QUNO's August 2019 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter is available below. This issue features: an update from our Human Rights & Refugees programme on the important next steps after adoption by the UN of the Global Compact on Migration last December; ; highlights about our recent prevention activities for human rights and sustaining peace; approaches to people and nature centered climate policy; and a QUNO Q&A with our newest Representative, Joachim Monkelbaan.

This leaflet was written to help decision makers better understand how a rights-based approach in forming climate policy will lead to more effective and fair action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).  The leaflet explains a ‘human rights based approach’, why it is advantageous for policy makers, and offers positive examples of successful rights based climate action in reducing GHG mitigation and adaptation. The leaflet was presented to negotiators at the climate negotiations (SB50) in Bonn, in June 2019.

While recognition of conscientious objection in national law is a huge step towards ending violations of the rights of those who refuse to fight, human rights based processes need to be in place to ensure that the right can be exercised in practice. On this basis the Human Rights Council mandated a report from the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, delivered in June 2019, that examines barriers to the right to conscientious objection and provides a checklist of  recommendations for States when implementing policy. This document is QUNO's contribution to the report.

At the 40th session of the Human Rights Council, QUNO delivered an oral statement (and submitted a written counterpart providing further information) focussing on the ways in which the sentencing to death or execution of a parent violates the best interests principle, particularly where the death sentence is mandatory, and often violates the child's right to non-discrimination. 

This edition of A Government Official's Toolkit  has been lightly edited and re-organized into a smaller format.

An executive summary of Protection of the Rights of Children of Parents Sentenced to Death or Executed: An Expert Legal Analysis, researched and written by Professor Stephanie Farrior.

QUNO's December 2018 issue of the Geneva Reporter newsletter is available online. The latest issue features: an update from our Human Impacts of Climate Change programme on the IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C; news about a significant sew standard recognizing the impact of parental death sentences on children; highlights from a recent panel discussion on nuclear disarmament; and a QUNO Q&A with Vinay Talwar.