The Basel Peace Forum is a Swiss initiative to further innovation in peacebuilding which is based in Basel, Switzerland. It was founded in 2016 by the Swiss Peace Foundation and holds annual meetings in January in Basel. It aims to unit representatives from the economy, science, politics and society to reflect on previous endeavors and generate new ideas for peace and peacebuilding.
Organization
The forum is administered and operated byswisspeace. However, it has its own Patrons Committee, which serves to incorporate it within society and an advisory board composed by swisspeace members to take on the operative business. It is financially supported by the city of Basel, the Swiss Federal Departement of Foreign Affairs and by contributions from private donors.
Vision
The Basel Peace Forum intends to inspire new and unconventional ideas for peacebuilding. It aims to be pioneering in its nature, as it is the first forum in the world to address the subject of peace at the highest level and in an interdisciplinary way.
Activities
Basel Peace Forum 2017
From January 15 to 16 the first edition of the Basel Peace Forum took place in the Basel Messehalle and was partnered by the European Institute of Peace. It concluded that despite many international efforts, setbacks have called earlier successes of peacebuilding into question. The participants also have called on world leaders to strengthen responsive and responsible leadership for peace within the United Nations, the G8 or the World Economic Forum.
Basel Peace Forum 2018
The second edition of the Basel Peace Forum took place from January 14 to 15 in Basel.
Basel Peace Forum 2019
The third edition of the Basel Peace Forum was held January 13 to 14 in Basel and focused on the potential of AI and Big Data in mediation, health issues on migration routes, peacebuilding investment and architecture in a post-conflict context.
Basel Peace Forum 2020: Cities of Peace?
The fourth edition of the Basel Peace Forum took place from January 9 to 10 in Basel and dealt with the topic of cities in times of conflict and peace. Among the over 50 speakers and experts present on the event were the artists Zehra Doğan, Omaïd Sharifi and Yescka.
