International Day of Families is observed every year on May 15 globally. The day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase the knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families. The day also highlights the benefits of the family systems to the masses.
Theme for the year 2020: “Families in Development: Copenhagen & Beijing + 25”.
The theme highlights the 25th anniversary of the Copenhagen Declaration and Beijing Platform for Action.
Key Points:
i.In the year 1995, the conferences of Beijing and Copenhagen proposed the importance of family and its role in our social development and agreed to specify its worldwide observance as an initiative for the well-being of all individuals in the family.
ii.United Nations (UN) has projected this theme for the year 2020 to stress the importance of our families and how they mean to us especially in the context of pandemic Covid-19.
iii.Logo: The International Day of Family is identified by a symbol comprising a solid green circle with a red image that contains a schematic drawing element of a house and a heart in the centre.
iv.This symbol denotes the safe and secure environment a family can provide to people across age groups.
v.History of the day: On December 9, 1989, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed the International Year of the Families in its resolution 44/82.
vi.In 1993, the General Assembly decided in a resolution (A/RES/47/237) to observe May 15, every year as The International Day of Families and was first celebrated on May 15, 1994.
vii.On September 25, 2015, the 193 member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), a set of 17 goals aiming to eliminate poverty, discrimination, abuse and preventable deaths, address environmental destruction & usher in an era of development for all people, everywhere.
About United Nations (UN):
Headquarters– New York City, United States (US).
Secretary-General– António Guterres.
