The Basel Peace Office and the Office of Cantonal and Urban Development (Department of Presidential Affairs, Canton of Basel-Stadt) invite nominations for the 2021 Basel PACEY Plus Award.
Two prizes of €5000 Euro each will be awarded to exemplary youth projects or youth initiatives to advance peace, climate protection and disarmament, especially nuclear disarmament. One of the awards is for a European youth project and the other award is for a youth project from outside of Europe or is a global youth project focused primarily outside Europe.
The awards will support 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 will be given to projects making the connections between the peace, climate and nuclear disarmament issues, and their increasing relevance in times of the pandemic.
Background
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 sufficient action by governments to address these threats.
In 2020, the Basel Peace Office launched the Basel PACEY (Peace and Climate action of European Youth) Award to highlight and assist youth action. The inaugural award was won by Green Building Municipality project, a multi-ethnic youth gardening initiative from a conflict region in the town of Mitrovica Kosovo.
This year the CORONA-19 pandemic has impacted everyone, and highlighted the importance of peace, disarmament and public health, as well as the importance of international cooperation. The PACEY Award is responding to this by including the connections of peace and disarmament to public health and the pandemic, and by adding a second award category for youth projects outside of Europe.
Nominations
Youth activists and youth organisations are permitted to nominate their own projects. Submit your nomination online at PACEY Plus Award. Among other things, you will be asked to indicate whether the youth project/initiative is Europe-based or outside Europe.
Award decision and ceremony
The three finalists in each category will be invited to present their project nomination at an online conference on Intergenerational Dialogue on Peace, Climate, Nuclear Disarmament and the Pandemic, which is being held on January 19, 2021 in conjunction with the Basel Peace Forum 2021. The winning awards in each category will be decided by conference participants through ballot.
The Basel PACEY Award is made possible by the support of the President’s Office of the Basel-Stadt Kanton and the personal support of Prof. Andreas Nidecker, MD, President of the Basel Peace Office.
Click here for a PDF version of this invitation.