NEW PUBLICATION: Speaking from the Heart: Voices and Reflections from the Earth Charter +25 Event, The Netherlands

Gathering in the country where it all began, 340 participants from 35 countries returned to The Hague to mark 25 years of the Earth Charter — and to recommit, together, to the vision of a just, sustainable, and peaceful world.

340
Participants

35
Countries

92
Speakers

In June 2000, the Earth Charter was first presented to the world at the Peace Palace in The Hague, The Netherlands — the culmination of years of global consultation, dialogue, and collective dreaming about the kind of world humanity could choose to build. Twenty-five years on, the movement it sparked has spread into more than 74 languages and touched countless communities, classrooms, and institutions across the globe.

To mark this milestone, Earth Charter International returned to The Netherlands for a three-day gathering titled “Planetary Consciousness, Ethics of Care and Intergenerational Justice,” held from 1–3 July 2025. It brought together 340 participants from 35 countries — Earth Charter Young Leaders, educators, partner organizations, members of the ECI Council, and many new friends — to take stock of the journey, share experiences, and strengthen the sense of community that has always been at the heart of the Earth Charter movement.

This publication offers highlights from that gathering. It is not an attempt to capture everything that was said across those three remarkable days, but something closer to what its title promises: a collection of voices speaking from the heart. Eight contributors — activists, educators, scholars, and community leaders — offered reflections that were by turns urgent, hopeful, grieving, and deeply alive to the challenges of our time. Together, their words remind us why the Earth Charter, now a quarter-century old, feels more necessary than ever.

“We cannot only be fighting against. We must also allow ourselves the beautiful, resourcing, empowering task of dreaming. Of building. Of growing what we are fighting for: an ethics of care, a whole new paradigm.”

— Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Earth Charter Commissioner

From Severn Cullis-Suzuki’s reflection on friendship, grief, and the long arc of transformative movements, to Akpezi Ogbuigwe’s call to move beyond “us versus them” and embrace a vision of One Earth Community — each voice deepened the collective understanding of what it means to live by the Charter’s principles today.

Elizabeth Wathuti grounded climate justice in community action and moral imperative, drawing on her work with the Green Generation Initiative in Kenya. Amanda Bennett Rivera brought the Charter into the elementary classroom, showing how planetary ethics can take root in the youngest minds. Heather Eaton invited participants to consider beauty — alongside spirituality and ethics — as an essential force for transformation. Mary (Joy) Philip described the Earth Charter as a “green fire” fueled by eco-consciousness that turns awareness into action. Jacobus Bracker explored how cultures of sustainability are built through the stories we tell. And Peter Blaze Corcoran called on the community to pursue ecological and ethical literacy as a form of action in itself — even, and especially, beyond hope.