The hybrid event, with limited in-person participation, will be held at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York. Simultaneous Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish, and sign language interpretation will be available in the Zoom webinar. Sponsoring organizations include: World Council of Churches, ACT Alliance, Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church, International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation, Islamic Relief USA, Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue-Jewish Theological Seminary, Soka Gakkai International, Lutheran World Federation, and United Religions Initiative, in cooperation with the United Nations Interagency Task Force on Religion and Sustainable Development and its Multi-Faith Advisory Council. Following the multilateral agenda The annual symposium first launched in 2015 as a standing public square for dialogue among faith actors, UN entities, and member states. The symposium’s inaugural focus was on human dignity and human rights. In 2016, the symposium started a cooperative relationship with the UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and Sustainable Development, consolidating its identity as an annual policy dialogue that connects multi-faith ethics with global multilateral practice. Since its launch, the symposium has followed the multilateral agenda closely. It has focused on themes such as: advancing debates on preventing atrocity crimes and violent extremism; just and sustainable peace; migration and displacement; gender equality; sustainable development; economic justice; and deepened, by 2023, an integrated lens on shared security that links grassroots practice to UN policy. The symposium marked its 10th anniversary in 2024 with a recommitment to human rights and dignity; and, in 2025, brought renewed attention to the roles of faith and civil society actors in multilateral solutions. The multilateral system is navigating one of its most difficult periods since its founding. After decades of globalization and integration, the world faces accelerating fragmentation, resurgent populist nationalism, and a return of protectionism and coercive geopolitics. These shifts have shaken not only the operational capacity of international institutions but also their normative foundations, especially the legal and policy frameworks designed to protect those most at risk. The consequences for development and human security are severe. These pressures are compounded by a UN liquidity crisis triggered by delayed or withheld assessed contributions, resulting in hiring freezes, program cuts, and borrowing from reserves. Proposals in late 2025 to shrink the 2026 program budget by about 15% and reduce staffing by roughly 19% underscore the gravity of the moment and the risk of weakening mandates just when needs are greatest—an outcome civil society has warned would be counterproductive to UN Charter obligations and system integrity. Crucially, civil society and nongovernmental organizations—including faith‑based actors—are not ancillary but indispensable to effective multilateralism. The 12th Symposium aims to assess the state of multilateral cooperation through a shared normative lens; take stock of current dynamics affecting international cooperation; consider a UN “fit for purpose;” explore ongoing and proposed reforms; highlight core values and the indispensable partnership of civil society and faith‑based actors; and affirm the enabling conditions requisite for effective multilateral action. Register here for online participation Learn more about the Ecumenical Office to the United Nations | 
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