An enforced (or forced) disappearance is when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organisation, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate and whereabouts, with the intent of depriving them of all rights, including the right to: recognition as a person before the law; liberty and security of […]
Charity means generosity, aid and helpfulness, especially toward the needy or suffering. International Day of Charity marks the death date of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace. Born in 1910, […]
As outlined by the United Nations, 773 million adults and young people lack basic literacy skills and 617 million children and adolescents are not achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics. International Literacy Day is thus to stress the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and societies, and the need for intensified efforts towards […]
Every 40 seconds, someone loses their life to suicide. World Suicide Prevention Day is to raise awareness of the scale of suicide around the world -- 800,000 people annually -- and the role that each of us can play to help prevent suicide.Suicide is the 15th leading cause of death globally, with a rate of […]
The developing countries of the South-South Cooperation are located primarily in the Southern Hemisphere, and include Asia (except for Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan), Central America, South America, Mexico, Africa, and the Middle East (except for Israel). These countries have contributed to more than half of the world’s growth in recent […]
The word democracy has its origins from the Greek words demos meaning whole citizen living within a particular city-state and kratos meaning power or rule; and means rule by the people. For representative democracy forms of government, the people make decisions about how their community is run and elect leaders to make laws to effect […]
As explained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ozone is a gas made up of three oxygen atoms (O3) that occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere -- called the stratosphere and at 10-50 kilometres altitude. In the lower atmosphere (the troposphere) near the Earth’s surface, ozone is created by chemical reactions between air pollutants […]
International Day of Peace (Peace Day) was established in 1981 for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences, to contribute to building a Culture of Peace and to educate and raise public awareness on issues related to peace. For the 24 hours of this Day, non-violence and cease-fires are observed.
The proposal for International Day of Sign Languages came from the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) -- 135 national associations representing 70 million deaf people’s human rights worldwide -- and marks the date that the WFD was established in 1951 as an advocacy organisation which seeks to preserve of sign languages and deaf culture as […]
The horror of the Second World War, culminating in the nuclear blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, brought home the need to address the nuclear issue. However, and as outlined in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) 2020 Armaments, Disarmament and International Security yearbook, at the start of 2020, nine countries — the United States, […]