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High Level Policy Engagement

June 2023

Pathways For Peace – More Effective International Architecture for Prevention Summary Note

QUNO NY co-hosted an event alongside the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation to mark the fifth anniversary of the flagship report ‘Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict’ by the United Nations and World Bank Group. The anniversary provided opportunities for Member States, the UN and civil society to take stock and reflect on recommendations made in the report and how to apply these in an evolved geopolitical landscape. 

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June 2023

Spotlight on SDG16 and Providing Access to Justice for All Summary Note

On June 7, QUNO NY held a discussion on Sustainable Development Goal 16 titled “Spotlight on SDG 16: Providing Access to Justice for All’. The event brought together UN diplomats, colleagues from the UN system and civil society to unpack the ‘justice’ element of SDG 16, delving further into both reproductive and environmental justice. The discussion centered around the intersectionality of equal access to justice, strategies for translating SDG targets into tangible national laws and action plans and methods to improve data collection on equal access to justice.

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May 2023

QUNO NY delivers intervention at UN meeting on SDG 16

QUNO New York Representative, Kavita Desai, delivered a statement before the UN’s Economic and Social Council during the special meeting, ‘Unleashing the transformative power of SDG 16: Improving governance and reducing corruption.’ In her statement, Kavita highlighted the importance of civil society engagement in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16) on peace, justice, and building inclusive institutions.

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March 2023

QUNO NY delivers statement on UN proposal for an Emergency Platform

QUNO New York’s UN Representative, Megan Schmidt, delivered a statement during the virtual multi-stakeholder consultation convened on 16 March by the Permanent Missions of Namibia and Germany. The consultation provided an opportunity to share first impressions on the Secretary-General’s proposal for an Emergency Platform. In her statement Megan highlighted key issues that are missing from the proposal for an Emergency Platform, including an emphasis on contributions to peace and the inclusion of youth in decision making processes.

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February 2023

QUNO delivers statement at the Summit of the Future Multistakeholder Consultations

QUNO UN representative Kavita Desai delivered an intervention at the multistakeholder consultations for the Summit of the Future convened by the Summit’s co-facilitators, the permanent missions of Germany and Namibia to the UN. Drawing on insights from the recently submitted Civil-Society UN Prevention Platform paper on the New Agenda for Peace, Kavita called for peace to be a focus, highlighting the need for the concrete and actionable steps to build peace to come out of the Summit.

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January 2023

The New Agenda for Peace: An Opportunity to Advance Prevention Through Civil Society – United Nations Partnerships

The Civil Society-UN Prevention Platform, co-facilitated by QUNO and GPPAC, focused its annual discussion series on developing a joint submission for the New Agenda for Peace (NA4P), due to be published in June 2023. This paper aims to contribute to the drafting process for the NA4P and underscores areas of concern and interest from the discussion series that Platform partners and participants would like to see highlighted in the NA4P. This paper outlines six key proposals and an additional three that the Platform believes will ensure a comprehensive and forward-looking policy through the NA4P.

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June 2022

In and Around the UN

Read QUNO New York's June 2022 newsletter, In and Around the UN, featuring articles on:

  • Understanding the work of the UN: A Q&A on the war in Ukraine
  • Our Common Agenda: A UN for the future
  • Building Peace in Times of Crisis
  • QUNO Launches a Youth Listening Exercise

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April 2022

Funding the “P” in the Nexus

On 27 April diplomats and UN officials will gather for a High-Level meeting at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing financing for peacebuilding. In her piece, UN Representative, Megan Schmidt, brings forward the learning and messages from her report, Building Peace in Times of Crisis, that relate to peacebuilding financing across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. This includes: ensuring sustainable and flexible UN capacities through funding across the “nexus;” incentivizing financing for programming that is inclusive and meets the needs of communities; and having funding mechanisms that allow staff the flexibility needed to be responsive in complex environments.

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November 2021

In & Around the UN

Read QUNO New York’s November 2021 newsletter, In & Around the UN, featuring articles on:

  • UN General Assembly 76: Forecasting the Year Ahead
  • Committee Spotlight with Aletia Dundas
  • QUNO Co-Hosts Virtual Dialogue on Prevention with UN, Civil Society, and Member States

And more from New York.

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September 2021

Let us see what Peace can do: A shared statement by peacebuilding organizations

The International Day of Peace falls on 21 September each year and serves as a day devoted to strengthening commitments  towards peace and non-violence. This is the sixth year that QUNO has facilitated the creation and distribution of a sign on statement supported by peacebuilding organizations across the world to engage Member States and the UN system. The 2021 Statement brought together over 200 organizations calling on the international community to refocus on peace, justice and inclusion in development, crisis response and efforts to address climate change and its impacts.

In addition, QUNO distributed a press release on the statement, which was shared widely with media contacts covering the United Nations.

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May 2021

In & Around the UN

Read QUNO New York’s newsletter, In & Around the UN, featuring articles on:

  • UN Launch of Community Engagement Guidelines
  • Committee Spotlight with Hezron Masitsa
  • Interest Group at FWCC Section of the Americas Meeting

And more from New York.

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January 2021

QUNO Participates in the Global Launch of the UN Community Engagement Guidelines

As a member of the Joint UN-Civil Society Working Group that developed the Guidelines, QUNO representative, Megan Schmidt, delivered this intervention during the global virtual launch of the UN System-Wide Community Engagement Guidelines on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace. QUNO’s intervention centered on the importance of inclusivity throughout the development of the Guidelines and highlighted the emphasis on a people-centered approach and local leadership that is reflected in the final document.

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November 2020

QUNO Contributes to Preparations Ahead of UN Meeting on Impact of COVID-19

The 2020 Joint Session between the Peacebuilding Commission and the Economic and Social Council was convened around the theme of “Fostering global solidarity and conflict sensitive responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic impacts.” To support Member States in their preparations for the discussion, QUNO shared a messages document with Member State and UN colleagues ahead of the joint session that reflected on challenges and opportunities faced by the international community in building back better from crisis, especially in countries most affected by conflict.

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October 2020

In & Around the UN

Read QUNO New York’s newsletter, In & Around the UN, featuring articles on:

  • Building Peace through Reconciliation
  • Supporting Country-level UN Capacities for Prevention
  • 15 Years of UN Peacebuilding

and more from New York.

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October 2020

Building Peace during the Pandemic – A Conversation between QUNO and the UNPBSO

Building Peace during the Pandemic with Andrew Tomlinson, Director of the Quaker UN Office

In recognition of the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on global peace and security, the United Nations (UN) Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) convened a series of conversations to understand peacebuilding and sustaining peace in the context of the pandemic. QUNO Director, Andrew Tomlinson, was invited to be interviewed for such a discussion, with QUNO serving as the first civil society organization to share reflections in this series. In this interview, Andrew reflects on the challenges and opportunities for peacebuilding that have come out of the pandemic and explores ways that the UN can connect the short-term humanitarian crisis response to longer-term sustainable peace and development goals.

September 2020

The time is now: Recommit to Peace

21 September marks the International Day of Peace, a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace and a commitment towards non-violence. Since 2015, QUNO New York has led the call from peacebuilding organizations around the world in issuing a statement to Member States and the UN system. In 2020, QUNO, along with over 170 peacebuilding organizations called for peace to be mainstreamed in the response to COVID-19, for policies to be inclusive, and for the global community to recommit to multilateralism. In addition, QUNO distributed a press release on the statement, which was shared widely with media contacts covering the United Nations. 

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June 2020

Building Sustainable Peace: Recommendations for the 2020 Peacebuilding Review

Every five years the UN undertakes a review of the Peacebuilding Architecture to assess the system’s progress and impact for peacebuilding, identify remaining challenges and set the peacebuilding priorities for the coming years. QUNO, in partnership with the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), submitted a set of recommendations to UN and Member State officials to inform and influence the 2020 review. The document focuses its messages on structural and operational partnerships, financing for peacebuilding and operational and policy coherence. 

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June 2020

Building Peace through Reconciliation

Every five years the UN undertakes a review of the Peacebuilding Architecture (PBA) to assess the system’s progress towards peacebuilding and sustaining peace as well as to outline priority areas for the coming years. QUNO, drawing upon its long-standing history of exploring the topic of reconciliation in peacebuilding, submitted a thematic paper, Building Peace through Reconciliation, to contribute to the 2020 PBA review. The document focuses on three key areas, namely: the definitional challenges of reconciliation; reconciliation and the Peacebuilding Architecture; and key messages on reconciliation.

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May 2020

QUNO Directors' Letter on the Impact of COVID-19

“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.

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April 2020

Towards a people-centered and sustainable approach to COVID-19

The UN was born out of the global crisis of the second world war. Now, 75 years later, another crisis faces us. How can we both reaffirm the Charter commitment to collective action and bring to this crisis the lessons we have learned about offering integrated support in partnership with the communities we accompany, leaving no one behind? In this statement, QUNO New York provides key messages to support the UN and its membership as they seek to respond to the ongoing global health and peace crisis caused by the spread of COVID-19.

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