Events

Peace and Future Generations Solidarity Walk
8am - 10:30am, Nairobi
Starting point: Rubis Petrol Station, 200 meters from UN Entrance
Register

Basel Forum on Peace, Climate Protection and the UN Summit of the Future: The roles of cities and youth.

Thursday May 30, 2024, Basel, Switzerland. 10:30-16:15
Register

A regional consultation co-hosted by Basel Peace Office and the Basel Stadt Kanton President’s Office.

Morning session: Youth engagement and civil society proposals for the Summit of the Future
K-Haus, Kasernenstrasse 8, 4058 Basel

Afternoon session 2:  Cities, legislators & youth. An intergenerational dialogue on the Summit of the Future
Basel Town Hall (Rathaus des Kantons Basel-Stadt)

 

 

Friday January 26, 2024. 10:00-12:00  CET
Wohnzimmer, 2nd floor K-Haus, Kasernenstrasse 8, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
A hybrid side event of the Basel Peace Forum 2024

Friday January 26 at 4pm - 5:30pm Central Europe Time / 10am-11:30am Eastern Time
Online - Registration required.

3 prizes of €5000 each. The 9 finalists will present their projects. The audience then votes to determine the winners.

 

Applying human rights law to address existential threats to humanity
In-person event. Thursday July 6. 15:00-16:00
Sidley Austin Law Firm, Rue du Pré-de-la-Bichette 1 Geneva 1202

Registration

 

Nuclear Stories Pre-Premier
Zurich and online
Wednesday April 26, 2023
7pm - 8:30pm Central Europe Time.
Click here to register. No cost to join.
The event is held in conjunction with International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day

Human Rights and the Doomsday Clock
Using international human rights law to address existential threats
posed by nuclear weapons and climate change.

A side event to the UN Human Rights Council 42nd Universal Periodic Review

Wednesday January 25. 1:15 – 2:45pm
Sidley Austin Law Firm, Geneva.

Registration required: RSVP to alyn@pnnd.org or Ph/SMS to +41 788 912 156

 

January 20. 11am – 12:30pm
A side event of the Basel Peace Forum 2023

Online by zoom and in-person at K-Haus, Basel, Switzerland

Registration required.

 

Saturday January 21
4:30pm-6pm Central Europe Time / 10:30am-12noon Eastern Time USA
Online. Click here to register.
3 prizes of €5000 each. The 9 finalists will present their projects. The audience then votes to determine the winners.

Youth initiatives for a sustainable future

Join the 2022 PACEY Award Winners and Youth Fusion, winners of the Gorbachev/Schultz Legacy Youth Award
K-Haus, Kasernenstrasse 8, 4058 Basel
6pm-8pm. Tuesday November 8.
Followed by an apero

[Simultaneous interpretation in English and German]

Register at https://forms.gle/1sH37wqpQbN4vZBb9

 

Using international human rights law to address existential threats.
A side event to the UN Human Rights Council 50th Regular Session.

Friday July 1. 13:15 - 14:45. (In-person event)

Montreux Room, Varembé Conference Center (CCV). 9-11 Rue de Varembé, Geneva

Register for the event

 

The 3rd in a series of webinars on the youth-led campaign to take the issue of climate change to the International Court of Justice (World Court).

Friday March 4, 2022

Session 1: Timed for Asia/Pacific. 8am - 9:30am Central Europe Time. Event in English. Click here to register.

Session 2: Timed for the Americas/Europe/Africa/Middle East. Simulataneous translation in English/French/Spanish. Click here to register.

Friday Jan 21, 2022. 8:30am – 10am CET

Description: Peace, nuclear Abolition and Climate Engage Youth (PACEY) Award event

Two prizes of €5000 Euro each will be awarded to exemplary youth projects or initiatives to advance peace, climate protection and/or disarmament, especially nuclear disarmament.

Registration

Thursday Jan 20, 2022 8:00 pm – 9:30pm CET

Description: From youth vision and enthusiasm to policy change. An intergenerational forum between policymakers (legislators) and youth activists on the Climate / Nuclear Disarmament nexus. The event is held in conjunction with the Basel Peace Forum 2022.

Registration

A public in-person event featuring the two winning projects of the 2021 Basel PACEY (Youth) Awards.

Wednesday November 24, 18:30 – 20:00
Basel University ‘Old’ Campus
Rheinsprung 9, 4051 Basel

Register

Methods and examples of nonviolent actions to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. An online event to commemorate the International Day of Nonviolence and the 152nd anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.

Saturday October 2. 10am-12 noon Eastern Time USA / 4-6pm Central Europe Time / 7:30-9:30pm Delhi.

Simultaneous translation in English/French

Register for the event at https://bit.ly/nonviolence21century

Toward an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal responsibility to ensure a stable climate for future generations

Webinar 2: What question to ask the Court? What sources of law to use?

Tuesday August 24, 2021
8am-10am Pacific Time USA / 11am-1pm Eastern Time USA / 4pm-6pm London / 5pm-7pm Central Europe

Simultaneous translation English/French. Click here to register.

An Inter-generational Forum followed by the PACEY Plus Youth Award

January 19, 2021. 15:00 – 19:15 Central Europe Time

A forum of youth, experts and policy makers discussing actions and effective policies for peace, disarmament, the climate and public health especially in times of pandemic. The event will be held in three sessions of 1¼  hours each with a short break between each session. 

Click here to register.

Session 1: Timed for Asia and the Pacific.
Thursday December 10. 8am Central Europe Time (10 am Moscow, 1pm Dhaka, 4pm Tokyo/Seoul, 7pm Suva)
Program and other information will be posted on the Session 1 event facebook page. Click here to register.

Session 2: Timed for the Americas, Europe and Africa.
Friday December 11. 11:30 Eastern time USA/Canada. (5:30pm CET)
Program and other information will be posted on the Session 2 event facebook page. Click here to register.

Webinar: Monday November 2, 2020
10am – 11:30am Eastern Time USA. 4pm-5:30pm Central Europe Time
Click here to register. Click here for the event flyer.

TheoSounds Concert to commemorate the International Day for Peace.
Sunday September 20 in Theodorskirche (Theodorskirchpl. 5, 4058 Basel) at 16:00

The concert is Schubert Notturno Op. 148 and Beethoven Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 1.

Performed by the PlayforRights Chamber Trio: Fraynni Rui (violin), Joonas Pitkänen (Violoncello) and Aleck Carratta (piano).
Free entry. We invite you to attend.

September 21- October 2, 2020.

A series of UN and UN-related events and actions running from Sep 21 (International Day for Peace) until October 2 (International Day for Nonviolence)

International webinar. Thursday  July 30, 2020.
9:00 am
- 10:30 am EDT  (15:00-16:30 CET)

Part of the Abolition 2000 webinar series on issues and actions for nuclear abolition
Click here to register. Click here for the event flyer.

Dates:
Thursday, May 14, 2020. Time: 11am EDT, 5pm CET
Tuesday May 19, 2020. Time: 9am CET

Contact: Youth actions webinar

 

International webinar, Tuesday April  21, 2020. Held in conjunction with Earth Day 2020 and the Global Days of Action on Military Spending.

The webinar will address: Cutting nuclear weapons budgets. Ending investments in nuclear weapons & fossil fuels. Reallocating these to public health, climate protection and sustainable development.

January 9, 2020. 1pm – 5:30pm. Basel, Switzerland.

A roundtable meeting of parliamentarians & city leaders with youth campaigners from the European climate, peace and nuclear disarmament movements.

Organised in conjunction with the Basel Peace Forum 2020: Cities in Time of Conflict & Peace, January 9-10, 2020.

Conference languages: English and German. Click here for the conference flyer.

Contact: info@baselpeaceoffice.org

Divestment and other actions by cities, universities and parliaments to reverse the nuclear arms race and protect the climate

Basel, Switzerland. April 12-13, 2019

A European and trans-Atlantic conference organised by Basel Peace Office.
Co-sponsored by IPPNW Switzerland and the Basel-Stadt Kanton, in cooperation with Mayors for Peace (Europe) and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.

Political and financial policies to protect future generations from climate change and nuclear weapons.

Monday January 14, 2019. 6pm-7:45pm
Hörsaal (Room) 215, Seminar fur Soziologie,
Basel University, Petersgraben 27, Basel, Switzerland

Click here for the program (pdf).
Contact info@baselpeaceoffice.org

 Thursday December 7.
Basel University, Hörsaal 001
18:00 - 20:00

Premier screening of the award-winning movie 'Where the Wind Blew' about the impact of nuclear tests in Nevada and Kazakhstan. Screenign is followed by discussion with representatives of Kazakhstan.

Basel University, September 14 - September 17

An international conference on the human impact of nuclear weapons and power, legal cases on behalf of victims, and protection of future generations.

Monday Jan 16. 16:30-18:30. Sydney Room, Floor 2, Messe Center, Messeplatz 21, Basel.

Europe could be caught in nuclear cross-fire between Russia and the United States. Join us for a discussion with Swiss and international speakers on new threats from nuclear weapons and what can be done about it.

Kazakh Room (Cinema XIV), Palais des Nations, Geneva.
September 27, 2016. 15:00 - 17:00.

Special event featuring
* Ela Gandhi (grand-daughter of Mahatma Gandhi and Co-President of Religions for Peace);
* Chain Reaction 2016 video, a series of nuclear disarmament actions and events around the world;

* Presentation of the Astana Vision declaration to the United Nations.

Please register at info@unfoldzero.org by September 22

Issues and proposals for taking forward nuclear disarmament
Framwork Forum roundtable for invited governments
April 18, 2016
Hosted by the Permanent Mission of Canada to the UN, Geneva
Co-sponsored by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

From the NPT to the UN General Assembly: Filling the legal gap to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons

Geneva, 1 September 2015, 13:15-18:00

Restaurant Layalina 121 rue de Lausanne, and Auditorium Jacques Freymond, rue de Lausanne 132       

Sponsored by Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, Middle Powers Initiative, Basel Peace Office and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Geneva
Supported by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation and World Future Council

Screenings in various locations in Switzerland during the week September 21-26

Directed by Peter Anthony
Featuring: Stanislav Petrov, Kevin Costner, Sergey Shnrynov, Matt Damon, Natalia Vdovina & Robert de Niro

On the night of September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov disobeyed military protocol and probably prevented a nuclear holocaust. He says that he is not a hero. 'I was just in the right place at the right time.' You decide!

 

Wave goodbye to nukes! 24 hours of actions in capitals and other cities around the world April 26-27, 2015

Framework Forum roundtable
Monday September 8, 2014, 13:00 – 18:00
Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights
Auditoire Jaques Freymond, rue de Lausanne 132 , Geneva

By invitation only
Contact info@baselpeaceoffice.org

Kazakh Room (Cinema Room XIV),
Palais des Nations, United Nations, Geneva
September 25, 16:00 - 17:30
followed by refreshments

Organised by UNFOLD ZERO and the Basel Peace Office
Hosted by the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs

A UN pass is required to attend. Contact info@unfoldzero.org

18 August to 15 October 2014
Oberer Rheinweg, Basel, Between Mittlere Brücke (Middle Bridge) and Wettstein Bridge

Late October until early December 2014
Theatrestrasse, Basel. From Elizabethenkirche to Barfusserplatz

www.makingpeace.org

Sunday August 17, 6pm – 9pm
Im Fluss stage on the Rhine
Oberer Rheinweg, Basel

Free

PLAYforRIGHTS presents a Youth Music Performance to commemorate World Humanitarian Day

A range of live music featuring ERROR 404 brass band ensemble from Musik Akademie Basel

July 4 - 5
Basel, Switzerland

Hosted by Guy Morin, President of the Basel-Stadt Canton
Organised by the Basel Peace Office

Mayors, parliamentarians and civil society!
Join us in Basel to share initiatives, network with others and advance the cooperative security framework for peace, prosperity and nuclear disarmament.

Chernobyl exhibition and the Rhine
Kleinbasel, Basel
Sunday April 13, afternoon

With Basel Peace Office and Environmental Award laureates participating in the 3rd International Convention of Environmental Laureates.

13:00: Photo exhibition of Chernobyl nuclear disaster
by Alexander Hofmann
Basel Art Center, Riehentorstrasse 33, Basel
Discounted group rate 15 CHF (normal entry is 22 CHF)

13:50 Lunch
Merian Spitz Cafe, Rheingasse 2

15:30. Rhine Promenade, water-powered ferry, Munster

RSVP to alyn@pnnd.org or +41 788 912 156

International Day of Sport for Peace and Development
Sunday April 6, 2014

Carton Blanc photo event and short peace run/cycle in Basel
Followed by an informal talk on peace and sport – peace bike rides

3pm: Run/cycle along the Rhine from Oberer Rheinweg (under Wettstein Bridge) to the Three Countries Corner
4pm: Carton Blanc photo event at Three Countries Corner, Dreiländereck
5pm: Light meal and talk at Restaurant Schiff

Contact info@baselpeaceoffice.org

Act now to encourage your country to engage in the OEWG. Organize a public event with motive of “opening the door to a nuclear weapons free world”!

Tuesday 21 May, 2013
13:15 – 14:45
Room XI, Building A, UN Geneva

Side-event of Open Ended Working
Group on Nuclear Disarmament

Launch of the 2nd edition of the Nuclear Abolition Forum
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
12:30 – 14:00
Geneva Centre for Security Policy
WMO/OMM Building Avenue de la Paix 7bis, Geneva

Featuring:
Ambassador Urs Schmid (Switzerland)
Ambassador Nobuyasu Abe (Japan)
Jean-Marie Collin (PNND, France)
Marc Finaud (Program Adviser, GCSP)
Alyn Ware (Founder, Nuclear Abolition Forum, New Zealand)
Teresa Bergman (Researcher, Basel Peace Office)

6pm, Friday May 24
University of Basel, Lecture Hall 001
Petersgraben, Basel

Featuring:
Wilson Kipketer, runner. Current world record holder for the 800 and 1000 meters (indoors).
Spokesperson for L’organisation pour la Paix par le Sport (Peace and Sport)
Paol Hansen, Special Adviser UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace
Carola Szemerey, Youth Future Project
Henk Van Nieuwenhove, Flanders Peace Field project  (the 1914 Soccer Truce)

 

A bell, a bomb and a ban? Swiss and Japanese youth join together for nuclear disarmament

On November 4, 2013, Nagasaki students Kenichi EJIMA (Ken) and Haruka MAEKAWA were welcomed up onto the stage of the final plenary of the 5th Nagasaki Global Citizens Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons to make a special presentation from Swiss Youth Bans the Bomb to Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue. Just 5 days earlier,  Ken and Haruka were honorary guests in Heiden, Switzerland at a ceremony in front of the Museum of Henri Dunant – founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They were part of a series of events that are bringing Swiss and Japanese youth and anti-nuclear campaigners together in a new drive to achieve a nuclear weapons-free world.


Kenichi EJIMA, Haruka MAEKAWA and Alyn Ware present the Heiden letter to Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue

Nagasaki is one of the two cites to have been bombed with nuclear weapons. It has thus been at the forefront of international efforts to highlight the destruction caused by nuclear weapons and the imperative to eliminate nuclear weapons. Nagasaki Mayor Taue is head of a Japanese network of 287 cities that have declared themselves to be nuclear-weapons-free in opposition to  Japanese government policies to be ‘protected’ by US nuclear weapons under an extended nuclear deterrence military alliance. He is also Vice-President of Mayors for Peace, a global alliance of over 5000 cities calling for negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention – a global treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.


Nagasaki Peace Bell in Heiden being rung to open the Swiss Youth Bans the Bomb conference

‘Nagasaki ‘hibakusha’ - survivors of the nuclear bombing - have travelled tirelessly telling their horror stories of the nuclear bombing to demonstrate the inhumanity and illegality of these weapons. Tomihisa Taue’s immediate predecessor as Mayor of Nagasaki, Icoh Itoh, was himself a hibakusha who played a vital role testifying in the International Court of Justice case that resulted in a conclusion that ‘the destructive effects of nuclear weapons cannot be contained in time or space’ and that ‘the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be illegal.'

With the passage of time, surviving hibakusha number very few. So now Nagasaki youth are picking up the baton, learning the stories from their grandparents' generation, and reaching out to youth globally to ensure that this generation succeeds in banning the bomb. Their efforts have been buttressed by national Red Cross societies which have become more active since the ICRC adopted a resolution in November 2011 supporting the ICJ conclusion that the use of nuclear weapons is scarcely reconcilable with international humanitarian law, and calling for global abolition.


Nagasaki Mayor Taue, Peoples Assembly Chair MasaoTomonaga, RECNA students and Alyn Ware lead the Nagasaki Peace Walk

Thus the significance of Heiden as the place for the Swiss Youth Bans the Bomb conference – and to include participation of Nagasaki youth. In fact, Haruka and Ken had the honour in Heiden of opening the conference by ringing the Peace Bell which was donated by the City of Nagasaki to Heiden a few years previously.

Ken and Haruka, students at the University of Nagasaki and members of the Research Centre for Nuclear Abolition (RECNA), were brought to Switzerland with financial support from the Henri Dunant Museum Society and the help of the Basel Peace Office which works with RECNA on a number of projects. These include the Nuclear Abolition Forum, PNND (engaging legislators) and the proposal for a North East Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, possibly the best chance to denuclearise North Korea and lower the role of nuclear weapons in Japanese and South Korean policies (See Nuclear sabre-rattling in North East Asia: Can Godzilla be tamed?)


Nagasaki Assembly participants at the nuclear bomb hypocentre in Nagasaki

An emerging focus for the two centres (Basel and Nagasaki) is how to empower youth who may know about global problems such as the nuclear weapons  – but feel that they are powerless to change the vested interests in the status quo. At the Swiss Youth Bans the Bomb conference in Heiden, for example, Ken and Haruka reported on a recent RECNA survey which found that although 75% of Nagasaki youth knew about the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons, very few were active in the anti-nuclear movement as 94% of them believed that it was impossible to abolish nuclear weapons – and thus action was useless.

In light of this research, the Basel Peace Office offered workshops for youth at the Heiden conference and at Nagasaki University emphasising not the horror nuclear weapons – but the processes for resolving conflicts and effecting change. Prior to the workshop in Nagasaki only 5% of the students indicated that they believed nuclear abolition to be possible. After the workshop over 60% indicated that they had changed their mind – nuclear abolition was possible and they were interested now in becoming involved.

Before I listen to your talk I didn’t think that we can clear all nuclear weapons in the world. But now I believe that we can! I’m just ordinary people. I am not official. However, in my opinion if we cooperate we can achieve the top of the ‘nuclear-free mountain’.
Student in Nagasaki University after the Basel Peace Office workshop


RECNA students and Nagasaki Assembly participants at 'The Cloak of Peace' sculpture donated by New Zealand to the Nagasaki Peace Park

Participants of the Heiden and Nagasaki conferences considered a range of actions that  can be taken by youth and other anti-nuclear activists to help achieve a nuclear weapon free world – including informing other youth (through events and social media), establishing nuclear-weapon-free zones (local, national and regional), choosing to hold accounts only with banks that do not invest in nuclear weapons, encouraging their parliamentarians to take action (including through joining Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarament), and calling on governments to support negotiations to abolish nuclear weapons globally.

I thought the nuclear weapon free world is impossible.  I thought that there are too many people in the world who support nuclear weapons – so I thought that we would always have the fear of nuclear weapons. But I learned today that there is the way to oppose illegal nuclear weapons. I now feel the possibility of achieving the nuclear weapon free world.
Student in Nagasaki University after the Basel Peace Office workshop

For further information see
   *   Nagasaki Appeal, adopted by the 5th Nagasaki Global Citizens’ Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons;
   *   Swiss Youth Bans the Bomb resolution (in German), adopted at the Swiss Youth Bans the Bomb conference

Take action: Endorse the Nagasaki Peace Declaration


Alyn Ware (Basel Peace Office) with University of Nagasaki class after the session on A nuclear-weapon free world- Is it possible?
 

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