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Published (non-binding, current)Non-binding · Declaration / statement

G20 South Africa Summit: Leaders' Declaration (Johannesburg, 22-23 November 2025)

Record G20-01

Issued by
G20 Leaders (South African G20 Presidency)
Jurisdiction
G20
Level · region
International · Global
Published / adopted
2025-11
Language
English

Summary

Leaders' declaration of the first G20 summit in Africa. Its section on 'Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance and Innovation for Sustainable Development' (paragraphs 44-47) welcomes the G20 AI task force, reaffirms the G20 AI Principles and commits to cooperation to share AI's benefits and mitigate risks. It states that safe, secure and trustworthy AI requires addressing human rights, transparency and explainability, fairness, accountability, regulation, safety, appropriate human oversight, ethics, bias, privacy, data protection and data governance, and recognises the UN's role in AI cooperation. Leaders also welcome the AI for Africa Initiative.

Safety topics

international cooperationhuman oversightaccountability & liabilitytransparency & labelling

Scope

Borderline scope Existing scope_note kept: general summit declaration with an AI section.

Status notes

Adopted on 22 November 2025, the first day of the summit, in the absence of the United States: the South African Presidency's text of President Ramaphosa's address at the leaders' reception that evening says 'Today, we have adopted the Leaders' Declaration', and the government news service SAnews reported on 23 November 2025 that the leaders adopted it at the very start of the summit. The declaration itself gives only the summit's dates, 22 and 23 November 2025. It has 122 paragraphs; its AI section is paragraphs 44-47 under the heading 'Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance and Innovation for Sustainable Development'. Paragraph 46 notes the Technology Policy Assistance Facility set up by UNESCO under the South African Presidency to support countries in shaping their AI policies. Paragraph 122 commits members to working together under the United States' Presidency in 2026 and to meeting in the United Kingdom in 2027 and the Republic of Korea in 2028.

Sources

Open the official source https://dirco.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2025-G20-Summit-Declaration.pdf

Secondary source: https://presidency.gov.za/address-president-cyril-ramaphosa-g20-leaders-reception-occasion-g20-leaders-summit

Local copy

Archived. Last attempt 2026-10-18 07:40:52 UTC

Official source (third-party copy, not published) archive/G20-01/2026-10-17/official.pdf
Retrieved 2026-10-17 14:28:39 UTC
SHA-256 7e878591411ce6a5ad729c93151de595aca4462b52e2c5dea6f25f548b14b33a
Secondary source (third-party copy, not published) archive/G20-01/2026-10-17/secondary.html
Retrieved 2026-10-17 14:28:44 UTC
SHA-256 1a7daa759d73bb590ac0ed2e116da6c20c53a5a820c80bcd45d2b73c0ec9d4c6

Verification

A
The instrument's own official text, or an official register, was stored and confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-18 · official-url-fetched
Refresh of 18 Oct 2026 under the rule that level A needs the instrument's own text or an official register. Re-read the declaration's PDF from the site of South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation (dirco.gov.za, stored 17 Oct 2026; the copy on g20.org refuses the archiver with HTTP 403), the declaration's own text, which gives the title, the summit on 22 and 23 November 2025 and paragraphs 44-47 and 118-122; and the South African Presidency's text of the President's address at the G20 leaders' reception, dated Saturday 22 November 2025 ('Today, we have adopted the Leaders' Declaration'), stored as the record's secondary source. The declaration gives no day of adoption, only the summit's two days, so date_published now has the month the declaration gives and the notes keep the day with its sources; the address is a speech, an announcement, and counts as alt-official. Stored again in this run: the SAnews report of Sunday 23 November 2025 (sanews.gov.za, a government news service; a news report, so alt-official), which says the leaders adopted the declaration at the very start of the summit, in the absence of the United States. The G20 Research Group's reprint (not an official host) is dated Johannesburg, 22 November 2025.
Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-18: 5 field(s) supported, fixes applied to scope_note.

History

  1. 2026-10-18scope_note: A general G20 summit declaration whose AI content is limited to paragraphs 44-47 → Existing scope_note kept: general summit declaration with an AI section. — pipeline run 2026-10-18-refresh-level-rule-2 (refresh), candidate G20-012026-10-18-refresh-level-rule-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  2. 2026-10-18notes: Adopted at the very start of the summit on 22 November 2025, in the absence of t → Adopted on 22 November 2025, the first day of the summit, in the absence of the — first sentence now names the sources of the adoption day (the Presidency's text of the address of 22 November 2025 and SAnews of 23 November 2025) and says the declaration itself gives only the summit's dates; the rest unchanged2026-10-18-refresh-level-rule-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  3. 2026-10-18date_published: 2025-11-22 → 2025-11 — 2025-11-22 -> 2025-11: the declaration's own text gives only the summit's dates ('on 22 and 23 November 2025'), not the day of adoption; the day comes from the President's address at the leaders' reception, a speech (announcement), and from SAnews, so it moves to the notes with its sources (rule 7b), as for ASEAN-01's two-day meeting2026-10-18-refresh-level-rule-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  4. 2026-10-17scope_note: – → A general G20 summit declaration whose AI content is limited to paragraphs 44-47 — a general summit declaration with a four-paragraph AI section, flagged like INT-19 (a ministerial communiqué with one AI section); the remark in the old notes moved here2026-10-17-recheck-international-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  5. 2026-10-17notes: The 122-paragraph declaration was adopted at the opening of the summit on 22 Nov → Adopted at the very start of the summit on 22 November 2025, in the absence of t — statements resting on press reports (Argentina) and on an unstored page (the Digital Economy Working Group's chair's statement) removed; the adoption at the very start of the summit on 22 November and the absence of the United States now rest on the Presidency's address and the SAnews report stored in this run; paragraphs 46 and 122 from the PDF2026-10-17-recheck-international-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
  6. 2026-10-17secondary_url: https://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2025/251122-declaration.html → https://presidency.gov.za/address-president-cyril-ramaphosa-g20-leaders-receptio — the South African Presidency's address at the leaders' reception (22 November 2025), the host presidency's own record of the adoption date, in place of the G20 Research Group reprint, which is not an official host2026-10-17-recheck-international-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

OECD AI Principles OECD · Published (non-binding, current)

UN AI Scientific Panel & Global Dialogue resolution United Nations · Published (non-binding, current)

G20 Innovation Ministerial Statement 2026 (Chapel Hill) G20 · Published (non-binding, current)

Citation

G20 Leaders (South African G20 Presidency). G20 South Africa Summit: Leaders' Declaration (Johannesburg, 22-23 November 2025). 2025-11. https://dirco.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/2025-G20-Summit-Declaration.pdf. Status: Published (non-binding, current); verified 2026-10-18 (level A). Local copy archive/G20-01/2026-10-17/official.pdf retrieved 2026-10-17 14:28:39 UTC, SHA-256 7e878591411ce6a5ad729c93151de595aca4462b52e2c5dea6f25f548b14b33a. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record G20-01.

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