June 1 - International Children's Day

The main goal of Children’s Day is to draw public attention to real children’s problems. This idea is directly present in the name of the holiday.

All children’s rights and freedoms are reflected in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1959. It proclaims the equal rights of children in the field of upbringing, education, social security, physical and spiritual development, regardless of skin color, nationality, social origin, property status, etc. The Declaration calls on parents, public organizations, governments to recognize the rights of children and promote their implementation.

History is silent why it was decided to celebrate this children’s holiday on June 1. According to one version, in 1925, the Consul General of China in San Francisco gathered a group of Chinese orphans and arranged for them to celebrate the Duan Wu Ze (Dragon Boat Festival), the date of which just fell on June 1. Luckily, this day coincided with the time of the “children’s” conference in Geneva.

After the end of the Second World War, when the problems of preserving the health and well-being of children were more urgent than ever, in 1949 a congress of women was held in Paris, at which an oath was voiced to fight for a lasting peace, as the only guarantee for the happiness of children. And in the same year, at the Moscow session of the Council of the International Democratic Women’s Federation, in accordance with the decisions of its 2nd Congress, today’s holiday was established. And a year later, in 1950, on June 1, the first International Children’s Day was held, after which this holiday is held annually.