Representatives to the UN

Bani Dugal, Principal Representative (New York)

Bani Dugal

Bani Dugal is the Principal Representative of the Bahá'í International Community to the United Nations. As part of the community of international NGOs at the United Nations, she currently serves as member-at-large on the NGO Committee on Human Rights and the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief and is the immediate past Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women. She has served as Chair of the Global Forum of the NGO Committee on UNICEF, member of the Steering Committee of the NGO Committee on UNICEF’s Working Group on Girls, Former Convener of the NGO Committee on UNIFEM, and former Convener of the Advocates for African Food Security.

Ms. Dugal has served in numerous capacities throughout her time at the Bahá’í International Community. In July 2005, she was invited to speak at the Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace, which was hosted by a tripartite convening group comprised of representatives from 17 member states, the World Bank, UNESCO, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations. In March 2005, she discussed the women's role in conflict prevention, resolution and peace-building at the International Conference on Gender Mainstreaming and Millennium Development Goals in Pakistan. That same year, Ms. Dugal represented the Bahá’í International Community at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where she was invited to participate as a religious leader and women’s leader. In December 2003, she addressed the South Asian Regional Conference on Education: the Right of Every Girl and Boy, in New Delhi as the inaugural event keynote speaker. She was actively involved in the Beijing Conference, as well as the Beijing +5 and recent Beijing +10 reviews.

Ms. Dugal worked at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and holds a Masters degree in Environmental Law from Pace University School of Law. Prior to relocating to the United States in 1988, she practiced law before the Supreme Court of India.

Diane Ala’i, Representative (Geneva)

Diane Ala'i

Diane Ala’i has held the position of Representative to the United Nations for the Bahá'í International Community at the United Nations Office in Geneva since 1992. In this position, she has participated in numerous sessions of United Nations organs such as the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights, the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and its Working Groups, the UN treaty monitoring bodies and other UN mechanisms, as well as the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She headed the delegation of the Bahá'í International Community at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban in 2001 and was a member of the delegation at the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993.

Ms. Ala'i is currently Chair of the NGO Sub-Committee on Freedom of Religion and Belief (Geneva), Vice-Chair of the Committee on Racism and Racial Discrimination and participates actively in the Special Committee of International NGOs on Human Rights. She has also collaborated with the UN as a consultant for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Technical Cooperation in Armenia in November 1997, training national NGOs in human rights machinery.

Ms. Ala'i holds post-graduate degrees in International Relations from the Institut d’Études des Relations Internationales in Paris and from the Institut Européen des Hautes Études Internationales in Nice. She also holds degrees from the International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Geneva Peace Research Institute.

Tahirih Naylor, Representative (New York)

Tahirih Naylor

Tahirih Naylor joined the staff of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations in July 2006. Prior to coming to New York, she worked as an external affairs representative in the Office of Governmental Relations for the Bahá’í Community of Canada.

Ms. Naylor completed a degree in sociology and studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School specializing in international, comparative and transnational law. She interned in the field of immigration law and subsequently practiced in the Ontario Crown Attorney’s Family Responsibility Office with a focus on the legal rights of women and children.

A member of the governing body of the Nancy Campbell Collegiate Institute and the Stratford College of Liberal Arts, Ms. Naylor has a deep interest in the role of education in development.  She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Lazos Learning Association whose goal is to make available educational materials designed for social and economic development.

Ms. Naylor has participated in volunteer service projects in over twenty-five countries and lived in South America and Canada.

Sarah Vader, Representative (Geneva/Brussels)

Sarah Vader

Sarah Vader joined the Bahá’í International Community in July 2007 in a new position created to develop and strengthen ties with the institutions of the European Union and to coordinate the work of the Bahá’í International Community’s affiliates in EU countries. Ms. Vader will also be a United Nations representative in the Community’s Geneva office, working in the areas of human rights and advancement of women.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Vader worked at the World Economic Forum where she was first responsible for managing relations with civil society organizations and then helped to develop the programme of the Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Ms. Vader spent the last two years working with one of the Forum’s Managing Directors and leading the “Open Forum” at the Annual Meeting, which is co-organized with civil society organizations and open to the public.

Ms. Vader holds a degree in international law from the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. She has been active in the field of external affairs in the Bahá’í community, both nationally and internationally, since 1994.

Fulya Vekiloglu, Representative (New York)

Fulya Vekiloglu

Fulya Vekiloglu joined the Bahá’í International Community’s United Nations Office in New York in June 2006. Ms. Vekiloglu focuses on issues related to the advancement of women and social development.

Before coming to New York, Ms. Vekiloglu worked as a project manager for UNDP in Afghanistan, where she managed an institutional capacity-building program in the Ministry of Women's Affairs. In this project, she provided direct support to the Ministry and trained more than 700 Afghan civil servants and NGO representatives on gender issues. Ms. Vekiloglu has worked as a UNDP consultant in Bosnia and Herzegovina, focusing on civil society development. In the same region, she worked for an international project promoting conflict resolution and peace education.

Ms. Vekiloglu has a Master of Science degree in Gender and Women's Studies from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Product Design.

Bahá’í delegation to the United Nations International Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations. (L to R) Amin Banani, Mildred R. Mottahedeh, Hilda Yen and Matthew Bullock; Lake Success, NY, USA; 4-9 April 1949.

Past Representatives

• Bahiyyih Chaffers, 2003 - 2005
• Nikoo Mahboubian, 1997 – 2002
• Techeste Ahderom, 1991 – 2001
• Lawrence Arturo, 1989 – 2001
• Gianni Ballerio, 1989 – 2002
• Daniel Wegener, 1988 - 1993
• Wytze Bos, 1987 - 1993
• Paul Ojermark, 1984 – 1988
• Machid Fatio, 1981 – 1999
• Gerald Knight, 1979 – 1988
• Mary Sawicki Power, 1975 – 1997
• Mr. Will C. van den Hoonaard 1975 - 1980
• Victor de Araujo, 1967 – 1991
• Mildred Mottahedeh, 1945 - 1967