Basel Peace Office is pleased to announce the nine finalists of the 2024 PACEY Youth Award. We invite anyone interested in youth initiatives for a better world to join us for the PACEY Award ceremony on January 26, meet the young leaders from these nine exciting projects and vote to help determine the three winners. Each winning project will receive a prize of €5000 plus organizational support for their initiatives.
“The PACEY Award supports innovative projects which empower youth to lead transformative actions in the fields of peace, climate security and disarmament”, says Ms Marzhan Nurzhan, Deputy-Director of Basel Peace Office and Co-founder of Youth Fusion, a global youth network for the abolition of nuclear weapons. “We received nominations of more than 70 inspiring youth projects and project proposals from around the world. The nine finalists are just a sample of the quality and level of youth action on these important issues for humanity and the planet.”
“Young people in Europe and around the world are standing up to demand policy progress on the climate crisis, nuclear abolition and ending war,” says Prof (em) Andreas Nidecker MD, founder of the PACEY Award. ‘They clearly see the threats to current and future generations and are taking action.”
“Peace and security are the central starting points on the path to sustainable development,” says Dr Lukas Ott (lic. phil.), Head of Canton and Urban Development, Presidential Department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt. “Peace is the foundation that something good can grow out of it. Youth-led projects and activities that promote peace, climate-protection and disarmament are more important now than ever.”
The PACEY Award will confer one prize for a Europe-based project and two prizes for projects based outside of Europe.
Finalists
- Europe based projects
Peers4Peace
Peers4Peace is a project of Peer Leader to provide peer support for youth in Ukraine impacted by the Russian invasion. This is done mostly through online meetings and workshops between German and Ukrainian youth. In addition, the Peers4Peace program includes online discussions of youth and experts on the causes, facts and effects of such wars, and on what young people can contribute to preventing and resolving conflicts.
Effective Thesis, Empowering Youth
Past discoveries have saved lives and shaped humanity's future. But many global issues still need bright minds to find solutions. Effective Thesis is an organization which helps students choose a thesis topic that could make positive impact for the world. The organization also provide thesis coaching once the thesis topic has been chosen. Empowering Youth for Climate Action and Peace: A Holistic Approach is a thesis category which Effective Thesis is developing to address critical questions that require research on these two important issues for humanity and the planet.
Third Nuclear Age Project and UK Student Youth Pugwash
The Third Nuclear Age Project is being run by International Student and Youth Pugwash (ISYP) to examine the technical and political elements (conflicts and geo-strategic tensions) relating to nuclear weapons policies in order to find effective policy approaches to reduce nuclear risks, prevent nuclear proliferation and facilitate nuclear disarmament. UK Student and Youth Pugwash, which is the UK affiliate of ISYP, is working on a number of related projects on nuclear weapons, peace and security including the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Peace and Security and Emerging Technologies and the Impact on Strategic Stability.
- Beyond Europe projects
Bridge Builders: Empowering Youth for Peace in Afghanistan
This is a project of the Afghanistan Women’s Think Tank to rekindle the peace-building spirit and activate youth participation in peacebuilding. The initiative involves workshops with experts, cross-community youth dialogues and community service to fostering co-existence and tolerance among Afghan youth amidst the
Educational Youth Initiative, Māòhi Nui (French Polynesia)
Māòhi Nui (the islands and people of French Polynesia) was exposed to 193 nuclear tests conducted by France from 1966 to 1996 on Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls. The negative health impacts on people and the environment continues to this day, but is not adequately recognized and addressed by the French government. In addition, Māòhi Nui is subject to adverse weather and rising oceans from climate change. The Educational Youth Initiative is a project of Moruroa e Tātou to educate and engage youth in these issues through a series of workshops on various islands of Māòhi Nui.
iGreen Application and Plant for Peace
iGreen is an app developed and produced by the Youth Climate Ambassadors of the Centre for United Nations Constitutional Research (CUNCR) to measure ones’ personal carbon footprint and offset this through donating to tree planting projects run by Youth Climate Ambassadors. The trees are also planted in honour of children killed in armed conflicts around the world, raising awareness for the need to end war. Already, the project has resulted in more than 84,000 trees being planted in four continents. In Sri Lanka and India, the trees being planted are mostly mangroves, which play additional roles in protecting fragile wetland ecosystems.
Bridging Histories, Navigating Nuclear Narratives
The Soviet Union conducted over 460 nuclear tests in East Kazakhstan between 1949 and 1989. These have caused catastrophic health consequences on the population in the region. Bridging Histories, Navigating Nuclear Narratives is a project of Steppe Organization for Peace (STOP): Qazaq Youth Initiative for Nuclear Justice to explore and illuminate the narratives surrounding history, nuclear disarmament, and their intersection with the environment within the context of Kazakhstan.
Solar Ironing cart
There are approximately 10 million traditional ironing carts in India, which burn about 50 million kilograms of charcoal every day! The Solar Ironing Cart is an innovative invention, designed and built by an Indian teenager, to replace the traditional ironing carts and make substantive cuts to carbon emissions in India.
The Corruption Tracker
The Corruption Tracker (CT) is a global women and youth-led project to delegitimize and dismantle the arms trade using the lens of corruption. The project leaders are building a database of cases of corruption within the arms trade. This is proving to be an accessible tool to support anti-militarization and peace campaigners. The project sheds light on the secrecy, corruption, and lethality of the arms trade, which historically has had devastating effects on marginalised communities.
About the PACEY Award
According to Prof Lukas Kundert, Director of the Basel-Stadt Evangelical Reformed Church, the award highlights youth action that connects ethical ways of living with practical approaches to achieving peace. “Righteousness and Peace kiss each other”.
The PACEY (Peace, nuclear Abolition and Climate Engaged Youth Award) was established by Basel Peace Office in 2020 as a €5000 award for a European Youth Project. In 2021, the City of Basel (Switzerland) joined and added a prize of €5000 for Beyond Europe/Global Youth Project. And we are pleased to announce that from 2023, we have been joined by the Reformed Evangelical Church of Basel-Stadt with support for another award of €5000 for a second Beyond Europe/Global Youth Project, making three awards in total.
Finalists in each category will present their projects/proposals at the PACEY Awards ceremony which takes place online on January 26, in conjunction with Basel Peace Forum 2024 and the annual Basel Inter-generational Forum on Peace, Disarmament and Climate Action (hybrid events). Participants at the PACEY Awards Ceremony will vote by secret ballot to determine the three winners.