Youth movements for climate action, peace and nuclear disarmament have sprung up in Europe and around the world in the past few years as young people have become concerned about existential threats to current and future generations, and increasingly frustrated at the lack of effective action by governments to address these threats.
In 2020, the Basel Peace Office launched the Peace, nuclear Abolition and Climate Engaged Youth (PACEY) Award, an annual prize to highlight and assist youth action. The award is conferred in conjunction with the annual Intergenerational Forum on Climate, Peace and Nuclear Abolition which Basel Peace Office and Youth Fusion organise as part of the Basel Peace Forum.
The Basel PACEY Award supports youth projects which advance 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 is given to projects making the connections between the peace, climate and nuclear disarmament issues, and their increasing relevance in current times, including in relation to the pandemic.
In 2020, the PACEY Award was launched with prize money of €5000, kindly donated by BPO President Prof Andreas Nidecker MD, to the winning project. Since 2021, the Basel Kanton (President's Department) joined as a partner in the PACEY Award and provided additional funding to allow for two winning projects to each receive a €5000 prize.
Jury selection and voting
Each year, a jury of representatives from Basel Peace Office, Youth Fusion and the Basel Kanton, prepare a short-list of six finalists from the nominations/submissions, which usually number about 30. The finalists are invited to present their projects to the PACEY Award event (the final session of the Intergenerational Forum). The two winners are determined by voting of participants at the event.
The winners
The winning projects over the first three years of the PACEY Award are:
- 2020: Green Building Municipality project, a multi-ethnic youth gardening initiative from a conflict region in the town of Mitrovica, Kosovo.
- 2021: Platform for Peace and Humanity, a project to advance the legal and human right to peace through a Global Coalition of Youth Ambassadors;
- 2021: World's Youth for Climate Justice project to take the issue of climate change to the International Court of Justice (World Court).
- 2022: Faith for Earth Bosna i Hercegovina, a youth-led program building cooperation between Catholic and Muslim youth on environmental action;
- 2022: Keep it in the Ground for Peace, a youth-led campaign to stop fossil fuel extraction in Africa.
For more information please see Kosovo multi-ethnic youth garden project wins inaugural PACEY Award, Right to Peace and World Youth for Climate Justice projects win the PACEY 2021 Youth Awards and Bosnian interfaith project and Malawi environmental campaign win PACEY Youth Award 2022.
Program support for the winners
Basel Peace office and Youth Fusion also provide program support for the winning projects to help them build success. This includes consultations with project managers, participation in events and trainings organised by the projects and organising joint events.
In November 2021, for example, Basel Peace Office and Youth Fusion organised a two-day event in Basel where representatives from the two winning projects presented to a public event Climate Change, the World Court and the Right to Peace: Youth taking the lead in global actions, and then met together in working meetings with BPO and Youth Fusion advisers to help build their projects.
BPO has also been supporting WYCJ to promote their campaign through a series of global webinars. See, for example, The World Court and Climate Change: Roads and Bridges!