QUNO's December 2020 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter is available below. This expanded issue includes a special feature with QUNO perspectives on multilateralism and the UN's 75th anniversary. The issue also features brief news updates, recent publications and a QUNO Q&A with 2014 Quaker UN Summer School participant Annie Pickering.
QUNO's October 2020 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter is available below. This expanded issue includes a special feature from our programme Representatives on the impact of Covid on our work and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. This issue also features a Q&A with our 2019-2020 PAs on their experience leading the first ever virtual Summer School; brief news updates and a QUNO Q&A with Beatrice Liese.
This paper forms the second in a QUNO series on energy and peacebuilding. It follows on from the 2018 paper, “The Role of Decentralized Renewable Energy in Peacebuilding”, by Isobel Edwards, which explored the role of decentralized renewable energy as a peacebuilding tool. This paper explores the peacebuilding implications of energy transitions towards a carbon-neutral future. It examines, on the one hand, the potential risks that abrupt or unmanaged ‘cut off points’ from fossil fuels may pose for peace, and the role that sustainable and just transitions can play in mitigating this.
This is a working paper, designed to encourage further discussions around energy transitions and peacebuilding. Comments are welcome and can be sent to quno@quno.ch.
This submission by the Quaker United Nations Office explores how incorporating the human rights of people in poverty into national plans for a greener economy can promote fairer, more ambitious and effective outcomes to address root causes of climate change, enhance biodiversity, and transform power structures that maintain avoidable and extreme poverty.
QUNO Submission to the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights 2020 FINAL.pdf 400.09 KB “We hold in the light those made ill by the new virus, their families and friends, and the dedicated people caring for all of us.” (…) “In the midst of rapid change, QUNO staff will continue to work quietly with international policymakers, guided by Quaker principles of peace, truth, justice, equality, stewardship and simplicity, and upheld by your encouragement and support.”
In this letter, the Directors of our New York and Geneva offices reflect on the impact of COVID-19 on peace, multilateralism and Quaker work at the United Nations.
Our newest QUNO Review provides a brief introduction to QUNO and our ways of working, as well as an overview of our areas of work. Learn more about our past year of work and where we are headed in 2020.
QUNO Review 2020.pdf 19.77 MB QUNO's December 2019 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter is available below. This special issue highlights some of the ways the Quaker commitment to peace is reflected in QUNO's work programmes, and also features an interview about our work on integrating human rights & sustaining peace; news from our recent event on climate justice and peacebuilding; trade for peace, an update on our work supporting the right to conscientious objection to military service, and a QUNO Q&A with David Elliott.
A Government Official’s Toolkit: inspiring urgent climate action includes 12 concise cases, 231 quotes referenced to over 100 published papers (including the IPCC Special Reports on: Global Warming of 1.5C Climate Change and Land Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate). This publication is written to support government officials—at local, regional and national levels—who are concerned about the impact of climate change on their citizens, their country, and the planet. It offers a range of concise cases to help you engage with different concerns, and integrate scientific, rights-based, and Indigenous knowledge and approaches throughout the Toolkit.
QUNO's August 2019 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter is available below. This issue features: an update from our Human Rights & Refugees programme on the important next steps after adoption by the UN of the Global Compact on Migration last December; ; highlights about our recent prevention activities for human rights and sustaining peace; approaches to people and nature centered climate policy; and a QUNO Q&A with our newest Representative, Joachim Monkelbaan.
This leaflet was written to help decision makers better understand how a rights-based approach in forming climate policy will lead to more effective and fair action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The leaflet explains a ‘human rights based approach’, why it is advantageous for policy makers, and offers positive examples of successful rights based climate action in reducing GHG mitigation and adaptation. The leaflet was presented to negotiators at the climate negotiations (SB50) in Bonn, in June 2019.
HumanRightsBasedApproaches FINAL.pdf 70.38 KB The 2019 QUNO Review provides a brief introduction to QUNO and our way of working, as well as an overview of our areas of work. Learn more about our past year of our work and see where we are headed in 2019.
QUNO REVIEW_2019_WEB.pdf.pdf 1.05 MB This edition of A Government Official's Toolkit has been lightly edited and re-organized into a smaller format.
This and the original publication were written to support government officials—at local, regional and national levels—who are concerned about the impact of climate change on their citizens, their country, and the planet. The publication is organized into 12 concise cases, including approaches to effective and sustainable climate action policy. Our aim is to connect you with research available at the international level. All points are quoted from, and linked to, the original, peer-reviewed papers.
Can energy ever be used as a tool for peacebuilding instead of a cause of conflict? What peacebuilding tools are already at our disposal for reducing the likelihood of violent conflict related to energy extraction and natural resource stress related to climate change? This publication explores the role of decentralized renewable energy as a peacebuilding tool, in global efforts for a net-zero carbon energy transition.
QUNO's December 2018 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter is available online. The latest issue features: an update from our Human Impacts of Climate Change programme on the IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C; news about a significant sew standard recognizing the impact of parental death sentences on children; highlights from a recent panel discussion on nuclear disarmament; and a QUNO Q&A with Vinay Talwar.
This publication is written to support government officials—at local, regional and national levels—who are concerned about the impact of climate change on their citizens, their country, and the planet. The publication is organized into 12 concise cases, including approaches to effective and sustainable climate action policy. Our aim is to connect you with research available at the international level. All points are quoted from, and linked to, the original, peer-reviewed papers.
We hope this Toolkit will help you engage colleagues on why urgent, rights-based climate action is to the benefit of all people. Decision makers face competing demands and priorities, and they may be more receptive to one case over another. One colleague may respond better to climate science, another to economic concerns. For this reason, we offer a range of concise cases.
This issue of the QUNO Geneva newsletter features: perspectives on the recently concluded negotiations for a Global Compact on Migration, a brief overview of the current state of international nuclear disarmament discussion, an update on our work on climate change, and a QUNO Q&A with Rhiannon Redpath.
The full publication is available online below.
This booklet was created to support climate negotiators in their work to engage busy Ministries with reasons for urgent, rights-based climate action. Ministers and other decision makers face competing demands and priorities, but they may also be more receptive to one argument over another. One person may better respond to economic concerns, for example, another to scientific findings. The booklet offers ten concise summaries compiled from expert voices in climate change related sectors. We hope these summaries help negotiators engage with colleagues back home on why urgent, rights-based climate action is critical to the long-term well-being and stability of their countries.
The summaries are based on presentations given by experts at a side event in May 2017, during the climate change conference in Bonn. The Healthier World Argument was compiled following this event. We are thankful to colleagues at Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University and at Newcastle University, for co-hosting this side event in May 2017. Comments are welcome.
The 2018 QUNO Review provides a brief introduction to QUNO and our way of working, as well as an overview of our areas of work. Learn more about our past year of our work and see where we are headed in 2018.
QUNO Review_2018_web.pdf 1.24 MB QUNO's December 2017 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter features: a brief overview on our recent work on sustaining peace and food security, a introduction to the importance of agricultural biodiversity, developments on the right to conscientious objection to military service, news about our recent climate action publication "A Negotiator's Tookit," and a QUNO Q&A with 2006 Geneva Summer School participant Tankiso Phori.
The full publication is available below.
This booklet was created to support climate negotiators in their work to engage busy Ministries with reasons for urgent, rights-based climate action. Ministers and other decision makers face competing demands and priorities, but they may also be more receptive to one argument over another. One person may better respond to economic concerns, for example, another to scientific findings. The booklet offers eight concise summaries compiled from expert voices in climate change related sectors. We hope these summaries help negotiators engage with colleagues back home on why urgent, rights-based climate action is critical to the long-term well-being and stability of their countries.
The summaries are based on presentations given by experts at a side event in May 2017, during the climate change conference in Bonn. The Healthier World Argument was compiled following this event. We are thankful to colleagues at Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University and at Newcastle University, for co-hosting this side event in May 2017. This booklet is a working draft, and comments are welcome.
QUNO Negotiators Tookit_for web.pdf 432.21 KB 
