About the Bahá’í International Community

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 (BIC) is an international non-governmental organization with affiliates in over 180 countries and territories, which together represent over 5 million members of the Bahá’í Faith. As an international NGO, the BIC interacts and cooperates with the United Nations, its specialized agencies, with governments, as well as with inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations. The BIC seeks to promote and apply principles — derived from the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith — which contribute to the resolution of current day challenges facing humanity and the development of a united, peaceful, just, and sustainable civilization. At this time, the work of the BIC focuses on the promotion of a universal standard for human rights, the advancement of women, and the promotion of just and equitable means of global prosperity.

The BIC has offices at the United Nations in New York, Geneva, and Brussels; representations to the European Union and UN Regional Commissions based in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Nairobi, Rome, Santiago, and Vienna. An Office of Public Information, based at the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, disseminates information about the Bahá'í Faith around the world and publishes a quarterly newsletter, ONE COUNTRY.