Christianity dominates United Nations, concludes study

More than 70% religious non-government organisations (NGOs) at the UN are Christian




The study questions claims by the Christian right that cults are running the UN given the scale of Christian NGOs, and calls for greater awareness, transparency and equality, while putting a strong emphasis on religious tolerance.

It also warned that lack of funding is limiting other religious groups such as Hinduism and Buddhism, which are under-represented at the UN. The number of inter-faith and New Age NGOs is still very small.

The study highlighted that Muslim NGOs are often represented through the collective of states in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, rather than civil society NGOs, which are mostly Catholic.

Prof Carrette said: "It would seem there needs to be more of a 'global goodwill' to make the UN system work for all religions equally, and for religions to follow and share equally UN goals for peace and justice.

"The report highlights that while all religions are represented in some way in the peace-making system of the UN, there are structural and historical differences that need to be addressed.


Despite their small size, accounting for 7.3 per cent of the total consultative status NGOs at the UN, some religious groups can have a great influence, the research suggests.

Among the most active religious NGOs are Catholics, Quakers and the Baha'i faith, which have some of the highest number of meetings with UN diplomats.

Additional reporting agencies