A roundtable meeting of parliamentarians & city leaders with youth campaigners from the European climate, peace and nuclear disarmament movements. January 9, 2020. 1pm – 5:30pm. Basel, Switzerland.
Introduction:
Youth movements for climate action, peace and nuclear disarmament have sprung up in Europe and around the world in the past few years. Young people have become concerned about existential threats to current and future generations, and increasingly frustrated at the insufficient action by governments to address these threats. Furthermore, the United Nations General Assembly in October 2019 adopted a new resolution emphasizing the important role of engaging youth in disarmament and non-proliferation issues. And the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs has released a new handbook Disarmament and You(th).
Mayors and parliamentarians can play key roles in turning the concerns, demands and visions of youth into effective policies. To do so requires dialogue and cooperation. This special meeting will bring together leaders of key youth movements with parliamentarians and mayors who are concerned about the issues of climate change, peace and disarmament, in order to build such dialogue and cooperation.
Click here for the program.
Basel Peace Forum
The roundtable meeting will be held in conjunction with the Basel Peace Forum, an annual event involving experts and decision-makers from politics, business, civil society, and academia focusing on key issues for maintaining peace in Europe and globally. The theme of the 2020 Basel Peace Forum is Cities in Time of Conflict & Peace.
Basel Peace Office will be running a pavilion at the Basel Peace Forum. The pavilion will include the premier screening of a video project on European youth voices on climate, peace and security, and will provide further opportunities for youth leaders to dialogue with legislators, academics and civil society leaders on these issues.
PACEY Award
At the roundtable meeting the Basel Peace Office will bestow the inaugural Basel PACEY (Peace and Climate action of European Youth) Award. This is a €5000 award to support an outstanding or innovative European youth project or proposal on action for the climate and peace.
The award will support a youth project which advances effective policy action to cut carbon emissions, enhance the transition to renewable energies, address and resolve international conflicts, abolish nuclear weapons, reduce weapons budgets and investments, and/or support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Priority will be given to projects making the connections between the peace, climate and nuclear disarmament issues.
For further information contact: info@baselpeaceoffice.org
Carbon foot-print offsetting
Where possible, participants from outside Basel are using train to get to the conference. For any required flights, Basel Peace Office offset the carbon footprint by contributing to MyClimate.org, a Swiss carbon footprint offsetting platform.