QUNO's July 2017 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter is now available online. The latest issue features: an update from our Human Rights & Refugees Representative on the new “global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration,” news about the inter-faith meetings QUNO helped to organize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a brief overview on our recent cross-cutting work on sustaining peace and climate change, and a QUNO Q&A  with Carolan Redfearn.

On September 30, 2016, QUNO submitted a contribution to Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, John Knox’s upcoming report on biodiversity and human rights. In its contribution, QUNO focuses on the application of a human rights approach to agricultural biodiversity and calls upon Mr. Knox to consider including agricultural biodiversity in his report to be released in March 2017. 

Read the contribution by following the link below.

This report looks at how human rights obligations can help support policies which lead to more successful and just efforts to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to human activities. The report examines the relationship between human rights and climate change as conceptualized at the United Nations, and explores how human rights can be used to secure greater emissions reductions while also achieving climate justice.  

Review of the activities of QUNO in 2015

Between November 30 and December 11, 2015, international negotiators will meet at the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 in Paris. The annual COP is the main decision making session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This meeting is historic: in the context of increasingly strong and urgent calls to tackle anthropogenic climate change, the participants will seek to agree on a new agreement applicable to all Parties.

QUNO maintains a presence at the UNFCCC and supports the negotiations through a number of avenues - particularly through our "quiet diplomacy" work. These four papers are intended to provide a comprehensive briefing for those concerned about the outcomes of COP21. The subjects are covered as follows:

• Paper 1: The UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris 2015.
• Paper 2: The importance of grassroots action to influence international climate negotiations.
• Paper 3: Questions to ask policy makers.
• Paper 4: What can we say, briefly, about the findings from climate science?

QUNO delievered an oral statement in response to the Report of the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The oral statement is a joint statement from the QUNO programmes on Natural Resource Conflict and Cooperation, and Climate Change. The statement was delivered by Programme Assistant David Elliott at the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council on the Promotion and Protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development.

Text and video (beginning at 02:37:04) of the statement are available below.

In an article written for Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW), QUNO’s Representative for the Human Impacts of Climate Change Programme, Lindsey Fielder Cook, reports from the June negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  She explores some of the challenges, controversies and opportunities that exist at the UNFCCC, the primary multilateral negotiating body responsible for setting the international agenda on climate action.   

“A Call to Conscience: Quaker experiences facing the challenge of Climate Change” features interviews with Quakers worldwide on why they care about climate change, and what they are doing to address the challenge locally, nationally and internationally.

QUNO Geneva has created this publication as a form of witness in facing anthropogenic climate change through love and action, rather than fear. The people portrayed span our worldwide Quaker community, from Africa to Europe, Asia Pacific to the Americas. 

This paper presents four examples of multilateral agreements that involved complex negotiations, some spanning several years, others several decades. The examples draw on international processes in environment, disarmament, human rights and trade, exploring some of the factors that led to the adoption of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1987), the Mine Ban Treaty (1997), the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (2000), and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007).