QUNO releases briefing paper for Friends.

The Quaker United Nations Office is releasing a new  briefing paper to help Friends better understand migrant and refugee issues.  The paper is titled ‘Protecting refugees and migrants under the New York  Declaration: challenges and opportunities at the UN level,’ and you can  download it as a PDF here: QUNO_Briefing_for_Friends_Refugees_and_Migrants_FINAL.pdf.   About this paper, they write, “On  September 19th 2016, the UN set a new agenda under the ‘New York  Declaration’ for responding to large movements of people crossing borders.  

Our briefing aims to  inform Friends about the Declaration and the developments it initiates for  improving global governance on refugees and migrants. It also describes how QUNO is engaging in these opportunities, as well as ways that Quakers around  the world can link up with, and benefit from, UN level initiatives.”    

‍QUNO presented this paper in February at the Quaker  Asylum and Refugee Network conference on February 5th at Woodbrooke Study  Centre in Birmingham, UK. Out the following discussion, this minute was written. It begins  with this:    

We came  as individuals across the water, by road and rail, from countries across  Europe, and cities, towns and villages in UK to focus our energy around forced migration and how Quakers can respond. We are all at different places on our journey, for some this is new, others bring years of commitment to supporting people seeking sanctuary and refugees, or  of trying to change the system, and we share strong Quakerly commitment to peace, justice and equality that has guided us through the weekend together, and to healing the brokenness of our own societies.