A Centre Named for a King, Built Between Three States

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Most interfaith bodies are founded by religious leaders or private citizens. KAICIID was founded by governments. The agreement establishing the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue entered into force in November 2012, signed by Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain, with the Holy See taking the unusual role of founding observer rather than founding member. The result is an intergovernmental organization with a mandate no state church or single-tradition body could claim: to promote dialogue, globally, as a practical tool for preventing and resolving conflict, backed by the diplomatic weight of the states that created it.

What makes KAICIID structurally distinctive is not just who founded it but who runs it. Its Board of Directors seats representatives of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, making it, by its own description, the only intergovernmental organization anywhere governed by a board drawn directly from the world's major religions rather than by diplomats alone. Vienna hosted the Centre from its founding, but on July 1, 2022, KAICIID relocated its headquarters to Lisbon, a move that followed years in which its Austrian host relationship had grown increasingly strained.