International Days

This day was designated in memory of the 19 August 2003 bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, killing 22 people, including the chief humanitarian in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly [...]

International Youth Day is commemorated every year on 12 August, bringing youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrating the potential of youth as partners in today’s global society. The idea for International Youth Day was proposed [...]

here are an estimated 476 million indigenous peoples in the world living across 90 countries. They make up less than 5 per cent of the world's population, but account for 15 per cent of the poorest. They speak an overwhelming [...]

This year’s theme puts victims of human trafficking at the centre of the campaign and will highlight the importance of listening to and learning from survivors of human trafficking. The campaign portrays survivors as key actors in the fight against human trafficking and focusses [...]

On 18 July every year, we invite you to mark Nelson Mandela International Day by making a difference in your communities. Everyone has the ability and the responsibility to change the world for the better! Mandela Day is an occasion [...]

On 12 December 1997, by resolution 52/149, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 26 June the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, with a view to the total eradication of torture and the effective functioning of the Convention against [...]

Refugees are among the most vulnerable people in the world. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol help protect them. They are the only global legal instruments explicitly covering the most important aspects of a refugee’s life. According to [...]

For too long, we have been exploiting and destroying our planet’s ecosystems. Every three seconds, the world loses enough forest to cover a football pitch and over the last century we have& destroyed half of our& wetlands. As much as 50 per cent of our [...]

The International Workers’ Day is celebrated on the 1st of May, to commemorate the workers movement and the workforce all around the world, as part of a claiming movement for different causes related to work labour. More than a hundred [...]

An explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 spread a radioactive cloud over large parts of the Soviet Union, now the territories of Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Nearly 8.4 million people in the three countries were [...]

On the 24th of April, the International day of multilateralism and diplomacy for peace is celebrated. Preserving the values of multilateralism and international cooperation, which underpin the UN Charter and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is fundamental to promote and support the [...]

23 April is a symbolic date for world literature. It is on this date in 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors, [...]

The General Assembly designated 22 April as International Mother Earth Day through a resolution adopted in 2009. The UN Conference on the Human Environment 1972 in Stockholm marked the beginning of a global awareness of the interdependence between people, other living species [...]

Every April 17th, young people and Youth Information Services across Europe celebrate the European Youth Information Day. This day, which was declared in 1983 by the European Agency for Youth Information and Advice (Eryica) and the Spanish Youth Institute (Injuve), [...]

In 1997 the International Day against Child Slavery was created to honor the memory of Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani boy who after escaping from forced labor dedicated himself to the fight for children's rights but was killed on April 16, [...]

The International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP) is celebrated on the 6th of April. The adoption of this Day signifies the increasing recognition by the UN of the positive influence that sport can have on the advancement [...]

Conscious of the need for the creation of conditions of stability and well-being and peaceful and friendly relations based on respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion, the General [...]

Earth Hour is celebrated each year on the last Saturday of March, and it consists of an electric voluntary downturn, in which people and enterprises are asked to turn off lights and electronic devices which are not essential during an hour, [...]