About KAICIID
KAICIID(King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue) is an intergovernmental organization whose mandate is to promote globally the use of dialogue to prevent and resolve conflict and to enhance understanding and cooperation among different cultures and religions. KAICIID’s mandate and structure were designed to foster dialogue among people of different faiths and cultures in order to bridge animosities, reduce fear and instill mutual respect. Intercultural and interreligious dialogue helps build communities’ resistance against prejudice, strengthens social cohesion, supports conflict prevention and transformation and can serve to preserve peace.
As an international organization, KAICIID supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The Centre also combats all forms of discrimination based on culture, religion or belief. The Centre implements programmes to overcome stereotypes in a long-term process that lead to a culture of dialogue that enables greater understanding of people of other cultures and followers of other religions.
KAICIID’s work is the continuation of a journey to fulfill a vision to bring together religious leaders and governmental representatives in a sustained dialogue for peace.
KAICIID governance
KAICIID is the only intergovernmental organization with a Board of Directors made up of representatives from major world religions.
The Founding States of the Centre (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Republic of Austria and Kingdom of Spain) constitute the “Council of Parties” responsible for overseeing the work of the Centre; the Holy See is admitted as a Founding Observer to the Centre.
The Board of Directors comprises high-level representatives of the major world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) and cultures. The Centre is headed by a Secretary General. An Advisory Forum of up to 100 members of other religions, cultural institutions and international organizations will provide a further resource of interreligious and intercultural perspective.
The work of KAICIID
KAICIID enhances dialogue among different religious and cultural groups to promote justice, peace and reconciliation and counteract the abuse of religion to justify violence. KAICIID works in four main areas: peacebuilding, improving accurate representation of the “Image of the Other, capacity building through training, and knowledge production.
The Peacebuilding programme adopts an inclusive and dialogical approach to conflict resolution that brings together all actors in a conflict zone, providing a safe space for mediation and negotiation.
Through education and the media, two of the most powerful instruments for mutual understanding, KAICIID works to ensure that people of different religious and cultural groups learn about each other in a respectful and inclusive way.
Through training, capacity building, and other services, KAICIID supports the practitioners and organisations working in this field. This support is institutional, as through the Fellows Programme, educational, as in the KAICIID Online Course on Interreligious Dialogue, or partnership-based, as through the monitoring and evaluation training provided through the Multireligious Collaboration for the Common Good
KAICIID staff
KAICIID is proud to have a diverse, multicultural team of experts.
KAICIID's mission, to facilitate interreligious and intercultural understanding, and enhance respect for diversity, justice and peace is reflected in the diversity of its staff from 20 countries, 5 continents and a wide range of cultural and religious affiliations. Respect for diversity is a cornerstone of KAICIID’s recruitment policy.
KAICIID staff are composed of almost exactly equal numbers of men and women, which is a rare feat in most organizations.
For more information and detailed biographies of the KAICIID experts, please visitKAICIID experts directory