Globethics Repository

This White Paper is the result of four international meetings held in 2025 on the theme of multifaith and multistakeholder engagement in times of war and polarisation. It highlights the positive roles that religious and multifaith coalitions have played in promoting human rights, supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and fostering peace and social reconciliation. It also highlights the new challenges facing multistakeholder peacebuilding efforts and presents six recommendations aimed at strengthening these efforts. In doing so, the White Paper aims to affirm the importance of an emerging alliance of multifaith and multistakeholder actors who are mobilizing resources in response to today’s global crises. The White Paper and its recommendations are the outcome of a partnership between Globethics, Wilton Park, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and the UN Faith for Rights Initiative, with the support and participation of many other organizations.

Ce livre blanc résulte de quatre rencontres internationales tenues en 2025 sur le thème de l’action multiconfessionnelle et multipartite en période de guerre et de polarisation. Il met en lumière les rôles positifs que les coalitions religieuses et multiconfessionnelles ont joués pour promouvoir les droits de l’homme, les objectifs de développement durable des Nations Unies et favoriser la paix ainsi que la réconciliation sociale. Il souligne également les nouveaux défis auxquels sont confrontés les efforts de consolidation de la paix impliquant plusieurs parties prenantes et présente six recommandations visant à renforcer ces initiatives. Ce faisant, ce livre blanc cherche à affirmer l’importance d’une alliance émergente d’acteurs multiconfessionnels et multipartites, mobilisant des ressources pour répondre aux crises mondiales actuelles. Ce Livre blanc et ses recommandations sont le résultat d’un partenariat entre Globethics, Wilton Park, l’Union interparlementaire (UIP) et l’initiative des Nations Unies La foi pour les droits, avec le soutien et la participation de nombreuses autres organisations.

The United Nations turned eighty in June 2025. This milestone marks the end of a founding generation. It calls for renewal. For reform. After more than eight decades of a multilateral order built on the rule of law and international law, the balance of power is shifting. The rise of imperial powers and the growing fragility of smaller nations—who know they can disappear—signal a profound rupture. This transformation unfolds within a broader upheaval: the limits of the Western neoliberal economic model imposed hegemonically after the fall of the Berlin Wall; the internal tensions of liberal democracies, both in their ability to organize political power and to inspire other nations; and, more deeply still, the erosion of what was once believed to be an inseparable bond between liberal economics and liberal democracy. At the same time, the revolution of artificial intelligence places humanity at the threshold of new technological powers, a new form of civilization or its possible eclipse. In moments of upheaval on such a scale, societies return to the matrices that shape their identity and sense of belonging. The Spirit of Geneva is one of them. Forged by Calvin’s Reformation in the sixteenth century, Rousseau’s Social Contract in the eighteenth, and Dunant’s humanitarian vision in the nineteenth, it expresses a desirable continuity: a Geneva that reflects on the timeless values of multilateralism before hosting them; that invents a method—the Spirit of Geneva—to embody it in the governance of its own territory before it extends beyond its borders; a city that serves as its living laboratory, continually reinventing it whenever history demands it. This book of Robert de Traz, written 1929, is republished in 2026, with a new Preface and a new Introduction, by Geneva Agape Foundation and One Society Foundation as start of the project “The Spirit of Geneva for a New Multilateralism”.

L’Organisation des Nations unies a fêté ses quatre-vingts ans en juin 2025. Ce cap marque la fin d’une génération fondatrice. Il appelle une relève. Une réforme. Après plus de huit décennies d’un multilatéralisme fondé sur l’État de droit et le droit international, les lignes de force se déplacent. La montée en puissance des empires et la fragilité croissante des petites nations - qui savent qu’elles peuvent disparaître - annoncent une rupture. Cette mutation s’inscrit dans un bouleversement plus large : les limites du modèle économique néolibéral occidental, imposé de manière hégémonique après la chute du mur de Berlin ; les tensions internes des démocraties libérales, tant dans leur capacité à organiser le pouvoir politique que dans leur faculté à inspirer d’autres nations ; et, plus profondément encore, la remise en cause du lien que l’on croyait indissociable entre économie libérale et démocratie libérale. À l’horizon se profile aussi la révolution de l’intelligence artificielle, qui place l’humanité au seuil d’une nouvelle forme de civilisation ou de son engloutissement. Dans ces moments de bascule de grande ampleur, les sociétés revisitent les matrices qui fondent leur identité et leur appartenance. L’Esprit de Genève en est une. Forgé par la Réforme de Calvin au XVIe siècle, le Contrat social de Rousseau au XVIIIe siècle et l’humanitaire de Dunant au XIXe siècle, cet esprit révèle une continuité souhaitable : une Genève qui pense les valeurs intemporelles du multilatéralisme avant de l’accueillir ; qui invente une méthode — l’Esprit de Genève - pour les incarner dans l’administration de son territoire avant que celui-ci ne déborde sur le monde ; une cité qui en est le laboratoire vivant et qui le réinvente chaque fois que nécessaire. Cet ouvrage de Robert de Traz, écrit en 1929, est réédité en 2026, accompagné d’une nouvelle préface et d’une nouvelle introduction, par la Fondation Agape de Genève et la Fondation One Society, dans le cadre du lancement du projet « L’esprit de Genève pour un nouveau multilatéralisme »

Governance: Experiences and Lessons learnt from NET Ministries tells the compelling story of a faith-driven organization committed to transforming lives and communities through holistic Christian mission. Rooted in biblical principles and practical obedience to Christ’s call, the book traces the origins, growth, and evolving mission of NET Ministry Trust, highlighting its response to spiritual, social, and economic challenges facing communities today. Through reflective narratives, ministry experiences, and thematic chapters, the book explores key areas of engagement including discipleship, leadership development, community empowerment, reconciliation, trauma healing, and service to the vulnerable. It captures the voices of practitioners and partners who have journeyed with NET Ministry Trust, illustrating how faith is translated into action with measurable impact. More than an institutional history, this book is a testimony of God’s work through ordinary people committed to extraordinary obedience. It serves as both an inspiration and a practical resource for church leaders, development practitioners, and believers seeking to live out an authentic, transformative experience of governance in their own contexts. Net Ministries Trust was founded in 1980 by a group of students at the University of Nairobi’s Main Campus then as Nyanza Evangelistic Team. The ministry was born out of the need to reach out to the then Nyanza Province with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, thus the name: Nyanza Evangelistic Team (NET) Ministries. The team has since grown from a dozen committed Christians to more than 5,000 members who include members spread across the world hence the name Global.

The report presents insights from roundtable discussions held as part of the international dialogue series Track II: Diplomacy for Global AI Safety. On this occasion, Globethics’ community of practice convened during the Harnessing the Power of AI — Safe and Ethical Integration track at the Global Ethics Forum 2025 (GEF 2025) in Geneva. Designed to advance responsible AI governance worldwide, the roundtables explored collective action for AI safety, strategies to preserve human thinking and critical literacy in the age of AI, and opportunities for cross-sector technological and diplomatic coordination to address catastrophic AI risks.

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly reshaping societies and the power to define its direction remains concentrated. The governance of AI which encompasses who sets the rules, whose values are embedded, and whose interests are protected is still largely steered by a small set of influential actors. Civil society, especially from regions across the Global Majority, is underrepresented in fora where critical decisions are made. This policy brief argues that civil society, rooted in communities and accountable to the public interest, is uniquely positioned to act as the counterbalance AI needs to benefit all of humanity by bringing to light the perspective of those that are most affected by AI systems. This policy brief investigates the role of civil society on AI Governance with particular attention to the Global Majority. The research question explores whether civil society serves as an effective counterbalance to concentrated power in the AI ecosystem to ensure AI systems reflect diverse public interests and values. Additionally, the brief seeks to identify which barriers hinder the participation of underrepresented civil society actors in setting the agenda for and participating in AI governance fora. On top of that, the brief outlines the opportunities for civil society’s entry points in AI Governance and key mechanisms to enable more inclusive and impactful engagement. The analysis draws on desk research and a comparative review of recent multistakeholder initiatives in global AI governance. Additionally, leveraging Globethics’ regional centers across the Global Majority, this research incorporates direct input from civil society networks through a survey and semi-structured online focus groups and interviews with civil society representatives from Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South and Southeast Asia. These dialogues surface context-specific challenges and opportunities, offering grounded and regionally informed inputs. Together, these insights inform a set of recommendations aimed at civil society actors, policymakers, and international organizations to strengthen the meaningful participation of civil society in AI governance. This policy brief contributes to the broader conversation on inclusive AI governance for the successful implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI and the Global Digital Compact.

Commencing in February 2026, the InfoDoc Unit will select resources on topics related to Globethics 2026 strategic priorities and compile this into a bibliography called the Monthly Reading List. All items listed in the bibliography are available online, free for download, from the Globethics Repository. April 2026 issue is on the topic of Business Ethics.

UNESCO and the Thomson Reuters Foundation jointly published the global report "Responsible AI in practice" based on information gathered from 3,000 companies about the Artificial Intelligence-related adoption and strategies. The report finds that, as AI development and adoption accelerates rapidly in the private sector, nearly half of the companies (44%) reported having an AI strategy. One in ten companies is also publicly committed to adhering to an AI governance framework. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly being embedded across companies’ products, services and internal operations, yet governance and disclosure are not evolving at the same speed. The report looks at corporate practice in the context of the emerging responsible AI regulatory landscape and analyses publicly available data collected by the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s AI Company Data Initiative, the largest global dataset of corporate responsible AI disclosures. As privately developed or deployed AI systems shape more of daily life, transparency must move beyond technical descriptions to show how accountability works— including who makes decisions, how ethical issues are escalated, and what remediation paths exist when things go wrong. Clear responsibility for harms or breaches should be identifiable in practice, not just in principle. Just as we expect openness and accountability from government, it is important that the private sector meets comparable transparency standards for AI that affects the public.