The Universal House of Justice - Result of By-Election

Israel, Haifa (March 23) – Mr. Kiser Barnes, a senior officer of the Bahá'í Faith and formerly a lecturer in law at universities in the Republic of Benin and Nigeria, has been elected to the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing council of the international Bahá'í community. His election fills the vacancy left by the passing of Mr. Adib Taherzadeh on 26 January 2000.

Mr. Barnes was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland. He practised law in that state, specializing in constitutional and human rights matters involving the civil rights of African Americans and women. In 1976 he moved to the Republic of Benin. He taught law at the Universite du Benin and obtained a Master of Philosophy in Law degree from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, where he became a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law and Head of the Department of Business Law. He served on several elected and appointed Bahá'í institutions in Africa, and in 1993 was appointed to a senior administrative institution at the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa, Israel.

The Universal House of Justice is a nine-member council that administers the affairs of the international Bahá'í community. Its members are elected for five-year terms through a distinctive, worldwide electoral process that does not involve nominations, candidacies or campaigning.

The Bahá'í Faith is an independent, monotheistic religion. Born in Iran in the mid-19th century, it has more than 5 million adherents in 190 countries and 45 dependent territories.

©Copyright 2000, Enlighten
Source: The entire article has been reproduced with permission. The quotations in this article appear in the following E-mail: Bahá'í International Community, Office of Public Information. FW: Press Release: Election of Member of Universal House of Justice. Friday, 07 April 2000.