2026_07_13_CDI Resolution on Artificial Intelligence

World’s largest center-right political network urges cooperation with R20 AI initiative

“CDI [a]ffirms that Artificial Intelligence should be imbued with universal ethics and humanitarian values, so that AI may liberate and empower humanity, rather than tyrannize or destroy it”

~ Centrist Democrat International

(Steven Lek, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

BRUSSELS, Belgium — On 13 July 2026, the General Assembly of the world’s largest center-right political network, Centrist Democrat International (CDI), unanimously approved a Resolution on imbuing AI with universal ethics and humanitarian values submitted by Indonesia’s National Awakening Party (PKB). Held at the European Parliament in Brussels (photographs, above and below), CDI’s European affiliate, EPP (the European People’s Party) hosted the Assembly. The largest political group in Europe, EPP member parties govern 16 EU Member States.

Roberta Metsola of Malta, President of the European Parliament, and EPP President Manfred Weber of Germany both addressed the CDI General Assembly in Brussels (photo below).

The Resolution on imbuing AI with universal ethics and humanitarian values notes “the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence and its potential to inaugurate an era of unprecedented human creativity, prosperity, and physical wellbeing,” while simultaneously warning about “the grave risks associated with AI, including its potential to erode human agency, negatively condition thought processes, and deprive individuals of their unalienable rights.”

The resolution goes on to observe “that, if unmoored from a firm ethical grounding, AI may become an instrument of hitherto unimaginable tyranny.”

The CDI General Assembly unanimously affirmed “that Artificial Intelligence should be imbued with universal ethics and humanitarian values, so that AI may liberate and empower humanity, rather than tyrannize or destroy it.” In addition, the General Assembly urged “CDI member parties, governments, and civil society at large, including AI companies, to cooperate with the Vatican and the G20 Religion Forum (R20), to help realize AI’s potential to foster integral human development and flourishing.”

The CDI endorsement comes at a time when key elements of the U.S. Government and civil society are coalescing around the R20. As reported by Religion News Service, in November 2025 a coalition of 84 prominent U.S. religious leaders, scholars, and security experts “led by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan; Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon; and First Liberty Institute President Kelly Shackelford, sent President Donald Trump a letter urging him to… ‘officially recognize the Religion 20 Summit (R20) as part of America’s presidency of the G20 in 2026.’”

On 5 March 2026 the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a Congressional hearing to explore how the Trump Administration can highlight and drive human rights issues in connection with America’s G20 Presidency, through the R20. The Commission’s Republican and Democratic Co-Chairs — Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) — both voiced strong bipartisan support for the R20.

The R20 Permanent Secretariat, the North Carolina-based Center for Shared Civilizational Values, has established nine distinct R20 working groups. One of these — WG–6 on the Ethics of Technology and Business, including Artificial Intelligence — is co-chaired by Dr. Ravi Krishnamurthy, a leading AI expert. This R20 working group seeks to foster ethical and critical thinking, decision-making, and behavior through human-centric design of AI systems, in order to prevent them from becoming instruments of tyranny that could hasten “the abolition of man” (C.S. Lewis, 1943).

Acknowledging the high stakes and enormous risks associated with the global adoption of AI, the CDI General Assembly “not[ed] with appreciation efforts by the G20 Religion Forum (R20) to align technological progress with shared civilizational values espoused by the world’s great religious and philosophical traditions” [emphasis added].

The full text of the resolution may be read below.