It is not advisable for Bahá’í institutions or individuals
to initiate actions designed to prod government leaders to urge their
government or the leaders of other governments to convene the world conference
called for by Bahá’u’lláh and echoed in The Promise of World Peace. Two points
should be borne in mind in this regard: (1) Because of the political gravity of
the decisions implied by this call and the differing political attitudes which
it evokes, such actions on the part of the Bahá’í community would embroil the
friends in partisan politics. There is quite a difference between identifying,
as does the Peace Statement, the need for a convocation of world leaders and
initiating the political processes towards its realization. (2) In the writings
of the Faith (e.g., the closing passages of The Promised Day Is Come), it is
clear that the establishment of the Lesser Peace, of which the conference of
leaders will be a related event, will come about independently of any Bahá’í
plan or action. This is not to say that Bahá’ís should be inert. Indeed,
Bahá’ís may promote the concept of the Lesser Peace with all that it implies
without engaging in the political processes which its realization will require.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 10 March 1987 written on
behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer; ‘Messages
from the Universal House of Justice 1986-2001’)
