Bosnia Youth Receive PACEY Award for UNEP-URI Climate Efforts

8 February 2022

180 youth activists and civil society representatives participating in the PACEY Award gave one of the two prizes to Faith for Earth Bosnia i Hercegovina, a Youth For Peace-led program building cooperation between Catholic and Muslim youth on environmental action.

In 2020, the Basel Peace Office created the PACEY (Peace, nuclear Abolition and Climate Engaged Youth) Award to recognize successful and visionary youth projects, and provided a prize of €5000 to support two winners in furthering the reach of their project.

Prof. Andreas Nidecker MD, President of the Basel Peace Office and founder of the PACEY Award, said, “The six finalist projects are all excellent and innovative."

"They clearly demonstrate that young people around the world are able to speak passionately and expertly about the climate crisis, peace and disarmament, and take effective action to engage the public, impact decision-makers and shift policy.”

The two winning projects were chosen through votes from 180 youth activists and civil society representatives participating in the PACEY Award event on Friday, January 21: Faith for Earth Bosnia i Hercegovina, a youth-led program building cooperation between Catholic and Muslim youth on environmental action, and Keep it in the Ground for Peace, a youth-led campaign to stop fossil fuel extraction in Africa.

The Faith for Earth is an initiative of the UN Environment Program and, together with the United Religions Initiative (URI), Faith for Earth trainings took place in three countries in 2021: Bosnia in Herzegovina, India and Lebanon. URI congratulates the Youth for Peace Cooperation Circle for overseeing the Faith for Earth training for youth which included an in-person workshop, a social media campaign online, and a day of action at a national park.