As the project that brought us together to work on social justice and peace in the Mediterranean comes to an end, we would like to share how we have interpreted these concepts in our local Sicilian context and how we have strengthened them after meeting young people from Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, France, and Spain.
In our Dossier—created with contributions from young people, youth workers, and professionals—we spoke of positive peace as a precondition for social justice. In our project and training framework, peace does not mean merely the absence of war, but rather the guarantee of citizens’ civil and political rights, the possibility to express themselves, and to participate actively. This has been the ambition guiding our work: bringing people together to build new ideas for a fairer society.
Locally, we focused on studying social justice in its climatic dimension. In our view, there can be no social justice without a healthy environment. We had the privilege of hosting a documentary directed by Habib Ayeb, filmed between Tunisia, Italy, France, and Morocco. During the screening—held in October 2024 at the Rouge et Noir cinema in Palermo—many local environmental activists and organizations working on climate change were invited to speak and share their experiences with the packed audience.
In January 2025, we traveled to Málaga with a group that brought diverse perspectives to the training organized by the coordinating association. Among them were Hanna Rasper, who has long been involved in rewilding in Palermo through the Rewild Sicily Collective; Giacomo Bracciale, an environmental law researcher; and Antonella Alessi, a scholar of Danilo Dolci and an expert in nonviolence and reciprocal maieutics. Participating in this international training allowed us to connect with organizations across the Mediterranean and develop new reflections that now guide the work of CESIE ETS’s Department of International Cooperation.
Once again, we met in Sousse, Tunisia, in April 2025 to confirm and consolidate the activities we had developed together, so that other youth workers can adapt and implement them in their local contexts. Our final step awaits us in Rabat in a few weeks, alongside the participants who took part in the project and the winners of the video contest on peace and social justice in the Mediterranean.
It has been a long journey, and we are happy to have shared it with you. Stay tuned for further updates on this project and to explore ways to use the materials we have developed in your own contexts, in your work, and in your activism.
About the project
YxP – Youth for Peace in the Mediterranean Sea is a project funded by Erasmus+, KA2 Capacity Building in the field of Youth.
Partners
- Association Initiativa Internacional Joven (Spain, coordinator)
- Foro Para La Paz en El Mediterraneo (Spain)
- Institut Méditerranéen de Formation, Recherche, Et Intervention Sociale (France)
- CESIE ETS (Italy)
- Association Solidarité, échange et developpement Ased (Tunisia)
- Jovesolides Egypt (Egypt)
- HR180 Business Solutions (Jordan)
- Youth Development Organization (Lebanon)
- Forum de la Modernité et de la Démocratie (Morocco)
For further information
Read more about the project.
Contact Antonina Albanese: antonina.albanese@cesie.org.
