QUNO is closely following and inputting information into a Global Study on Children Deprived of their Liberty.

The Study will shed light on the scale and conditions of children deprived of their liberty, identifying good practices and making recommendations for effective measures to prevent human rights violations against children in detention and reduce the number of children deprived of liberty.

On the 11th November QUNO co-organised an event with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). This event was part of on-going collaborative work with FES that aims to link human rights and sustaining peace approaches in the work of the United Nations.

At today’s briefing meeting by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, human rights were championed as vital elements in the new global agenda on refugees and migration.

Peggy Hicks, Director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated during the event, that this discussion must not be “of whether or not human rights apply – but a discussion of how human rights are to be upheld.”

The annual Forum on Business and Human Rights took place in Geneva from 15-16 November 2016 and attracted state delegate, companies and many NGOs to its deliberations and events.

On the occasion of the CFS 43 in Rome next week, QUNO will co-host a side event with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The side event is entitled ‘Who Will and How Will We Feed Humanity’ and will be moderated by QUNO’s Food and Sustainability representative Susan Bragdon.

During the last week of September 2016, QUNO attended the WTO Public Forum on Inclusive Trade. Throughout various plenary sessions and side events, QUNO followed the discussions on how to enable a wider range of individuals and businesses to participate in the trading systems and how WTO rules can help to ensure everyone benefits from trade. In particular, QUNO paid close attention to the panel discussions on the roles of agriculture and small scale farmers in today’s global trading system. 

On the 23rd September, QUNO attended a day long "General Discussion" on the Rights of the Child and the Environment, held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. QUNO advocates greater integration of human rights and rights-based approaches in climate action.

In September, Lindsey Fielder Cook, QUNO's Representative for Climate Change, attended the Oxford University conference, 1.5C: Meeting the Challenges of the Paris Agreement. QUNO applauds the Paris Agreement commitment to "pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels," yet we are aware this chance will be lost in some 5 years under the current greenhouse gas emission rate. QUNO is concerned that geo-engineering (climate engineering) is receiving more attention than sustainable behavior and economic system transformation, the latter which ca

QUNO was again present at the international climate change negotiations (SB44), recently held in Bonn, Germany from 16-26 May. Our Human Impact of Climate Change programme held two quiet diplomacy dinners in which negotiators from a diverse group of 23 countries discussed, in an off-the-record setting, their hopes and concerns following adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015. We also sponsored a side event in which a panel representing NGO, Climate Scientist and UNFCCC negotiator voices, spoke about the role of ethics and human behavior in climate change action.