Welcome to the Winter 2002-2003 issue of UK Bahá’í Review, which puts the spotlight on sustainable development.

In this issue, you will find an abbreviated version of the statement submitted by the Bahá’í International Community to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in Johannesburg in September.

The statement identifies the need to address the spiritual dimensions of sustainability.

The importance, for example of educating girl children—a long-standing objective of the United Nations—requires a recognition of the equality of men and women, in both their intellectual and spiritual capacities as professionals and parents.

Caring for our environment, too, is a spiritual as well as a material obligation. We do sometimes seem intent on undermining the very means of our long-term survival. No matter what our best intentions are, it is only too easy, for example, to lapse back into driving a car, using more water than we need, or buying over-packaged products.

Recognition of human oneness is a central teaching of the Bahá'í Faith which could help governments escape the trap of negotiating simply in the national interest at the expense of global well-being.

And an understanding that our true humanity is based not on what we own and consume but on our relationship to the Divine has become less of an appeal to idealism and more of a demand for realism. Bahá'ís maintain that achieving sustainable development rests firmly on the acknowledgment that we are all in the quest for a prosperous life for ourselves, and our descendants, together, regardless of our nationality or faith.

Such an acknowledgment would allow governments to base their work on the knowledge that representing the interests of each part of humankind is best served by working for the interests of the whole planet.

Barnabas Leith,
Secretary General,
Bahá’í Community of the UK