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UN Day : Why?
United Nations Day is celebrated internationally on October 24th for the purpose of informing the people of the world as to the aims, goals, and achievements of the UN. It commemorates the origin of the United Nations Organization on October 24, 1945 when the UN Charter was ratified by almost all permanent members of the Security Council. UN Day is celebrated in various countries and includes a show of cultural performances and a food fair with food from all over the world.
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In the spring of 1945, representatives of fifty nations gathered in San Francisco to put the final touches to a document of far-reaching consequences--the Charter of the United Nations. Enthusiastically supported by the United States, the U.N. Charter went into effect on October 24, 1945. Two years later the U.N. General Assembly adopted a U.S.-sponsored resolution declaring October 24th United Nations Day, to be commemorated annually by all member-states of the United Nations. Since 1947, U.N. Day has been observed in nations large and small around the world.
Those born after the founding of the U.N. in 1945 have come to realize that the U.N. offers no "quick fix," but is an instrument through which nations can identify common problems, set international standards, and take action. The U.N. is only as strong and effective as its 192 member states make it. Citizens and non-governmental organizations play an essential role in building public support for the U.N. Your United Nations Day observance can expand that support in your community.
It is celebrated very generally in all states and American possessions, and by all eighty-one countries, which are members of the United Nations for the purpose of informing the people of the world as to the aims, purposes, and achievements of the UN. The day is part of the United Nations Week, October 20-26.
The name "United Nations" was devised by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was first used in the "Declaration by United Nations" of January 1, 1942, during the Second World War, when representatives of 26 nations pledged their governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers.
The United Nations officially came into existence on October 24, 1945, when the Charter had been ratified by China, France, The Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, United States and by a majority of other signatories. United Nations Day is celebrated on October 24 each year.
On April 25, 1945, delegates from fifty countries drove through the rain to meet for the United Nations Conference on international Organization at the Flag-bedecked War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco.
Although the delegates came from nations, "small, weak, and strong, and in different stages of political and social development," these earnest individuals were "determined to set up an organization which would preserve peace, advance justice, and constitute a permanent structure for international cooperation."
For nine weeks (from April 26 to June 26) the conference worked on the Charter. Its preamble is considered by many to be one of the finest expressions of purpose ever set forth in any language. By October 24, 1945, the majority of the signatory nations had ratified the charter, and had sent formal notes to the State Department in Washington, D.C. These signers included China, France, the U.S.S.R., the United Kingdom, the United States, and many others. Therefore, on October 24, 1945, with flags of fifty nations flying together, the United Nations came into being.
In order to stress the charter's importance, in 1947 the General Assembly of the U.N. passed a resolution:
that October 24 shall hereafter be officially called United Nations Day, and shall be devoted to making known to the people of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations, and to gaining their support for the work of the United Nations.
It was apparent, and also quite important, that the general public should be informed about the content and purposes of the United Nations; therefore an entire week-United Nations Week-was set aside in October, with its chief observance on United Nations Day, October 24.
By 1956, the American committee for the United Nations promoted the celebration of United Nations week. The official American Association for the United Nations sent out information and suggestions for programs with this advice:
This is United Nations Week. The success of the United Nations in building world peace depends on all of us-on our won understanding and support; know how it works, and what it is doing. Help the United Nations help all of us to a peaceful future.
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