QUNO hosted a panel discussion at the WTO Public Forum 2013 on “Exploring New Frameworks for Trade and Investment in Agriculture”. Speaking on the panel were Caroline Dommen, QUNO Representative for Global Economic Issues, Hans Herren, recipient of The Right Livelihood Award 2013 and Mark Halle, from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

QUNO attended the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 9th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP), held from 11 – 22 November in Warsaw, Poland. QUNO’s support of the UNFCCC multilateral process includes offering off-the-record spaces for delegates to meet, exchange ideas, and build bridges and trust. To find out more about the conference and the UNFCCC, visit http://unfccc.int/meetings/warsaw_nov_2013/meeting/7649.php.

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.   

The first-ever Human Rights Council Panel on Children of Parents Sentenced to the Death Penalty or Executed took place on 11 September 2013 in Geneva.

QUNO participated in an Informal Climate Change Equity Dialogue convened by the ACT Alliance, and facilitated a roundtable discussion on equity and trust building.

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.