Month	Date	National/International Event	Activity/Project
August
	12th	International Youth Day	MDG We are Teenagers
September	8th	International Literacy Day	Write On
	21st	International Peace Day	Side by Side
October
	5th	World Teachers’ Day	Teacher’s Kindred
	16th	World Food Day	Cultural Recipe Project
	17th	International Day for the Eradication of Poverty	Feeding Mind/ Fighting Hunger
November
	16th	International Day for Tolerance	A Vision   Global Art - Sense of Caring
	20th	Universal Children Day	Vision of Me- Self Portrait
December	10th	Human rights Day	Many Faces of poverty and homelessness Women In My Country
January	1st	Global Family Day	Christmas Greeting Cards Project
February	21st	International Mother Language Day	Calligraphic Arts Project
March	8th	International Women’s Day	Women In My Country
	20th	World Storytelling Day	Once Upon a Time - Folktales
	22nd	World’s Water Day	Water Habitat Project
April	7th	World’s Health Day	Feeding Mind, Fighting Hunger
	22nd	Earth Day	Power of One Eye to Eye
	25th	Technology Day	Moving Voices Digital Photo Diary
May	17th	World Information Society Day	Portrait of the World
	31st	World No-Tobacco Day	iThink project A Vision
June	5th	World Environment Day	Eye to Eye One World, One Environment
July	11th	World Population Day	Let's Live Without Problems

Click here to download UN International Days Resource Booklet

 

Background / Description:

International Friendship Day                                                                                                                                                                    Back

International Friendship Day celebrations take place on the first Sunday of August every year. The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in US in 1935(no references). Gradually the festival gained popularity and today Friendship Day is celebrated in large number of countries. On this day people spend time with their friends and express love for them. Exchange of Friendship Day Gifts like flowers, cards and wrist bands is a popular tradition of this occasion.

There is not much literature on Friendship Day history as we celebrate today. However, there are supposedly numerous folktales and mythological legends that have come up after the celebration of the day started that shows that friends and friendship have been valued since the beginning of civilized world. As an intrinsically social creature, men love to make friends to further this process of socialization.

International Youth Day                                                                                                                                                                               Back

The General Assembly on 17 December 1999 in its resolution 54/120, endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth (Lisbon, 8-12 August 1998) that 12 August be declared International Youth Day.

It is meant as an opportunity for governments and others to draw attention to youth issues worldwide. Concerts, workshops, cultural events, and meetings involving national and local government officials and youth organizations take place around the world in honor of International Youth Day.

The Assembly recommended that public information activities be organized to support the Day as a way to promote better awareness of the World Programme of Action for Youth to the Year 2000 and Beyond, adopted by the General Assembly in 1995 (resolution 50/81).

International Literacy Day                                                                                                                                                                             Back

Literacy is a cause for celebration since there are now close to four billion literate people in the world. However, literacy for all – children, youth and adults - is still an unaccomplished goal and an ever moving target. A combination of ambitious goals, insufficient and parallel efforts, inadequate resources and strategies, and continued underestimation of the magnitude and complexity of the task accounts for this unmet goal.

In resolution A/RES/57/166, the Assembly welcomed the International Plan of Action for the Decade and decided that Unesco should take a coordinating role in activities undertaken at the international level within the framework of the Decade.

International Peace Day                                                                                                                                                                                Back

The International Day of Peace was first established in 1981 by a resolution 36/67 of the United Nations General Assembly to coincide with its opening session every September. In 2001 the resolution 55/282 was strengthened to fix the date annually on 21 September and for it to be a day of nonviolence and cease-fire. The resolution was adopted unanimously by the Member States of the General Assembly.

The International Day of Peace “is meant to be a day of global cease-fire, when all countries and all people stop all hostilities for the entire day. And it is a day on which people around the world observe a minute of silence at 12 noon local time. […]And let us pledge to do our utmost to carry out the important decisions on peace taken by last week’s 2005 World Summit.”

-- Kofi Annan --
United Nations Secretary-General
21 September 2005

World Teachers’ Day                                                                                                                                                                                       Back

On 5 October, teachers’ organizations worldwide mobilize to ensure that the needs of future generations are taken into consideration in this increasingly complex, multicultural and technological world. UNESCO inaugurated 5 October as World Teachers’ Day in 1994......According to UNESCO, World Teachers' Day represents a significant token of the awareness, understanding and appreciation displayed for the vital contribution that teachers make to education and development. Education International strongly believes that this Teachers' Day should be internationally recognized and celebrated around the world.

International Women’s Day                                                                                                                                                                            Back

Putting women and women’s rights to equality on the global agenda is the moving force behind International Women’s Day.  The idea of a day for women, celebrated all over the world, began at the beginning of this century in America and Europe.  The focus was the movement for women’s rights and achieving universal suffrage for women.  International Women’s Day really took hold between 1913 and 1917 when women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with their sisters.  In December 1977 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

Since those early years, much progress has been made for women in developed and developing countries alike:  in many countries, provisions guaranteeing the enjoyment of human rights without discrimination on the basis of sex have been included in constitutions;  legal literacy and other measures have been introduced to alert women to their rights and to ensure their access to those rights;  the world community has identified violence against women as a clear violation of women’s rights; incorporating gender perspectives into regular programmes and policies has become a priority at the United Nations and in many member states. 

Although much remains to be done to achieve full equality, the voices of women are being heard. March 8th  provides an opportunity to pay tribute to the achievements of women and to highlight the needs and concerns of women on national, regional and global agendas. 

World Storytelling Day                                                                                                                                                                                   Back

 

World Storytelling Day has its roots in a national day for storytelling in Sweden, circa 1991-2. At that time, an event was organized for March 20 in Sweden called "Alla berättares dag" (All storytellers day). The Swedish national storytelling network passed out some time after, but the day stayed alive, celebrated around the country by different enthusiasts. In 1997, storytellers in Perth, Western Australia coordinated a five-week long Celebration of Story, commemorating March 20 as the International Day of Oral Narrators. At the same time, in Mexico and other South American countries, March 20 was already celebrated as the National Day of Storytellers.

 

When the Scandinavian storytelling web-network, Ratatosk, started around 2001, Scandinavian storytellers started talking, and in 2002, the event spread from Sweden to Norway, Denmark, Finland and Lithuania. In 2003, the idea spread to Canada and other countries, and the event has become known internationally as World Storytelling Day. World Storytelling Day 2005 had a grande finale on Sunday March the 20th. There were events from 25 countries on 5 continents, and 2006 saw the program grow further. 2007 was the first time a storytelling concert was held in Newfoundland, Canada. In 2008 The Netherlands took part in World Storytelling Day with a big event called 'Vertellers in de Aanval' on March the 20th; three thousand kids were surprised by the sudden appearance of storytellers in their classrooms.

 

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