Geneva

March 2024

QUNO Review 2024

QUNO is proud to announce that the latest version of our annual review is now available online! This is a great opportunity to read and learn more about the work of our New York and Geneva offices during this past year, and to learn about the work ahead.

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February 2024

QUNO calls on businesses to ensure arms exports do not infringe on human rights

As 2024 begins, the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) Geneva’s Peace and Disarmament programme has focused on its work on corporate responsibility in the arms trade, emphasising people at the center of arms control discourses and ensuring that states and businesses uphold their roles and responsibilities. 

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January 2024

Exploring Special Procedures to Enhance Conflict Prevention

‘‘Full compliance with human rights is the best antidote to the inequalities, unaddressed grievances and exclusion which are often at the root of instability and conflict,” said Volker Türk, the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) shares this understanding of the inextricable link between human rights and peace. The protection and promotion of human rights is essential for achieving sustainable peace and in turn sustaining peace can help promote and protect human rights and create just and equitable societies. 

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January 2024

Booklet: Sustaining peace and human rights towards just, peaceful, and inclusive societies

QUNO Geneva's Peace & Disarmament program works to highlight and reinforce the inextricable link between human rights and peace and to ensure that they are seen as mutually reinforcing throughout the UN's work at the policy and practice level, reaching out o a diverse range of stakeholders and in doing so to promote just, peaceful, and inclusive societies. Read more about our most recent activities and work on this in the booklet!

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January 2024

Booklet: Arms control, human rights, and corporate responsibility towards just, peaceful, and inclusive societies

QUNO Geneva's Peace & Disarmament program works on highlighting the arms-related risks to human rights and tackling the challenges in addressing these risks by building effective arms controls at the international level. Read more about how we do that in this booklet. 

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December 2023

Geneva Reporter newest edition online for download

 

Every few months, the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in Geneva publishes the Geneva Reporter newsletter. In this latest December 2023 edition we share updates on our programmes, links to our latest publications and offer a message of hope. 

Geneva Reporter is freely available for download at the link further down on this page. We would appreciate it if you share it with anyone who might be interested in our work at the United Nations. Enjoy reading! 

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November 2023

Integrating Human Rights and Sustaining Peace: Exploring Special Procedures

The report 'Integrating Human Rights and Sustaining Peace: Exploring Special Procedures' is based on a joint project undertaken by the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in Geneva and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in collaboration with the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs' Peacebuilding Support Office (DPPA/PBSO).

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November 2023

Connecting Geneva and New York for human rights approaches to conflict prevention

Florence Foster moderating a panel discussion during Geneva Peace Week meets New York

“In the current multidimensional crisis, the social contract between governments and their people and between groups in society is eroding. The transformational potential of human rights in their entirety – economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights – are part of a just and sustainable solution to such problems.”      

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October 2023

‘Joyous’ William Knox was a Quaker who spoke his mind

Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) staff in Geneva sends condolences to the family of William Knox, who served for two years on their governance committee until his recent passing.

Knox passed away in early October at his adopted home in Penang, Malaysia.

Robert Gibson, a fellow QUNO Geneva governance committee member, plans to attend a memorial service for Knox in Oxford in England next week.

In a letter to the Knox family, QUNO Geneva staff wrote that “even from the Zoom meetings he brought with him his deep humanity, expertise and humour”. 

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October 2023

Sustaining peace needs intersectional approach at United Nations

Florence Foster from QUNO Geneva participates at Geneva Peace Week 2023 panel

Peacebuilding has been viewed mainly as post-conflict intervention at the United Nations (UN), but the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) believes peace work is needed throughout the conflict cycle.

QUNO takes a human rights-based approach to achieve sustaining peace. Focusing on human rights towards peacebuilding can further reduce the risk of violent conflict, end hostilities through inclusive processes and move towards reconciliation and just recovery. 

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October 2023

Quaker organisations call for a ceasefire and humanitarian protections in Gaza

Stop the violence and allow humanitarian access to Gaza — this is the strong call from Quakers from around the world in a statement issued this week.

The Quaker United Nations Office was among signatories to this statement, along with Quaker organisations that work on the ground in Palestine and Israel.

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September 2023

Climate change: beyond fear and into courage

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) consistently monitors developments around climate change.

QUNO approaches climate change as a peace and justice concern, and is involved in international climate negotiations, the Human Rights Council, and is an accredited observer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Lindsey Fielder Cook, QUNO’s Geneva-based Representative at the United Nations, heads its Human Impacts of Climate Change programme.

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September 2023

Climate change Global Stocktake must focus on human rights

As the United Nations-led Global Stocktake is being finalised, the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) has offered two submissions to this assessment of international action on climate change.

QUNO’s submission — available for download here — was made on behalf of the Quaker organisation, Friends World Committee for Consultation, which it represents at the United Nations (UN).

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September 2023

Arms industry tactics avoid human rights responsibility

The irresponsible role of the arms industry needs to be addressed as part of preventing violence and human rights violations committed with firearms globally.

This was part of the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) Peace & Disarmament programme’s recent response (also see attachment below) to an analysis of the arms industry by the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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August 2023

Students work with QUNO towards just economic systems

Young people have over the years participated in Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) programmes in various ways.

QUNO’s offices in Geneva and New York annually employ programme assistants for a year to work with its Representatives at the United Nations (UN). Programme assistants research and write about developments in QUNO’s focus areas and assist with quiet diplomacy meetings at Quaker House from where QUNO works in close proximity to the UN headquarters in Geneva and New York.

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August 2023

Reflections on a year with QUNO

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) annually employs programme assistants to work with its Representatives at the United Nations (UN) for a year. 

This full-time position introduces young professionals, at the start of their careers, to the UN ecosystem, including other international organisations, diplomats and grassroots movements.

Yasmin Beldjelti was a programme assistant for the Human Rights and Refugees programme. She reflects on her year with QUNO, which ends in September 2023.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself?

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August 2023

Geneva Reporter newest edition online for download

Every few months, the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in Geneva publishes the Geneva Reporter newsletter. In this latest September 2023 edition we share stories about how our staff found their path to Quaker House in Geneva, report on our annual Quaker United Nations Summer School held recently, and have a Q&A with one of our programme assistants who is wrapping up a year of working with our Human Rights & Refugees programme.

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August 2023

Celebrating QUNO, keeping relations with Quakers

As the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, it has been engaging in various ways with its most loyal supporters — Quakers.

Quakers are members of the Religious Society of Friends, an organisation founded on a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations and which is today a diverse global community.

Over the last few months, QUNO’s Geneva office has met regularly with Switzerland-based Quakers to strengthen relations and ensure they remain informed about its work at the United Nations.

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