This is a library of QUNO publications, newsletters, and statements. Recent Publications
QUNO's Human Rights & Refugees, Food & Sustainability, and Peace & Disarmament programmes each submitted written statements to the 34th session of the Human Rights Council, held in Geneva in March 2017. The full statements are available in PDF below and further information on QUNO's participation at the 34th HRC can be found at the following links:
Child Rights Connect's Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents has produced a series of recommendations for States on the rights of children of prisoners.
RecommendationsFlyer.pdf 195.81 KB On September 19th 2016, the UN set a new agenda under the ‘New York Declaration’ for responding to large movements of people crossing borders. Our briefing aims to inform Friends about the Declaration and the developments it initiates for improving global governance on refugees and migrants. It also describes how QUNO is engaging in these opportunities, as well as ways that Quakers around the world can link up with, and benefit from, UN level initiatives.
On September 19th 2016, the UN set a new agenda under the ‘New York Declaration’ for responding to large movements of people crossing borders. Our briefing aims to inform Friends about the Declaration and developments it initiates. It also describes how QUNO is engaging in these opportunities, as well as ways that Quakers around the world can link up with, and benefit from, UN level initiatives.
"If we are to faithfully work for peace, justice and inclusion, then we must ourselves act peacefully, justly and inclusively"
On 23 January, 2017, the QUNO New York Director was a speaker at the Third Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in International Affairs, on the topic of "Just, Inclusive and Sustainable Peace".
Governments and other development actors made ground-breaking commitments to fostering peace under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: the challenge now lies in implementation.
The QUNO intervention set out what will be needed:
- Normatively, to stay focused on the core issues, the heart of sustainable peace
- At a local and national level, to uphold inclusive national planning, implementation and reporting
- At a global level, to foster external support for peace, justice and inclusion, and
- At home and in our own organizations, to reflect critically on our own processes and actions
Video of the presentation can be found here, starting at minute 28:25.
QUNO is actively contributing to the process for negotiating a Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. This UN-level process is a major State-led response to the large numbers of people on the move around the world. It was mandated by the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, a high-level statement adopted by States on 19th September and will be finalised in 2018.
As States work towards drafting a resolution on the Modalities of this State-led process, QUNO has compiled an inputs paper which focusses on ensuring the human rights grounding (and compliance) of the Compact and the central role of civil society in the process.
This inputs paper makes several recommendations including:
This briefing is QUNO's input to an open request for information by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the topic of mental health and human rights. It focusses on the links between criminal justice, mental health and rights protection, with a particular focus on children of parents in the criminal justice system.
This document presents some examples of government means of supporting small-scale farmers in agro-biodiverse settings. It is an overview of a range of options that we have seen national governments using. There also are clear overlaps and relationships among the measures discussed. The document served as a background report for the November 2016 Expert Consultation on the Role of the Public Sector in Supporting Small-Scale Farmers and Agricultural Biodiversity.
This document provides a brief overview of the statistics and trends on the declining public sector support for agriculture - demonstrating that public sector investment in agriculture is growing at a much slower and more unpredictable rate than the private sector. The note served as a background report for the November 2016 Expert Consultation on the Role of the Public Sector in Supporting Small-Scale Farmers and Agricultural Biodiversity.
This note highlights the importance of small-scale farmers and agricultural biodiversity in ensuring global food security. It also provides a brief overview of the threats the two are facing, such as economic threats and land and environmental threats. The documents served as background information for the Expert Consultation on the Role of the Public Sector in Supporting Small-Scale Farmers and Agricultural Biodiversity held in November 2016.
QUNO's November 2016 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter is available below. This issue features: a Q&A with Susan Bragdon on the role of governments in ensuring food security; an update on the recent UN Summit for Migrants and Refugees; news about our inequality side-event during Geneva Peace Week; a QUNO Q&A with Ayah Abubasheer; and a briefing paper on the UN's 2030 Agenda.
This concept note served as a background document for the Expert Consultation on the Role of the Public Sector in Supporting Small-Scale Farmers and Agricultural Biodiversity held in November 2016. This global consultation was the first one in the Dialogue to Action Series (DtA Series).
Our New York office's quarterly Newsletter, featuring articles on the new UN Secretary General, integrating human rights and sustaining peace, the new global framework for peace and more.
In and Around October 2016_Version2.pdf 568.09 KB In honour of the International Day of Peace, QUNO and peacebuilding organisations from around the world have issued a shared statement to UN member states on the importance of embracing the new global framework for peace.
Over the last year, states have made significant new commitments to addressing the root causes of conflict and displacement, in both the 2030 Agenda and the Sustaining Peace resolutions. The statement calls on governments to embrace this new mandate and to mainstream peace policy, implement peace at home, foster peace around the world, support funding for peace and to protect and support civil society inclusion.
FWCC/QUNO submitted a written statement to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore at its 31st session. The statement, submitted on September 22, 2016, calls upon the IGC and those who take part in it to encourage the participation of small-scale farmers, whether or not they identify themselves as Indigenous.
Read the statement by following the link below.
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.
In this issue:
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.
Climate Justice_August_2016.pdf 3.06 MB QUNO's submission to the Secretary-General, in contribution to the collation of the 2016 Yearly Supplement to his Quinquennial Report on Capital Punishment focuses on the rights of the children of parents sentenced to death of executed, and updates in international legal standards in this area since the 2015 report.
On July 20, 2016, QUNO co-hosted a policy forum discussion with the International Peace Institute in New York , along with the governments of Finland, Germany, Mexico and Morocco, entitled "Ensuring that no one is left behind: A High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Refugees", during the ministerial segment of the High Level Political Forum. At a time when the world is experiencing the largest movements of peoples in recorded history, the goal of the event was to connect the dots between the 2030 Agenda and the upcoming UN Summit in September that will address large movements of refugees and migrants.
Current UN discussions on displaced persons are fragmented, with separate silos for issues of refugees, migrants and internally displaced people, each with their own normative framing, organizational context and political sensitivities. The 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development provides a new framing, using the mandate for peaceful, just and inclusive societies, and the imperative to "leave no-one behind", to address the needs and perspectives of all those who have been forced to leave their homes, whether from violence and conflict, climate change, or economic necessity.
Andrew Tomlinson remarks: 2030 Agenda 181.61 KB 
