World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development is annually held on May 21 to help people learn about the importance of cultural diversity and harmony.

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development is a chance for people to celebrate cultural diversity and harmony.©iStockphoto.com/skynesher

What Do People Do?

Various events are organized to increase the understanding of issues around cultural diversity and development among governments, non-governmental organizations and the public. Many of these include presentations on the progress of implementing the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity.

Events include:

• Seminars for professionals.
• Educational programs for children and young adolescents.
• The launch of collaborations between official agencies and ethnic groups.
• Exhibitions to help people understand the history of various cultural groups and the influence on their own identities.
• Celebrations to create greater awareness of cultural values and the need to preserve them.

The World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development tends to be marked in countries that embraced their varied cultural history and acknowledged the importance of embracing it.

Background

The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in Paris, France, on November 2, 2001. It was the 249th resolution adopted at the 57th session of the United Nations General Conference. Although the declaration was the culmination of years of work, it was adopted in the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. This reaffirmed the need for intercultural dialogue to prevent segregation and fundamentalism.

The year 2002 was the United Nations Year for Cultural Heritage. At the end of that year, on December 20, 2002, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared May 21 to be the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. The General Assembly emphasized links between the protection of cultural diversity and the importance of dialogue between civilizations in the modern world. The World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development was first observed in 2003.

From poisoning and injuring marine life to disrupting human hormones, from littering our beaches and landscapes to clogging our waste streams and landfills, the exponential growth of plastics is now threatening the survival of our planet.

In response, Earth Day 2018 will focus on fundamentally changing human attitude and behavior about plastics and catalyzing a significant reduction in plastic pollution. 

Our strategy to End Plastic Pollution will: 

• Lead and support the adoption of a global framework to regulate plastic pollution
• Educate and mobilize citizens across the globe to demand action from governments and corporations to control and diminish plastic pollution
• Inform and activate citizens to take personal responsibility for the plastic pollution that each one of us generates by choosing to reject, reduce, reuse and recycle plastics
• Work with universities, school teachers and students to End Plastic Pollution
• Work with other organizations and networks and make Earth Day 2018 a platform to End Plastic Pollution by developing resources that others can use and build partnerships.
• Promote the work that cities and local governments are doing to tackle plastic pollution
• Empower journalists across the globe to report on the problem and its emerging solutions.

Earth Day Network will leverage the platform of Earth Day, April 22, 2018 and the growing excitement around the 50^thAnniversary of Earth Day in 2020. We will work with key constituencies and influencers to build a world of educated consumers of all ages who understand the environmental, climate and health consequences of using plastics. 

We will engage and activate our global network of NGO’s and grassroots organizations, campus youth, mayors and other local elected leaders, faith leaders, artists and athletes, and primary and secondary students and teachers.

We will organize events in all continents of the world, build a global following and activate citizens to join our End Plastic Pollution advocacy campaigns. 

In sum, we will use the power of Earth Day to elevate the issue of plastic pollution in the global agenda and inspire and demand effective action to reduce and control it.

Sign the End Plastic Pollution Petition

Make a pledge to reduce your use of plastic

Send your ideas or propose a partnership to plastic@earthday.org

https://www.earthday.org/

Even though the WCID April 21 celebration is relatively new, it’s growing, and people are learning about it now that it is a United Nations Day of Observance.
History of World Creativity and Innovation Day
In 1452 a man was born who would set the standard for what it meant to be a renaissance man, excelling in both the arts and sciences. Invention, Mathematics, Music, Geology, Astronomy, Cartography, just to name a few, anything he turned his mind or hand to he made great advances. He was seen as the utterly perfect example of a universal genius, and his logical approach to the world was truly advanced and unusual for his time. World Creativity and Innovation Day was established to encourage everyone to dig deep and find their own inner da Vinci.
Creativity and innovation are beneficial in every walk of life, and every career. From those in customer service finding ways to improve their customer’s experience, scientists who’s every work day is filled with learning new things about the world and finding new ways to apply it, to politicians who could use their creativity to find new ways to solve problems and aid the public. World Creativity and Innovation Day encourages everyone to imagine a different world with different solutions.
How to Celebrate World Creativity and Innovation Day
Start the day out by brainstorming, sit down and think of all the things you do during the day and how you might change them for the better. Throughout your day keep a notepad handy for ideas that occur to you, whether they are for your own use, or ways that other people can do things better. Got an idea for your local municipality? Send it to them and let them know how you think it may benefit everyone. Got a new idea for your workplace? Inform your bosses and see what they have to say? Got a new plan for you? Set it in motion and see where your creativity gets you. World Creativity and Innovation Day could be the day that set your life on a whole new path!

World Health Day is celebrated every year on the founding day of the World Health Organization.  Established in 1950 this event has a theme each year to draw attention to a current world health issue.  The WHO puts together regional, local, and international events on this day related to that theme.  Local governments also tend to jump on this band-wagon, after all, global health means everyone!   On this day you may take some extra steps to care for your health, consider getting a gym membership (and going!), starting a diet, or starting multi-vitamins!

Even better, get involved with the local events or organize one yourself!  Spreading the news of health and threats to the same can be an excellent way to celebrate this holiday, and inform others of the important issue of global health.  Themes throughout the years have varied, but always covered important issues of the day, covering everything from the Global Polio Eradication, staying active while aging, even road safety.  All of these issues were deemed to be important enough to global health that they merited an occasion of their very own on this date.

The World Health Organization is an agency of the United Nations that focuses on the public health of the world at large.  The WHO has a constitution that countries involved in the United Nations had an opportunity to sign, and unanimously did, agreeing to the tenets laid out within to promote the general health of the globe.  Through its efforts we have seen the eradication of small pox, and its focus then turned to communicable diseases, with a particular focus on tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Everyone needs to be concerned about the health of themselves and their community, and as such it’s a good time to turn your attention to this year’s theme.  By checking in at their website at http://www.who.int/campaigns/world-health-day/ you can find out what the current theme is, and find all sorts of plans and activities that will help you raise awareness about this important issue.  You can keep up with it every year, and play a big part in helping to promote global health all around.

The World Health Organization has been involved in mobilizing many health efforts the world over. Describing what medicines are essential for public health, and which diseases to give a particular focus to.  The movement to eradicate smallpox started in 1958, initiated by pressure from Viktor Zhdanov, the Deputy Minister of Health for the then USSR.  In 1979, the WHO declared that smallpox had in fact been eradicated, making it the first disease in history to be eliminated by the dedicated efforts of humans.

As you can see, celebrating World Health Day is very important, and you can use it to organize fund-raisers to support local free clinics and other public health sources.  Everyone can take a hand in improving the overall health of the world, just by starting with yourself, your family, and your community.  Blood banks are often taking volunteers to help out with their efforts, and the ability to have healthy, fresh blood on hand is central to saving many lives.

You can also take the task at home, by getting to know your environment and property, and eliminate all possible sources of standing water.  Standing water is a breeding ground for insects such as mosquitos, who spread disease by consuming the blood of its hosts, and moving from victim to victim, spreading it as it goes.  So this year, take some time to spread the word about how you and your neighbors can improve the world’s health, on World Health Day!

International Women’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe.

Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.

Chronology

• 1909   The first National Woman’s Day was observed in the United States on 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.

• 1910   The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women’s Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women’s rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.

• 1911   As a result of the Copenhagen initiative, International Women’s Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded women’s rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

• 1913-1914   International Women’s Day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I. As part of the peace movement, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with other activists.

• 1917   Against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for “Bread and Peace” on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar). Four days later, the Czar abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.

• 1975 During International Women’s Year, the United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day on 8 March.

• 1995 The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a historic roadmap signed by 189 governments, focused on 12 critical areas of concern, and envisioned a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination.

• 2014 The 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW58) – the annual gathering of States to address critical issues related to gender equality and women’s rights — focused on “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls”. UN entities and accredited NGOs from around the world took stock of progress and remaining challenges towards meeting the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs have played an important role in galvanizing attention on and resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The UN and Gender Equality

The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to affirm the principle of equality between women and men. Since then, the UN has helped create a historic legacy of internationally-agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.

Over the years, the UN and its technical agencies have promoted the participation of women as equal partners with men in achieving sustainable development, peace, security, and full respect for human rights. The empowerment of women continues to be a central feature of the UN’s efforts to address social, economic and political challenges across the globe.