The 2025 Global Pluralism Award finalists

 The 2025 Global Pluralism Award finalists

The Global Centre for Pluralism announces today the 10 laureates for the 2025 Global Pluralism Award. These leaders are being recognised for their exceptional and courageous work to support full participation by marginalised groups in their societies, build trust and cooperation between warring parties, and create systems that foster the protection and celebration of differences around the world.

Selected from over 300 applications across 64 countries, the 2025 finalists are operating in some of the world’s most challenging contexts. From active war zones to communities facing extreme discrimination, they champion a more peaceful and equitable world and provide examples of how it is possible to make practical changes that foster pluralistic societies.

The 2025 Global Pluralism Award finalists are:

• A Land for All (Israel and Palestine): An Israeli-Palestinian movement promoting a visionary future where two states exist within a shared homeland, prioritising reconciliation and a shared belonging despite current polarisation.
• Artistic Freedom Initiative (USA): Provides critical legal and resettlement services to persecuted artists from over 60 countries, preserving cultural memories, languages and identities despite repression in their home countries.
• Cesta von (Slovakia): Empowers the Roma community to find a way out of systemic poverty to participate more fully in their broader society.
• Colombia Diversa (Colombia): Advances justice and inclusion for LGBTIQ+ people through strategic litigation and unprecedented dialogue with oppositional groups, including evangelical leaders and former combatants.
• Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Indígenas - CONAMI (Mexico): A network of Indigenous women increasing indigenous women’s participation in decision-making in Mexico and tackling gender-based violence and land rights by centring traditional knowledge in national activism.
• Mais Diferenças (Brazil): Unites Brazilians with and without disabilities to co-create tools that enable all students to experience meaningful learning together.
• New Life Trust Organization (Afghanistan): Fosters women’s entrepreneurship and inter-ethnic solidarity through skills training and artistic expression in one of the world’s most challenging contexts for gender equality.
• Nonviolent Peaceforce (International): Undertakes peacebuilding activities that build trust among all parties to conflict in countries from Ukraine to South Sudan, centring the voices of those on the peripheries to participate in building solutions.
• Southern Africa Litigation Centre (Regional): Supports marginalised populations across 12 African countries through landmark litigation to overcome systemic barriers to full legal, social, and environmental participation.
• Sudanese Youth Network for Ending the War and Establishing a Democratic Civil Transformation (Regional): Unites diverse Sudanese youth within Sudan and across six other countries around a common vision to end the war and transition to a civilian government.

“The Global Pluralism Award seeks out the world’s most powerful examples of pluralism in action. This year, we are proud to welcome 10 new exemplary leaders into our now 50-strong community of award alumni,” said Meredith Preston McGhie, Secretary-General of the Global Centre for Pluralism. “This is more than a network; it is a dynamic and growing global community of practice with lessons for all of us. These leaders are on the front lines and provide vital lessons about what is possible around the world. Together, they prove that pluralism is not just an ideal, but a practical solution to the world’s most pressing challenges.”

Dr Marwan Muasher, Chair of the Global Pluralism Award jury, points out that the Award plays a role in building solidarity. “People who work on pluralism need to be recognised and acknowledged around the globe; the Award does a lot in raising awareness about the need for pluralism. It is important for this global community of practitioners to know about each other and their successes in different contexts.”

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Human: Origins | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS

Human: Origins | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS

HH: The Aga Khan IV : inmemoriam

HH: The Aga Khan IV 

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/prince-karim-aga-khan-attends-the-installation-of-frederic-news-photo/1204297072

May his Soul rest in Peace and eternal paradise; and our shared positive pluralistic values live on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX5V_xpFGlk

I chose this project of the garden at Alberta, to highlight as part of one of my most loved and appreciated places, for the values it brings to our world, 

May inner peace, thinking, and thoughtful reflection flourish in our times, replacing wars, pains, agony, and violence.   

Recalling Paradise: The Aga Khan Garden and The Diwan, Devon, Alberta

A jewel-like pavilion completes the world’s northernmost Islamic-inspired garden.

"PROJECT The Aga Khan Garden and The Diwan, University of Alberta Botanic Garden, Devon, Alberta

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS (Aga Khan Garden) Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

ARCHITECTS (Diwan) AXIA Design Associates (Design Architects), Arriz + Co. (Architectural & Interior Design), and Kasian Architecture, Interior Design, and Planning (Executive Architects)

TEXT David Down

Carved out of a boggy Alberta forest outside the rural town of Devon, south of Edmonton, the Aga Khan Garden with its new pavilion, known as The Diwan, is a design revelation of exceptional grace, tranquility, spirituality and precision of execution. Masterfully balancing cultural and historical references with local topography, climate, vegetation and materials, both the garden and the building sit perfectly composed in their unexpected context. Together, they comprise the world’s northernmost Islamic-inspired garden, rooted in an ancient and distant culture, yet completely connected to their Canadian home.       

Located within The University of Alberta Botanic Garden, the 4.8-hectare Aga Khan Garden was gifted to the University of Alberta in 2018 by His Highness the Aga Khan. The gift nods to Canada’s historic welcoming of Ismaili Muslims in 1972, and is part of the work of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which has created and restored important gardens around the world, including Aga Khan Park in Toronto. The Aga Khan himself speaks of gardens as a central element in Muslim culture—places where human creativity and divine majesty are fused, and our responsibility to nature and stewardship of the natural world are put into action. "

https://www.canadianarchitect.com/recalling-paradise-the-aga-khan-garden-and-the-diwan-devon-alberta/

AGA KHAN GARDEN ALBERTA

CANADA

The Aga Khan Garden is a gift to the University of Alberta from His Highness the Aga Khan.
It brings to life the principle of pluralism in a 4.8-hectare Mughal-inspired space where
traditional Islamic landscape design takes on strikingly contemporary features.

"Elements inspired by gardens from the Muslim world are interspersed with distinctively
Canadian features, from Alberta’s wild rose beds to Canadian-quarried stonework.

The Garden provides a stunning example of Islamic landscape architecture that explores
the beauty and boundaries of vegetation, light, water, geometry, symmetry, adaptation and human scale.
The serenity of nature highlights each of the design elements including secluded forest paths,
granite and limestone terraces, still pools that reflect the prairie sky and a waterfall that
tumbles over textured stone.

The Aga Khan Garden is laid out in three parts: woodland valley, central court and pond
framed by an orchard. It unfolds in rectangular terraces down to the Calla Pond.
On the highest point stands a pavilion that enjoys a vista over the Garden.
From this plaza, water emerges and runs through a stone-lined channel from one terrace level
to the next and then falls gently into Calla Pond.

At that moment, the Aga Khan Garden transitions from a structured scheme to a looser, curving,
more naturalistic design of the bustan, a fruit orchard that extends around the Calla Pond.
The Garden contains more than 25,000 trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and wetland plants,
selected for fragrance, beauty and the ability to thrive in Alberta’s climate. Twelve water features
and fountains are sprinkled around the Garden.

Speaking at the inauguration, His Highness spoke of the place, throughout history,
of the Islamic garden in reminding us of the notion of good stewardship of the earth
and “our responsibility to honor, to protect, and to share the gifts of the natural world”.
In considering the role that such green spaces may play, His Highness spoke of the
Garden as a social space, “a place for learning, for sharing, for romance, for diplomacy,
for reflection on the destiny of the human race”."

 @Paul Swanson, photographer - image courtesy of the University of Alberta Botanic Garden

https://www.greatgardensoftheworld.com/gardens/aga-khan-garden-alberta/

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-aga-khan-attends-the-supporting-syria-conference-at-the-news-photo/508364128

TF Leaders Leading

Leaders Leading Listen as the 2024 prize winners discuss their leadership journeys, lessons from failure, and future challenges. When leaders fail, democracy fails—and too many leaders in too many places are failing. That’s exactly why the Tällberg Foundation has sought out and honored great global leaders over the past decade. Leaders who are innovative, courageous, dynamic, with global worldviews, and whose leadership is rooted in universal values. The three winners of the 2024 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize recently came together at a seminar on leadership at the Collegio Cairoli, University of Pavia in Italy. Kristian Olson (medical innovator and educator developing global healthcare solutions), María Teresa Ronderos (champion of press freedom and collaborative journalism across the Americas), and Fernando Trujillo (marine biologist and conservationist working to protect Amazonian ecosystems) discussed how they evolved as leaders, learned from failure, and imagine their future challenges. Listen to how successful leaders cope with some of the great issues confronting our societies today. Then tell us what you think. https://tallbergfoundation.org/podcasts/leaders-leading/

Time To Rise 2025

Time to Rise Summit Day 1: 

Break Through in 2025 

Time to Rise Summit Day 2: 

The Power of Identity

 

 Time to Rise Summit Day 3: 

Your Path to an Extraordinary Life

Our Shared To-Do List

 The World's To Do List | The Global Goals

The 17 Global Goals are the #WorldsToDoList.

As world leaders meet at the United Nations this week, this film serves as a big reminder of what we need to do to achieve the #GlobalGoals This To Do List for the World needs to go somewhere everyone can see it – on the world itself. Share the film and find out how to get involved by clicking here: https://worldstodolist.org/. Credits: Agency: Karmarama CEO - Ben Bilboul, Business Lead - Eilidh McGregor, Account Director - Sophie Jackson, Senior Planner - Max Richards, Executive Creative Director - Adam Kean, Creative team - Rachel Holding & Dan Leppanen, TV producer - Carol Oakley, Creative Producer - Christina Lambrou, Head of Design - Simon Wakeman, Artworkers - Sam Coyle & Dipesh Soni Production: Nineteen Twenty Director - Ludo Fealy, Colour Grade - Kai Van Beers, 2D artist - Jamie Stitson, Producer - Isabella Hunt-Davis, Post Producer - Ondrej Faltin Sound: 750 mph Sound Engineers - Mike Bovill, Michalis Anthis About the Global Goals ------------------------------------- In 2015, world leaders agreed to 17 Global Goals (officially known as the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs). These goals have the power to create a better world by 2030, by ending poverty, fighting inequality and addressing the urgency of climate change. Guided by the Goals, it is now up to all of us, governments, businesses, civil society and the general public to work together to build a better future for everyone. More about the Global Goals initiative here ▶ https://www.globalgoals.org/

SI Leader Lab

SI Leader Lab

SI Leader Lab is designed to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations to drive successful advocacy work linked to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: promoting just, peaceful and inclusive societies. The programme brings together influential civil society leaders who are open to new digital solutions and innovative methods. The network consists of peers from across various sub-sectors in civil society and provides the participants with broad input from different spheres in the field. SI Leader Lab invites 100 participants from the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe. 

The programme combines online workshops, in both regional and cross-regional learning groups, with regular coaching support. In October, all 100 programme participants will come together in Stockholm for an intensive week of onsite learning that deepens the experience and enhances collaboration.  

https://si.se/en/apply/si-leadership-programmes/leaderlab/

https://si.se/en/apply/si-leadership-programmes/leaderlab/#steps-1

https://apply-leadership-programmes.si.se/