Global Ethics Day

With the purpose of empowering ethics as a force for good, Global Ethics Day offers plenty of opportunities for engaging with ethics as an active process for people to improve their lives and build better communities. Even in situations where people disagree with each other about certain topics or where there are partisan and nationalistic sentiments, Global Ethics Day seeks to provide ways to listen to one another and work collaboratively to make the world a better place for everyone.

History of Global Ethics Day

Global Ethics Day got its start through the efforts of the Carnegie Council for Ethics, who founded the day in 2014. This event offers opportunities for companies, groups, agencies and individuals to have important conversations and become more proactive about the way ethics are practiced in the world today.

Each year, the organizers of this event provide a theme that helps to act as a framework for discussions and activities, and one of the main themes that encompasses the hope for the event is “Ethics Empowered”. The hope for Global Ethics Day is that it will raise awareness about all sorts of different ethical issues in today’s world, whether about how humans treat other people, how they treat the planet, and so much more.

The Global Ethics Day movement has been going on for several years, and each year brings with it new participants including thousands of individual citizens, businesses, schools, government agencies, companies, non-profit organizations and others from more than 100 countries spread all over the world. Of course, ethics is an issue that must be faced every day of the year, but this day offers an opportunity to start a number of important conversations and see where they lead!

How to Celebrate Global Ethics Day

A wide range of opportunities for getting involved with and celebrating Global Ethics Day can be found, in the neighborhood and all around the world! Consider some of these ideas for participating in the day:

Host a Global Ethics Day Event

This could range from something as small and informal as a discussion with coworkers over lunch to a large community event on a college campus with seminars and speakers. The important part is not the number of people who get involved but the fact that a discussion centered around ethics is taking place in a safe manner – and hopefully also inspiring people to take action in their local areas. Those who choose to host an event can get access to a social media toolkit through the Carnegie Council website.

Create Ethics-Themed Art Projects

Ethics certainly doesn’t need to be limited to conversations in the political realm! In fact, throughout history many times artists have been the ones who have pushed boundaries and led forward with social movement and change. Perhaps Global Ethics Day would be a great opportunity for an art class, or even just a group of friends who are artists, to create works based on the theme of ethics and then host an art show whether in person or on social media.