The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) seeks a committed and motivated person with considerable knowledge and experience to carry forward work on Human Rights in the QUNO Geneva office.
Leading the Human Rights and Refugees Programme, the Representative will maintain QUNO’s long-term Quaker presence at the United Nations. As a senior staff member and part of a small team, they will help ensure the effective and efficient management of QUNO Geneva.
 

On 12 August, QUNO NY, in collaboration with Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), hosted a virtual event titled “Discerning the Path Forward – Quaker Engagement in the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent”. The event gathered Friends across the global Quaker family to reflect, worship, and discern how QUNO and Quakers are called to engage with the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD).   

At the end of July, QUNO Programme Assistant Ailih Weeldreyer attended New York Yearly Meeting’s summer sessions. The meeting was held under the theme “Dare to Hope, Dare to Heal, Dare to Witness.” This focus encouraged Friends to reflect on messages of renewal and action to uplift voices silenced by historical and ongoing injustice. Friends in the New York region demonstrated the ways they are living these messages through partnerships in their communities and around the world.  

This briefing note by the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) and Eunomia Research & Consulting presents the preliminary findings from the third phase of our "Plastic Money" initiative. Released in August 2025 to coincide with the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) on Plastic Pollution, this work continues our effort to bring clarity and evidence to the global discourse on plastic subsidies.

"Is the Arms Trade Above International Law?"

This pressing question was at the heart of a recent public event co-organized by QUNO, together with the Geneva Academy, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). Held on 20 May in Geneva, the panel brought together legal experts, UN officials, diplomats, students, and human rights advocates to hear about challenges in coming to grips with the arms trade, as well as possible ways forward.

On 9 July, the Quaker United Nations Office hosted a private briefing on Myanmar’s humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck on 28 March 2025. At Quaker House, Gum San Nsang, Secretary of the Kachin Political Interim Coordination Team, briefed UN diplomats. With the monsoon season threatening to worsen the humanitarian crisis, he emphasized the need for the international community to address aid distribution issues, reminding them that “each day later is a day worse than before.” 

QUNO Geneva’s Human Impacts of Climate Change (HICC) team, Lindsey Fielder Cook and Johan Cavert, were intensely active at the UN Climate Change meetings in Bonn. These Subsidiary Body meetings (SB62) were held by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 16-26 June and are in preparation for the upcoming COP in Brazil.

The Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva is looking for its next leader. If this could be you, please read the job pack and consider applying. You must be a member of the Religious Society of Friends to be eligible for this role. Application deadline: Friday 18 July 2025.

The Quaker United Nations Office is pleased to announce the release of our 2025 QUNO Review. As in previous years, the Review documents the work of our staff and partners across all program areas between our offices in New York and Geneva as we continue to support UN initiatives and influence international policy toward a more just and peaceful world.