Timeline

January 2016

VIDEO: Diane Hendrick talks about our Peace & Disarmament programme

In this video, excerpted from a longer film shown at the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Plenary Meeting held in Peru in January 2016, Diane Hendrick explains the work of our Peace & Disarmament programme. 

The Peace and Disarmament programme grows out of a long Quaker history of working for peace, understanding that this means more than the absence of overt violence and has fundamentally to do with social and economic justice and political participation. Where these are denied, the roots of violence can be found. 

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January 2016

QUNO Food & Sustainability publications now available in four languages

Three of QUNO's recent policy briefs from the Food & Sustainability programme are now available online in up to four languages. All QUNO work is published under a Creative Commons license. Copies of all QUNO publications can be downloaded free by following the links below, while hard copies are available on request to quno@quno.ch.

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January 2016

QUNO demonstrates policy tool at Global Donor Platform for Rural Development

Over the past year, QUNO has been developing an interactive tool to help shape coherent food security and trade policies. Attending the Global Donor Platform's annual event in Geneva this week gave us the opportunity to present our progress and discuss ways of taking it forward with a broad variety of grant-giving institutions.

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January 2016

Interview: QUNO and Joseph Rowntree Foundation reflect on COP21

With the dust settling on December's climate negotiations in Paris, QUNO's Lindsey Fielder Cook and Katherine Knox from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation were invited by journalism platform the IPF to share their reflections on the conference.

In the interview, they discuss the climate change work that QUNO and JRF have been undertaking and some of the implications of the outcome document, as well as sharing their experiences of the tense, dramatic and ultimately successful two weeks.

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January 2016

QUNO co-hosted briefing on new UN rules on treatment of prisoners

QUNO Geneva co-hosted a briefing on the new revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (known as the "Nelson Mandela Rules"), the key set of international standards on detention conditions and the treatment of prisoners.

The event, organized in conjunction with Penal Reform International (PRI), the Permanent Mission of Switzerland and the Permanent Mission of Uruguay took place on Thursday 4 February.

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January 2016

QUNO contributes chapter to new Elsevier publication on Land Degradation

Working as a consultant for QUNO Geneva, Lynn Finnegan, with assistance from Diane Hendrick, has authored a chapter entitled “All Voices Heard: A Conflict Prevention Approach to Land and Natural Resources” in the newly-published book Land Restoration: Reclaiming Landscapes for a Sustainable Future, edited by Ilan Chabay, Martin Frick and Jennifer Helgeson.

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December 2015

Policy Brief: The relationship between food security policy measures and WTO trade rules

This report first provides a historical overview of both the concept of food security and the incorporation of agriculture into international trade negotiations. It then turns to the relationship between food security policy options and the WTO’s trade rules, and highlights opportunities for governments to implement policies that support food security while meeting their international obligations. It concludes by laying out a range of policy measures to enhance food security, assessing the compatibility of each with WTO regulations. 

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December 2015

Project Brief: QUNO interactive policy tool

Within our Trade and Investment in Agriculture work, QUNO has been developing an online tool to help explain the complex relationship between food security measures and the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) trade rules. These are liable to come into conflict and the aim of the tool is to help policy makers shape their policies in ways that are mutually compatible and context-appropriate.

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December 2015

QUNO remarks in Washington on the universal application of the peaceful, just and inclusive societies approach within the SDGs

QUNO New York Director, Andrew Tomlinson, was invited to speak at a meeting of the Washington-based Conflict Prevention and Resolution Forum on 'The Future of Goal 16: Peace and Inclusion in the Sustainable Development Goals', along with Lynn Wagner of IISD and Cynthia Clapp-Wincek, a consultant and policy expert with the US government, in a session chaired by Liz Hume of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Andrew's remarks focused on the universal application of the peaceful, just and inclusive societies agenda within the SDGs.

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November 2015

New Report: Small-scale farmer innovation systems - a review of the literature

Small-scale farmer innovation systems have remained an abstract and elusive concept - this document seeks clarification by presenting a review of the academic literature on the subject.

In it, we call for further evidence-based research documenting small-scale farmers' contributions to food security, livelihood improvement and agro-ecosystem resilience. Through this, we hope small-scale farmers may become more visible in policymaking and more supported within national innovation strategies.

Read the full report below:

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November 2015

New Report: The relationship between key food security measures and trade rules

The rules governing international trade in agriculture are often vague and ambiguous, requiring significant legal and administrative capacity to uncover opportunities to support food security and rural livelihoods without breaking WTO rules.

This new QUNO report, prepared by Kim Burnett (University of Waterloo), identifies some of the measures that may be used to help advance developing countries’ food security in ways that comply with international obligations to reduce trade-distorting domestic supports and market protections.

 

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November 2015

QUNO blog post ahead of landmark Security Council meeting on conflict prevention

Ahead of a UN Security Council open debate on Peace, Development, and the Root Causes of Conflict this week, QUNO New York director Andrew Tomlinson teamed up with Saferworld in a blog post highlighting peacebuilding perspectives. The debate addressed the connection between the Council's mandate to maintain international peace and security, the 2030 Agenda and the related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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November 2015

Geneva Peace Week

QUNO, as one of the four partners of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (together with Interpeace, the Centre for Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding of the Graduate Institute, and the Geneva Centre on Security Policy), supported Geneva Peace Week 2015, which in its second year, served as the umbrella for 41 events organized by 50 institutions. The Main Programme was developed collaboratively between the UN Office in Geneva, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (GPP), organizations based in the Maison de la Paix, and the University of Geneva.

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November 2015

QUNO highlights conflict sensitivity in business during Geneva Peace Week

QUNO and AFSC, with the support of the Peace Nexus Foundation, organised an event at the Palais des Nations on “Conflict Sensitivity in Business: Experiences from China and Southeast Asia” as part of Geneva Peace Week 2015. The event provided a platform for a senior Chinese business representative, as well as Cambodian and international NGO representatives, to speak about their efforts to work together to mitigate conflict around investments in Southeast Asia. The event was moderated by Jason Tower, East Asian International Affairs Representative for AFSC in Beijing. 

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November 2015

Bringing constructive examples to the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

QUNO, together with the Centre for Peacebuilding (swisspeace) and the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), held a side event at the 4th UN Forum on Business and Human rights, on 16 November 2015. This event focused on the “Human Rights Implications of Large-Scale Land Investments and Constructive Responses”. Former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, spoke on preliminary findings and initial reflections of a draft report produced for ICAR, Global Witness and Oxfam on Land, corruption and human rights.

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November 2015

QUNO hosts discussion on youth and peacebuilding

QUNO, on behalf of the New York Peacebuilding Group, hosted a meeting with members of the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY) to discuss the role of young people in building and sustaining peace. The speakers explained the importance of the recent Amman Youth Declaration on Youth, Peace and Security, and focused on how young people need to be involved as agents of positive change in all stages of peacebuilding.

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November 2015

QUNO as panelist at Social Inclusion Public Consultation

QUNO New York Director, Andrew Tomlinson, was invited to speak as a panelist in the public consultation on Social Inclusion hosted by the Independent Commission on Multilateralism at the International Peace Institute, together with Dr. Ilze Brands Kehris, and Omar El Okdah. His comments focused on the core nature of the issues of social inclusion, political participation and effective governance and their role in conflict prevention, the nature of inclusive national ownership in practice, and the need for the multilateral system to model inclusion in its own practices.

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