It is five months since States met at the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) to assess implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and agree priorities to accelerate action. The Annual Meeting of the UN Network on Migration in October brought together nearly 700 participants, including over 160 in person, from governments, UN agencies, and stakeholders to outline next steps. 

On 25 October, QUNO New York hosted Jehad Abusalim and Asmaa Abu Mezeid, two of the authors of the newly published anthology ‘Light in Gaza: Writings Born in Fire’, for an intimate conversation at Quaker House with QUNO staff and members of the UN Israel-Palestine NGO Working Group.

With the situation in Gaza often framed purely as a military or humanitarian issue, this conversation provided an opportunity to hear about people’s experiences under occupation.

On 3 October, QUNO Geneva engaged with the work of the Human Rights Council on systemic racism.

Speaking in the first dialogue with the Expert Mechanism on Law Enforcement and Racism, Director Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge drew on her own experience of police violence in apartheid South Africa. Welcoming the work of the Expert Mechanism and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nozizwe went on to say:

On the International Day of Peace, which is held every year on 21 September, QUNO NY Representative, Kavita Desai, joined the Global People’s Assembly panel discussion, Peace and Conflict Prevention - Reflections on International Day of Peace. The session, held virtually, brought together civil society organizations (CSOs) to discuss the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

On 27 September, speaking at the Committee on Migrant Workers Day of General Discussion on the convergence between the Global Compact for Migration and the Convention on Migrant Workers, our Human Rights and Refugees Representative, Laurel Townhead, highlighted the value of using the respective strengths of these instruments and their follow up mechanisms. Laurel said: 

On 30 August, UN Member States and civil society representatives came together to discuss and identify ways to strengthen youth engagement in the General Assembly (GA). Kavita Desai, one of QUNO’s Quaker UN Representatives, spoke on behalf of the Civil Society-UN Prevention Platform, which is co-facilitated by QUNO’s New York office and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). The Platform works to support the UN’s prevention agenda through strengthening coordination and information sharing between civil society organizations and the UN.