The Ubuntu Cape Town Declaration

A renewed global commitment for a safer future

Thirty years after the adoption of WHO Resolution WHA 49.25, which recognised violence as a public health priority, the world faces a new and increasingly complex safety landscape. While numerous international conventions, declarations, strategies and national policies have contributed to important progress, many were developed for a different era and have struggled to keep pace with the rapidly changing drivers of harm.

Today, communities face a convergence of traditional and emerging threats that transcend sectors, borders, and disciplines. These include digital harms and online violence, cyberbullying, misinformation, climate-related injury and displacement, heat-related health impacts, unsafe urban environments, commercial determinants of health, workplace psychological safety, social isolation, youth mental wellbeing challenges, migration-related vulnerabilities, online exploitation, gambling-related harms, and the safety implications of rapidly evolving technologies.

At the same time, responses to violence and injury often remain fragmented across government departments, professions, sectors and institutions. Existing frameworks frequently operate in silos, limiting the ability to address the interconnected social, economic, environmental, technological and political factors that shape safety in the twenty-first century.

The Ubuntu Cape Town Declaration seeks to address this challenge.

Grounded in the African philosophy of Ubuntu — “I am because we are” — the Declaration will provide a renewed global call to action that recognises safety as a shared responsibility requiring collective leadership, coordinated action, and systems-based solutions.

It will complement, rather than replace, existing international frameworks. Rather than reinventing existing frameworks, the Declaration will draw on evidence and consultation to identify emerging challenges, highlight areas where current responses may be insufficient, and articulate a shared roadmap for strengthening safety through more integrated and coordinated action.

How the declaration will be developed

The Ubuntu Cape Town Declaration will be created through inclusive evidence based participatory processes that are imbedded in the conference programme design. Safety 2026 is a unique gathering of global experts form governments, multilateral agencies, researchers, practitioners, civil society organisations, communities, youth leaders, people with lived experience, and representatives from multiple sectors including health, transport, justice, education, labour, urban planning, climate change, technology, and social development.

The Declaration will be informed by:

Technical input from the International Scientific Committee and National Action Group.
Evidence presented through conference plenaries, scientific sessions, and policy dialogues.
Community perspectives emerging from the Global Village that includes thematic networking zones where delegates and the public can interact around the Global Statement.
Deliberations among delegates throughout Safety 2026.

This process reflects the conference’s commitment to ensuring that those most affected by violence, injury, and emerging safety threats help shape the solutions.

What the declaration will deliver

The Ubuntu Cape Town Declaration will:

Reaffirm safety as a fundamental human right and a prerequisite for sustainable development.
Identify emerging and cross-cutting causes of harm requiring greater global attention.
Promote a whole-of-society approach that brings together government, communities, academia, civil society and responsible private-sector actors.
Encourage greater alignment between existing international commitments, national policies and local implementation efforts.
Strengthen recognition of the social, structural, environmental, technological and commercial determinants of safety.
Elevate the voices of low- and middle-income countries, young people, and people with lived experience.
Mobilise renewed global leadership around injury and violence prevention.
Provide strategic direction for future collaboration, research, advocacy and policy development.

In a world facing growing uncertainty, fragmentation and new forms of harm, the Ubuntu Cape Town Declaration represents an opportunity to renew a shared global commitment to safety, equity and collective responsibility and accountability—because a safer future depends not only on what we know, but on what we choose to do together. This aligns with the conference’s vision of catalysing global collaboration, strengthening multisectoral responses, and advancing a renewed movement for injury prevention and safety promotion under the banner of Ubuntu: United for a Safer Future.