As part of a workshop organised by the New York University Center for Global Affairs on the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), QUNO NY Director Andrew Tomlinson was one of two speakers for the opening plenary session, along with Professor Sakiko Fukuda-Parr from the New School for Public Engagement.

The Quaker United Nations Office in New York, in association with Ambassador Sofia Borges, Timor Leste, and Ambassador Vandi Minah, Sierra Leone, co-hosted a reception at Quaker House on 10 March for member state delegates and senior representatives of peacebuilding policy organizations from around the world. 

QUNO was invited to participate in the first ever UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) Annual Session in New York on June 23rd, which focused on Sustainable support for peacebuilding: the domestic and international aspects. Andrew Tomlinson, QUNO Director, made comments in the workshop sessions on “The importance of inclusion, transparency and consultation in revenue mobilization” and “Long-term accompaniment of societies in transition: a role for the PBC?”

March marks women’s history month, and at the UN is the very busy time of the Commission on the Status of Women. QUNO New York staff contributed the UN perspective to this article produced by American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), highlighting the importance of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security, among other international tools for the inclusion of women in peacebuilding.

On 19 and 20 February Diane Hendrick participated in the  seminar “Towards a more Coherent Peacebuilding Policy Community”, in Johannesburg organised by the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), a Civil Society organisation based in South Africa, which specializes in the field of conflict analysis, resolution, interventions and management on the African continent.

On 30 October, QUNO  briefed a meeting of the Core Group of the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations in New York on planned consultations for the post-2015 development agenda.   

Together with the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) and the United Nations Inter-Agency Framework Team for Preventive Action, QUNO hosted the New York launch of IEP’s new study “Pillars of Peace”, with Mr Steve Killelea AM, Founder and Executive Chair, on 27 September 2013. This new research sets out to understand and measure the attitudes, institutions and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies. Read more and download the report.