Perspectives
More viewpoints on current issues

Perspective: Some thoughts on elections

The rise of democracy and democratic processes worldwide is a positive trend. Over the last decade, an increasing number of countries have adopted systems involving free elections, representational governance, and strong human rights standards. At the same time, achieving and maintaining good governance remains a challenge - even for nations with a history of democratic processes. (OC12.4 / January-March 2001)

Perspective: Science, Religion and Development: Some Initial Considerations

Over the past several decades workers in the development field have gradually become aware of the many interrelated factors underlying social and economic advancement. Yet, despite this growing understanding, it is apparent that a complex but vital set of issues concerning human nature needs to be incorporated into development thinking. (OC12.3 / October-December 2000)

Perspective: Signs of Hope for the New Millennium

At the United Nations in September, world leaders met in their largest gathering ever and signed a values-based Declaration upholding the primacy of peace, justice, equality and human dignity. This was an historic event and a sign of great hope for the world. (OC 12.2 / July-August 2000)

Perspective: Linking Rights with Development

The trend toward the cross-linking of issue areas and policy agendas is increasingly accepted and necessary in today's interdependent world as leaders search for creative solutions to complex global problems. Among the most potentially fruitful of such cross-connections is the convergence of human rights and development. (OC 12.1 / April-June 2000)

Perspective: Religion and the advancement of women

The system of values embodied in the Bahá'í Faith is giving rise to the development of a vibrant worldwide community which is committed to promoting the emancipation and advancement of women. The approach which has been adopted is conscious and evolutionary.(OC 11.4 / January-March 2000)

Perspective: The invisible new movement

For thousands of years, religious differences were more often the cause of war than peace. It is remarkable, then, that religious leaders at the highest levels have begun not only to meet and "dialogue," but have managed to produce consensus documents that set out common positions on significant social, economic and moral issues. (OC 11.3 / October-December 2000)

Perspective: The Need for an International Force

Recent world events suggest the time has come to reexamine the original vision of the UN's founders and discuss the ways and means by which a ready international force might be assembled and made a credible instrument of international conscience.

Writing our common future

The unification of the earth's inhabitants is neither a remote utopian vision nor, ultimately, a matter of choice. It constitutes the next, inescapable stage in the process of social evolution, a stage toward which all the experience of past and present is impelling us. Until this issue is acknowledged and addressed, none of the ills afflicting our planet will find solutions, because all the essential challenges of the age we have entered are global and universal, not particular or regional. (April-June 1999 / OC 11.1)

One world, one currency

A single currency would in some respects be like a world language, improving communications around the globe. It would eliminate the present problems of speculation, instability and uncertainty and would provide a strong foundation for the growing world economy. It would reduce a significant cost and risk of doing business internationally. (January-March 1999 / OC 10.4)

x The Hague Centenary: towards a culture of peace

The upcoming centennial celebration of the First Hague Peace Conference, scheduled for May 1999, promises to be a significant milestone in the further development of humanity’s collective identity. (October-December 1998 / OC 10.3)

New Age, New Morals, New Leaders

The new paradigm for leadership means that leaders today must be chiefly concerned with giving service to their community -- rather than advancing their own ideas, careers or sense of privilege. (July-September 1998 / OC 10.2)

The Spiritual Foundation of Human Rights

Human rights are essentially a codification of mainly spiritual laws which are themselves the cumulative achievement of the world’s religious traditions. (April-June 1998 / OC 10.1)

Spirituality in Development

Development, in the Bahá'í view, is an organic process in which "the spiritual is expressed and carried out in the material." In our increasingly interdependent world, development efforts must be animated by universal values and guided by a vision of world community. (January-March 1998 / OC 9.4)

A litmus test for Iran

In recent statements, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran has talked of humanity's entry into a "new century of humanity, understanding, and durable peace." (October-December 1997 / OC 9.3)

The Exigences of Globalization

Currently in international circles there is a great debate over globalization and whether it is a force for good or bad. That statement oversimplifies the matter, of course. But the issue of globalization and our collective response to it promises to define who prospers and who does not well into the 21st century. (July-September 1997 / OC 9.2)

The Imperative for Moral Education

The case for moral education is made most starkly by asking: Would this century's notorious death camps and campaigns of ethnic or racial purging have occurred if the world's population had achieved a higher level of moral development? (April-June 1997 / OC 9.1)

The Rise of Civil Society

It is perhaps the most significant social phenomenon of our time: the sudden efflorescence of countless movements and organizations of social change at local, regional, and international levels. And it is changing the way international issues are understood and dealt with. (January-March 1997 / OC 8.4)

Microfinance: a powerful tool for social transformation

In the search for practical measures to alleviate poverty and its debilitating impact on humanity and the planet, the microfinance movement offers a set of powerful tools in the service of social and economic development. (October-December 1996 / OC 8.3)

The Importance of Agriculture

Civilization began with agriculture. When our nomadic ancestors began to settle and grow their own food, human society was forever changed. Not only did villages, towns and cities begin to flourish, but so did knowledge, the arts and the technological sciences. (July-September 1996 / OC82)

Sustainable Communities in an Integrating World

With the approaching dawn of the 21st century, governments, organizations and peoples are expending enormous energies to develop communities that are socially vibrant, united and prosperous. (April-June 1996 / OC 8.1)

Creating sustainable communities

Throughout history, urbanization has been associated with human progress. Humanity's coming together in villages, towns and cities has fostered social, economic and cultural development. Many of our greatest religious, political, educational and scientific institutions have been established in metropolitan areas. In short, to borrow a phrase from the Habitat II agenda, cities have been the "incubators of civilization." (January-March 1996 / OC 7.4)

Science, religion and the strategy for global development

The tasks entailed in the development of a global society call for levels of capacity far beyond anything the human race has so far been able to muster. Reaching these levels will require an enormous expansion in access to knowledge, on the part of individuals and social organizations alike. (October-December 1995 / OC 7.3)

Turning Point for All Nations

A statement of the Bahá'í International Communtiy for the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations suggests concrete steps to forge a New World Order.

x Women and Peace

-- When the history of how humanity finally achieved lasting peace and global prosperity is ultimately written, it is quite likely that scholars will pinpoint the decade of the 1990s as among the most fruitful periods in laying the foundations for such a new world. (April-June 1995 / OC 7.1)