UN Public Service Day
- The United Nations Public Service Day is celebrated on June 23 of every year.
- The prestigious UN Public Service Awards are given away on this day.
- The UN Public Service Day was designated by the United Nations General Assembly’s resolution A/RES/57/277 of 2003, to “celebrate the value and virtue of public service to the community”.
- The day also marks the anniversary of the date when the International Labour Organization adopted the Convention on Labour Relations (Public Service), 1978 (No. 151).
- This Convention is a framework for determining working conditions of all civil servants across the world.
International Widows’ Day
23 June
International Widows Day is a United Nations ratified day of action to address the “poverty and injustice faced by millions of widows and their dependents in many countries”. The day takes place annually on 23 June.
International Widows Day was established by The Loomba Foundation[clarification needed] to raise awareness of the issue of widowhood. The significance of 23 June is that it was on that day in 1954 that Shrimati Pushpa Wati Loomba, mother of the foundation’s founder, Lord Loomba, became a widow. One of the foundation’s key goals is to highlight what it describes as an invisible calamity. A 2010 book, Invisible, Forgotten Sufferers: The Plight of Widows Around the World, estimates that there are 245 million widows worldwide, 115 million of whom live in poverty and suffer from social stigmatization and economic deprivation purely because they have lost their husbands. As part of the Loomba Foundation’s awareness campaign, this study was presented to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on 22 June 2010.
The first International Widows Day took place in 2005 and was launched by Lord Loomba and the foundation’s president, Cherie Blair.By the sixth International Widows Day in 2010, events were held in Rwanda, Sri Lanka, the United States, the UK, Nepal, Syria, Kenya, India, Bangladesh and South Africa.
Olympic Day Run
- Olympic Day Run is an international Olympic Movement activity promoting mass participation of sports held in June organized by National Olympic Committees (NOCs).
- The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was formally established on 23 June 1894 through the efforts of Pierre de Coubertin promoting competitive sport as a revival of the ancient Olympic Games.
- Olympic Day was held for the first time on 23 June with a total of 9 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) hosting ceremonies in their respective countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland, Uruguay and Venezuela.
- The first Olympic Day Run was held in 1987, over a distance of 10km, with 45 participating NOCs.
- In 2006, there were 161 NOCs promoting Olympic Day Run to their countrymen.
- The Olympic Day Run is usually held during June 17–24 by NOCs, with 1.5 km Olympic Day Fun Run, 5 km, and 10 km running activities.
