MRA Joins IFEX Members, Experts in Call for Global Moratorium on ‘Frontier AI’

5 min read

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has joined members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) and other national, regional, and international organizations, as well as individuals from around the world in sounding an alarm over the harms caused by “frontier AI”, stressing that a handful of private companies cannot be allowed to determine what level of danger the public should accept.

In the Joint Statement issued on September 29, 2026, the signatories called for an immediate global moratorium on the development, deployment, and sale of ‘frontier AI’, which are “advanced or autonomous AI models that have the potential to cause severe or widespread harm to humans until binding safeguards, independent oversight, and effective enforcement mechanisms are in place.”

Read the full statement below:

We, the undersigned civil society organisations, call for an immediate global moratorium on the development, deployment and sale of ‘frontier AI’, which are advanced or autonomous AI models that have the potential to cause severe or widespread harm to humans until binding safeguards, independent oversight and effective enforcement mechanisms are in place.

Developers from some of the world’s largest AI companies now accept the need to slow the reckless development of the most powerful and potentially dangerous AI systems. This is a significant admission from the companies leading the race: AI capabilities are advancing faster than the safeguards needed to control them.

Voluntary commitments are not enough. After each warning, companies return to accelerated development while governments continue to discuss future regulation. A handful of private companies cannot be allowed to determine what level of danger the public should accept.

The harms are already here. Experts warn that advanced AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. Meanwhile, AI is already enabling mass fraud, accelerating surveillance and weapons systems, amplifying misinformation, eliminating entry-level jobs and concentrating power and wealth.

We work across digital rights, labour rights, corporate accountability, gender justice, racial justice, education, environmental justice and civil liberties. We have consistently documented these harms, sounded the alarm over the reckless pace of AI development and called for binding regulation. The tech giants have fought to block effective and binding regulations, which remain far from the standards applied to other sectors capable of causing severe human rights and environmental harm, including pharmaceuticals, aviation and ‘controversial weapons’.

Our urgent call

As public consensus grows on the need for urgent action, we demand that:

Governments impose an immediate global moratorium on the development, financing and sale of frontier AI models and begin negotiating a binding international agreement.
AI companies immediately cease the development, deployment and sale of frontier AI models and cooperate fully with independent regulators and assessors.
Investors pause financing for frontier AI, disclose their exposure and use their leverage to require portfolio companies to stop development, deployment and sale.

The moratorium must remain in place until five conditions are met:

Independent oversight and certification: Advanced and autonomous models must undergo independent assessment against internationally agreed safety and human rights standards before release. Regulators must have access to the systems and information necessary to assess them. Certification must include effective containment and shutdown mechanisms.
Transparency on safety: Companies must disclose their spending on AI development and safety, alongside serious incidents, identified risks, failed tests and corrective action.
Mandatory and ongoing human rights and environmental due diligence: Companies must identify, prevent and address harms across the AI value chain. These duties must be backed by civil and criminal liability for companies and their executives.
Prohibition of dangerous capabilities: Governments must prohibit systems with capabilities that cannot be reliably controlled, including recursive self-improvement that could outrun our ability to contain it.
Strict controls in critical sectors: AI must not be deployed in health, finance, public services, education or other high-risk sectors, as well as migration management, weapons and surveillance systems, without extensive impact assessment and independent oversight.

Action cannot wait

The world cannot wait for the United States and China to determine the future of AI. Governments across regions must work together to build an inclusive international agreement in which workers, human rights defenders and affected communities worldwide have genuine decision-making power.

In parallel, national and regional regulation must proceed rapidly. Governments have an immediate and a primary obligation to protect their populations and cannot delay action while international negotiations continue. Development of frontier AI must stop until binding safeguards are in place.

Individuals signing on (please see below for Signatory Organisations):