QUNO

Three of QUNO's recent policy briefs from the Food & Sustainability programme are now available online in up to four languages. All QUNO work is published under a Creative Commons license. Copies of all QUNO publications can be downloaded free by following the links below, while hard copies are available on request to quno@quno.ch.

• Realizing the right to food in an era of climate change. Available in English, French, Spanish and Chinese
• The relationship between food security policy measures and WTO trade rules. Available in English, French, Spanish and Chinese
• Small-scale farmer innovation. Available in English, French, Spanish and Chinese.

QUNO Geneva co-hosted a briefing on the new revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (known as the "Nelson Mandela Rules"), the key set of international standards on detention conditions and the treatment of prisoners.

The event, organized in conjunction with Penal Reform International (PRI), the Permanent Mission of Switzerland and the Permanent Mission of Uruguay took place on Thursday 4 February.

An expert panel, moderated by Laurel Townhead, Representative for Human Rights and Refugees, addressed issues around the process of revising the original rules and discuss ideas for the implementation of the new updated rules.

The event was broadcast live online and is available for viewing here.

QUNO, as one of the four partners of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (together with Interpeace, the Centre for Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding of the Graduate Institute, and the Geneva Centre on Security Policy), supported Geneva Peace Week 2015, which in its second year, served as the umbrella for 41 events organized by 50 institutions. The Main Programme was developed collaboratively between the UN Office in Geneva, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (GPP), organizations based in the Maison de la Paix, and the University of Geneva. The Side Events Programme included a diverse set events organized by Permanent Missions, International Organizations, and non-governmental organizations in consultative status with ECOSOC. Geneva Peace Week encouraged event partnerships across institutions and sectors and was also enriched by the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights and UNCTAD Global Entrepreneurship Week, both of which were taking place during the same period.

For more information on 2015's Peace Week programme, please click on the following link: http://www.gpplatform.ch/geneva-peace-week-16-20-november-2015

QUNO, together with the Centre for Peacebuilding (swisspeace) and the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), held a side event at the 4th UN Forum on Business and Human rights, on 16 November 2015. This event focused on the “Human Rights Implications of Large-Scale Land Investments and Constructive Responses”. Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, spoke on preliminary findings and initial reflections of a draft report produced for ICAR, Global Witness and Oxfam on Land, corruption and human rights. QUNO arranged for Sin Sokhomony from the NGO Forum on Cambodia to speak on the experience of engaging with Chinese investors around land issues, drawing on project experience with the American Friends Service committee (AFSC).

QUNO New York Director, Andrew Tomlinson, was invited to speak as a panelist in the public consultation on Social Inclusion hosted by the Independent Commission on Multilateralism at the International Peace Institute, together with Dr. Ilze Brands Kehris, and Omar El Okdah. His comments focused on the core nature of the issues of social inclusion, political participation and effective governance and their role in conflict prevention, the nature of inclusive national ownership in practice, and the need for the multilateral system to model inclusion in its own practices.

The web link includes a video recording of the proceedings.