2021 Youth Carnegie Peace Prize awarded to The Peacebuilding Project
CSPPS is happy to announce that the 2021 Youth Carnegie Peace Prize was awarded to The Peacebuilding Project, our focal point organisation in India. The prize was awarded on December 9, 2021 to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) in the Great Hall of Justice of the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands.
The Carnegie Foundation in the Netherlands hosts the Peace Palace, the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and The Hague Academy of International Law. Since 2018, the Carnegie Foundation together with the Youth Peace Initiative has been launching an annual video competition for participants from around the world to showcase their peace initiatives and to run for the title of Youth Ambassador of the Peace Palace. The Youth Carnegie Peace Prize is a way of collecting best practices from young peacebuilders, putting the spotlight on them, and inspiring others to start their own projects.
This year, The Peacebuilding Project (PBP) was selected as laureate of the 2021 Youth Carnegie Peace Prize. CSPPS Focal Organisation in India, The PBP is an international volunteer-led initiative that aims to build a culture of peace through research, dialogue, advocacy, and community engagement. In her video, Rhea Mahanta, Founder and President of the PBP, explains that many institutes study global conflicts, but few explore the peace processes by which those conflicts may be prevented, resolved, or transformed.
The idea was born at the University of Chicago in 2017 to start a conversation on conflict transformation and peacebuilding.
“It is a symbiosis of scientific research and active efforts in the field. It offers online platforms, but at the same time, the project’s volunteers personally visit local communities that do not have access to the internet. The Project's aim is not only to prevent or resolve conflicts, but also to face conflicts, give them a name and try to transform them.” Elisabeth Wesseling-van Gent, Chair prize committee
Since its founding, the Peacebuilding Project has been advocating for the protection and rights of vulnerable populations such as refugees and people facing conflict situations. One of its many initiatives is a Dialogue Forum allowing young peacebuilders to engage with field experts to learn about their experiences, helping raise awareness among the youth on human rights issues and advance their role in peacebuilding processes. As part of this forum, The PBP hosted many dialogue series, including on caste and gender-based violence in India.
The PBP also conducts workshops and trainings, such as the online workshop conducted in February 2021 titled “Non-Violence as a Strategy” discussing principles such as the self-sufficiency of villages and communities, the need for inner transformation to become peace-oriented individuals, and belief in democracy as a precondition for non-violent mobilization.
You can watch the 2021 Youth Carnegie Peace Prize ceremony here and learn more about the PBP’s initiatives here.
Congratulations again to The Peacebuilding Project!