Timeline

Peace & Disarmament

QUNO’s peace and disarmament work in Geneva recognizes the relationship between peace, development and the environment.
November 2020

Geneva Peace Week 2020

QUNO is proud to be one of the institutional partners behind the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, the organisation that runs Geneva Peace Week – a leading international peacebuilding forum. This year’s Geneva Peace Week was delivered in a fully online format and featured three events co-organised by QUNO.

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October 2020

Landmark UN Human Rights Council resolution on the prevention of human rights violations

QUNO was pleased to have actively engaged in the informal negotiations of a landmark new UN Human Rights Council resolution on prevention. The resolution, led by a core group of Norway, Sierra Leone, Switzerland and Uruguay, was adopted by vote at the 45th session of the Council with 32 in favour, 11 abstentions and 3 against.

The resolution included significant elements that QUNO had supported and highlighted, including:

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October 2020

The impact of arms transfers on human rights

QUNO was pleased to welcome the High Commissioner’s report on the impact of arms transfers on human rights (A/HRC/44/29, 19 June 2020) which goes beyond the focus on women and girls to include specific considerations on the gendered impacts more broadly and the role of violent masculinities in facilitating violence and militarism.

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August 2020

QUNO convenes joint NGO key messages on COVID-19 and Business and Human Rights in Conflict-Affected Contexts

In July 2020, QUNO along with Brot für die Welt, Christian Aid Ireland, Swedwatch and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), submitted an informal input with key messages on COVID-19 and business and human rights to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, for their project on business in conflict and post-conflict contexts.

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June 2020

QUNO speaks at the resumed 43rd session of the Human Rights Council

QUNO was pleased to deliver a statement at the resumed 43rd session of the Human Rights Council on 15 June in Geneva, as part of the Item 5 General Debate on Human Rights Bodies and Mechanisms. The statement, delivered by Programme Assistant for Peace and Disarmament, Cara Priestley, welcomed the rapporteurs’ report on the contribution of the Human Rights Council to the prevention of human rights violations, pursuant to Resolution 38/18.

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April 2020

UPDATE: QUNO Geneva Programme Assistant Applications

Application process update

The application process is closed. 

We take this opportunity to thank everyone for their applications and to inform you that we are continuing with this recruitment. As a result of the current situation with Covid-19 our timelines for interviews have changed.  We are currently shortlisting. We will contact only those who we invite for interview. If you have not heard from us by 31 May please assume that you have not been selected for interview.  

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April 2020

Joint NGO submission to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

In April 2020 the Business, Conflict and Human Rights Network (BCHR Network), Christian Aid Ireland, Control Arms, QUNO and Swedwatch jointly submitted to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights’ project on business in conflict and post-conflict contexts. This project aims at identifying and clarifying policies and practices that States and business enterprises should take to prevent and address business-related human rights abuses in conflict and post-conflict settings.

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March 2020

Enhancing prevention - leveraging the mandate of the Human Rights Council

Building on its long-term work on integrating human rights and sustaining peace, QUNO has been supporting work led by the three rapporteurs in charge of implementing resolution 38/18 on ‘the contribution of the Human Rights Council (HRC) to the prevention of human rights violations’.  In particular, QUNO has focused on how the HRC can more effectively work with all UN pillars to prevent those violations which, if left unaddressed, could lead to violent conflict.

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November 2019

Roundtable: Integrating Human Rights and Sustaining Peace

For Geneva Peace Week 2019, QUNO and Interpeace organised a self-reflective roundtable on Integrating Human Rights and Sustaining Peace. The roundtable brought together peacebuilders to share their reflections on how to creatively traverse the disciplinary, policy and practice divides between the human rights and peacebuilding fields.

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October 2019

How the Human Rights pillar is contributing to Arms Control

QUNO recently co-organized a discussion on “How the Human Rights pillar is contributing to Arms Control” as part of the New Shapes: Weapons Governance conference in October, in collaboration with the Women's League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Amnesty International, and the Permanent Mission of Peru to the United Nations.

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April 2019

QUNO speaks during the first Intersessional seminar on the contribution of the HRC to the prevention of human rights violations

In April, QUNO's Florence Foster was invited to speak during the first Intersessional seminar on the contribution of the Human Rights Council to the prevention of human rights violations (resolution 38/18). Florence noted that human rights violations are both the cause and effect of destructive conflict, and they therefore play a central role in early warning, prevention of destructive conflict, and in providing the basis for accountability through to rebuilding societies.

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Event of Note
March 2019

The 2019 QUNO Review is now available online

Our new, March 2019 edition of the QUNO Review is now available for download. The annual report provides a brief introduction to QUNO and our way of working, as well as an overview of each of our programme areas. Learn more about our past year of our work and see where we are headed in 2019.

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November 2018

Integrating Human Rights, Nonviolent Action & Peacebuilding to Sustain Peace

This panel, organized by ​the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Berghof Foundation and the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) during Geneva Peace Week, discussed how we can integrate human rights, nonviolent action and peacebuilding to sustain peace by bridging the silos and shifting the mindset of how civil society participates through nonviolent action and peacebuilding.

Examples of how this is done came from practitioners as well as policy level experts:

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November 2018

Nuclear Disarmament or Nuclear Arms Race: The World at Crossroads

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) organised a panel discussion on “Nuclear Disarmament or Nuclear Arms Race: The World at Crossroads” during the Geneva Peace Week featuring:

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September 2018

QUNO delivers statement at the 39th HRC, calling for a shift in mindset and practice to improve prevention through the UPR

In September, QUNO delivered a statement during the 39th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council, calling for a shift in mindset and practice to improve prevention through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. As human rights violations are often at the root of destructive conflict, the UPR constitutes an important entry point to collaboratively address violations, that if left unaddressed, could lead to violent conflict.

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June 2018

Integrating Human Rights and Sustaining Peace – The Role of the Universal Periodic Review

On 26 June, QUNO, in collaboration with the Permanent Missions of Germany and Switzerland, who co-chair the cross-regional Human Rights/Conflict Prevention Caucuses in New York and Geneva, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), co-hosted a discussion on “Integrating Human Rights and Sustaining Peace – The Role of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)”.

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March 2018

The Principle 10 Negotiations  resulted in the adoption of a legally binding agreement

Representatives of 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries who were gathered in San Jose, Costa Rica adopted the first binding regional agreement to protect the rights of access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters (Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development), an unprecedented legal instrument for the region.

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