26 June - International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Blue Bird, in Ukraine, conducts art therapy sessions. Left: The ‘floss of unity,’ made by children of survivors as a symbol of togetherness. Right: Into this pot, participants can place symbols of qualities that they want to see in themselves. PHOTO:UN/Sergii Kharenko

The best beloved of all things in my sight is Justice. – Baha’u’llah
​
That which traineth the world is Justice, for it is upheld by two pillars, reward  and punishment. –Baha’u’llah

In sum, the proper functioning of the body politic depend on justice and not forgiveness. Abdu’lBaha

The Baha’i teachings strongly advocate justice—but some people tend to confuse justice with vengeance. When one has suffered greatly at the hands of another, they often want to exact retribution and ensure the perpetrator faces similar torment in return. So although the Baha’i teachings emphasize the building of a just society, they also make clear that no punishment should ever seek revenge:

---

…the body politic has the right to preserve and protect. It holds no grudge and harbours no enmity towards the murderer, but chooses to imprison or punish him solely to ensure the protection of others. The purpose is not revenge but a punishment through which the body politic is protected. Otherwise, were the victim’s heirs and the community to forgive and return good for evil, the wrongdoers would never cease their onslaught and a murder would be committed at every moment—nay, bloodthirsty individuals would, like wolves, entirely destroy the flock of God. The body politic is not prompted by ill will in meting out its punishment; it acts without prejudice and does not seek to gratify a sense of vengeance. Its purpose in inflicting the punishment is to safeguard others and to prevent the future commission of such vile actions. – Abdu’l-Baha
​
…the body politic is engaged day and night in devising penal laws and in providing for ways and means of punishment. It builds prisons, acquires chains and fetters, and ordains places of exile and banishment, seeking thereby to reform the criminal, whereas in reality this only brings about the degradation of morals and the subversion of character. The body politic should instead strive night and day, bending every effort to ensure that souls are properly educated, that they progress day by day, that they advance in science and learning, that they acquire praiseworthy virtues and laudable manners, and that they forsake violent behaviour, so that crimes might never occur. At the present time the contrary prevails: The body politic is ever seeking to strengthen penal laws and securing means of punishment, instruments of death and chastisement, and places of imprisonment and exile, and then waiting for crimes to be committed. This has a most detrimental effect.

But if the masses were educated so that knowledge and learning increased day by day, understanding was broadened, perceptions were refined, morals were rectified and manners reformed—in a word, that progress was made with respect to every degree of perfection—then the occurrence of crime would subside… As ignorance is the root cause of crime, the more knowledge and learning advance, the less crime will be committed. – Abdu’l-Baha

The Baha’i teachings stress justice—but also emphasize the building of a divine civilization, where love and kindness prevail and crime becomes a rarity:

Divine civilization, however, so traineth every member of society that no one, with the exception of a negligible few, will undertake to commit a crime. There is thus a great difference between the prevention of crime through measures that are violent and retaliatory, and so training the people, and enlightening them, and spiritualizing them, that without any fear of punishment or vengeance to come, they will shun all criminal acts. They will, indeed, look upon the very commission of a crime as a great disgrace and in itself the harshest of punishments. They will become enamoured of human perfections, and will consecrate their lives to whatever will bring light to the world and will further those qualities which are acceptable at the Holy Threshold of God.

See then how wide is the difference between material civilization and divine. With force and punishments, material civilization seeketh to restrain the people from mischief, from inflicting harm on society and committing crimes. But in a divine civilization, the individual is so conditioned that with no fear of punishment, he shunneth the perpetration of crimes, seeth the crime itself as the severest of torments, and with alacrity and joy, setteth himself to acquiring the virtues of humankind, to furthering human progress, and to spreading light across the world. –  Abdu’l-Baha
​

When perfect justice reigns in every country of the Eastern and Western World, then will the earth become a place of beauty. The dignity and equality of every servant of God will be acknowledged; the ideal of the solidarity of the human race, the true brotherhood of man, will be realized; and the glorious light of the Sun of Truth will illumine the souls of all men. – Abdu’l-Baha

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, 26 June