Basel Peace Office is pleased to announce the 2023 winners of the Peace, nuclear Abolition and Climate Engaged Youth (PACEY) Award who were decided by vote of the participants and audience of the PACEY 2023 Award Ceremony on Saturday evening (January 21).
The winners, each of whom will receive prizes of €5000 each plus organizational support for their project, are Peace in our Schools (Georgia), Adopt a tree, not a weapon (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Storytelling as a Catalyst of Action for Peace, Love, and Climate Justice in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa).
“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-chair of the PACEY Award Ceremony. “We received nominations of over 80 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.”
“When I read these wonderful nominations it brought warmth to my heart and joy for 2023,” says Professor Lukas Kundert, Director of the Basel-Stadt Reformed Evangelical Church and one of the sponsors of the Award. “The nine finalists are all outstanding and it was very difficult for all of use to decide on our choices to be the three winners.”
The PACEY Award ceremony included short (6 minute) presentations from all nine finalists, plus presentations from two youth projects that have won the award in previous years World's Youth for Climate Justice which is taking the issue of climate change to the International Court of Justice, and Platform for Peace and Humanity for their Youth Ambassadors for the Right to Peace program.
You can watch/rewatch the ceremony on Basel Peace Office videos or directly at PACEY 2023 Award Ceremony.
The winners:
Peace in our Schools (Georgia) is a project to work with young Ukrainian refugees and Russian immigrants, who have fled the Russia-Ukraine war. The project, founded by Jewish and Muslim peacemakers from Georgia and Afghanistan, aims to provide emotional intelligence and conflict resolution training to Ukrainian and Russian youth, through programs in Georgian schools.
“We strongly believe that peace in the schools will foster peace in the world,” say Lika Torikashvili and Ramiz Bakhtiar, coordinators of the Peace in Our Schools project and members of the Network of Former Youth Delegates to the United Nations. “The 2023 PACEY Award will enable us to bring Peace in Our Schools to Tbilisi, Georgia, and work with Ukrainian refugees and Russian immigrants, who fled the Russia-Ukraine war. Our goal is to teach young people around the world how to build peace and end the cycle of hate and violence.”
Storytelling as a Catalyst of Action for Peace, Love, and Climate Justice in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) is a project led by the MENA Youth Network which will harness the power of storytelling to advance and highlight urgent needs, and empower and unite youth towards establishing peace, love, and climate justice in the region.
"Our project aims to bring to light the stories of those most impacted by the climate crisis and conflict in the MENA region and to empower youth to start initiatives to mitigate these issues”, say Mohammad Ahmadi and Leen Assiry, coordinators of the project. “We are elated and grateful to win the PACEY Award, which will help us to carry out our on-the-ground interviews, run our website, and organize our exhibitions and workshops. And we hope that the Basel Peace Office's support will enable us to increase the reach and impact of our project."
Adopt a tree, not a weapon (Democratic Republic of Congo), is a project to address the climate crisis and activism of local and foreign armed groups using children as soldiers to commit violence and destroy the biodiversity. The project, run by former child soldiers and other young volunteers from the Amani-Institute, uses a range of innovative approaches including inter-active theatre, to educate and engage other youth.
“For us, this award is a great responsibility that will allow us to amplify the impact of our work in the field,” says Joseph Tsongo, Coordinator of the Adopt a Tree, not a weapon project. “It is a recognition of the hard work of young survivors of war, committed to positive change in a complex context trying to make the world a better place to live. More than that, it will help us in advocacy by raising the voices of young people at the crossroads of climate and security crises around the world.”
The six other finalists were Global Perspectives on Corporate Climate Legal Tactics (UK), SAFNA Youth Forum Database (Switzerland), Ertis Mektebi school (Kazakhstan), Nuclear Lives: Uranium Mining on Indigenous Communities of Meghalaya (India), Silence the Guns (Cameroon) and Youth Peace Caravans (Sudan/Uganda). See Basel Peace Office announces the nine finalists for the 2023 PACEY Youth Award.
Comments from the two other co-sponsors:
“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.”