The Bahá’í International Community (BIC) released a statement today titled Reconceptualizing Justice: Laying Foundations for a Gender-Equal World, (see translations in Arabic, French, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish) serving as a formal submission to the seventieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission will run from March 9-19 and will focus on the priority theme of ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls.

“We are delighted to release this statement that explores the vital work of constructing more just communities and societies,” said BIC Representative Liliane Nkunzimana. “We hope it will make a meaningful contribution to the deliberations that will soon be unfolding at CSW, which is always a highlight of our year.” 

Reform of formal judicial institutions will need to be accompanied by expanded notions of justice operating across numerous realms of society, the statement notes, if statutory advances are to be translated into tangible improvements in the lived realities of women and girls.

“Ultimately, what will be required is a thorough reconceptualization of what justice is and how a just society functions,” the statement notes. “For it is one thing to acknowledge a value such as justice in principle; it is quite another to embrace it wholeheartedly in one’s personal conduct, and more challenging still to refashion social norms and institutions in ways that give collective expression to it.”

Some 25 individuals will join the BIC’s delegation to the Commission, hailing from Australia, Canada, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The BIC will host a major civil society dialogue event to explore themes from the BIC’s statement and other events on justice and gender equality from a variety of national and regional contexts.

The BIC will also co-host a number of events in partnership with notable UN and civil society actors, such as UN Women and the Government of Australia.