Engagement with wider society
Although the UK Bahá’í community is still relatively small in numbers, it is increasingly able to engage with society and has achieved an important degree of formal and informal recognition.
The Bahá’í community has been increasingly accepted by government and by non-governmental organisations as a legitimate voice in matters of public policy. Efforts at the national level by a number of Bahá’ís in the years after the Second World War began to build the capacity necessary for the community to engage increasingly with the wider society.
Relations with Government and Parliament
In recent years, these efforts are becoming increasingly professional. The Bahá’í community of the UK manages relations with government and parliamentarians, the media, and non-governmental organisations.
The National Assembly has a long-standing relationship with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, whose support for the Bahá’ís in Iran has been crucial. Relations with other government departments, such as the Home Office and the Department for Communities & Local Government, and statutory non-departmental bodies, such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission, have benefited from the increasing prominence of religion in the public sphere and from successive governments’ interest in consulting faith communities in the UK.
Public evidence of this was seen in the Millennium year. The Bahá’í community was one of the nine faith communities to play a significant part at an official celebration of the Millennium in the House of Lords on 3 January 2000. The Bahá’í Faith thereafter was accepted as one of nine major faith communities to be included in the government’s interactions with the voluntary, community and faith sector, its public policy consultations, and at State and Royal events.
All-Party Parliamentary Friends of the Bahá’ís
In 2000 an All-Party Parliamentary Friends of the Bahá’ís, an all-party group of MPs and Peers who wish to support efforts made to defend the rights of the Bahá’ís in Iran and who are sympathetic with Bahá’í principles, was established. The all-party group plays a crucial role in ensuring that the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran is raised in Early Day Motions, Parliamentary Questions and relevant debates.
London’s position as a global media hub, and the UK’s high profile in global diplomacy, has enabled the UK Bahá’í community to play a leading role in raising awareness, around the world, of the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran.
Public policy
Bahá’ís have played and continue to play significant roles – either directly as representatives of the Bahá’í community or indirectly through having leading roles in relevant professional or voluntary organisations – in a considerable numbers of areas of public life, including the advancement of women, human rights, social cohesion, and education, as well as climate change and the environment.
Involvement with the United Nations
UK Bahá’ís have, for many years, served on Bahá’í International Community delegations at a range of UN conferences and commissions, including the series of world summits that started with the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Some of the most notable work undertaken by British Bahá’ís in this context has been in the field of the advancement of women.
Gender equality
Some of the most notable work undertaken by British Bahá’ís in this context has been in the field of the advancement of women.
For many decades UK Bahá'í women – and, in recent years, men, young women and boys - have been delegates at sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women and at UN conferences and summits on the advancement of women, often representing the Bahá'í International Community. Two UK Bahá'í women served on the Bahá'í International Community delegation to the first UN Conference on Women, held in Mexico in June-July 1975, and a large number attended the Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
UK Bahá'ís have also highlighted the importance of women and girls at other UN conferences, such as at Habitat II in Istanbul in 1996 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.
Their contribution to these conferences has been significant, ranging from advocating Bahá'í concepts to governments and assisting in the drafting of content for outcome documents and declarations, to organising workshops and seminars and speaking on panels. UK Bahá'í women co-founded the UK National Committee for the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM-UK, now UN Women).
The UK Bahá'í community has long been involved in efforts to promote the advancement of women and has recently initiated a process in which individuals and groups come together to reflect on some of the critical issues that are being raised in the contemporary discourse on gender equality, within a framework that is inspired by Bahá’í principles. Central to this discourse is the study of a discussion paper entitled ‘Advancing Toward the Equality of Women and Men’, a document that invites dialogue and reflection on the ways in which gender equality is understood and advanced.
Inter-faith relations
One of the key contributions the UK Bahá’í community has made to life in Britain over the last century has been its dedication to the growing inter-faith movement.
The Bahá’í community was a founding member of the Inter-Faith Network for the UK, the Faith Based Regeneration Network, and the Multi Faith Group for Healthcare Chaplaincy. Individual Bahá’ís are also members of the World Congress of Faiths and are involved in activities at the St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace in the City of London. The Bahá’í community also works with inter-faith partners in local communities across the UK.