A Year-by-Year Look at the UN’s International Year Declarations

The United Nations General Assembly designates a theme for each year to emphasize issues that the organization is facing. This practice began in 1959, and as such 2009 is the 50th anniversary of said practice. Certain years are designated with more than one theme, and the UN General Assembly also designates decades, with this decade being declared the International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. With that said, 2010 has been proclaimed the International Year of Biodiversity. Let’s take a look back at the previous 10 years of United Nations International Year declarations.

2000: International Year for the Culture of Peace
2001: International Year of Volunteers
2002: International Year of Ecotourism
2003: International Year of Freshwater
2004: International Year of Rice Note: UNESCO declared it the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition.
2005: International Year of Microcredit and International Year of Sport and Physical Education
2006: International Year of Deserts and Desertification
2007: International Heliophysical Year
2008: International Year of Planet Earth, International Year of Languages, International Year of the Potato and International Year of Sanitation.
2009: International Year of Astronomy and International Year of Natural Fibres.

What say you? Do you think these yearly designations have been successful? Tell us in the comments.

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