Groups and individuals around the world this month have been commemorating the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which occurred on 10 December 1948. The United Nations has designated the anniversary each year as Human Rights Day.

Last week the Baha’i International Community was one of 11 faith groups whose representatives gathered at an international interreligious conference at The Hague to sign the 2008 Faith in Human Rights Statement. The event was organized by Justitia et Pax Netherlands in cooperation with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For each of the signatories, the document represents a commitment to support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms both within and outside their faith community. Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations, signed on behalf of the Baha’is.

The document states, “While representing different faith traditions, we come together in unity to stress that religion has been a primary source of inspiration for human rights as our sacred writings and teachings clearly show.”

Organizers said the conference marked the first time that major world religions have jointly emphasized the importance of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was on hand for the signing of the document, which occurred on 10 December.

In New York, in a separate event to mark the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Baha'i International Community sponsored a seminar on 8 December on "Freedom of Religion or Belief: Perspectives and Challenges after Sixty Years of United Nations Protection."

Speakers included Felice Gaera of the Jacob Blaustein Institute who serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; Azza Karam of the United Nations Population Fund; Cole Durham of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University; and Malcolm Evans of the University of Bristol School of Law.

Ms. Dugal, the Baha’i representative, welcomed the participants and discussed why religious freedom is so important – both to Baha'is and others.

“More than one-half of the world's population lives under regimes that severely restrict or prohibit the freedom of their citizens to study, believe, observe, and freely practice the religious faith of their choice,” she said.

“The freedom to change one's religion or belief has not been expressed with such clarity in any international instrument since the Declaration,” she stated.

She also noted that the Baha'i International Community is “well-acquainted” with persecution based on religion. “The enduring and systemic persecution of the Baha'i community in Iran, which has continued with varying degrees of intensity over the last 150 years, has manifested in a variety of ways,” she said.

The goal, she continued, should be “to create the conditions, legal, economic, political, social and spiritual, which allow human potential to emerge and flourish – that very potential which has continually driven forward human civilization, by seeking out new avenues of knowledge and refining human relationships and the organization of human society.”