The Global Youth Conference is the Charter for Compassion’s flagship gathering dedicated to uplifting youth leadership, creativity, and compassionate action around the world. Designed as a space by and for young people, the conference turns the Charter’s platform over to youth—inviting them to share the initiatives they are leading in their schools, communities, nations, and across borders.

This commitment reflects the core mission of the Charter for Compassion: to nurture a global movement grounded in compassion as a lived ethic. From its inception, the Charter has recognized that young people are not simply beneficiaries of compassion-based work, but essential co-creators of a more just, peaceful, and humane world.

The Global Youth Conference is deeply aligned with the vision and direction of Charter 2.0, which emphasizes capacity-building, shared leadership, and systemic transformation. Charter 2.0 affirms that lasting change requires investing in those who will shape the future—while also honoring the leadership youth are already demonstrating today. The conference embodies this commitment by:

• Centering youth voices and lived experience
• Highlighting youth-led compassionate action at local, national, and global levels
• Fostering cross-cultural and intergenerational dialogue
• Supporting skill-building, collaboration, and global solidarity

Rather than positioning youth as “leaders of tomorrow,” the Global Youth Conference recognizes them as leaders now—innovators, organizers, artists, and advocates responding with courage and imagination to challenges such as climate change, inequality, violence, mental health, and social division.

Within the Compassion Transformation Institute, the Global Youth Conference serves as a vital expression of Charter 2.0 in action. It strengthens the Institute’s commitment to shared learning, inclusive leadership, and the belief that compassion grows when young people are trusted, supported, and connected to one another across borders.

By creating space for youth to learn from one another, tell their stories, and build global relationships, the Global Youth Conference affirms a central truth of the Charter: a compassionate future is not only possible—it is already being shaped by the next generation.