This updated paper lays out the ways in which conscientious objection has been recognized and is protected under human rights treaties and mechanisms, taking into account developments in international standards that have occurred since the 2021 edition. These strengthened standards can be used by front line organizations as a tool to limit suffering, improve lives and challenge root causes of injustice.
QUNO’s Human Impact of Climate Change programme, speaking on behalf of the Friends World Committee for Consultation, participated in the 60th Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Istanbul, Turkey. At this session, the panel was tasked with crucial decisions on IPCC’s finances and its work for the 7th Assessment Cycle. QUNO submitted three interventions: advocating for the need to focus on the transformation of root causes rather than feeding unhealthy reliance on fossil fuels through research on geo-engineering; for research that upholds the rights and knowledge of Indigenous peoples; and the inclusion of military emissions in IPCC modeling and greenhouse gas emissions reporting. QUNO’s specific interventions and a debrief analysis on the negotiations and results of the 60th Session are available for download.
Building on our many decades of work to ensure recognition and implementation of the right to conscientious objection to military service we welcomed the recent Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) workshop on this subject. This brought together stakeholders dedicated to ensuring protection of the right to conscientious objection including UN staff, civil society organizations, former judgers, and conscientious objectors (COs) themselves. This workshop was a pivotal moment in the ongoing effort to safeguard the rights of individuals who refuse military service based on their conscience. It resulted from a Human Rights Council resolution that QUNO worked closely on. A report drawing on this workshop and other inputs will be presented at the 56th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2024. The collective efforts of QUNO and our partners played a leading role in shaping these developments and we continue to prioritize a multistakeholder, collaborative approach when it comes to pushing for the right to CO to be respected, protected and fulfilled. The OHCHR workshop served as a useful platform for discussing conscientious objection and its associated challenges. This discussion further enabled our efforts to identify and dismantle the barriers that hinder COs exercising […]
QUNO, on behalf of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), offered this submission in response to a call for input the Article 6.4 Supervisory Board on how to meaningfully engage with Indigenous peoples and local communities. This submission calls for the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body to ground meangingful engagement with Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 Summary findings, approved by States in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The Article 6.4 Supervisory Body is tasked with supervising and operationalizing the carbon crediting mechanism that was established by Article 6.4 of the UN Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty on climate change which encourages global action to help humanity and nature avert catastrophic temperature rise due to human activities. FWCC is an accredited observer of both the UNFCCC and IPCC, as well as an expert reviewer of IPCC Reports. In addition to FWCC expertise, the submission collated findings directly referenced from the IPCC AR6 Reports. We hope that this collation will help guide the Supervisory Board to ground its work in the best available scientific research, strengthening efforts to establish meaningful engagement with Indigenous Peoples and local communities. This is critical to avert exacerbating existing structural inequities, […]
A global “nonchalance” at deaths of refugees and migrants is shocking, says Volker Türk, the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights. Türk, during his speech at the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council earlier in September, said it was “evident that far more migrants and refugees are dying, unnoticed” and his office was “seeking urgent clarification about allegations of killings and mistreatment” in some cases. “I am shocked by the nonchalance that becomes apparent in the face of more than 2,300 people reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean this year, including the loss of more than 600 lives in a single shipwreck off Greece in June,” said Türk. Türk blames the “politics of deception, of throwing sand in people’s eyes” and the “brutal politics of repression” for further alienating refugees and migrants from public empathy and support. “We so badly need a flowering of critical, innovative and constructive views to build better policies and systems, but what we increasingly get are military coups, authoritarianism and the crushing of dissent – in short, the fist,” he said. The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) attended the Council's session at the UN headquarters Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. QUNO’s Geneva-based […]