Honorable delegates and all our Buddhist brothers and sisters, we are indeed honored to be present at this historic occasion, the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace. Baha'i­s around the world send their warmest greetings to you all.

The Baha'i­ International Community, which consists of Baha'i­ communities in virtually every country and represents a cross-section of humanity consisting of more than 2,000 ethnic backgrounds in over 108,000 localities, with 152 elected national councils and membership of more than five million believers, lives by the principles and teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, the Founder of the Baha'i­ Faith. The aim of the Baha'i­ Faith is to achieve the unity of mankind and Universal Peace.

Our bond of friendship and understanding is not limited to just the subject of peace; it includes the spirit of utmost reverence for the Lord Buddha. Both His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh, whom we believe is the Manifestation of God for this age, and Lord Buddha were descendants of ancient kings and taught the path to the emancipation and the end of suffering for all mankind. To Baha'i­s, the Lord Buddha is not only a Divine Teacher, He was a Manifestation of Holiness, a Day-Spring of the Ancient Glory and a Manifestation of the Sun of Truth.

We join hands with you in raising the world-embracing vision of a Buddha land where all nations, races and creeds will come to love one another, and injustices, wars and discrimination will vanish. Instead, the peoples of the world with their varied cultures will cooperate together to improve their lives not only spiritually and intellectually, but also socially, economically and in the realms of science and arts.

It was in pursuit of this noble objective that the Universal House of Justice, the international governing council of the Baha'i­ Faith, launched a new initiative for peace to which Baha'i­ communities throughout the world responded with vigor and enthusiasm. "The Promise of World Peace," a statement issued by this august body, has been presented to many world leaders and numerous peace related activities have been organized around it. The hope is that through this process, the ideas, concepts and approaches contained in the statement will become part of our consciousness and that all our efforts for peace will take place with the confidence that world peace is not only possible, but inevitable.

However, we have a choice. Whether peace is to be reached only after unimaginable horrors precipitated by humanity's stubborn clinging to old patterns of behavior, or is to be embraced now by an act of consultative will, is the choice before all who inhabit the earth.

To the Baha'i­s, Spiritual Luminaries like the Lord Buddha and Bahá'u'lláh have always been the basic link between humanity and that Ultimate Reality Who has been the Source of achieving spiritual success, social order and progress. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, militant religious fanaticism and corruption have sadly undermined the spiritual values which are conducive to the unity of mankind. This tragedy is worsened by the already growing cynicism of increasing numbers of people about religion and the unrestrained glorification of material pursuits and man-made ideologies. Our greatest challenge, therefore, is to view in all humility and the utmost compassion this basic issue, that theological differences can be submerged for the nobler path of advancing the cause of world unity and world peace. Lord Buddha told us to transcend sectarian dogmatism (Sutta-Nipata) and He discouraged metaphysical questions (Majjhima-Nikaya).

The universal love and goodwill which the Lord Buddha and His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh have taught us must necessarily be evinced through greater efforts towards the cause of universal peace and the brotherhood of man.

The primary question to be resolved is how the present world, with its entrenched patterns of conflict, can change to world in which harmony and cooperation will prevail. World order can be founded only on an unshakable consciousness of the oneness of mankind. Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite for the organization and administration of the world as one country, the home of mankind. In the Baha'i­ view, recognition of the oneness of mankind "calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world - a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units." (Baha'i­ Writings)

This principle "does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of languages and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity." (Baha'i­ Writings)

Banning nuclear weapons, prohibiting the use of poison gases, or outlawing germ warfare will not remove the root causes of war. However important such practical measures obviously are as elements of peace, they are in themselves too superficial to exert enduring influence. People are ingenious enough to invent yet other forms of warfare, and to use food, raw materials, finance, industrial power, ideology, and terrorism to subvert one another in an endless quest for supremacy and dominion. Therefore, a genuine universal framework must be adopted. We believe that some of the barriers to world peace and the role that religions must play to develop this universal framework are as follows:

1. The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged prerequisites of peace. Only as women are welcomed into full partnership in all fields of human endeavor will the moral and psychological climate be created in which international peace can emerge. When women play a greater role in achievement of world peace, communities will give a higher priority to peace.
2. The inordinate disparity between rich and poor, a source of acute suffering, keeps the world in a state of instability, virtually on the brink of war. The solution calls for the combined application of spiritual, moral and practical approaches.
3. Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major barrier to peace. The promotion of racial equality based on the recognition of the oneness of mankind, implemented by appropriate legal measures, must be universally upheld if this problem is to be overcome.
4. Unbridled nationalism, as distinguished from a sane and legitimate patriotism, must give way to a wider loyalty, to the love of humanity as a whole. Love of all the world's people does not exclude love of one's own country. His Holiness Bahá'u'lláh has said that "the earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
5. Religious strife, throughout history, has been the cause of innumerable wars and conflicts, a major blight to progress, and is increasingly abhorrent to the people of all faiths and no faith. The challenge facing the religious leaders of mankind is to contemplate, with hearts filled with the spirit of compassion and a desire for truth, the plight of humanity, and to ask themselves whether they cannot, in humility before their Almighty Creator, submerge their theological differences in a great spirit of mutual forbearance that will enable them to work together for the advancement of human understanding and peace.
6. The cause of universal education deserves the utmost support. No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded to all its citizens. Consideration should also be given to teaching the concept of world citizenship as part of the standard education of every child.
7. A fundamental lack of communication between peoples seriously undermines efforts towards world peace. Adopting an international auxiliary language would go far to resolving this problem and necessitates the most urgent attention.

We hope you can join us in promoting these practical steps to achieve the common goal of universal peace in Buddhism and the Baha'i­ Faith.

I would like to close this presentation with a hymn from the Sutta-Nipata and verses from the Baha'i­ writings.

May creatures all abound in weal and peace; may all be blessed with peace always; all creatures weak or strong, all creatures great and small, creatures unseen or seen, dwelling afar or near, born or awaiting birth, may all be blessed with peace! - Sutta-Nipata

O Thou kind Lord! Unite all. Let the religions agree and make the nations one, so that they may see each other as one family and the whole earth as one home. May they all live together in perfect harmony. O God! Raise aloft the banner of the oneness of mankind. O God! Establish the Most Great Peace. - Baha'i­ Writings

The challenge of providing education for all calls for political determination at both national and international levels, and for a degree of international cooperation greatly surpassing achievements of the past. Already it is obvious that the enormous human and financial resources required to meet this challenge can be released only through profound changes in the organization of human affairs and the mobilization of ordinary people in communities all over the globe.

Baha'i­s see education in terms of the knowledge, qualities, skills, attitudes, and capacities that enable individuals to become conscious subjects of their own growth, and active, responsible participants in a systematic process of building a new world order. Ongoing education is at the very heart of any healthy Baha'i­ community. Successful community action requires the development of each person's capacity for intellectual investigation. Through community consultation, members learn to analyze social conditions and discover the forces that have caused them. In order to contribute to consultation on community problems and generate plans, each person must develop the ability to express ideas and listen carefully to others. A well-educated community member is a determined yet humble participant who helps overcome conflict and division, thereby contributing to a spirit of unity and collaboration.

The Baha'i­ International Community, comprising a cross-section of most of the world's ethnic, national, social, and cultural diversity, has for several decades devoted much of it's energy to the tasks of education. Its efforts have been directed not only towards intellectual development and training but also to the inculcation in its members of moral values appropriate to life in a rapidly changing social environment. Although it has not yet created a system of universal education, it feels encouraged by the progress of several decades of organized efforts. Moreover, it is convinced that the principles underlying its approach are applicable universally and can contribute to a global campaign to extend the benefits of education to the generality of mankind.

One principle is to encourage the initiation of educational endeavors at the grass roots, and then support and enrich them from other levels. The principle of universal participation reinforces this "bottom-up" approach and strongly influences methods used in teaching-learning situations. For example, sharp distinctions between teacher and student often disappear after students reach a certain age, so that an individual may be a trainee in one aspect of a program and a teacher in a parallel aspect, allowing educational endeavors to empower a vast pool of human resources for change. The student's attention is focused from the beginning on needs and aspirations of the local community, and curricula seek to develop those skills and capacities that render acts of service meaningful and effective.

Yet another set of principles has to do with organization, as the approach to education set forth in this document can bear fruit only if organizational channels capable of responding to the complex requirements of a worldwide educational endeavor are also in place. In the Baha'i­ community, these channels are constantly being created and perfected in the context of a more comprehensive plan for the development of an administrative order.

Although the importance Baha'i­s attribute to this administrative system transcends their concern for education, from the standpoint of education it may be depicted as a growing international network embracing more than 18,000 communities in 150 countries and independent territories around the world. The members of each local and national community annually elect a governing council which consults with the community, plans and implements activities, collects and disburses funds, and reports developments and achievements to its constituency. Decisions are arrived at through consultation within and between communities and administrative bodies. Suggestions and proposals, whether formulated by individuals or arising in the process of community consultation, are considered, reviewed, and often adopted by the elected governing councils.

Parallel to this elected branch, appointed boards of knowledgeable individuals function at all levels in an advisory capacity. At the international level, both the appointed boards and the elected councils are guided by a governing body which coordinates the development of the worldwide Baha'i­ community. This administrative structure serves to coordinate the initiatives of sincere and determined individuals and groups who have accepted to follow its common direction and abide by its rules.

The financial needs of the educational services of this system are met through the voluntary contributions and services of community members. There are strong recommendations in the Baha'i­ writings to allocate a portion of one's income, and to bequeath a part of one's estate, to the education of children. As far as conditions permit, those who render service do so with no expectation of remuneration, which, when necessary, is almost always for direct delivery of educational services. The voluntary work of the members of councils and committees reduces administrative costs to a bare minimum. Volunteerism is reinforced by consistent emphasis on sincerity, humility, and a spirit of disinterested service as indispensable prerequisites for the functioning of this administrative order. These are simply examples of principles guiding the organization of Baha'i­ education efforts, a detailed discussion of which is beyond the scope of this document.

The Baha'i­ International Community wishes to share its heartfelt assurance that, despite difficulties, it is possible to create networks of organizations which foster local initiative while benefiting from national and international coordination of resources. Within such networks, people from all walks of life can join forces, and communities from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds can become partners of equal voice in a common enterprise to build a new world order. Through these organizations the real resources of the world, which are its people, wherever they come from, whatever their circumstances, can be mobilized to educate and be educated, to overcome all obstacles and to create new conditions for human existence. The Baha'i­ International Community is convinced that a global effort towards the goal of education for all will require a creative approach to the mobilization of human resources, at the same time that it elicits political will and financial resources from the governments of the world and opens new channels for effective international cooperation.

The ability to read has been recognized as a fundamental human right in the Baha'i­ teachings since Bahá'u'lláh proclaimed his message of universal peace and brotherhood to the peoples of the world in the late nineteenth century. In this view, basic education should be universal and compulsory, boys and girls should follow the same curriculum and, if circumstances make it impossible for a family to educate both a boy and a girl child, the girl's education takes precedence.

These concepts were first applied by Baha'i­ communities in Iran. During the early years of this century, when no systematic overall plan of education existed in that country, Baha'i­s organized a widespread educational program for children, youth and adults. This effort resulted in major self-improvement among the Iranian Baha'i­s, including a remarkable level of literacy among both men and women. By the early 1970s, virtually all Baha'i­ women aged less than forty in Iran could read and write.

According to the Baha'i­ model of social and economic development, the driving force for literacy and other change-inducing activities emanates primarily from the natural stirrings at the grass roots. Desires for self-improvement are voiced through community consultations and take shape as plans in the deliberations of the local governing council. Plans are usually carried out by voluntary efforts of individuals. National governing councils nurture this process by alerting local communities to needs and resources, and by guiding and coordinating the resulting activities. Since 1983 the number of Baha'i­ development projects, most of which are small-scale basic education activities in developing countries, has increased from approximately 200 to over 1,400.

In 1989 the Universal House of Justice, the international Baha'i­ governing body, called upon each national and local Baha'i­ council (a network of 151 national and territorial and more than 18,000 local consultative bodies) to support International Literacy Year and address the objective of eliminating illiteracy from the worldwide Baha'i­ community. The Baha'i­ International Community has responded to this call by disseminating information on how Baha'i­ communities can become involved in International Literacy Year activities. At the Baha'i­ World Centre, agencies which monitor and support existing Baha'i­ literacy programmes are expanding their capacity to respond to requests for advice that will naturally accompany these greatly expanded literacy efforts.

Literacy efforts which grow out of a genuine grass roots yearning and respond to local needs have a remarkable power to transform communities. As examples, Baha'i­ literacy programmes in northeastern Zaire and among the Guaymi people in Panama merit special attention.

In northeastern Zaire, approximately 100 Baha'i­ learning centers, providing basic education for children, youth and adults, have been established during the past decade or so. Since malnutrition was a serious problem, Baha'i­ educators developed a literacy programme which included nutrition-related generating words to teach reading and stimulate animated discussion of village life, including possibilities for constructive social change. This approach has been used successfully and has led to the initiation of health agriculture and other projects.

In Panama, a group of Guaymi Baha'i­s have been trained to teach literacy in the native language of the Guaymi people, as part of a wider effort to preserve the language and culture of their people. In a remarkable collaborative effort, literacy instructors from the Ministry of Education, who had been impressed with the dedication and positive spirit of the Guaymi trainees, helped to develop a Guaymi language literacy curriculum which uses uplifting, empowering themes drawn from the Baha'i­ teachings in order to promote personal growth and social change. Volunteer Baha'i­ literacy instructors are now teaching the Guaymi language in many communities.

As new literacy curricula and approaches are developed by Baha'i­ educators and institutions, they will be shared with Baha'i­s and others throughout the world as appropriate. Through a vast expansion of present literacy activities sponsored by local and national Baha'i­ councils and through an ongoing dialogue with governmental agencies and other non-governmental organizations, the Baha'i­ International Community intends to make a significant contribution to the worldwide effort to forever banish illiteracy from the face of the planet.

The right to development is an essential recognition of an age-old attempt to fulfill the uniqueness in man. It is a formal realization of the fact that if mankind is to abide by the conventions that guarantee a safe existence it must be given the opportunity to develop within itself the characteristics that will ensure the upholding of these commitments. Man must be allowed to foster the part of him that transcends race, religion, language and gender, and so to focus on his essence. It is, thus, a call to the spiritual.

In this sense, the Convention on the Right to Development represents a much-needed attempt to restore to large sections of the world's population the dignity that is their birthright. We should recall to mind the sentiments espoused by the Convention on the Rights of the Child that the right-to development should not be granted at a price, that a child must have the right to grow and develop "in conditions of freedom and dignity." In light of this, the Baha'i International Community fully concurs with the conclusions presented in the Report of the "Global Consultation on the Realization of the Right to Development" (E/CN.4/1990/9) and commends the excellent work it has done.

For those in a position to effect such a recognition of the freedoms and rights of oppressed minorities and maltreated citizens, the challenge is largely to raise the consciousness of the equality of all mankind to the level of principle. It is to ensure that the standard of human rights, including as an essential prerequisite the right to development, will not suffer at the hands of compromise and self-interest. It is not sufficient merely to accept the contraction of the world into an interdependent entity; it should be our foremost consideration, when dealing with the issues raised by the right to development, to commit ourselves to the fundamental belief that humanity must be united in its consciousness of a global society and to remain steadfast in this belief.

If this belief is to be the lodestone of our thinking, then we must, of course, consider the right to development as a freedom that is as much a gift to future generations as it is a cause in ours. If this eternal sense of human rights is to remain free from the manipulation of expediency and parochial attitudes, it must assume an origin beyond and above political or economic ideologies. For Baha'is, the right to development is a spiritual bounty and, in this sense, is not a man-made convention that has arisen from circumstance.

With this backbone of belief, we may call to mind a few of the problems that beset human progress and, thus, the cause of development. Let us consider one such shameful state of affairs: the role of women. It is something of an axiom to say that the emancipation of women is vital to the full realization of the universal right to development. As one Baha'i text puts it:

"The denial of such equality perpetrates an injustice against one half of the world's population and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the family to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately to international relations."

In developing countries, but, of course, not in these countries alone, women remain the beasts of burden. It is they who must bear the children, grow the food, care for the home, travel to the market, obtain the fuel, carry the water, and then serve their men. This hugely unjust expectation of the female population also denies them the right of participating at the decision-making level and so in promoting actively the cause of human rights in their locality, for they have neither the time nor the energy. What we must attempt is a conversion of this source of inequality into a spring of positive energy. One way of approaching this is to recognize the rootedness of women in the basic survival processes of society and to channel such experience into the development of rural, and urban, societies. This implies female participation at all levels of development, whether it be in the home, at work, in administration, or in leisure. Moreover, if the benefits of such knowledge are to be most effectively diffused throughout society, then the appropriate authorities would do well to consider giving first priority to the education of women and girls, not just as a priority over the education of men, but as a priority among the general concerns of their domestic policy.

The field of education itself should give reason to pause for thought. The ideal to which we must aspire is surely a level of universal education -- as advocated in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- for, as one Baha'i text puts it:

"... ignorance is indisputably the principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples and the perpetuation of prejudice."

Indeed, childhood represents a period of man's greatest malleability, a time when values can be discovered and instilled. And it is thus towards education that resources must be directed. It is often in education that the diseases of racism, of unbridled nationalism, of unjustifiable sexual inequality find their parent and their legitimacy. Thus, we must urge any country that will be the recipient of international aid derived from arms reductions to channel this resource into a proper elementary and secondary system of education.

Its working curriculum must surely involve at every level the consciousness of a global civilization. Only then is a child enlightened on the duty that is his as part of the world's population. As the Convention on the Rights of the Child concludes: "... his energy and talents should be devoted to the service of his fellow men." Knowledge is not enough. Deeds must articulate our belief in development, otherwise this culture of human rights, so often referred to, will remain a mere symbol of our age and not present itself as a process of change. But knowledge has its place. Indeed, it is equally important that children be made aware that they possess a right to development. Only through such self-knowledge may a child be guided to the path of self-development and aspire to the nobility that is the distinction of his race.

It is a good thing that many schools do provide the study of the contemporary world, including the various cultures, religions, and racial backgrounds that populate the earth. However, this may only feed the mind, when it is the human spirit that must be fulfilled. Our attachment to the world beyond our country's borders should not be an academic one, but should reveal to us the common bounty we share as the inheritors of a global civilization. Geography must no longer be the study of division but of diversity. History should be witnessed as the heritage of humanity and not the legacy of heroes. It is, very simply, a question of attitude. With this in mind can we offer our children the freedom to investigate the world and, more importantly perhaps, encourage the will to do so. Let us hope that this will to investigate might forge the will to action in service to humanity.

An integral part of the development process, as recognized by the Convention on the Right to Development, is for the human being to be at the center of this process. This being our standard, we should make efforts to emphasize the attributes of the human being rather than the attributes of the office held within the decision-making agencies. This is vital to the creation of a culture of compassion and consultation, of developing the immanent human capacities needed for the respectful exchange of ideas. This is what Baha'is regard as the new culture of human rights. Indeed, that what is meant by man being the center of development is the development of the center of what makes man: that is, his virtues. In this process, full and impartial consultation is a system of discussion that engenders feelings of the unity of human association through the very act of participation and so is vital at all levels of decision-making.

Thus, development means developing together. In fact it implies that development cannot be anything other than a reciprocal responsibility: that to allow development in the world around us we must first develop the world within us, but by the same token, development implies harnessing the best in the self by harnessing the best in others. This is not the simple call of ethics, but the lasting proof of the essential oneness of humankind.