The Global AI Governance Action Plan was published during the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence (AI) Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance held in China recently (26).

The Action Plan calls on all parties to take concrete and effective actions in advancing global AI development and governance based on the objectives and principles of promoting AI for good and in the service of humanity, respecting national sovereignty, aligning with development goals, ensuring safety and controllability, upholding fairness and inclusiveness, and fostering open cooperation.

The following is the full text of the action plan issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry:

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a new frontier in human development. It is a key driving force of the ongoing scientific and technological revolution as well as industrial transformation, and an international public good that benefits humanity. AI presents unprecedented opportunities for development, and it also brings unprecedented risks and challenges. In the AI era, only through global solidarity can we fully unleash the potential of AI while ensuring its safety, reliability, controllability, and fairness, and ultimately deliver on the commitments outlined in the United Nations Pact for the Future and its annex: the Global Digital Compact, create an inclusive, open, sustainable, fair, safe, and secure digital and intelligent future for all.

To this end, we hereby put forward the Global AI Governance Action Plan, calling on all parties to take concrete and effective actions in advancing global AI development and governance based on the objectives and principles of promoting AI for good and in service of humanity, respecting national sovereignty, aligning with development goals, ensuring safety and controllability, upholding fairness and inclusiveness, and fostering open cooperation.

1. Jointly seizing the opportunities of AI. We call for the active participation and collaboration of all stakeholders, including governments, international organizations, enterprises, research institutions, social organizations, and individual citizens to accelerate the development of digital infrastructure, jointly explore cutting-edge innovations in AI technology, promote worldwide adoption and application of AI, and maximize AI’s huge potential in empowering global economic and social development, supporting the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and addressing global challenges.
2. Promoting the innovative development of AI. In the spirit of openness and sharing, we encourage efforts of bold experimentation and exploration. We need to establish various international platforms for scientific and technological cooperation, foster an innovation-friendly policy environment, strengthen policy and regulatory coordination, promote technological collaboration and the transformation of research outcomes, and reduce and remove technology barriers. We need to jointly push for innovation breakthroughs and sustained development in AI technology, deeply explore open application scenarios for “AI Plus,” and take global AI innovation and development to a higher level.
3. Advancing AI empowerment across industries. We need to promote AI application in industrial manufacturing, consumption, commercial circulation, health care, education, agriculture, poverty alleviation, and other fields, push for the integration of AI in scenarios such as autonomous driving and smart cities, and foster a diverse, healthy, and AI-for-good application ecosystem. We need to promote the construction and sharing of intelligent infrastructure, carry out cross-border AI application cooperation, exchange best practices, and jointly explore ways to promote AI empowerment across all sectors of the real economy.
4. Accelerating digital infrastructure construction.We need to speed up the construction of global clean power, next-generation networks, intelligent computing power, data centers and other infrastructure, improve the layout of interoperable AI and digital infrastructure, and promote the establishment of a unified computing power standard system. We need to support countries, especially the Global South, in developing AI technologies and services in line with their national conditions, assist the Global South in truly accessing and utilizing AI, and promote AI development in an inclusive and universally-beneficial manner.
5. Creating a diverse, open, and innovative ecosystem. We need to fully leverage the respective role of multiple stakeholders, including governments, industries and academia, as well as various mechanisms and platforms to jointly promote international exchanges and dialogue on AI governance. We need to build cross-border open-source communities and secure, reliable open-source platforms, facilitate the open sharing of basic resources, lower the thresholds of technological innovation and application, avoid redundant investment and resource waste, and enhance the inclusiveness and accessibility of AI technology services. We need to promote the development of an open-source compliance system, clarify and implement the technical safety guidelines for open-source communities, and promote the open sharing of development resources such as technical documentation and API documentation. We need to strengthen the open-source ecosystem by enhancing compatibility, adaptation, and inter-connectivity between upstream and downstream products, and enable the open flow of non-sensitive technology resources.
6. Actively promoting the supply of high-quality data. We need to drive the development of AI with high-quality data, collaborate to facilitate the lawful, orderly and free flow of data, explore the construction of a global mechanism/platform for data sharing, and jointly create high-quality data sets to provide more nourishment for AI development. At the same time, we need to actively safeguard personal privacy and data security, enhance the diversity of AI data corpora, eliminate discrimination and bias, and promote, protect, and preserve the diversity of the AI ecosystem and human civilization.
7. Effectively addressing energy and environmental issues. We advocate the concept of sustainable AI, support continuous exploration and innovation in resource-saving and environmentally friendly AI development models, jointly establish AI energy and water efficiency standards, and promote green computing technologies such as low-power chips and efficient algorithms. We encourage dialogue and cooperation on energy-saving AI development to jointly identify optimal solutions. We need to promote AI’s empowerment of green transformation and development, climate change response, biodiversity and other fields, expand the application of AI technologies in related areas, strengthen international cooperation, and share best practices.
8. Promoting common understanding on standards and norms. We support more dialogue among standard-setting bodies of states and the role of international standards organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and emphasize the role of the industry in accelerating the formulation and revision of technical standards in key areas such as security, industry and ethics, so as to establish a scientific, transparent, and inclusive normative framework in the field of AI. We need to actively eliminate algorithmic bias, balance technological progress, risk prevention, and social ethics, and enhance the inclusivity and interoperability of the standards system.
9. Spearheading deployment and application by the public sector. Public sectors should become leaders and pacesetters in the application and governance of AI, actively prioritize the deployment of reliable AI in public services such as healthcare, education, and transportation, and strengthen international exchanges and cooperation. At the same time, assessment of the safety of the aforementioned AI systems should be conducted regularly, and intellectual property rights such as patents and software copyrights respected. We need to strictly enforce data and privacy protection, actively explore lawful and orderly transactions of training data, jointly promote the opening and utilization of data compliant with rules and regulations, and enhance public management and services.
10. Advancing the governance of AI safety. We need to conduct timely risk assessment of AI and propose targeted prevention and response measures to establish a widely recognized safety governance framework. We need to explore categorized and tiered management approaches, build a risk testing and evaluation system for AI, and promote the sharing of information as well as the development of emergency response of AI safety risks and threats. We need to improve data security and personal information protection standards, and strengthen the management of data security in processes such as the collection of training data and model generation. We need to increase investment in technological research and development, implement secure development standards, and enhance the interpretability, transparency, and safety of AI. We need to explore traceability management systems for AI services to prevent the misuse and abuse of AI technologies. We need to advocate for the establishment of open platforms to share best practices and promote international cooperation on AI safety governance worldwide.
11. Jointly implementing the Global Digital Compact. We need to actively fulfill the commitments outlined in the United Nations Pact for the Future and its annex, the Global Digital Compact. We need to take the U.N. as the main channel, work for the goal of helping developing countries bridge the digital divide and achieve equitable and inclusive development, and promote the establishment of an inclusive and fair multilateral global digital governance system based on complying with international law and respecting for national sovereignty and developmental differences. We need to support the establishment and early operation of two mechanisms under the U.N. framework—the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and the Global Dialogue on AI Governance—to facilitate meaningful discussions on global AI governance, particularly in advancing the safe, fair and inclusive development of AI.
12. Strengthening international cooperation on AI capacity building. We need to place international cooperation on AI capacity building high on the agenda of global AI governance, and encourage leading countries in AI to take concrete actions, such as collaborating on AI infrastructure development, establishing joint laboratories together, building mutual recognition platforms for safety assessment, organizing education and training programs for AI capacity building, facilitating supply-demand matchmaking events for the AI industry, and jointly developing high-quality AI datasets and corpora, to support developing countries in enhancing their comprehensive capacity building in AI innovation, application, and governance. We need to work together to improve public AI literacy and skills, with special attention to safeguarding and strengthening the digital and intelligent rights and interests of women and children, to bridge the AI divide.
13. Building an inclusive multi-stakeholder governance model. We support the establishment of inclusive governance platforms based on public interests and the joint participation of relevant entities. We encourage AI enterprises from different countries to engage in dialogue and exchanges, learn from each other’s application practices in various fields of AI, and promote innovation, application, as well as ethical and safety cooperation in specific domains and scenarios. We encourage research think tanks and international forums to create global and regional platforms for exchange and collaboration, to ensure that AI researchers, developers, and governance departments from across the world maintain communication on technology and policy. (Newswire)

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The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has praised Sri Lanka’s national action plan on women, peace and security, but has raised questions about the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, which permitted child marriage, and domestic violence.

The national action plan on women was applauded after the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today concluded its consideration of the ninth periodic report of Sri Lanka.

One Committee Expert said the national action plan on women, peace and security was a positive step in addressing the needs of women in conflict.  Were there plans to conduct a mid-term assessment of the plan?

Yamila González Ferrer, Committee Expert and Country Rapporteur for Sri Lanka said that the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act was amended in 2022, but there were still concerns about elements of the law.  Were there plans to further amend the law, including to ban child marriage?

Another Committee Expert said at least one in five women in Sri Lanka had experienced violence from an intimate partner, and many did not report it.  What was the timeline for adopting proposed amendments to the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act?  What protections were provided to women victims of violence?

Introducing the report, Saroja Savitri Paulraj, Minister of Women and Child Affairs of Sri Lanka and head of the delegation, said the Sri Lankan Government was committed to upholding the rights of women and girls and advancing gender equality.  

This review held particular significance, as it was the country’s first engagement with an international human rights treaty body since the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2024.

Minister Paulraj said Sri Lanka’s first national action plan for women, peace and security for 2023 to 2027 had been launched and that the Government was committed to realising the full promise of the women, peace and security agenda.  

The delegation added that the action plan addressed displacement and women’s protection, security and participation in peacebuilding.  The State party was planning to conduct a review of the implementation of the action plan.

On the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act, the delegation said the Government had conducted consultations regarding its amendment. It was trying to strike a balance between women’s and children’s rights and cultural rights. Minister Paulraj added that the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus had suggested setting a minimum age for marriage and establishing a multi-sectoral committee to address this issue.

On domestic violence, the delegation said the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act had been amended; the amended Act would come into force this year. The Assistance to Victims Act underlined the rights of victims to be treated with respect and privacy, and to request legal, medical and psychosocial assistance.  A toll-free hotline operated by female officers was available for reporting domestic violence.

In closing remarks, MinisterPaulraj said the Sri Lankan Government had undertaken significant efforts to strengthen women’s empowerment.  It was fully committed to addressing the issues that women faced in the State and would continue to engage with the Committee constructively.

In her concluding remarks, Nahla Haidar, Committee Chair, said that the State party had shared candidly and transparently the progress made and the difficulties it was facing.  She commended the State party for its efforts and encouraged it to implement the Committee’s recommendations for the benefit of all Sri Lankan women and girls.

The delegation of Sri Lanka consisted of representatives from the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs; the Attorney General’s Department; the Sri Lanka Police; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism; and the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The Committee will issue the concluding observations on the report of Sri Lanka at the end of its ninetieth session on 21 February. 

For more information : https://shorturl.at/Uk2Ir (Newswire)

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