Members of the UNmute Civil Society Coalition, including the governments of Denmark and Costa Rica, held an online and in-person discussion at the Baha’i International Community’s (BIC) offices in New York as a side event to this year’s United Nations (UN) General Assembly.
Journalists from Ghana, Malaysia, and the United States discussed a range of themes related to their field in an event hosted by the Baha’i International Community (BIC) entitled “The Media, the Narrative, the People & their Leaders.”
“The media can play a positive role in creating consensus, building unity, generating knowledge and shared understandings,” noted Saleem Vaillancourt, who moderated the event on behalf of the BIC. “In doing so, it can help people solve real problems.”
The intention to “leave no one behind” is one of the moral strengths of the international community, seeking to right instances of indifference and exclusion, past and present. The majority of those who invoke it do so with sincerity. Yet even the best-intentioned actors are constrained by contradictions inherent in the international order today—perhaps none more consequential than assumptions about the role of self-interest and competition in shaping policy and action.
“There is no better question than that of how we live together in mixed neighborhoods.’' With these words, Member of the European Parliament (EP) Dr. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, Co-President of the EP’s Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI) opened the event Co-Creating Neighbourhoods for Encounter and Belonging. More than 110 participants from across Europe came together for a dynamic exchange on how urban design in highly diverse neighbourhoods can contribute to social change at the local level.
The Baha’i International Community (BIC) Addis Ababa Office joined a range of non-governmental organizations across Ethiopia and the continent of Africa more broadly in issuing a statement marking World Environment Day.
“Ensuring a vibrant and flourishing natural world is of central importance to the well-being of peoples and communities across Africa,” noted Solomon Belay, a BIC representative in Addis Ababa Office.
Imagine the perfect leader, with impeccable motives and the brilliant plan needed to save humanity. What prevents her or his intentions from coming to fruition?
“Political will,” specifically its absence, would be the answer offered in many United Nations circles. Few assertions elicit more head-nodding in meetings about current affairs. The term functions as both a diagnosis and a shorthand for problems ranging from the inertia of bureaucracies and self-interest of politicians, to the brevity of election cycles and constraints of funding arrangements.
“We have to remember that our food security depends on the respect of our agri-food workers’ rights,” said Maximo Torero Cullen, the FAO’s Chief Economist, at a webinar co-hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Brussels Office of the Baha’i International Community (BIC) on 2 June. “The pandemic has shown us how indispensable migrants are… but it has also rightfully put the spotlight on the poor working and living conditions in the [agricultural] sector and the invisibility of these workers.”
“Migration is a symptom and not a cause” stated Dr. Ahmed Zanya Bugre, Sspecial Adadvisor on migration to the African Union Commission, at an online event hosted by the BIC Addis Ababa and Brussels offices on 5 May. More than 40 participants involved in the fields of agriculture and migration across Africa joined the event, which aimed to explore African experiences of the links between rural livelihoods and drivers of migration.
“When we think about human dynamics in any societal context, there are often spoken or unspoken values that govern the nature of our relationships. These values are informed by underlying assumptions about human reality. For a peace mediation process to be transformative, the assumptions that inform the process need to be inclusive and foster cohesive and just relationships,” said Naghmeh Sobhani.
The Baha’i International Community partnered with the United Arab Emirates and the NGO Committee on Social Development today to host an online event entitled “Artificial Intelligence: Ethical Dimensions of the Virtual World”.
