United Nations Day
Because United Nations Day is near, I’ll let you know what is it.
The Second World War left humanity in a grip of poverty, famines, epidemics, social insecurity and in such a gloomy state, the whole world desperately needed a supportive hand to withstand the post-war aftermaths. As the dust settled down on World War-II, the entire human community felt the need for creating an international agency that can avoid such disasters in future. This led to the formation of United Nations Organization (UNO), or simply UN, which came into existence on 24 October 1945 with 51 members signing the UN charter. The agency was set up with the aim of providing an unbiased platform for resolving international issues and encompassing the development of humankind on a whole.
Although an organization of similar kind namely the League of Nations was also formed after the end of World War-I, it failed to counter the rising power of Nazism and hence it finally disappeared. Taking lessons from this fiasco, UN Charter laid more emphasis on holistic human development and focused on balancing of power across the globe. Since 1945, UN has a proud history of serving humanity through its different branches. To familiarize the world with its aims and achievements, United Nations decided to celebrate 24 October as UN Day through a proclamation of UN General Assembly in 1948. It is a part of the UN Week celebrated from 20 to 26 October.
Today ‘UN Day’ is observed throughout the world through several meetings and seminars which are organized to mark this occasion and discuss the organization’s achievements and goals. In 1971, the General Assembly also proposed for declaring UN Day as an official holiday in member countries. The day is also enthusiastically celebrated by numerous international schools that often include cultural activities and food fairs. In United States, the President proclaims the public observance of United Nations Day since its inception, and thus calls for celebrating the occasion with proper ceremonies and related activities across its states. On this important day, the UN Secretary-General delivers a speech to world describing the goals of United Nations and the efforts the organization have poured in attaining them.
UN Day continues to hold a great deal of relevance owing to myriad challenges that humanity faces today. Some of these include global warming, nuclear proliferation, poverty, illiteracy, and peace and security. Out of these, the issue of global warming is proving to be the most crucial one, as it endangers the very existence of life.
Today United Nations is running several environment protection programs and it primary initiative is undertaken through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The agency has called on the developed nations to understand their responsibility in tackling the critical issue of climate change. In addition United Nations is working hard to materialize Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that include an all round development of underprivileged sections of the world. Furthermore, the agency is also focusing on other crucial issues like nuclear disarmament, global warming, conflict prevention and peace building process across such regions. For instance, UN recently sent its peacekeeping troops in Kosovo to restore peace in the region. The upcoming UN Day gives us an opportunity to appreciate the role of United Nations and understand why its existence is so crucial to the collective prosperity of the human race.
Anyway, my daughter is now excited about this day because she already have a costume for the parade.
