The Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva, under the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), is the only accredited faith-based observer organisation actively engaged at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). From 14-27 February, the IPCC held an intergovernmental meeting to finalise a Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) of its report, Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. This is the second of three sections completing the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which collates the latest climate science – what is happening, why, and what we can do to transform human activities driving global heating – and involves hundreds of scientists worldwide and thousands of peer-reviewed studies. Once approved by governments, IPCC reports have been used by citizens to in turn hold their governments to account for insufficient action on climate change. During the IPCC meeting, Lindsey Fielder Cook, Representative for the Human Impacts of Climate Change at QUNO Geneva, made 29 interventions on behalf of FWCC. Her interventions can be read in the attached document below.
Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Wartime
In this QUNO briefing, Rachel Brett outlines the UNโs longstanding recognition of conscientious objection to military service as a universal right that must be upheld in all circumstances, including in wartime and national emergencies. Drawing on UN standards and the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion under Article 18 of the ICCPR, it explains that this protection is non-derogable and cannot be suspended, even in a national crisis. The paper also highlights the importance of ensuring that soldiers and reservists can access recognition as conscientious objectors at precisely the moments when normal routes out of military service are most likely to be restricted.