Bahá'í History: The Universal House of Justice

Dr. Moojan Momen

Since its establishment in 1963, the Universal House of Justice has been the highest authority in the Bahá'í world. It directs the affairs of the Bahá'í Faith at the international level and provides guidance and co-ordination for the activities of the various National Spiritual Assemblies.

The Universal House of Justice has launched successive plans for the spread and consolidation of Bahá'í communities around the world. These plans have been: the Nine Year Plan (1964-73); the Five Year Plan (1973-79); the Seven Year Plan (1979-86); the Six Year Plan (1986-92); the Three Year Plan (1993-96); and the Four Year Plan (1996-2000). In broad outline these plans have included the tasks of:

• spreading the Bahá'í Faith to all parts of the globe and increasing the number of its adherents;
• establishing and improving the functioning of the Bahá'í administrative order in all parts of the world and accelerating the maturation of the national and local Bahá'í communities so that they take on more of the functions envisaged for them in the Bahá'í teachings;
• encouraging the individual spiritual development of all Bahá'ís as well as their universal participation in all aspects of Bahá'í community life
• improving the qualitative aspects of Bahá'í community and family life, especially through a wider extension of Bahá'í education;
• promoting the greater involvement of the Bahá'ís in the life of human society, and in particular the pursuit of projects of social and economic development in well-established Bahá'í communities;
• increasing worldwide the translation, production, distribution and use of Bahá'í literature;
• proclaiming the message of Bahá'u'lláh to all strata of society and minority groups;
• developing the Bahá'í world centre as the spiritual and administrative focus of the world Bahá'í community;
• collecting, classifying and making available the writings of the central figures of the Bahá'í Faith;
• erecting, as resources allow, further Bahá'í Houses of Worship, the Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs;
• extending the relationships of the International Bahá'í Community with international organizations such as the United Nations and its subsidiary organs.

A notable feature of the most recent plans has been the increasing extent to which responsibility for drawing up and monitoring the plans has been devolved away from the Bahá'í World Centre towards the national and local Bahá'í communities.