Welcome to the Quaker United Nations Office

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) serves as a Quaker presence at the United Nations (UN), representing Friends’ concerns at the international level, with offices at UN headquarters in New York, as well as in Geneva.

In addition to representing Friends, QUNO facilitates dialogue and works on specific issues in a manner that is unique in the UN community. QUNO advocacy is carried out in a number of ways, particularly by facilitating informal, open negotiating processes in which all participate on an equal footing.

New at QUNO

• You can now find out the latest news and publications from QUNO on Twitter. Follow us @QuakerUNOffice!

• Oliver Robertson attended the 22nd UN Crime Commission in Vienna in April. QUNO ran a side event about the situation of children of prisoners, including children of parents sentenced to death, together with Penal Reform International. We also followed developments in the review of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

• The UN General Assembly adopted the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in New York in April. The challenge now will be to gain ratification by at least 50 States so that it can enter into force. QUNO and the Geneva Forum will explore with disarmament diplomats the way that the ATT links with existing instruments such as the Firearms Protocol to the Convention on Transnational Organised Crime. To read more about the ATT, please click here.

• On 17 April, QUNO New York was a featured speaker at a UN special event on the conclusions of the thematic discussion on conflict, violence and disaster within the discussion of the post-millennium development goal framework. To read the outline of the event, please click here. To read QUNO’s remarks, which focused on the role of violence in poverty and development, and the need for a fresh approach to assist societies affected by chronic violence and instability, please click here.

• QUNO’s Diane Hendrick participated in the High Level Meeting of the UN thematic consultation on conflict, violence and disaster in the post-2015 development framework in Helsinki in March. The consultation concluded that peace and human security should be recognised as a separate goal, and indicators relating to peace should be integrated into other goals. To read about the Meeting, please click here.

• QUNO has been involved in producing an important Guide on Conscientious Objection to Military Service, just published by United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The Guide considers the international standards, jurisprudence and national practice, including standards for using conscientious objection to military service as a basis for claiming refugee status. To read the Guide, please click here.

Recent QUNO Resources

QUNO Review 2012 (pdf 7.3 mb)

Photos and the meeting note of the workshop for new and current members of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, which QUNO New York co-organized in February with the International Peace Institute, are now available online. For photos and background on the workshop, please click here. For the meeting note, please click here

Celebrating the work of the Quaker UN Office. This video introduces QUNO Geneva’s staff, our work and what is unique about what we do. To watch the video, please click here. (mpg 136 mb)

Geneva Reporter, Jan. 2013 - Mar. 2013 (pdf 707 kb)

In & Around the U.N. (New York), December 2012 (pdf 325 kb)

Rachel Brett, QUNO representative for Human Rights and Refugees, speaking on Conscientious Objection. She compares the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee with the European Court for Human Rights.

Increasing Trust and Effectiveness under the UNFCCC: Learning from International Monitoring Processes, November 2012 (pdf 160 kb)

Please click here to read other QUNO publications