The project of LingvaLexa wins the PACEY Award 2026

The VoxForensics project, implemented by NGO LingvaLexa, has been selected as one of the three winners of the 2026 Peace, Nuclear Abolition and Climate Engaged Youth (PACEY) Award. The results were announced on 23 January 2026 during the PACEY Award Ceremony, held as part of the Basel Peace Forum. The winners were determined through an open vote of the ceremony participants, with nearly 400 people taking part in the ballot.

VoxForensics was the only project from Ukraine among the winners, alongside initiatives from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan/Pakistan. In total, 75 youth-led initiatives from around the world were nominated for the award, of which 9 projects advanced to the final stage.

VoxForensics is the LingvaLexa project focused on in-depth work on crimes related to propaganda in the context of armed conflicts. The project addresses one of the key structural drivers of contemporary violence – hate speech and war propaganda systematically used by authoritarian regimes. The VoxForensics team conducts legal and interdisciplinary research, supports investigations and accountability processes, provides legal expertise, delivers training for law enforcement officers, students and early-career professionals, and develops tools for the systematic analysis of criminalised propaganda.

“War propaganda races into the skies on weaponized technology; the law still crawls on earth, pushing its old cart,” says Anna Vyshniakova, Head of LingvaLexa. “Our task is to equip the good guys with tools for today’s threats. Because good must be strong, too.”

Each of the three winners of the PACEY Award 2026 receives a financial prize of €5,000, as well as organisational support to assist with the further implementation of their initiatives. For LingvaLexa, this award represents important international recognition of work on propaganda as a component of the most serious international crimes and affirms that law, technology and youth leadership are essential in countering contemporary forms of violence and the incitement of war.