QUNO attended the 17th Working Group of the Parties of the Aarhus Convention as part of our work on Natural Resources, Conflict and Cooperation. This is a UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention linking environmental rights and human rights, focusing on the interactions between the public and public authorities.

Diane Hendrick of QUNO Geneva and Alexandra Trzeciak-Duval, former Head of the Policy Division in OECD’s Directorate for Development Co-operation, co-moderated an e-discussion on Mainstreaming Food Security into Peacebuilding Processes. You can read contributions to the e-discussion at http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/protracted-crises.

QUNO - together with the UN Global Compact, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and the Constructive Engagement Group - held a side event on Business, Human Rights and Conflict at the 2013 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. Diane Hendrick of QUNO moderated the discussion. During this event, Lynn Finnegan from QUNO spoke about the impact that business activities can have on local communities’ access to natural resources such as water, land and food. QUNO also outlined good practices for effective company-community engagement.​

A diverse and engaged group of UN staff, member states, and civil society members gathered at Quaker House in New York on 7 November to hear a group of leading Chinese academics share their work on Peacebuilding in the African Great Lakes Region. It was a lively conversation, with many personal anecdotes and the sharing of experiences from many different actors.

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.   

QUNO publishes a new report, ‘Building peace around water, land and food: Policy and practice for preventing conflict’.

QUNO and the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding hosted a High Level  Side Event on “Stability & Peace: Finding the Heart of Sustainable Development" at Scandinavia House in New York in the opening week of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly, featuring civil society representatives from Kenya, Liberia and Nigeria, the Director General of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, a leading Chinese academic, and Jan Naidoo from South Africa. Ninety diplomats, UN staff and civil society representatives attended. 

QUNO held - together with CARE International, Catholic Relief Service, CGIAR Challenge Programme on Water and Food; Howard G. Buffett Foundation; International Institute for Environment and Development and International Union for Conservation of Nature - a seminar on “Water Management and Peacebuilding: Connecting the Local to International Policy” at the Stockholm World Water Week in September. The seminar shared examples of policy and practice that bring water, land and food management together with peacebuilding and rights-based approaches.