The Global Citizens’ Initiative is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with members in 75 countries. We bring together people and organizations from across the planet to promote global values and help solve world problems. We define a global citizen as someone who identifies with being part of an emerging world community and whose actions contribute to building this community’s values and practices.

Those of us who see ourselves as global citizens are not abandoning other identities; such as allegiances to our countries, ethnicities, and political beliefs. These traditional identities give meaning to our lives and will continue to help shape us. However, as a result of living in a globalized world we see we have an added layer of responsibility. We also are responsible for being members of a world community faced with problems that no single country by itself can solve. The major challenge that we have is to build a sustainable values-based world community that can solve the global issues we all face.

What might our community’s values be? They are the values that world leaders have been advocating for the past 75 years, including human rights, religious pluralism, gender equity, environmental protection, sustainable development, poverty alleviation, the prevention and cessation of conflicts between countries, the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, humanitarian assistance, and the preservation and celebration of cultural diversity.