United Nations Days and Their Themes: Dates and Facts

The correct answer is A, Yoga for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The second International Day of Yoga fell in 2016, the year after the first observance of 2015, and the theme tied yoga to the Sustainable Development Goals that the United Nations had adopted in 2015, with the main event held at Chandigarh. Options B, C and D are themes of the kind announced in other years or simply invented for the question, and they are meant to attract a candidate who remembers only that the themes speak of peace, wellness or health. The lesson for the examination hall is to count the editions: the first day was in 2015, so the second was in 2016, and the theme must belong to that year. The day itself is observed on 21 June, following the General Assembly resolution of 2014 on India’s proposal.

The correct answer is B, 24 October. On this date in 1945 the Charter of the United Nations came into force, after the required majority of signatory states had ratified it, and the General Assembly called upon members to observe the anniversary from 1948. The week beginning 24 October is marked as Disarmament Week. Option A, 10 December, is Human Rights Day, which commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Option C, 21 September, is the International Day of Peace, fixed to that date from 2002. Option D, 16 October, is World Food Day, which marks the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945. All four are genuine United Nations days, so the question is answered by the event each date commemorates rather than by the date alone.

The correct answer is D, 5 June. The General Assembly established the day after the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment of 1972, and it has been observed since 1974 under the lead of the UN Environment Programme, with a different country hosting the main event each year. Option A, 22 April, is International Mother Earth Day, declared in 2009. Option B, 22 March, is World Water Day, which grew out of the Rio Conference of 1992 and has been observed since 1993. Option C, 5 December, is World Soil Day, which the Assembly declared in 2013. The two June dates worth holding together are 5 June for the environment and 21 June for yoga, and the Stockholm Conference of 1972 is the event behind the first of them.

The correct answer is C, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The General Assembly adopted it on 10 December 1948 at Paris, and the observance of the anniversary began in 1950; the Declaration has thirty articles and is the most translated document in the world. Option A, the Charter of the United Nations, came into force on 24 October 1945 and is commemorated by United Nations Day. Option B, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, was adopted on 20 November 1989, which is why World Children’s Day falls on 20 November. Option D, the Montreal Protocol, was signed on 16 September 1987 and is marked by the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. Each date therefore carries its own document, and that pairing is the whole question.

The correct answer is A, the constitution of the World Health Organization came into force. WHO became a specialised agency of the United Nations on 7 April 1948, and the first World Health Day was observed in 1950; the organisation announces a theme for the day each year and its headquarters are at Geneva. Option B is wrong because the United Nations came into being on 24 October 1945, when its Charter took effect. Option C is wrong because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on 10 December 1948, an event marked by Human Rights Day. Option D is wrong on the year as well: the Stockholm Conference met in June 1972 and led to World Environment Day on 5 June. WHO also leads World No Tobacco Day on 31 May and World AIDS Day on 1 December.

The correct answer is D, 2 October. The General Assembly declared the day in 2007 and set it on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, so that the date honours the leader whose method of non-violent resistance the resolution names. Option A, 30 January, is the day Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 and is observed in India as Martyrs’ Day, or Shaheed Diwas, but it is not the United Nations observance. Option B, 2 April, is World Autism Awareness Day, declared in 2007 as well, and it is placed here to catch a candidate who remembers only the year. Option C, 15 August, is India’s Independence Day and no United Nations day falls on it. Along with the yoga day of 21 June, this is the second observance in the UN calendar that comes directly from India.

The correct answer is B, UNESCO. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization proclaimed the day in 1966, and it was first observed in 1967; UNESCO also leads International Mother Language Day on 21 February and World Teachers’ Day on 5 October. Option A, UNICEF, works for children and leads campaigns around World Children’s Day on 20 November, and it is the distractor most often chosen because literacy is thought of as a matter for children. Option C, the World Health Organization, leads the health observances of 7 April, 31 May and 1 December. Option D, the International Labour Organization, declared the World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June. Learning the agency along with each day removes a whole family of questions in one stroke.

The correct answer is C, 11 July. The Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme began the observance in 1989, taking the date from Five Billion Day, 11 July 1987, when the world’s population was estimated to have crossed five billion; the United Nations Population Fund now leads the campaign. Options A, B and D place the same day number in the wrong month and are offered for exactly that reason, because candidates remember the eleventh but not July. A second fact from the same chapter is often asked beside it: World Youth Day in the UN calendar is International Youth Day, observed on 12 August, declared by the General Assembly in 1999. Keep the July and August pair together to avoid the swap.

The correct answer is D, the Montreal Protocol. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was signed on 16 September 1987, and the General Assembly later fixed that date as the ozone day. Option A, the Kyoto Protocol, was adopted in 1997 under the climate convention and came into force in 2005, and it deals with greenhouse gases rather than ozone-depleting substances. Option B, the Paris Agreement, was adopted in 2015, also on climate change. Option C, the Basel Convention, of 1989, controls the movement of hazardous wastes across borders. The trap in this question is the general resemblance of environmental treaties, so tie each one to its subject: Montreal for the ozone layer, Kyoto and Paris for climate, Basel for hazardous waste and Ramsar for wetlands.

The correct answer is A, 16 October. The Food and Agriculture Organization was founded on 16 October 1945 at Quebec in Canada, and the day has been observed in its memory since 1981; the FAO has its headquarters at Rome and leads the campaign every year. Option B, 24 October, is United Nations Day, the anniversary of the Charter coming into force in the same year, 1945, which is what makes the two dates easy to confuse. Option C, 1 December, is World AIDS Day, observed since 1988 under the World Health Organization. Option D, 5 October, is World Teachers’ Day, led by UNESCO since 1994. Notice that October carries three observances in this chapter — the second, the sixteenth and the twenty-fourth — and learn them as a set.

The correct answer is C, 21 February. UNESCO proclaimed the day in 1999 and it has been observed since 2000, to promote linguistic diversity and mother-tongue education; the date recalls the language movement of 1952 in what is now Bangladesh. Option A, 21 March, is the International Day of Forests, declared by the General Assembly in 2012, and it is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Option B, 21 May, is the World Day for Cultural Diversity, again a UNESCO observance, which makes it a close distractor. Option D, 21 June, is the International Day of Yoga. Four days in this chapter fall on the twenty-first of a month, so the month, not the day number, is the fact to fix in memory.

The correct answer is B, the United Nations agency or office that leads that day. The lead body — WHO for the health days, UNESCO for education and language, the FAO for food, UNEP for the environment, or a United Nations office where the General Assembly named no agency — publishes the theme, the campaign material and the programme for the year. Option A is wrong because the country hosting an event follows the theme rather than setting it, although for World Environment Day a host country is indeed announced. Option C is wrong because the Security Council deals with international peace and security, not observances. Option D is wrong because the International Court of Justice settles legal disputes between states. Since the theme changes each year while the date and the lead agency do not, a candidate should memorise the second pair and read the theme only for the current year.