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Documents from the
Universal House of Justice
and the Bahá'í International Community


Jump to:
  •   Letters regarding the "Plans"
  •   Official documents
  •   Ridvan messages
  •   Books by or on behalf of the House
  •   Significant statements by the House
  •   Statements from the BIC
  •     see also Study Guides to the Bahá'í Writings

    • Items in this index are letters and statements from the Universal House of Justice and the Bahá'í International Community that have been widely distributed or published. Personal letters from the House to individuals can be found at Letters from the Universal House of Justice. (Overlap exists; consult the "unpublished" directory if you can't find what you're looking for here.)

    Letters regarding the "Plans"

    1. 1986-92 (Six-Year Plan), text-only
    2. 1992-95 (Three-Year Plan)
    3. 1995-99 (Four-Year Plan), message to Bahá'ís of the World
    4. 1995-99 (Four-Year Plan), message to the Continental Board of Counsellors
    5. 2000: "One-Year Plan" Intro Letter
    6. 2001-2006 Five-Year Plan — see Published Letters from National Spiritual Assemblies

    Ridvan letters

    1. Complete index to the Ridvan letters

    Official documents

    1. Constitution of the Universal House of Justice

    Books by or on behalf of the Universal House of Justice

    1. Century of Light, published in 2001, surveys the history and change of the Twentieth Century and the Bahá'í Faith's concurrent emergence from obscurity, "demonstrating on a global scale the unifying power with which its Divine origin has endowed it."

    2. Ministry of the Custodians: An Account of the Stewardship of the Hands of the Cause (Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre, 1992) covers the period 1957-1963. not fully formatted; please email to help

    3. Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-86, comp. Geoffrey Marks (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1996). Can also be downloaded in Microsoft Word .doc format, zipped or unformatted text. not proofread; email to help

    4. Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1968-73 (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1976).

    5. Wellspring of Guidance: Messages of the Universal House of Justice 1963-68 (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1969).

    6. Wider Horizon, A: Selected Messages of the Universal House of Justice 1983-1992, comp. Paul Lample (Riviera Beach: Palabra Publications, 1992).

    Statements from the Universal House of Justice
          see also unpublished letters from the House
    1. Attainment of the Unity of Nations and the Lesser Peace, sent to all NSAs in April 2001 and later broadcast to the Baha'i world, explains the process through which the Lesser Peace will be created and its relation to the Most Great Peace.

    2. Individual Rights and Freedoms letter is an important and oft-quoted discussion of rights and freedom of expression in the Bahá'í community as contrasted with those in American civil society.

    3. Institution of the Counsellors, The discusses in detail the history and function of the highest level of the "Institution of the Learned." See also two statements which refer to and help introduce the "Institution of the Counsellors":
    4.   a letter from the House to the Counsellors January 9 2001
    5.   a letter from the House to the Baha'i World January 16 2001

    6. may.19.letter.html, a lengthy response inspired by the US community's 1994 "Vision in Action" initiative, addresses the slowness of the growth of the Faith in America and the impact of negative trends in American society on the nation's Bahá'í community [often referred to simply as "the May 19th letter"].

    7. Message to the World's Religious Leaders, released April 2002.

    8. Promise of World Peace, The has been distributed to many politicians and prominent individuals since its writing in 1985. It is the first (and still only) official public statement made by the Universal House of Justice since its inception in 1963.

    Statements from the Bahá'í International Community

    Note: hundreds of statements from the BIC to the United Nations
    can be found (offsite) at http://www.bic-un.bahai.org/.
    1. Bahá'í Statement on Nature, The was published in 1987 as the Bahá'í International Community's official statement for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

    2. Letter on Capital Punishment, an informal statement to Amnesty International explaining the Baha'i view of capital punishment.

    3. Prosperity of Humankind, The first distributed at the UN World Summit on Social Development in Denmark, March 1995, offers a wide vision of contemporary world economics and social change.

    4. Statement on Bahá'u'lláh, A, released in 1992 in honor of the centenary of Bahá'u'lláh's death, is "a brief introduction to His life and work."

    5. Turning Point for All Nations, released in 1995 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, discusses the scope, function, and mandate of the UN and world concerns it must address.

    6. Who is Writing the Future: Reflections on the Twentieth Century is a statement from the Bahá'í International Community on the current state of human society and its evolution.

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