Areas of Work
Supporting the UN’s Role for Peace Globally
QUNO New York seeks to strengthen member states’ understanding of and commitment to important concepts that build what has been called Positive Peace. Peace in this view requires the presence of social justice, equity, and systems that support sustainable peace and is distinguished from a Negative Peace which is the absence of direct violence or war. In this area of work, we focus on three intersecting themes. These are also explored through the work we do to support the UN’s role for peace in country and regional contexts. Currently, QUNO focuses on three priority areas of thematic work: inclusion, transitional justice, and working for peace through a climate-sensitive lens.
Supporting the UN’s Role for Peace in Regional Contexts
In New York, QUNO has a long history of engaging diplomats and UN officials around specific country and regional contexts. In this effort, we work closely with UN diplomats, officials, and civil society organizations, often using Quaker House as a space to host off-the-record briefings, building relationships, and trust. We focus on a small number of country and regional contexts, and seek to uplift and amplify the voices, concerns, and insights of those whose lives are touched by violent conflict and injustice. Their analysis and recommendations enable our UN partners to work towards lasting and sustainable peace that centres the needs of communities. Our selection of country and regional contexts is based on a careful assessment of whether we have something unique to offer, and whether our quiet, behind-the-scenes approach can make a difference at the UN in New York.
Supporting the UN to Build Peaceful and Just Societies with Inclusive Institutions
QUNO works towards implementing the UN’s 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which comprise a global action plan for people, planet, prosperity, and peace through partnership. In particular, QUNO works on SDG 16: the “peace goal.” QUNO has a long history of work on SDG 16 that dates back to the initial negotiation processes that established the 17 SDGs. While SDG 16 is often called the peace goal, its full title is “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” QUNO’s work on SDG 16 emphasizes that building sustainable peace requires continuous investment and action, and that lessons can be learned and built upon from both the developed and developing world.
Human Impacts of Climate Change
QUNO works for effective, fair and ambitious climate action and environmental protection. QUNO is concerned about the impacts of climate change on people’s lives, and works to ensure that the rights and dignity of all are upheld in the face of a changing environment. Whilst seeking to support international processes to minimise the negative effects of climate change, QUNO is also exploring how climate change interacts with migration and displacement, and with peace and conflict. QUNO’s work in this area draws on our existing expertise in other fields, including peacebuilding, human rights, economics and environmental policy.
Human Rights & Refugees
QUNO works for international law, standards and processes that uphold the inherent worth of each and every person. We work to strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights through the United Nations system, with particular reference to the interface between human rights and armed conflicts, the protection of refugees, the rights of people in detention, and other Quaker concerns.
Peace & Disarmament
QUNO works for holistic approaches that address the seeds of war, including inequality, injustice and the proliferation of arms. Our 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. QUNO works with diplomats, NGOs, UN staff and others in Geneva and beyond to support the creation of legal instruments, new policy and effective practice. A large part of our peacebuilding work also focuses on cross-cutting work around natural resources, conflict and cooperation. Together with our colleagues in human rights, climate change and food and sustainability, we explore opportunities for the prevention of destructive conflict around natural resources.
Sustainable & Just Economic Systems
QUNO works for economic systems that improve livelihoods, strengthen resilience, and ensure just transitions to sustainability. The ways in which we design and implement economic systems have critical impacts on sustainability, peace, and justice. QUNO strives to foster economic systems that deliver prosperity for all. This means that those economic systems improve livelihoods, strengthen resilience, and ensure just transitions to sustainability for the most vulnerable stakeholders. To this end, we seek human-centric and system approaches in areas such as agriculture & fisheries, economy-environment interactions, and trade & investment.
Humanitarian Challenges in Myanmar: Navigating Conflict and Crisis
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.” In his remarks, Gum San noted that the distribution of humanitarian assistance has been exacerbated by the dwindling control of the military junta that seized control during a coup in 2021. He explained that the military has prevented aid from reaching parts of the country not under its control, while diverting aid to its own stockpiles. Beyond the focus on humanitarian issues, Gum San also addressed the ongoing conflict situation between the military and armed resistance groups. He highlighted that the struggle to control the mining of rare earth minerals represents a major driver of conflict, especially in northern Myanmar. Currently, the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 20 million people, over one […]
QUNO attends the IPCC Plenary in China
This March, QUNO Representative for the Human Impacts of Climate Change participated in the 62nd Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This was held from 24 February – 1 March 2025 in Hangzhou China QUNO under FWCC has been an accredited observer of the IPCC since 2017. We seek to uphold transparency and the integrity of the science, encourage clear messaging on urgent, transformative and rights-based climate action, and ensure clear messaging on risks to some climate options/technologies which fail to transform root causes and/or pose high risks to people and biodiversity. To date we are the only active independently accredited faith-based organization at the IPCC. We present a report of QUNO work at the IPCC, and interventions given during the intensive meetings in China. Image by: ENB IISD
QUNO and the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn
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. This is the 13th year QUNO has offered quiet diplomacy dinners to a group of high level negotiators from a diverse group of countries. In addition to this effort, QUNO was engaged in negotiations, in two preparatory Constituted Bodies, in several inter-faith efforts, in two press conferences, an off-the-record meeting with climate scientists, in human rights advocacy, in Paris Agreement celebrations (see photo), and in the distribution of QUNO publications on climate science findings. Our work at the SB62 Conference began weeks earlier, in Constituted Body meetings on both Loss and Damage and the Katowice Committee of Experts (Response Measures). Additional preparation included support to the Interfaith Liaison Committee (ILC), which creates spaces for interfaith voices in climate negotiation spaces, and helping draft the Interfaith Call to Action, which was signed by a range of Quaker organizations. As the SB62 began, we started with an […]
Introducing the G20 Peer Reviews
On 25 September 2009, the Leaders of the G20, at their annual Summit (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA), issued a joint statement committing themselves to “Rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption”. Over the next several years, the G20 members themselves conducted an exercise in self reporting of their fossil fuel subsidies and reform commitments. Those efforts achieved limited success, with variable degrees of transparency and levels of ambition. (See the two reports by Doug Koplow from November 2010 and June 2012.) By early 2012, however, the OECD had launched its Inventory of Estimated Budgetary Support and Tax Expenditures for Fossil Fuels, which provided far more details than were available in the G20 Members’ self reports. That the G20 should conduct voluntary peer reviews of their reform efforts was proposed by the OECD during Russia’s presidency of the G20, in 2013. The OECD had long and generally positive experiences with peer reviews, so it was a logical tool to recommend. The proposal was accepted and formally established in paragraph 94 of the G20 Leaders’ Declaration issued during their 2013 Summit (6 September 2013, St Petersburg, Russia): “We reaffirm our commitment to rationalise and phase […]
Quaker Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Every April, the United Nations bustles with activity and energy as Indigenous representatives from around the world convene in New York for the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). Since its establishment in 2001, the Permanent Forum has offered a crucial opportunity for representatives of Indigenous Peoples to assemble to share best practices and strategize for the advancement of their human rights under international law. Canadian Friends Service Committee holds the mandate from the world body of Friends, through Friends World Committee for Consultation, to lead engagement on Indigenous Issues at the UN. During the Forum, CFSC works in partnership with members of the Coalition for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the Coalition) to advance Indigenous rights globally. QUNO assists CFSC and the advocacy of Indigenous representatives by offering Quaker House as a welcoming space to gather outside UN meetings. This year, Quaker House hosted caucuses of Indigenous youth; Indigenous representatives; and the Coalition for discussions on the Forum’s theme and on Indigenous peacebuilding. The 24th UNPFII took place under the theme, “Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples within United Nations Member States and the United Nations system, including identifying good practices […]
Job opportunity: Director, QUNO Geneva
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.
Since 1948, QUNO has been engaged in quiet, strategic advocacy based on priorities shaped by Quaker values and commitments to peace and non-violence, justice, equality, and stewardship of the environment. Discover some of our past work here.