12th Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in International Affairs
Tuesday, 5 May 2026
9:00am -1:30pm EDT + lunch 1:30-2:30pm
Venue: Hybrid (Zoom and live streamed) with limited in-person participation (8th Floor, Church Center for the United Nations, 777 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017) Simultaneous Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish interpretation and sign language will be available in the Zoom webinar
Sponsoring organizations: 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, The Lutheran World Federation, United Religions Initiative, and World Council of Churches.
In cooperation with: United Nations Interagency Task Force on Religion and Sustainable Development and its Multi-Faith Advisory Council
Registration: 12th Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in Internal Affairs
Symposium history
The Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in International Affairs launched in 2015 at the Church Center for the United Nations (UN) 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 multifaith ethics with global governance (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 human/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. Now, the 12th Annual Symposium will engage on UN80 with the accumulated breadth and relationships cultivated since its inception.
Context
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. As many states shift resources from official development assistance (ODA) and multilateral engagement toward (re)arming—including sharp increases in global military expenditure—humanitarian contributions remain a small fraction of such outlays even as needs grow.
The consequences for development and human security are severe: declining ODA and widening resource gaps jeopardize delivery across peace, human rights, and sustainable development. 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 counter‑productive to UN Charter obligations and system integrity.
Crucially, civil society and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—including faith‑based actors—are not ancillary but indispensable to effective multilateralism. Civil society widens participation, defends civic space, and connects local realities to international norms, co‑creating policy and implementation with UN entities and Member States. Its rightful place is at—not near—the decision‑making table, supported by structured, standing dialogues, fair and accessible participation pathways (including hybrid/digital access), and co‑creation compacts embedded across agenda‑setting, drafting, and follow‑through. Investing in ethical rights‑based digital cooperation and community‑generated evidence further enables accountability and delivery, ensuring that “We, the peoples” are protagonists in global governance rather than passive beneficiaries.
Building on a decade of Symposium dialogues—from the inaugural focus on human dignity to the human/shared security lens and the 10th‑anniversary recommitment to human rights—this 12th Symposium approaches UN80 with concrete guardrails and operational convergence. It advances tri‑vantage collaboration among faith‑based organizations, UN entities, and Member States so people‑ and planet‑centred outcomes remain at the heart of multilateral action.
Objectives
Against this daunting backdrop, the 12th Symposium aims to explore four key issues:
- Assess the state of multilateral cooperation through a shared normative lens.
Take stock of current dynamics affecting international cooperation—especially developments touching international law, international humanitarian law, and human rights—with a view to affirming sovereign equality and preserving civic space as cornerstones of a rules‑based, inclusive multilateral order
- Consider a UN “fit for purpose,” viewing UN80 as an opportunity to strengthen core mandates.
Explore how ongoing and proposed reforms—including UN80—might enhance agility and integration while reinforcing the UN’s legal and normative commitments. Identify practical guardrails that help ensure reform efforts advance protection, participation, and accountability for all.
- Highlight core values and the indispensable partnership of civil society and faith‑based actors.
Explore how values—dignity, stewardship, shared responsibility—support effective cooperation, and affirm the essential role of NGOs/civil society organizations, including faith‑based organizations, as co‑creators in shaping and implementing solutions alongside UN entities and Member States across the policy cycle.
- Affirm the enabling conditions requisite for effective multilateral action.
Demonstrate that predictable and timely financing; inclusive and principled civil society access; and sustained cross‑sectoral collaboration are foundational to a rules‑based multilateral system grounded in the UN Charter’s commitments to dignity and human rights, to peace and security, and to sustainable development under the rule of law, including international law. The Symposium will underscore practices that translate dialogue into demonstrable progress and mutually reinforced commitments.
Outcomes
- A deepened multi-sectoral exchange and enhanced mutual understanding of the issues impacting the UN and its underpinnings of international law and commitment to multilateral cooperation.
- Joint/collaborative follow-up to address these issues, based on ‘Tri‑Vantage Action Notes’ (one commitment each from faith-based organizations, UN entities, and Member States, plus one joint action), generated from each session of the Symposium, to translate dialogue into measurable progress over the next 6–12 months.
Agenda (270 min)
Opening (40 min - 9:00-9:40am)
High-level opening followed by a fireside chat to set the tone and open the conversation for the symposium.
Panel A - Crisis of Multilateralism (60 min - 9:40-10:40am)
Assess the state of multilateral cooperation through a shared normative lens.
[Break - 10:40-10:50am]
Panel B - UN80: Responding to the Changing Context (60 min - 10:50-11:50am)
Explore how ongoing and proposed reforms—including UN80—might enhance agility and integration while reinforcing the UN’s legal and normative commitments.
[Break - 11:50am-12pm]
Panel C - Faith-based concerns for people and planet (60 min - 12-13pm)
Sharing the work faith-based organizations are doing to address pressing global issues such as displacement and climate-related impacts.
[Break - 13-13:10pm]
Closing - From Values to Action (20 min - 13:10-1:30pm)
Reflect on the outcomes from the symposium and way forward.
Unveiling of Peace Quilt and Networking with Lunch (60 min - 1:30-2:30pm)
Hosted by the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church, Suite 7C of Church Center for the United Nations.
This content was originally published by the General Board of Church and Society; republished with permission on ResourceUMC.org on April 27, 2026.