От: Nancy Ackerman [ackerman@online.ru]
Отправлено: 28 августа 2000 г. 23:42
Кому: Vladimir Chupin
Тема: Promised "bits and pieces" for the Information kit

August 27, 2000

Dear Vovchick:
	Here (in the body of this email message) are the several "bits and pieces"
that I promised (threatened?) to send you and which need to be well
translated for the revised information kit.
	As with the history section that I troubled you with, we are now trying to
incorporate some of these rather more sophisticated ways of presenting the
Faith that are in the Web-site into the various parts of our kit. However, I
have done all the work of editing and integration already and you need only
to translate what it here.
	Please note that the comments in brackets at the end of each section are
for me only. They are just reminders of where the bits have to go in our
documents.
	The attached little essay from the Web-site (about the UN Human Rights
Decade) I am sending, with the request that, if possible, you translate it
as a whole piece after these bits are finished.
	I have two more short pieces (on social and economic development and moral
development), about 1/2 a page each, coming tomorrow.
	There is, in total, somewhat more than I indicated at the beginning.
Perhaps about 4 pages in all (not including the attachment). Do you think
you can do them in about a week?
	The Committee is deeply grateful for your assistance in this important
project. When the kit is finished - hopefully in two weeks, it will be
"launched" at the upcoming public affairs training seminar in Krasnodar and
then incorporated into "Project-Info", in which, as you are already aware,
the kit, along with the book Novaya Mirovaya Religiya will be send to all
heads of university faculties of religious studies across the country! That
process should be complete by December sometime.

Love
Nancy

______________________________________________
1. The Revelation proclaimed by Baha'u'llah, His followers believe, is
divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, broad in its outlook, scientific
in its method, humanitarian in its principles and dynamic in the influence
it exerts on the hearts and minds of men. (Teachings)

2. The worldwide Baha'i community may well be the most diverse and
widespread body of people on earth. It is also among the world's most
unified organizations, a feature that is perhaps its most distinguishing
characteristic. (Korotko, p.1)

3. Baha'is the world over come from all religious backgrounds: Buddhist,
Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jew, Muslim, Sikh, Zoroastrian, animist, and
non-religious. Yet they study a common set of sacred writings, observe a
unifying code of religious laws, and look to a single international
administrative system for continuing guidance. (Relationship to other
religions)

4. The Baha'i Faith teaches that true religion promotes unity, and that
unity is the fundamental prerequisite for the achievement of global peace.
"The well-being of mankind," Baha'u'llah said, "its peace and security, are
unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established." (BIC and UN)

5. Among the measures which the Baha'i community advocates as contributions
to world unity are a federation of nations, an international auxiliary
language, the coordination of the world's economy, a universal system of
education, a code of human rights for all peoples, an integrated mechanism
for global communication, and a universal system of currency, weights and
measures. (")

6. Believing that the United Nations represents a major effort in the
unification of the planet, Baha'is have supported its work in every way
possible. The Baha'i International Community is accredited with consultative
status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and with
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The Community's offices in New
York and Geneva and Baha'is in many lands regularly participate in
conferences, congresses and seminars concerned with the socio-economic life
of our planet. (")

7. The sufferings which their own fellow believers have experienced as
victims of religious persecution have particularly sensitized Baha'is to
Baha'u'llah's teachings on human rights. The Baha'i International Community
participates                   actively in United Nations consultations
dealing with minority rights, the status of women, crime prevention, the
control of narcotic drugs, the welfare of children and the family, and the
movement toward disarmament. (Human Rights)

8. Representatives of the Baha'i International Community have sought to
present the Baha'i experience to the United Nations by participating fully
in UN conferences. Baha'i delegations have participated in most of the major
United Nations conferences in the last 30 years, but the presence and impact
of Baha'i delegations has been particularly pronounced at the series of
global issues conferences sponsored by the United Nations in the 1990's.
(BIC and UN)

9. At the 1990 Children's Summit in New York, for example, Baha'is played a
key role among non-governmental organizations in promoting the concept of
rights for children. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Baha'i
delegation was extremely active in the Global Forum, promoting a holistic
approach in negotiations on the Earth Charter; as well, it was the only
religious nongovernmental organization to make a statement to the Summit's
plenary session. In the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, Baha'i
representatives highlighted the importance of recognizing the universal
nature of human rights. In 1995, at the Social Summit in Copenhagen, the
Baha'i delegation focused on concepts of world citizenship and global
prosperity as a means of suggesting how the Conference's main concerns about
social integration and the alleviation of poverty could be creatively
addressed. And at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, more
than 500 Baha'is from around the world participated in the NGO Forum on
Women, reflecting the great interest of Baha'is on this issue, while
official Baha'i International Community representatives worked at the
government Conference to promote the understanding that the attitudes of men
must also be addressed and changed if women's advancement is to proceed.
(BIC and UN)

10.  (Quote already translated from Peace Statement, #90 in Women's
compilation "The emancipation of women, the achievement of full
equality...")
This position, taken from a statement on peace written by the Universal
House of Justice in 1985, reiterates the teaching of Baha'u'llah that
society must reorganize its life to give practical expression to the
principle of equality between women and men. Since its inception nearly one
hundred and fifty years ago, the Baha'i Faith has taught the equality of the
sexes, the only independent world religion whose Founder has stated
unequivocally that women and men are equal.

11. In accordance with this teaching, the worldwide Baha'i community has
been at the forefront of the movement to advance the rights of women for
more than a century. The Baha'i approach advocates full equality and a firm
sense of partnership between women and men, reflects the understanding that
the values which women bring to human interaction are necessary to the
proper functioning and advancement of modern society, and that qualities
that have formerly been associated with the feminine sides of our
natures--such as compassion, nurturing, cooperation and empathy--will be
increasingly important in creating a peaceful, just, and sustainable world
civilization. Baha'i institutions around the world promote various
educational efforts for women, and work to raise the consciousness of both
women and men about this fundamental equality. Many of its schools, learning
centers, and grassroots social and economic development projects
specifically incorporate the promotion of women's advancement in their
curricula or agendas. In its statements the Baha'i International Community
also addresses the importance of the education of girls and of elevating the
status of women as mothers, the elimination of violence against women,
partnership between women and men and the relevance of women's participation
in decision-making processes at local, national and international levels to
the establishment of world peace.


12. The response of Baha'is to this persecution provides a glimpse into the
community's spiritual reserves. In June 1983, when the persecution was
reaching its peak, the Iranian authorities paraded the entire national
leadership of the Tudeh (communist) Party on national television. The
prisoners willingly confessed to every crime charged against them, and
begged for their lives. During that same eventful month ten Baha'i women and
girls were subject to similar physical and mental abuse in an effort to
coerce them to recant their Faith. Their persecutors did not dare to put
them on television because these brutalities produced not a vestige of
compliance. (Persecution of Baha'is in Iran)

13. Since the founding of the United Nations, understanding has grown that
the recognition and protection of human rights at the international level
plays a fundamental role in the promotion of peace, democracy, social
progress and economic prosperity. The International Bill of Rights (which
includes the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" of 1948, along with the
two Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Social, Economic and
Cultural Rights which were adopted later, as well as some 75 other
conventions dealing with the rights of women and children, the right to
freedom of worship and development eloquently testify to the increasing
maturation of humanity. For, as recognized in 1993 at the World Conference
on Human Rights in Vienna, human rights are now seen as universal,
indivisible and interdependent and stem from our underlying sense of oneness
and the recognition that we are all parts of an interrelated whole. Baha'is
view the international human rights movement,  reflecting as it does the
increasing integration and interdependence of nations, cultures and
previously isolated peoples, as a pre-condition for future human progress.
Indeed, Baha'is understand that, in essence, human rights are God-given
rights.
	It is now increasingly recognized that human rights must be applied
irrespective of differences of racial, ethnic, religious or national
identity and that they encompass the equality of women and men and the
rights of all individuals to freedom of investigation, information and
religious practice. They also include the right to basic necessities such as
food, shelter, and health care, since it is now obvious to most people that
the benefits of education, medicine, science and technology and of
agricultural produce, that is, the fruits of civilization, are the
birthright of all.
	For the worldwide Baha'i community, activities in relation to international
human rights emphasize the promotion of the concept of universal human
rights in general. The Baha'i International Community participates actively
at key United Nations conferences and meetings on human rights, such as the
Children's Summit of 1990, the Vienna Human Rights Conference of 1993, the
Beijing Women's Conference and many others, helping both to organize these
gatherings and also making their own unique contribution in the form of
service on NGO committees, the preparation of working papers, communication,
etc.
	At the local and national levels, Baha'is promote these ideas both through
the dissemination of basic Baha'i teachings which themselves reflect and
support these concepts, through the growth of the Baha'i communities which
provide a growing model of their application in action, and through
collaborative programs to encourage human rights education in the wider
society.
	Since 1979, the systematic persecution of Baha'is by the Iranian government
has also been a major focus of Baha'i activity in the realm of human rights
as Baha'is around the world have sought to make use of existing
international human rights instruments, through the United Nations, to
mitigate the plight of their co-religionists. In response to international
condemnation, the most violent aspects of this persecution had abated by the
early 1990s -- although unequivocal evidence of a centrally orchestrated
governmental campaign against the Baha'i community came to light in 1993.
International efforts to ensure the basic human rights of the Iranian
Baha'is continue. The successes so far in ameliorating what would otherwise
have surely been the wholesale genocide of the Baha'i community in Iran
offers an important model for protecting minorities populations in general.
(See separate sheet.) (Human Rights)
