Activities of the Bahá'í International Community at the United Nations

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Representatives of the Bahá'í International Community have sought to present the Bahá'í experience to the United Nations by participating fully in UN conferences. Bahá'í delegations have participated in most of the major United Nations conferences in the last 30 years, but the presence and impact of Bahá'í delegations has been particularly pronounced at the series of global issues conferences sponsored by the United Nations in the 1990's.

At the 1990 Children's Summit in New York, for example, Bahá'ís played a key role among non-governmental organizations in promoting the concept of rights for children. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Bahá'í delegation was extremely active in the Global Forum, promoting a holistic approach in negotiations on the Earth Charter; as well, it was the only religious nongovernmental organization to make a statement to the Summit's plenary session. In the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, Bahá'í representatives highlighted the importance of recognizing the universal nature of human rights. In 1995, at the Social Summit in Copenhagen, the Bahá'í delegation focused on concepts of world citizenship and global prosperity as a means of suggesting how the Conference's main concerns about social integration and the alleviation of poverty could be creatively addressed. And at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, more than 500 Bahá'ís from around the world participated in the NGO Forum on Women, reflecting the great interest of Bahá'ís on this issue, while official Bahá'í International Community representatives worked at the government Conference to promote the understanding that the attitudes of men must also be addressed and changed if women's advancement is to proceed.