From 1-2 April 2015, QUNO held its third Expert Consultation on a New Framework for Trade and Investment in Agriculture (NFTIA) at the Château de Bossey (pictured), near Geneva. QUNO hosted 17 participants, representing academics, trade delegates, civil society representatives, small-scale farmers and UN officials, from a total of 11 different countries.

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 New York Peacebuilding Group, a gathering of organisations (the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, the International Peace Institute, Interpeace, PAX, Peace Direct, the Quaker United Nations Office, and World Vision) engaged on various peace-related issues at the UN and in country hosted local civil society representatives from Burundi, the Central African Republic, Guatemala, Liberia, Mali, South Africa, and Timor Leste in New York.

QUNO, along with the Permanent Delegation of the African Union to the UN in Geneva, the Permanent Mission of Uruguay and Child Rights Connect Working Group on Children of Incarcerated Parents hosted a panel discussion and good practice exchange on policy and practice developments related to children of incarcerated parents.

The event is being held during the 28th session of the Human Rights Council, on 11 March in Geneva. Further details are available in the flyer below.

The Geneva Climate Change Concertation Group (GeCCco), the Geneva Interfaith Forum on Climate Change and Human Rights (GIF), QUNO and other NGOs concerned about the impact of climate change on human rights, co-hosted CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN RIGHTS: THE WAY FORWARD IN THE HRC, a side event to the 28th session of the Human Rights Council. The side event was held on Friday, 6 March, from 1-3pm in Room XXVII at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. 

On the 27th of February 2015, QUNO, alongside its partners at the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, launched the White Paper on Peacebuilding. Published in anticipation of the 10-year review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture, this collaborative publication aims to account for a diverse range of perspectives in discussing the challenges, opportunities, and future of peacebuilding, as well the ways in which societies may work towards a sustainable peace, with the support of the UN and other international actors.

In January QUNO hosted an informal civil society strategy session on Goal 16 and the role of related peace issues in the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). After many years of inputs, from a variety of different sources and streams, the process to replace the Millennium Development Goals with the transformative SDG framework enters its final stages.