The World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every year on 7 April, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO).

In 1948, the WHO held the First World Health Assembly. The Assembly decided to celebrate 7 April of each year, with effect from 1950, as the World Health Day

Depression is a major challenge to health in the WHO European Region and is the focus of World Health Day 2017. The theme “Depression: let’s talk” recognizes that depression is a treatable condition and seeks to address the fact that, despite this, about 50% of cases of major depression still go untreated. The high personal, social and economic costs and the large proportion of people who are not receiving any treatment, despite the availability of cheap and effective care, underscore the importance of overcoming this challenge.

For example, since 2008 England has significantly increased the provision of evidence-based talking therapy to people with depression and anxiety through a large-scale programme called “Improving access to psychological therapies”, available through the National Health Service. By 2012 the programme had treated more than 1 million people, of whom 680 000 completed the full course of treatment. The recovery rates of the 680 000 people were consistently above 45%, as was expected from the research evidence.

The theme of World Health Day 2017 was announced on 10 October 2016, World Mental Health Day. The campaign website contains a wide range of materials and background information.

On Friday March 24, 2017, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2347 for the protection of heritage, deploring the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage and affirming that such attacks might constitute a war crime and must be brought to justice (1). The resolution can be a serious action against “cultural cleansing” in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

During the discussions on this action, Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, calling the resolution a historical document, said that “the destruction of cultural heritage was a war crime and tactic of war, and that defending that heritage was a security imperative”.

As far as Pasargad Heritage Foundation (PHF) is concerned, we consider the passing of this resolution a very hopeful step. PHF has been active in the field of preserving the cultural heritage for 12 years and wrote an open letter to UNESCO 10 years ago (November 2007), suggesting that:

– “UNESCO must become more proactive in its responsibilities and more sensitive to the desires of peoples rather than the governments.

–“Although all above proposals require further study and collaboration for making them acceptable and operable, we believe that the time has come for the cultural crimes dealing with human civilization be treated as being not less important than the physical crimes dealing with lives” (2).

Now that this historical resolution has been announced, one can hope that UNESCO would go further and substitute the opinion of governments on cultural heritage issues with that of experts and activists in this field who have the support of their people. The reason is that all the totalitarian governments, especially in the Middle East, have shown that the condition of cultural heritage in their countries is of no concern to them, and they rather play an obvious role in the demise of such heritage and consider “cultural cleansing” (of the past) a part of their policies.

Shokooh Mirzadegi

On behalf of the PHF

3.27.2017

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1. http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1648

2-http://www.savepasargad.com/November/Reform%20in%20UNESCO-English.htm

www.wchv.org

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

International Women’s Day (IWD) has been observed since in the early 1900’s – a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. International Women’s Day is a collective day of global celebration and a call for gender parity. No one government, NGO, charity, corporation, academic institution, women’s network or media hub is solely responsible for International Women’s Day. Many organizations declare an annual IWD theme that supports their specific agenda or cause, and some of these are adopted more widely with relevance than others.

“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights,” says world-renowned feminist, journalist and social and political activist Gloria Steinem. Thus International Women’s Day is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action – whatever that looks like globally at a local level. But one thing is for sure, International Women’s Day has been occurring for well over a century – and continue’s to grow from strength to strength.

March 1 is Zero Discrimination Day, an annual worldwide event that promotes diversity and recognizes that everyone counts.

Organizations like the United Nations (UN) actively promote the day with various activities to celebrate everyone’s right to live a full life with dignity regardless of age, gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, skin color, height, weight, profession, education, and beliefs.

Many countries have laws against discrimination but it’s still a problem in all layers of society in every country in the world. Many countries have and still use discrimination as a way of governing.

The symbol for Zero Discrimination Day is the butterfly, widely used by people to share their stories and photos as a way to end discrimination and work towards positive transformation.

What’s Open or Closed?

Zero Discrimination Day is a global observance and not a public holiday so it’s business as usual.

About Zero Discrimination Day

The UN first celebrated Zero Discrimination Day on March 1, 2014, after UNAIDS, a UN program on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), launched its Zero Discrimination Campaign on World AIDS Day in December 2013.