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© Bahá’í International Community

The Baha’i community has been represented at the United Nations since 1947. At the time, the Baha’is of the United States and Canada represented the worldwide Baha’i community at the U.N. Since 1948, the Baha’i International Community — a network of more than 180 Baha’i national affiliates, including the Baha’is of the United States, that acts on behalf of five million Baha’is worldwide — has been accredited as an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) of the United Nations. It was granted special consultative status with the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 1970.

Additionally, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States remains an NGO accredited to the U.N. Department of Public Information. Its office works with the U.N. and its specialized agencies, the U.S. Mission to the U.N., and other NGOs at the U.N. in areas of mutual concern: namely human rights, the advancement of women, interfaith cooperation, social and sustainable development and U.N. reform. It also informs the Baha’i community and relevant agencies and offices of the National Spiritual Assembly about U.N.-related issues and the work of the Baha’i International Community, and encourages American Baha’is to participate in U.N. activities at various levels.

Specifically, the United Nations Office of the U.S. Baha’i Community contributes to the work of the U.N. as a member of the Council of Organizations of the United Nations Association-USA (UNA-USA), by organizing U.S. Baha’i community participation in the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s “Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” fundraising and awareness campaign, by joining in a number of ongoing interfaith activities with UNEP’s Regional Office for North America, and by participating in the organization of the annual conference of the U.N. Department of Public Information and attending its briefings for NGOs.

This commitment to representative global governance is grounded in the Baha’i principle of the oneness of humanity, which — as explained by the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha’i Faith, in a text called Century of Light — “implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded.”

For more information please contact:
Carl Murrell, Principal Representative to the United Nations
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.S.
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 120
New York, New York 10017
Phone: 212-803-2500
Email: usun-nyc@bic.org