- 2003-12-17 — The Bahá'i´International Community, with UNICEF, UNESCO, and major international non-governmental organizations, co-sponsored a regional conference in India with the theme, Education: The Right of Every Girl and Boy. An address was delivered by Bani Dugal, the Principal Representative of the Bahá'í International Community to the United Nations. She noted that, according to UNICEF, 121 million children received little or no schooling of which 65 million of these were girls. The text of her speech can be found in the reference.
[Education: The Right of Every Girl and Boy]
- 2005-03-28 — As Chair of the NGO Commission on the Status of Women, Ms Bani Dugal facilitated and organized the participation of over 2,700 civil society representatives from nearly 600 NGOs. The Bahá'í International Community sponsored the 49th NGO consultation for the Commission on the Status of Women at Barnard College, New York. [UN Women 49th session]
- 2008-02-25 —
- 2019-08-00 —
Religions for Peace is the world's largest inter-religious coalition. Their mandate is to work to transform violent conflict, advance human development, promote just and harmonious societies. It is comprised of a world council of religious leaders and bodies from over 125 countries.
Its organization, built over its 50-year history, comprises of six regional Interreligious Councils and is built on the principle of religious representation that reflects the fabric of religious demography.
- The Bahá'í International Community's Principal Representative, Ms. Bani Dugal, was elected as a co-president and member of the World Council of Religions for Peace to become part of the 51 member council of co-presidents. The election, which is held every five years, was held in August in Lindau, Germany. Ms. Dugal was elected by over 700 voting delegates.
- Dr. Azza Karam, Professor of Religion and Development at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Netherlands and former senior advisor on culture at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was elected as the body's new secretary-general, becoming the first woman to hold the post. At UNFPA, she also served as chairperson of the UN task force on engagement with faith-based organizations.
[BIC News]
- 2021-07-08 — The Bahá'í International Community made representation to the United Nations or the Iranian government to be held accountable for its campaign of hate speech against the Baha'is in Iran. In previous months, the four-decades long state-sponsored campaign of hate speech and propaganda reached new levels, increasing in both sophistication and scale. This provoked fresh concerns for the rights of the Baha'is in Iran, as history had shown that flagrant violations of human rights often take place in a climate of hate and disinformation following such propaganda efforts.
The websites and social media channels are compounded by videos, print newspaper articles and other written media, books, seminars, exhibitions, graffiti and fatwas from both official outlets and others sponsored by the government but purporting to be independent. [Bahá'í International Community News]
Since 2017, more than 33,000 pieces of toxic anti-Bahá'í content have been published or broadcast. In recent years, hundreds of websites and dozens of social media accounts have systematically attacked the Bahá'í community, misrepresenting Bahá'í beliefs in a manner designed to cause maximum offence to Iran's Muslim-majority population. [CiJA Statement on Iranian anti-Bahá'í Campaign] (The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is the advocacy agent of Jewish Federations across Canada.)
António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, in his 2019 Plan of Action to Combat Hate Speech, said that "[h]ate speech is a menace to democratic values, social stability and peace. As a matter of principle, the United Nations must confront hate speech at every turn. Silence can signal indifference to bigotry and intolerance, even as a situation escalates and the vulnerable become victims."
Incitement to hatred is prohibited under international treaties that Iran itself has ratified, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. [United Nations Plan of Action on Hate Speech]
The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) and Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) strongly condemn the increase in anti-Bahá'í propaganda disseminated by Iranian state-run media. A recent report by the Bahá'í Community of Canada found that "Iran's state-sponsored campaign of hatred against the Bahá''í Faith has been on the rise across all media platforms, including the web, social media, radio, newspapers, and television." On the 20th of July they issued a joint statement from Professor Irwin Cotler, Founder and International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Mr. Ali Ehsassi, Member of Parliament (House of Commons of Canada) and Mr. Anders Österberg, Member of the Swedish ParliamentFounding Member of PGA's Parliamentary Rapid Response Team (PARRT).
See the report entitled State-sponsored hate propaganda against Iranian Bahá'ís published by the Office of Public Affairs of the Bahá'í Community of Canada.
See a speech titled A Non-Governmental Perspective on the Relative Effectiveness of Multilateral and Bilateral Measures by Bani Dugal, the Principal Representative, United Nations Office, Bahá'í International Community given in Florence, Italy 9 April 2022. The talk was presented at a conference on Religion, Hateful Expression and Violence sponsored by the Centre for International Law Research and Policy.
See Erased in the Shadows: The Persecution of Iran's Bahá'ís by Sabrina Nelson dated 2 October 2024.
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