the particular section of Khavaran cemetery referred to in the preceding paragraphs of the article .)*"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Background"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Other BWNS articles about Iran](http://www.bahai.org/persecution/iran)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Other stories about the Baha’is in Iran"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":688,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":682,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":681,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":690,"evergreenUrl":"world-s-coldest-capital-hosts-baha-i-conference","title":"World’s coldest capital hosts Baha’i conference","description":"The coldest capital city on earth was the gathering place last weekend for 1,800 Baha’is from Mongolia, Russia, and other nations – called together...","date":"2009-01-27","customDateline":null,"city":"ULAANBAATAR","country":"MONGOLIA","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567460-69000.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567460-69000.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Subzero temperatures didn't deter 1,800 people from Mongolia and other nations from attending the historic Baha'i conference in Ulaanbaatar on 24-25 January.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The coldest capital city on earth was the gathering place last weekend for 1,800 Baha’is from Mongolia, Russia, and other nations – called together to celebrate achievements in community-building work and make plans for future activities at the local level.\n\nTemperatures reached minus 30 C a day or two before the conference as people made their way to the gathering. Some of the Baha’is from eastern Mongolia had to get special permission from the government to travel during a major snowstorm, but they made it safely to Ulaanbaatar and were pleased to be part of the gathering, the first of its kind to be held in the country.\n\nThe event was one of 41 such conferences convened by the Universal House of Justice, the head of the Baha’i Faith, in cities around the world over a four-month span.\n\n"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Simultaneous conferences were held last weekend in Madrid, Spain, and Sydney, Australia. The gathering in Sydney drew nearly 5,500 participants, making it the largest Baha’i conference ever held in the Southern Hemisphere. The event in Madrid included some 1,400 participants from peninsular Spain, the Canary Islands, and Portugal.\n\nThe 33 conferences to date have attracted some 63,900 people. Coming this week are events in Auckland, New Zealand, and Battambang, Cambodia, to be followed the next weekend by conferences in Frankfurt, Germany, and Padua, Italy.\n\nEighteen consecutive weeks of conferences will conclude on 1 March in Kiev, Ukraine.\n\nFor links to reports and photographs from all the conferences held to date, go on the Web to:\n\nhttps://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/\n\n(Editor's note: The attendance figures for the gathering in Ulaanbaatar and for all conferences combined were corrected on 28 January 2009.)"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567460-69001.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Simultaneous conferences were held in Sydney, Australia (shown here), Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and Madrid, Spain."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567469-69002.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The nearly 5,500 people gathered in Sydney -- 3,500 in the main hall and others in satellite rooms -- represent the largest Baha'i conference ever held in the Southern Hemisphere."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567463-69003.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In Madrid, some 1,400 people gathered, representing Baha'i communities of the Spanish peninsula, Portugal, and the Canary Islands."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567461-69004.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In Mongolia, all ages joined together in plenary sessions, workshops, and cultural performances."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567461-69005.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Spanish flamenco was part of the cultural program at the Baha'i conference in Madrid."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Related content"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":689,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":685,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":689,"evergreenUrl":"gathering-lae-draws-1-500-americas-series-is-complete","title":"Gathering in Lae draws 1,500; in the Americas, series is complete","description":"From every corner of Papua New Guinea, the Baha’is came – and that was not easy. They were eager to reach the city of Lae to attend a regional...","date":"2009-01-20","customDateline":null,"city":"LAE","country":"Papua New Guinea","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567409-689000.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567409-689000.jpg"},"imageDescription":"With 1,500 participants, the Papua New Guinea conference was the largest Baha'i gathering ever held in that country.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"From every corner of Papua New Guinea, the Baha’is came – and that was not easy.\n\nThey were eager to reach the city of Lae to attend a regional conference – one of 41 being held in cities around the world at the call of the Universal House of Justice, the elected body that is the head of the Baha’i Faith.\n\nBut at Rabaul on the Papua New Guinean island of New Britain, the long-threatening volcano was acting up, requiring Baha’is who wanted to attend the conference to be ferried out by helicopter to a landing spot where they could then catch a boat or plane to Lae, on the main island of New Guinea.\n\nBoats to Lae had their problems, too. One group of travelers was almost stranded when their craft blew its engine. Similar challenges were experienced by some of those who traveled by bus. Others walked long distances – up to a week – in a country where most of the people live in rural villages, many of them settlements that are isolated and difficult to reach.\n\nBut at 8 a.m. sharp on 17 January, right on schedule, the two-day conference in Lae got under way with 1,500 people in attendance.\n\nThe 41 conferences – being held over a four-month period that will end on 1 March – are meant to give an opportunity to Baha’is to celebrate recent achievements in community-building work and to plan future activities."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"People in Papua New Guinea were showing the same eagerness to accept the invitation from the Universal House of Justice that Baha’is in Africa demonstrated earlier at the eight conferences held so far on that continent. In some African countries, people literally traveled through a war zone to reach their regional Baha’i gathering. Others walked as much as 100 kilometers or more, so determined were they to attend their conference.\n\nMany other stories of sacrifice have surfaced at the 30 conferences held to date, as Baha’is demonstrate their interest in meeting to consult on how best to serve their local communities.\n\nLast weekend, in addition to the conference in Lae, gatherings were held in Managua, Nicaragua, and Vancouver, Canada. Those two represented the final conferences of 13 that were held in the Americas. Earlier gatherings were held in Toronto, Canada; six cities in the United States; Guadalajara, Mexico; Quito Ecuador; Antofagasta, Chile; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.\n\nSome 55,000 people have attended the 30 conferences to date.\n\nFor links to reports of the conferences, go to https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567409-68901.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The Vancouver gathering was one of two held in Canada. All 13 conferences in the Americas are now over. The series spans 41 conferences around the globe."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567408-689020.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In Managua, a cultural program highlighted the traditions of some of the 25 countries that participated in the conference there."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567404-68903.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Members of a tribe called Asaro Mudmen were among those who attended the conference in Papua New Guinea."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567410-68904.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The large turnout for the Vancouver conference required use of three simultaneous venues, two of them with a live presentation area. All had video links."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567409-68905.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Thirty conferences in the series of 41 have now been held. They began on 1 November and will conclude on 1 March."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Related content"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":685,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":683,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":688,"evergreenUrl":"six-bahais-arrested-iran-one-worked-shirin-ebadis-rights-organizations","title":"Six Baha'is arrested in Iran; one worked for Shirin Ebadi's rights organizations","description":"At least six Baha'is were arrested in Iran yesterday, including a woman who worked at human rights organizations connected with Nobel prize winner...","date":"2009-01-15","customDateline":null,"city":"GENEVA","country":"SWITZERLAND","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"At least six Baha'is were arrested in Iran yesterday, including a woman who worked at human rights organizations connected with Nobel prize winner Shirin Ebadi.\n\nAccording to reports received from Iran, the six were arrested after government security agents raided the homes of at least 11 Baha'is. During the raids, they also confiscated Baha'i books and other items, such as computers and photographs.\n\nAmong those arrested was Jinous Sobhani, who worked as an assistant for the Organization for Defending Mine Victims and also for the Defenders of Human Rights Center. Both were founded by Mrs. Ebadi.\n\nIn an interview with CNN, Mrs. Ebadi said today that Ms. Sobhani had been laid off from both organizations after government agents raided Mrs. Ebadi's offices and shut them down in December.\n\nWhile some reports indicate that more than six Baha'is were arrested yesterday in Tehran, those confirmed so far include Ms. Sobhani, Mr. Shahrokh Taef, Mr. Didar Raoufi, Mr. Payam Aghsani and Mr. Aziz Samandari. Mr. Golshan Sobhani was also arrested but was released a few hours later. It is unclear whether he is related to Ms. Sobhani.\n\n\"The arrest of these individuals reflects not only the grave situation facing Baha'is in Iran but also the overall human rights situation there,\" said Diane Ala'i, a representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.\n\n\"As far as we know, all of these people were arrested primarily because they are Baha'is,\" said Ms. Ala'i.\n\nBut she confirmed the fact that Ms. Sobhani worked for the two organizations founded by Mrs. Ebadi.\n\n\"The connection of Ms. Sobhani to the work of Mrs. Ebadi's organizations points to the gravity of the situation in Iran, where the government seems intent on stifling any expression of the importance of human rights or religious freedom,\" said Ms. Ala'i.\n\nIn December, the Baha'i International Community condemned the closing of Mrs. Ebadi's Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran and called for its reopening. [(See earlier story](/story/682).)\n\n(Correction: In the fifth paragraph, the spelling of the surname of Mr. Shahrokh Taef was corrected. 16 January 2009)"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Background"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Other BWNS articles about Iran](http://www.bahai.org/persecution/iran)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Other stories about the Baha’is in Iran"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":697,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":695,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":696,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":687,"evergreenUrl":"attendance-nears-50-000-people-conferences","title":"Attendance nears 50,000 people at conferences","description":"In Mexico, the prayers were in Spanish, Mayan and Nahuatl. Across North America, in Toronto, they were in English, French, and the Northern Tutchone...","date":"2009-01-13","customDateline":null,"city":"GUADALAJARA","country":"MEXICO","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567352-68700.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567352-68700.jpg"},"imageDescription":"People came from the far corners of Mexico to attend the regional Baha’i conference in Guadalajara on 10-11 January.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"In Mexico, the prayers were in Spanish, Mayan and Nahuatl. Across North America, in Toronto, they were in English, French, and the Northern Tutchone language.\n\nBut the spirit was the same – members of the Baha'i Faith coming together in regional conferences to celebrate past achievements and to plan for upcoming activities.\n\nThe gatherings last weekend in Guadalajara and Toronto were part of the series of 41 conferences in cities around the world convened by the Universal House of Justice, the elected body that is the head of the Baha'i Faith.\n\nThe conferences began on 1 November and will finish on 1 March. Nearly 50,000 people have participated in the 27 gatherings to date.\n\nSome 4,000 attended the Toronto conference, which attracted people from throughout eastern Canada, including Nunavut, and from Bermuda."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"In Mexico, 600 people – from Baja California in the northwest to Chiapas and Quintana Roo in the southeast – participated.\n\n\"This was a small conference compared to some in other countries,\" said one of the Mexican attendees, \"but its heart and spirit were enormous – enough to cover a country as big as Mexico.\"\n\nNext weekend there will be gatherings in Vancouver, Canada; Managua, Nicaragua; and Lae, Papua New Guinea.\n\n(Correction: On 14 January 2009. a correction was made in the name of one of the languages given in the first paragraph.)"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567356-68701.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Young people join for a presentation at the conference in Toronto, which with 4,000 people was one of the largest gatherings in the current series."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567351-68702.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In Guadalajara, people of all ages consult together as they plan future activities."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567355-68703.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The conferences were called by the Universal House of Justice, partly to celebrate recent achievements in community-building activities. These young people are watching a cultural program at the Toronto gathering."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":686,"evergreenUrl":"london-abidjan-host-landmark-conferences","title":"London, Abidjan host landmark conferences","description":"London hosted its largest Baha’i gathering in 45 years with a regional conference last weekend that brought together 3,200 people from the United...","date":"2009-01-06","customDateline":null,"city":"LONDON","country":"ENGLAND","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567274-68600.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567274-68600.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The London gathering attracted 3,200 participants and occurred in the 10th week of 18 consecutive weeks of conferences.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"London hosted its largest Baha’i gathering in 45 years with a regional conference last weekend that brought together 3,200 people from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland.\n\nA World Congress held in Royal Albert Hall in 1963 was the only bigger Baha’i gathering in the city. More than 6,000 people attended that.\n\nThis time the conference was at the Business Design Centre in the central London Borough of Islington. The gathering was one of 41 Baha’i conferences being held over a four-month period in cities around the world, all convened by the Universal House of Justice, the head of the Baha’i Faith.\n\nThe conferences began on 1 November in Lusaka, Zambia, and will wind up on 1 March in Kiev, Ukraine.\n\nThis past weekend there were two conferences, the one in London and another in Abidjan with 1,200 participants from Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"For a list of all the conferences, with links to articles and photographs, go to:\n\nhttps://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567277-686010.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In Abidjan, 1,200 people came together for the eighth of nine conferences to be held in Africa in a four-month span."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567277-686020.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Each of the 41 conferences in the current series provides opportunity for consultation and celebration. This young drummer performed in Abidjan."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567278-68603.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The London conference was held in the Business Design Centre, a facility remodeled from the former Royal Agricultural Hall."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567275-68604.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Conference attendance since the series began on 1 November totals 45,000 people. The gatherings continue through 1 March."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567275-686050.jpg"},"imageDescription":"At one point, the London participants divided into 74 workshop sessions for consultation."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567278-68606.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Young people have been prominent participants at all the gatherings, including this duo in London. Next weekend the host cities will be Guadalajara and Toronto."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Related content"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":685,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":683,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":680,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":685,"evergreenUrl":"conference-series-reaches-halfway-point-with-40-000-participants","title":"Conference series reaches halfway point with 40,000 participants","description":"A series of 41 conferences is bringing together unprecedented numbers of Baha’is in country after country, with more than 40,000 people having...","date":"2008-12-31","customDateline":null,"city":"KUALA LUMPUR","country":"MALAYSIA","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567168-68500losangeles9345.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567168-68500losangeles9345.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The biggest conference in the first half of the series of 41 gatherings was in Los Angeles on 13-14 December. Some 5,700 people participated.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"A series of 41 conferences is bringing together unprecedented numbers of Baha’is in country after country, with more than 40,000 people having participated so far.\n\nThe 18-week series reached the halfway point last weekend with a gathering in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Previous weekends have seen as many as four simultaneous conferences, in cities from Almaty to Yaounde.\n\nThe conferences began on 1 November and conclude on 1 March.\n\nThe events – with their focus on providing an opportunity for reflection on achievements to date and the work ahead – have been described as a turning point for the participants.\n\n“For many individuals, it has been a life-changing opportunity,” said one Baha’i who as an appointed counselor has attended several of the gatherings. “It has helped them gain a clearer vision about their life, their identity as a Baha’i, and their identity as a Baha’i community.”\n\nAround the world, members of the Baha’i Faith are involved in four core activities at the neighborhood level – devotional meetings, study circles, children’s classes, and activities for young adolescents. One person has described the goal of the activities as “spiritual transformation” brought about by “praying together, studying together, educating children, and empowering junior youth.”\n\n"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Praveen Mallik of India, who provided assistance at the conferences in New Delhi and Bangalore, said the events indeed have offered a better perspective of what is being accomplished at the local level.\n\n“These conferences are really an eye-opener for all of us,” he said. “They provided us the opportunity to realize the strength of the process of community-building. People sensed the process of transformation of society.”\n\nMany of the conference participants have talked about the Baha’i belief in the unity of the human race and how that teaching has been reflected in the gatherings.\n\n“The conference illustrated the uniting power of the Baha’i Faith,” said Ehsan Hemmat of the Dominican Republic, who attended the conference in Quito, Ecuador. “People of different nationalities and cultures got together in an atmosphere of love, joy, unity of vision, and unity of thought, and they left the conference more united in action.”\n\nOne feature of the conferences is workshops for discussing plans to promote Baha’i core activities in specific communities.\n\n“We already are witnessing the effect of the conference in an acceleration in the number of activities,” Mr. Hemmat said a mere five weeks after the gathering in Quito.\n\nCrystal Shoaie of Bolivia said similar reports have come in after conferences in Antofagasta, Chile, and Sao Paulo. “We are hearing case after case of individuals and groups that are already carrying out the plans and commitments made at a conference,” she said.\n\nAnother feature of the conferences is the connection with the Universal House of Justice, the head of the Baha’i Faith which on 20 October invited all Baha’is to attend a gathering in their area.\n\nIn that respect, Mr. Hemmat called the Quito event “a channel of inspiration.”\n\n“You could feel that you were honored by the Universal House of Justice to be invited to the conference,” he said. “You could feel the spirit of the Holy Land touching the hearts of participants. Some of the people were walking around with tears in their eyes.”\n\nThe same thing happened in India, Mr. Mallik said. “Every believer received a loving personal invitation from the House of Justice,” he said, and people did their very best to respond – with “maximum material and physical sacrifice.”\n\nFor reports of the conferences, go to:\n\nhttps://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567171-68501img6958copy.jpg"},"imageDescription":"A participant from Kyrgyzstan, center, listens intently as a young woman from Kazakhstan speaks during a workshop at the conference in Almaty on the weekend of 6-7 December."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567168-68502antofagasta0230.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The gathering in Antofagasta, Chile, on 29-30 November drew 600 people from four countries."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567173-68503dsc5006.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The conference in New Delhi on 22-23 November was one of three held in India on two consecutive weekends. A total of 5,800 people participated. The other conferences were in Bangalore and Kolkata."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567168-68504portland.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Portland, Oregon, was one of six conference sites in the United States. More than 18,000 people attended the U.S. conferences on the first two weekends of December."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567168-685051.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Fifteen-year old Hans Ilunga Mangenda attended the Lubumbashi conference in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 22-23 November. Seven gatherings have been held in Africa, and two more are planned."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567162-6850619.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Jamal Daumar of the Philippines and Alan Jamison of Guam were at the conference in Manila on 29-30 November. About 1,000 people participated."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567169-68507dehli-dsc4996.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The New Delhi gathering drew people from across northern India and from three neighboring countries."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567167-68508.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The conference in Yaounde, Cameroon, on 29-30 November was the seventh in Africa so far. About 1,200 people attended that gathering."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Related content"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":683,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":680,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":677,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":684,"evergreenUrl":"restoration-work-begins-shrine-bab","title":"Restoration work begins on Shrine of the Bab","description":"Work has begun on a four-year restoration project on the golden-domed Shrine of the Bab, one of the holiest sites in the Baha’i world and Haifa’s...","date":"2008-12-28","customDateline":null,"city":"HAIFA","country":"ISRAEL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567122-68400restoration.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567122-68400restoration.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The Shrine of the Bab in Haifa, one of the most visited sites in Israel, will undergo a four-year restoration project. Major work begins in January.","imageStyle":"canvas-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Work has begun on a four-year restoration project on the golden-domed Shrine of the Bab, one of the holiest sites in the Baha’i world and Haifa’s best-known landmark.\n\nThe Shrine of the Bab stands at the center of the Baha’i gardens, on the side of Mount Carmel overlooking Haifa Bay and the Mediterranean Sea. The gardens and shrine are among the most visited sites in Israel.\n\nThe domed structure was completed 55 years ago and now requires restoration and updating, including structural reinforcement against earthquakes, restoration of stonework, replacement of iron decorative elements with stainless steel, upgrading of the electrical system, and refurbishment of the dome with new tiles.\n\nThere will be no change in the design, use or general appearance of the building.\n\nThe work will be undertaken in such a way to keep the shrine open to both Baha’i pilgrims and the general public throughout most of the project, except during summer months. Starting in May or June of 2009, the structure will be covered with scaffolding and canvas sheeting for about two years. The project will cost approximately US$6 million, with funds coming entirely from the voluntary contributions of the Baha’is of the world.\n\nThe shrine is the burial place of the Bab, revered by Baha’is as a Messenger of God and one of the Central Figures of the Baha’i Faith.\n\nThe Bab was executed in 1850 in the public square in Tabriz, Iran, and His remains later brought to Haifa, where they were laid to rest in the present location in 1909.\n\nThe original building covering the tomb was a one-story rectangle. The domed superstructure – made of granite and marble quarried in Italy, with gilded roof tiles from the Netherlands – was added later and was completed in 1953.\n\nThe burial place of the Bab, and that of Baha’u’llah near Acre, north of Haifa, are considered by Baha’is to be the most sacred places on earth. Earlier this year, the two shrines and their surrounding gardens were chosen by UNESCO as World Heritage sites – part of the cultural heritage of humanity."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":683,"evergreenUrl":"bahai-conference-series-completes-eighth-week","title":"Baha’i conference series completes eighth week","description":"The series of 41 Baha’i conferences being held around the world continued this past weekend with gatherings in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Kuching,...","date":"2008-12-23","customDateline":null,"city":"SAO PAULO","country":"BRAZIL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567049-68300.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567049-68300.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In Sao Paulo, people from three countries shared experiences and planned future activities. Here, Maria Cristina Santos of Bahia, Brazil, addresses the conference.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The series of 41 Baha’i conferences being held around the world continued this past weekend with gatherings in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Kuching, Sarawak, in Malaysia.\n\nThe 1,700 people gathered in Brazil and the 1,300 in Malaysia represented the largest Baha’i conferences ever held in those countries.\n\nMembers of the Baha’i Faith from Paraguay and Uruguay joined those from across Brazil for the Sao Paulo event, which, like the other conferences in the series, was called to provide Baha’is an opportunity to celebrate achievements in their community-building activities and also consult about plans for future work.\n\nThe Kuching conference included participants from the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, as well as other close-by territories."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"It was the eighth of 18 consecutive weeks of conferences being held in cities around the world at the call of the Universal House of Justice, the elected body that is the head of the Baha’i Faith.\n\nNext week’s conference is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, followed the week after by gatherings in London and in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.\n\nhttps://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567050-68301.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The 1,300 people gathered in Kuching, Sarawak, in Malaysia, made it the largest Baha'i event ever held in that region."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567051-68302.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Romina P.C. Torres of Paraguay shows off her dress at the conference venue in Sao Paulo."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543567046-68303.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In Kuching, conference participants consult together in a workshop session."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":682,"evergreenUrl":"baha-is-call-reopening-human-rights-center-iran","title":"Baha’is call for reopening of human rights center in Iran","description":"The Baha'i International Community today expressed grave concern over the closing by the Iranian government of Shirin Ebadi’s Defenders of Human...","date":"2008-12-23","customDateline":null,"city":"GENEVA","country":"SWITZERLAND","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The Baha'i International Community today expressed grave concern over the closing by the Iranian government of Shirin Ebadi’s Defenders of Human Rights Center in Tehran and called for its reopening.\n\n“The closing of Mrs. Ebadi’s office is a blow to human rights for the whole of Iran,” said Diane Ala’i, a representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.\n\n“The spokesperson of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has indicated that the reason behind the closure was that the Center has no license. But it would be a simple matter to give them one. Otherwise, the fact that the Iranian government would shut down the office of its most famous human rights defender, who is Iran’s only winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the first Muslim woman so recognized, can only be perceived by the world at large as further evidence that the government has no regard for rights and freedoms.\n\n“Mrs. Ebadi and her colleagues are engaged in defending numerous individuals and groups in Iran, and the closure of the Center will certainly interfere with their efforts and impede the adequate legal representation that they are committed to providing,” she said.\n\nAmong those being defended by Mrs. Ebadi and her organization are the seven Baha'i leaders who are currently being held without charge in Evin prison in Tehran. The seven were arrested in March and May in an ominous sweep that was reminiscent of when Baha'i leaders in the 1980s were rounded up and executed.\n\n”Regardless of the attempts against human rights defenders in Iran, Mrs. Ebadi and her colleagues are courageously pursuing their work. For the good of the country, we call upon the Iranian authorities to resolve the administrative issue, and to allow the Center to reopen immediately,” said Ms. Ala’i."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Background"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Other BWNS articles about Iran](http://www.bahai.org/persecution/iran)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Other stories about the Baha’is in Iran"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":696,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":694,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":697,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":681,"evergreenUrl":"un-general-assembly-expresses-deep-concern-human-rights-iran-2008","title":"UN General Assembly expresses \"deep concern\" about human rights in Iran","description":"The United Nations General Assembly today adopted a resolution expressing “deep concern at serious human rights violations” in Iran. The resolution,...","date":"2008-12-18","customDateline":null,"city":"UNITED NATIONS","country":"UNITED STATES","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The United Nations General Assembly today adopted a resolution expressing “deep concern at serious human rights violations” in Iran.\n\nThe resolution, which passed by a vote of 69 to 54, specifically criticized Iran’s use of torture, the high incidence of executions, the “violent repression” of women, and “increasing discrimination” against Bahá’ís, Christians, Jews, Sufis, Sunni Muslims, and other minorities.\n\n“Iran should reflect upon and glean from this vote that, sadly, countries from Finland to Fiji are more concerned about the rights of ordinary Iranian citizens than the Iranian government itself,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Bahá'í International Community to the United Nations.\n\n“The General Assembly is the world’s most representative body, and the fact that this represents the 21st such resolution expressing concern over human rights in Iran since 1985 should leave no doubt that this is not about ‘politicization,’ as the Iranian government likes to say, but a genuine concern for universally acknowledged rights.\n\n“Regretfully, despite outcries like this and the recent report of the UN secretary general, the human rights situation in Iran grows worse each day. Nevertheless, we remain hopeful that expressions of concern like this will cause Iranian leaders to rethink their stance on human rights in respect for the rights that have been so widely accepted by other nations,” she said.\n\nMs. Dugal also noted that Iran comes up for Universal Periodic Review in the Human Rights Council in 2010. Iran should take note of the international community’s concern and make all efforts to improve its deplorable human rights record.\n\nToday’s resolution was put forward by Canada and co-sponsored by more than 40 other countries. It also specifically takes note of the recent report by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, issued in October, which also expressed concern about human rights in Iran, and calls on Iran to address the “substantive concerns” voiced therein.\n\nIn that report, Mr. Ban said “there are a number of serious impediments to the full protection of human rights” in Iran. It likewise expressed concerns over torture, executions, the rights of women, and discrimination against minorities. (To read the full report, go to: http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=a/63/459.)\n\nThe resolution asks the secretary general to prepare an update on Iran’s progress over the coming year. It also calls on Iran to “end the harassment, intimidation and persecution of political opponents and human rights defenders, including by releasing persons imprisoned arbitrarily or on the basis of their political views” and to “uphold due process of law rights and to end impunity for human rights violations.”\n\nThe resolution takes particular note of attacks on Bahá’ís, noting “increasing evidence of efforts by the State to identify and monitor Bahá’ís, preventing members of the Bahá’í Faith from attending university and from sustaining themselves economically, and the arrest and detention of seven Bahá’í leaders without charge or access to legal representation.”\n\nMs. Dugal noted that there are at least 20 Bahá’ís currently in jail, including the national Bahá’í leadership of seven members who were arrested last March and May and are being held in Evin prison without charges. More than 100 others have been arrested and released on bail over the last four years as part of a stepped-up government effort at persecution."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Other stories about the Baha’is in Iran"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":696,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":694,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":695,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":680,"evergreenUrl":"manhattanites-start-small-aim-high-with-class-children","title":"Manhattanites start small, aim high with class for children","description":"As one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the United States, Manhattan’s Upper East Side might seem like an unlikely place to start building...","date":"2008-12-16","customDateline":null,"city":"NEW YORK","country":"UNITED STATES","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543566730-68000.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543566730-68000.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Manhattan residents Monette Van Lith and her daughter, Sophie Lincoln, 9, have started a Baha’i children’s class at their home. “I think children my age have a lot of questions that they don’t get answers to,” Sophie says.","imageStyle":"canvas-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"As one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the United States, Manhattan’s Upper East Side might seem like an unlikely place to start building a new world civilization.\n\n“The Upper East Side is quite well-to-do,” explained Monette Van Lith, a Baha'i and a newcomer to the neighborhood, addressing nearly 2,000 people gathered for a Baha’i regional conference in nearby Stamford, Connecticut, this past weekend. “One example I give is that even the dogs wear coats – and sometimes shoes and hats.”\n\n“It is intensely materialistic,” she said, and then added: “But maybe that is just on the surface.”\n\nMs. Van Lith and her daughter, 9-year-old Sophie Lincoln, are counting on that last notion. They hope to introduce their neighbors to the global process by which Baha'is around the world are seeking to spiritualize society by working from the ground up.\n\nSophie, with the help of her mother, has recently started a Baha'i children’s class, inviting her schoolmates every Saturday for a course of study that, while fun and engaging, emphasizes the importance of moral virtues and spiritual ideas.\n\n“I attend an international school in New York and there are a lot of children from around the world, from different countries and different religions,” Sophie told the audience, adding that her friends are “very busy. There is ballet and birthday parties, swimming and piano.”\n\n"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"But, she said, “I think children my age have a lot of questions that they don’t get answers to. Like who is God, why are there different religions, how should we pray, what happens when you die?”\n\nAlready, Sophie said, she has three young friends who come regularly to the class, which is held in her home.\n\n“Because it is still small, I am trying to invite more of my friends so it can continue and grow,” she said.\n\nSophie’s was one of dozens of stories heard in Stamford as Baha'is from nine northeastern U.S. states gathered to talk about the next stage of the evolution of their community.\n\nGrowth, certainly, was a main theme at the conference. There is a new energy in Baha’i communities as individuals have begun to grasp the importance of initiating specific core activities designed to engage society at large.\n\nThese activities, undertaken at the neighborhood level, include children’s classes, small groups engaged in the study of spiritual topics and in acts of service, devotional gatherings, and activities for young teenagers. They are the key, said conference speakers, to building the foundation for a new world civilization from the grass roots up – for everyone.\n\n“The purpose of growth is to establish a world civilization, affected by the message of Baha'u'llah,” said Sophie Clark, who recently joined the Baha'i community after attending one of the study circles.\n\nThe teachings of Baha’u’llah revolve around the essential oneness of humanity and the belief that human beings were created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.\n\n“We are not about expanding and recreating patterns of old,” said Hooshmand Sheshbaradaran of Hoboken, New Jersey, who was a workshop facilitator at the Stamford conference. Baha’is, he said, are not trying to re-create a series of traditional churches or congregations.\n\n“It is about evolving, it is about stepping out and building a new world order,” he said.\n\nThe Stamford gathering was one of three Baha’i conferences on 13-14 December, all part of a current series of 41 conferences being held over a four-month period in cities around the world. The others this past weekend were in Dallas and Los Angeles. Conferences next weekend will be in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Kuching, Sarawak, in Malaysia. The series concludes on 1 March 2009.\n\nFor reports of the conferences, go to: https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543566724-68001.jpg"},"imageDescription":"At a conference in Stamford, Connecticut, Baha’is from throughout the northeastern U.S. discussed the core activities they sponsor at the neighborhood level."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543566725-68002.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Conference participants in Stamford consulted about the Baha’i core activities – devotional gatherings, children’s classes, activities for young teens, and study circles. The meeting was one of a series of 41 conferences being held around the globe."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Related content"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":675,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":673,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":669,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":679,"evergreenUrl":"faith-groups-sign-human-rights-statement","title":"Faith groups sign human rights statement","description":"Groups and individuals around the world this month have been commemorating the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration...","date":"2008-12-15","customDateline":false,"city":"THE HAGUE","country":"NETHERLANDS","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543566685-67900.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543566685-67900.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Baha’i representative Bani Dugal signs the 2008 Faith in Human Rights statement on 10 December at The Hague. Looking on is the Right Reverend Bishop Athenagoras (Peckstadt) of Sinope, of Belgium.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Groups and individuals around the world this month have been commemorating the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which occurred on 10 December 1948. The United Nations has designated the anniversary each year as Human Rights Day.\n\nLast week the Baha’i International Community was one of 11 faith groups whose representatives gathered at an international interreligious conference at The Hague to sign the 2008 Faith in Human Rights Statement. The event was organized by Justitia et Pax Netherlands in cooperation with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.\n\nFor each of the signatories, the document represents a commitment to support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms both within and outside their faith community. Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations, signed on behalf of the Baha’is.\n\nThe document states, “While representing different faith traditions, we come together in unity to stress that religion has been a primary source of inspiration for human rights as our sacred writings and teachings clearly show.”\n\nOrganizers said the conference marked the first time that major world religions have jointly emphasized the importance of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was on hand for the signing of the document, which occurred on 10 December.\n\nIn New York, in a separate event to mark the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Baha'i International Community sponsored a seminar on 8 December on \"Freedom of Religion or Belief: Perspectives and Challenges after Sixty Years of United Nations Protection.\"\n\nSpeakers included Felice Gaera of the Jacob Blaustein Institute who serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; Azza Karam of the United Nations Population Fund; Cole Durham of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University; and Malcolm Evans of the University of Bristol School of Law.\n\nMs. Dugal, the Baha’i representative, welcomed the participants and discussed why religious freedom is so important – both to Baha'is and others.\n\n“More than one-half of the world's population lives under regimes that severely restrict or prohibit the freedom of their citizens to study, believe, observe, and freely practice the religious faith of their choice,” she said.\n\n“The freedom to change one's religion or belief has not been expressed with such clarity in any international instrument since the Declaration,” she stated.\n\nShe also noted that the Baha'i International Community is “well-acquainted” with persecution based on religion. “The enduring and systemic persecution of the Baha'i community in Iran, which has continued with varying degrees of intensity over the last 150 years, has manifested in a variety of ways,” she said.\n\nThe goal, she continued, should be “to create the conditions, legal, economic, political, social and spiritual, which allow human potential to emerge and flourish – that very potential which has continually driven forward human civilization, by seeking out new avenues of knowledge and refining human relationships and the organization of human society.”\n\n“The human mind,” she added, “endowed with reason and conscience, must be free to search for truth and to believe.”\n\nMORE DETAILS\n\nIn other countries, among the Human Rights Day events with Baha’i participation were the following:\n\nIn the United Kingdom, students took the theme “Education is a Human Right” and hosted events to raise general awareness and also point out that in Iran, Baha’is and others are often denied access to education.\n\nAt Queen Mary, University of London, Professor Eric Heinze of the  School of Law addressed a special meeting hosted by the Baha’i student society and spoke about the origins and importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\n\nIn Cardiff, students and friends gathered in the Nelson Mandela Room at the university’s Student Union to hear presentations and watch videos about human rights, access to education and personal experiences of living in Iran. The program was followed by a late-night prayer vigil for human rights in the world. Also in Wales, some 100 students at Brynmawr comprehensive school in Blaeneu heard a presentation about young people in Iran being denied access to education.\n\nStudents at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, participated in a letter-writing campaign supported by members of the university’s Amnesty International group.\n\nIn Canada, the Victoria Multifaith Society in Victoria, British Columbia, sponsored a two-day Human Rights Global Dignity Conference on 6-7 December with more than 150 participants. Gerald Filson, former chair of the Canadian International Human Rights Network and representative of the Canadian Baha’i community, was one of the featured speakers.\n\nDr. Mary-Wynne Ashford, past president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War who recently joined the Baha’i community, offered a presentation that included a focus on the “world’s newest superpower” – civil society. The conference included music, displays, and workshops, including one for children, “Becoming Your Best Self,” organized by Linda Kavelin-Popov.\n\nDr. Filson also spoke at a program in Abbotsford, British Columbia, sponsored by local Baha’is and the Fraser Valley Human Dignity Coalition, where he outlined both successes and failures in the promotion of human rights over the past 60 years.\n\nIn total, Baha’is participated in a dozen commemorative events in Canada, including a conference on 9 December at McGill University in Montreal, held in collaboration with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and the John Humphrey Center for Peace and Human Rights, and a gathering on 10 December at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.\n\nIn India, the local Baha'i community of Kannur in the state of Kerala organized a meeting in collaboration with the local chapter of Amnesty International. Held in the Baha'i Centre Hall, the meeting featured an address by P.K. Premarajan, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of India.\n\nIn the United States, Kit Bigelow, representing the Baha’is of the United States, read a Baha’i prayer at a Human Rights Day luncheon attended by more than 200 people on 10 December. The annual event was sponsored by the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area, the DC Commission, and the Office on Human Rights.\n\nBaha’is also attended a ceremony on 8 December held in the Treaty Room of the U.S. State Department by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice honoring outstanding human rights defenders in the civil society and government.\n\nAlso, representatives attended a conference on 2 December sponsored by the American University Washington College of Law and the American Society of International Law titled “Realizing the Promise of Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Examining the First 60 Years and Beyond.”\n\nIn Brazil, the Baha’i community prepared a revised edition of the “Human Rights Pathway,” an exhibition representing the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Baha’is will be among the 1,500 participants of the four-day XI National Human Rights Conference that opens today, 15 December, in Brasilia.\n\nIn Australia, the Baha’i Regional Council of Western Australia welcomed more than 100 guests to a program where the focus was the ongoing relevance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the need for unending vigilance."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Documents"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Universal Declaration of Human Rights](http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[2008 Faith in Human Rights statement](http://english.faithinhumanrights.org/)","relatedLinkDescription":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[{"tagName":"defence"}],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":678,"evergreenUrl":"ethics-stressed-un-conference-climate-change","title":"Ethics stressed at UN conference on climate change","description":"In its contributions to the UN Climate Change conference in Poznan, Poland, this week, the Baha’i International Community stressed the importance...","date":"2008-12-11","customDateline":false,"city":"POZNAN","country":"POLAND","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543566648-67800img1673paneloffour.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543566648-67800img1673paneloffour.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Baha’i representative Peter Adriance, second from right, speaks during a panel discussion on \"Moral and ethical issues that must be faced in implementing the Bali roadmap.” Others, from left, are Dane Scott of the University of Montana at Missoula, Petra Tschakert of Penn State University, and Brendan Mackey of the Australian National University.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"In its contributions to the UN Climate Change conference in Poznan, Poland, this week, the Baha’i International Community stressed the importance of addressing the ethical and moral issues that surround global warming and its impact on the world’s peoples.\n\n“The search for solutions to climate change has revealed the limits of traditional technological and policy approaches and has raised difficult questions about justice, equity, responsibility and obligation,” said the BIC in a working paper released at the conference.\n\nTitled “Seizing the Opportunity: Redefining the Challenge of Climate Change,” the paper offers initial considerations from a Baha’i perspective as the world faces the challenge of global warming.\n\n“As communities and policy-makers worldwide have wrestled with these questions, they have brought us all to the threshold of a tremendous opportunity,” said the paper.\n\n“It is the opportunity to take the next step in the transition from a state-centered mode of interacting on the world stage to one rooted in the unity which connects us as the inhabitants of one biosphere, the citizens of one world and the members of one human civilization.” ([See BIC paper.](http://dl.bahai.org/bwns/assets/documentlibrary/Climate-Change-paper.pdf))\n\nRepresentatives of the BIC also participated in two side events at the conference, both of which were likewise aimed at addressing the moral and ethical issues that stem from global warming.\n\nBoth events were organized by the Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimension of Climate Change at the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State University, and both carried the title “Moral and ethical issues that must be faced in implementing the Bali roadmap.”\n\nOn Monday, 8 December, Baha’i representative Peter Adriance spoke on a panel discussion under that title, on the topic “Summoning the courage: Arising to the ethical challenge of climate change.”\n\nIn his remarks, Mr. Adriance stressed the importance of embracing the concept of the oneness of humanity as the overriding ethical and moral principle in addressing climate change.\n\n“There is a great opportunity for the world to make the transition from operating only from a national perspective to a global perspective,” said Mr. Adriance.\n\nOn Tuesday, 9 December, Baha’i representatives participated in a daylong seminar, also organized by the Collaborative Program on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change.\n\n“The work of the United Nations conference is at a crucial point,” said Tahirih Naylor, a Baha’i International Community representative to the United Nations, who headed the Baha’i delegation in Poznan. “And our goal in our contributions here is to encourage world leaders and leaders of thought to include a consideration of the moral and ethical impact of the decisions they are making.\n\n“For example, the principle of justice demands that governments move outside their own limited national interests, and so look at this problem in terms of its global reach and impact. Climate change is a problem of international scope, and it requires a level of cooperation that humanity really hasn’t faced in the past.”\n\nThe Baha’i International Community is one of hundreds of nongovernmental organizations attending the two-week Poznan conference, which runs through 12 December.\n\nStarting today, government ministers and other top officials from nearly 200 nations will participate in a two-day, high-level segment aimed at completing key elements of an ambitious global climate change deal next year.\n\nUN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to address the high-level segment today and will appeal to the gathered leaders to not let the food, financial and other current crises dissuade them from taking urgent action on climate change.\n\nThe Poznan conference marks the half-way point in efforts to reach agreement on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, the legally binding regime for reducing greenhouse gas emissions whose first commitment period ends in 2012. The process began in Bali, Indonesia, last year."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Supporting document"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Seizing the Opportunity: Redefining the Challenge of Climate Change"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedPdfRecord","relatedPdfText":"[Document](http://dl.bahai.org/bwns/assets/documentlibrary/Climate-Change-paper.pdf)","relatedPdfDescription":"(Adobe Acrobat 80KB) "}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":677,"evergreenUrl":"baha-i-conference-series-reaches-united-states","title":"Baha’i conference series reaches the United States","description":"The first conferences in the United States in the current series of 41 Baha’i gatherings being held around the world attracted nearly 8,500 people...","date":"2008-12-09","customDateline":null,"city":"CHICAGO","country":"UNITED STATES","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560622-67700.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560622-67700.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Some 2,340 participants from 12 states gathered in Chicago for their regional conference.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The first conferences in the United States in the current series of 41 Baha’i gatherings being held around the world attracted nearly 8,500 people this past weekend, and another three this coming weekend are expected to draw a similar number.\n\nFrigid temperatures and snowstorms didn’t keep 2,340 people from arriving in suburban Chicago for a conference, while 3,500 gathered in Atlanta and 2,600 in Portland, Oregon.\n\nThe Atlanta conference was the largest of the 17 conferences held to date. The weekend of 6-7 December was the sixth of 18 consecutive weekends of conferences, being held at the call of the Universal House of Justice, the head of the Baha’i Faith.\n\nIn addition to the three events in the United States, a conference was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, that attracted some 650 people from six countries."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Next weekend will see conferences in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Stamford, Connecticut.\n\nFor reports of the conferences, go to: https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560640-67701.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Friends from different cities in Kazakhstan enjoyed the chance to see each other while at the Almaty conference last weekend."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560628-67702.jpg"},"imageDescription":"A group from the Baha'i Black Men's Gathering performs in Chicago."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560624-67703.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The sound of Native American drums and prayers greeted people at the opening of the Portland Regional Conference."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560630-67704.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Baha’is from Kazakhstan and five neighboring countries joined together for the conference in Almaty."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560631-67705.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Participants in Atlanta study a letter from the Universal House of Justice."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560639-67706.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Some 650 people attended the conference in Almaty."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Related content"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":675,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":673,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":669,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":676,"evergreenUrl":"bahais-mark-60th-anniversary-human-rights-declaration","title":"Baha'is mark 60th anniversary of Human Rights Declaration","description":"Many Baha'i communities around the world are observing Human Rights Day this week - which this year has special significance because it marks...","date":"2008-12-07","customDateline":false,"city":"NEW YORK","country":"UNITED STATES","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560599-67600docammend.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560599-67600docammend.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In the United Kingdom, pamphlets promote the right to education for Baha'is in Iran, who are currently barred from universities. Younger Baha'i students are often harassed or expelled from their schools.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Many Baha'i communities around the world are observing Human Rights Day this week - which this year has special significance because it marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\n\nIn New York, the Baha'i International Community will host a one-day seminar on \"Freedom of Religion or Belief: Perspectives and Challenges after Sixty Years of United Nations Protection.\"\n\nThe seminar, on 8 December, will entail two panel discussions featuring, among others: Felice Gaer of the Jacob Blaustein Institute who serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; Azza Karam of the United Nations Population Fund; Cole Durham of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University; and Malcolm Evans of the University of Bristol School of Law.\n\n\"Human Rights Day is especially significant this year because human rights seem to be under attack from many directions,\" said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations, who will also speak at the event in New York. \"This year, given that it is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' 60th anniversary, it is all the more important, as that document sets the strongest normative standards for freedom of religion or belief.\"\n\n**Around the world**\n\nA number of Baha'i communities at both the national and local levels have planned events for Human Rights Day, commemorated each year on 10 December. Following are some examples:\n\nIn Canada, Baha'is are sponsoring or co-sponsoring at least 10 events, including a two-day \"Human Rights Global Dignity Conference\" in Victoria, British Columbia, held 6-7 December.\n\nA number of events with Baha'i participation are taking place at various Canadian universities, including McGill in Montreal, and, in British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia.\n\nLocal observances will be held in Chilliwack, Abbottsford, Colwood, Maple Ridge, and Langley in British Columbia, and in Richmond Hill and Okaville in Ontario.\n\n\"We have been encouraging our Local Assemblies to hold events,\" said Gerald Filson, a spokesman for the Baha'i Community of Canada.\n\nIn Brazil, Baha'is will participate in the XI National Human Rights Conference in Brasilia on 15-18 December. About 1,500 people are expected to attend, among them elected delegates from the 27 Brazilian states, guests and observers.\n\nThe Baha'i Community of Brazil has prepared a new edition of the \"Human Rights Pathway,\" an exhibition of 30 posters - representing the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - designed to line a corridor where people can pass through to view. The new edition of the \"Pathway\" was printed using language and drawings produced by middle school students from Guara, a city in the outskirts of Brasilia, and with partial financial support of the Organization of Ibero-American States.\n\nIn the United Kingdom, the Baha'is community produced two pamphlets for distribution in schools and universities that connect the persecution of Baha'i university students in Iran with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which specifies the right to an education.\n\n\"Our Baha'i youth in various places are also organizing seminars, events, and presentations,\" said Robert Weinberg, a spokesman for the Baha'is of the United Kingdom.\n\nHe said Baha'is were also supporting an open letter, signed by a number of prominent educators, religious leaders, and academics from throughout Great Britain that criticizes Iran's policy of denying Baha'is access to higher education. The letter is to be released on Human Rights Day.\n\nIn Austria, the Baha'i community organized an event on 6 November 2008 at the Vienna Baha'i Center that commemorated the imprisonment and murder of Viennese Baha'is of Jewish background during World War II. That ceremony also celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\n\nIn India, Baha'is are sponsoring a program in Lucknow that will launch a discourse on eradication of childhood poverty in collaboration with UNICEF of Uttar Pradesh.\n\nEstablished by the United Nations General Assembly in 1950, Human Rights Day marks the anniversary of the Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December 1948. Over the years, a network of human rights instruments and mechanisms has been developed to ensure the primacy of human rights and to confront human rights violations wherever they occur."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Other stories about the Baha’is in Iran"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":696,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":694,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":695,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[{"tagName":"defence"}],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":675,"evergreenUrl":"bahai-conferences-circle-globe","title":"Baha’i conferences circle the globe","description":"Baha’i conferences last weekend circled the globe – from Chile to Cameroon to the Philippines. It was the fifth of 18 consecutive weekends that...","date":"2008-12-02","customDateline":null,"city":"ANTOFAGASTA","country":"CHILE","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543950587-67500.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543950587-67500.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Two of the 600 participants at the Baha’i conference in Antofagasta, Chile, on 29-30 November are shown at a plenary session.","imageStyle":"large-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Baha’i conferences last weekend circled the globe – from Chile to Cameroon to the Philippines.\n\nIt was the fifth of 18 consecutive weekends that will see conferences in a total of 41 cities, all having been convened by the Universal House of Justice, the elected body that is the head of the Baha’i Faith.\n\nIn Antofagasta, 600 people from Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, and southern Peru gathered, many of them representing indigenous groups who, as one participant put it, offered “a defiant response to prejudice and raised a flag for unity in diversity.”\n\nIn Yaounde, Cameroon, nearly 1,200 participants came from across that country as well as from Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe. Manila hosted more than 1,000 people from the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Caroline Islands, Mariana Islands, and Marshall Islands."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"For reports of the conferences, go to: https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543950588-67501.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In Manila, some 700 Baha’is from the Philippines were joined for a Baha’i conference by 300 people from at least seven other countries or territories."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543950587-67502.jpg"},"imageDescription":"This group from Chad traveled to Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, for the Baha’i conference there."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543950586-67503.jpg"},"imageDescription":"In northern Chile, people gathered from the rest of that country as well as from Argentina, Bolivia, and southern Peru."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543950586-67504.jpg"},"imageDescription":"A representative of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Cameroon welcomes participants to the conference in her country."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543950586-67505.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Indigenous musicians perform at the conference in Antofagasta, Chile."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543950586-67506.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The three conferences on 29-30 November were part of a series of 41 major Baha’i gatherings being held around the world over a four-month period. This photo is of participants at the Yaounde conference in Cameroon."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543950586-67507.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The event in Manila was one of 10 Baha’i gatherings scheduled for Asia in the series of 41 conferences."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"41 Conferences"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Reports, photos, and video clips from the regional conferences of the Five Year Plan](https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Related content"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":673,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":669,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":665,"relatedStoryCaption":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":674,"evergreenUrl":"uk-foreign-policy-centre-challenges-iran-human-rights","title":"UK Foreign Policy Centre challenges Iran on human rights","description":"The Foreign Policy Centre, a leading foreign affairs think tank in Britain, has published a new report on Iran titled “A Revolution Without Rights:...","date":"2008-11-30","customDateline":false,"city":"LONDON","country":"ENGLAND","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560342-67400fpc4.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560342-67400fpc4.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Member of Parliament Mike Gapes addresses the audience at the presentation of a pamphlet published by the Foreign Policy Centre about human rights in Iran. The event took place in London on 25 November.","imageStyle":"canvas-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The Foreign Policy Centre, a leading foreign affairs think tank in Britain, has published a new report on Iran titled “A Revolution Without Rights: Women, Kurds and Baha’is Searching for Equality in Iran.”\n\nThe report concludes that, although the world is focusing on Iran’s nuclear issue, the rights of women and minorities must not be overlooked.\n\nPublished as a pamphlet, the report was presented at a public program at the Houses of Parliament on 25 November, coinciding with United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.\n\nThe document evaluates the Iranian government’s compliance with its own constitution and looks at how the country’s treatment of women and minorities measures up to the international agreements it has signed.\n\nUK Foreign Office Minister Lord Mark Malloch-Brown wrote the preface, describing the report as an “important contribution to the debate, and an important part of ensuring that improving Iran’s human rights record stays firmly on the agenda worldwide.”\n\n“Iran consistently fails to meet the international commitments that it is signed up to,” he wrote. “It ignores its own laws and terms of its own constitution such as arbitrary arrest and the denial of due process. And it is increasingly – and worryingly – using vague, national security-related charges such as ‘acting against state security’ and ‘propaganda against the system’ against individuals who are exercising their right to peaceful protest.”\n\n"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The launch of the report was held at Portcullis House in the House of Commons. Among those who addressed the audience were Member of Parliament Mike Gapes, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Baroness Haleh Afshar, professor of politics and women’s studies at the University of York; Iranian human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam; Drewery Dyke of Amnesty International; and Kaveh Mussavi, head of Public Interest Law, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford.\n\nHighlighting particularly the ongoing persecution faced by the Baha’is, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, Baroness Afshar said, “The treatment of the Baha’is is appalling, unacceptable and – in every way – not only against accepted human rights regulations but the ancient traditions of Iran, a culture that has always been characterized by tolerance.”\n\nThe presentation was chaired by former government minister Stephen Twigg, now director of the Foreign Policy Centre.\n\n“This report challenges Iran to fulfill its obligations to its own citizens under international law and its constitution,” said Mr. Twigg. “We must support the tireless work of Iranian human rights activists working to bring change in their own country and make sure their struggle is not overlooked as the international community focuses on the nuclear issue.”\n\n“International pressure really does make a difference in human rights cases,” said Ms. Afshin-Jam, who is president of the Stop Child Executions Campaign."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543560342-67401fpc.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The Foreign Policy Centre report challenges Iran to fulfill its obligations under international law and its own constitution, said Centre Director Stephen Twigg."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Background"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Other BWNS articles about Iran](http://www.bahai.org/persecution/iran)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[\"Persecution: Under siege in Iran, Baha'is demonstrate the courage of their convictions\"](http://www.bahai.org/dir/worldwide/persecution)","relatedLinkDescription":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedFieldHeaderRecord","relatedHeaderText":"Other stories about the Baha’is in Iran"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":696,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedArticleRecord","storyNumber":670,"relatedStoryCaption":""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_RelatedLinkRecord","relatedLinkText":"[Iran Update](https://news.bahai.org/human-rights/iran/iran-update.html)","relatedLinkDescription":""}],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[{"tagName":"defence"}],"highlightClip":null}],"lang":"en","language":"en","location":"/archive/55/"}},"staticQueryHashes":["2762707590"]}