United Nations agencies promote public awareness on a number of sensitive issues arranging a series of events and initiatives throughout the year.

United Nations agencies are used to organize, on a regular basis, a number of events and initiatives to celebrate in specific days, important dates and anniversaries in accordance with the votes expressed by the UN Member States during the Annual Sessions of the General Assembly. These events aim at promoting the achievement of the purposes of the UN Charter and support public awareness of and action on important political, social, cultural, humanitarian or human rights issues. UN institutions currently celebrate international Days, international Weeks, International Years, Decades and Anniversaries to inform people around the world on specific issues like human trafficking, non-communicable diseases, discrimination of HIV/AIDS affected people, racism, gender mainstreaming, access to justice and fair trail. Details on these dates are available in the UN Observances site: http://www.un.org/en/events/observances/index.shtml