United Nations Days and Their Themes: Dates and Facts

The United Nations keeps a calendar of observance days, and General Knowledge papers draw from it every year. The safe way to prepare it is to learn three things about each day: the date, the body that declared it, and the event or document it commemorates. The theme is the fourth element, and it is the one that changes, because a fresh theme is announced for most days every year.

How the United Nations declares a day

An observance day comes into being in one of two ways. The General Assembly may adopt a resolution naming the day, as it did for the International Day of Yoga and the International Day of Non-Violence. Or a specialised agency may begin the observance within its own field — the World Health Organization for health days, UNESCO for education and culture, the International Labour Organization for work, the Food and Agriculture Organization for food and the UN Environment Programme for the environment. Whichever body declares the day also leads it, publishes the yearly theme and runs the campaign, so the agency and the day should be learnt as a pair.

United Nations Day and the Charter

United Nations Day falls on 24 October, the date on which the UN Charter came into force in 1945 after ratification by the majority of its signatories; the General Assembly asked member states to observe it from 1948. The organisation was founded at the San Francisco Conference with 51 original members, its headquarters are at New York, and it works in six official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The week beginning 24 October is observed as Disarmament Week.

The calendar of United Nations days

Themes: what changes and what does not

For most of these days the lead agency announces a theme for the year, and the campaign, the publications and the events follow it. A theme therefore belongs to one year alone, while the date and the declaring body stay fixed, which is why a candidate should never memorise a theme as though it were a permanent fact. When a paper does ask for one, it is almost always the theme of the year in which the examination is held, and it must be read from the agency’s own announcement. Past themes are asked as history: the second International Day of Yoga, in 2016, was observed with the theme Yoga for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

How to hold the calendar in memory

Group the days rather than listing them. The environment group falls between March and June — Forests on 21 March, Water on 22 March, Environment on 5 June. The health group belongs to WHO — 7 April, 31 May and 1 December. The rights group closes the year — Children on 20 November, Persons with Disabilities on 3 December, Human Rights on 10 December. India’s two contributions are easy to place: the International Day of Yoga on 21 June, which the General Assembly adopted in 2014 on India’s proposal with a record number of co-sponsors, and the International Day of Non-Violence on 2 October, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.