[2] Its purpose was to be a creative facilitator of research, education-training, and action in the form of problem-solving leadership for nonviolent global transformation.

[5] On its official website, the Center for Global Nonkilling defines its mission as the following: Small, creative, and catalytic in partnership with individuals and institutions locally and worldwide—by combining and sharing the spirit, science, skills, arts, institutions and resources of all—the Center for Global Nonkilling can contribute to new and renewed leadership for change towards a just, killing-free world in which everyone has the right not to be killed and the responsibility not to kill others.

The Center has three UN Representatives: Christophe Barbey (Geneva), Winnie Wang (New York), and Elina Viitasaari (Gender Focal Point).

The Center also has special advisers and honorary sponsors, including Máiread Corrigan Maguire, Óscar Arias, Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez, A. T. Ariyaratne, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Neelakanta Radhakrishnan, and Bernard Lafayette Jr.[7] The Center also maintains a number of research committees.

[8] The Center engages in four main activities, namely publications and media, including publication of working papers, articles, and books;[9] monitoring and advocacy, mainly at the United Nations;[10] education and training programs, with its own sets of learning materials at school and university level;[11] and research programs, via its research committees, colloquia, and seminars.