UN Human Rights Days
The UN calendar marks over 40 human rights days each year. Most pass unnoticed by the wider public. Each one represents a struggle that is still ongoing — a right that is still denied, a group that is still made invisible. Pausing at these days, and giving them a human face, matters.
For each day, THF curates a storyscape — a short multimedia story drawn from our archive of defenders, testimonies, and reports. Organisations can compose their own version and share it.
What it is
For each UN Human Rights Day, THF curates a storyscape — a short multimedia narrative built from interviews, testimonies, and documentary material in the THF archive. Not a still or a poster: a living story with voice, image, and context.
The human face is at the centre — a defender whose one-liner opens the story. But around it, the platform adds depth: what is actually happening on this issue in international forums, what mechanisms exist, what other people have done, and how someone watching can become more involved themselves.
The goal is not just to inspire but to inform and connect — turning a calendar date into a moment where people understand what is at stake and what they can do.
Composable and shareable
Governments, UN agencies, and NGOs will be able to select the elements that matter most to their own context and compose their own version of each day's storyscape — to share on social media, in newsletters, and at events.
The goal is a shared visual language around UN days that amplifies defenders' voices and reaches beyond the usual audiences.
January
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
February
World Cancer Day
World Day of Social Justice
March
International Women's Day
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
World Water Day
International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery
April
International Day of Sport for Development and Peace
International Day of Reflection on the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
World Health Day
World Earth Day
May
World Press Freedom Day
International Day of Families
International Day of Living Together in Peace
World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development
International Day of UN Peacekeepers
June
International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
World Environment Day
World Day Against Child Labour
International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict
World Refugee Day
UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
July
Nelson Mandela International Day
World Hepatitis Day
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
August
International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
International Youth Day
World Humanitarian Day
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
September
International Day of Peace
October
International Day of Non-Violence
World Mental Health Day
International Day of Rural Women
World Food Day
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
November
International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists
International Day for Tolerance
Universal Children's Day
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
December
International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Human Rights Day
International Migrants Day