What is the Bahá'í International Community?

Some 21 Bahá’ís from 10 countries participated in the 2006 United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), an annual meeting on women's issues. Shown here is a partial gathering of the Bahá’ís present at the meeting, taken at the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) offices in New York.

The Bahá'í International Community represents the 5 million member Bahá’í community at the international and national levels. It has United Nations Offices in New York and Geneva as well as an Office of Public Information. In 2007, an office was established in Brussels, Belgium to represent the Community to the European Union and its related entities.

Bahá'í representatives are active in numerous coalitions of NGOs, focusing particularly on human rights, the advancement of the equality of women and men, as well as social and sustainable development. Our Office also leads efforts in defense of the rights of Bahá'ís in countries where they are persecuted.

The Bahá'í International Community’s United Nations Office has consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council and UNICEF, and working relations with several other UN agencies and NGOs. It registered with the UN as an international NGO in 1948. The Office contributes to the discourses and deliberations at the international level by bringing the principles of the Bahá'í Faith and the experiences of its worldwide membership to bear on issues of the day and on the broader processes advancing human civilization.

For more information, please see the official website of the worldwide Bahá’í community: www.bahai.org.