This House of Lords Library Briefing provides information on United Nations Day which takes place on 24 October 2019.
United Nations Day: The UK and the UN (179 KB , PDF)
United Nations Day takes place on 24 October annually. The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, António Guterres, states that the day “marks the birthday of our founding Charter—the landmark document that embodies the hopes, dreams and aspirations of ‘we the peoples’”.
On 31 October 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring that 24 October be officially called ‘United Nations Day’. In 1971, the General Assembly recommended that United Nations Day be observed by member states as a public holiday. It is not a public holiday in the UK. United Nations Day is marked globally, including in the US whereby the President has issued an annual proclamation since 1948. The UK is one of the founding members of the UN.
This Library briefing will examine the United Kingdom’s (UK) involvement in both the creation of the UN and its role today.
United Nations Day: The UK and the UN (179 KB , PDF)
2025 marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day and Victory over Japan Day, events which in 1945 brought an end to the second world war. On those days 80 years ago, celebrations erupted across Britain. However, world leaders and domestic politicians were aware of the numerous problems still to be tackled, such as reconstruction, demobilisation and the legacy of the development and use of the atomic bomb.
Between the 1970s and 1990s, the Gaddafi-led Libyan regime supplied the Provisional IRA with weapons, finance and military training. This included shipments of the explosive Semtex, which was used in several bombings where a number of people died and many more were injured. Campaigners have called on the UK government to use Libyan assets frozen in 2011 to compensate victims. However, successive governments, including the current Labour government, have declined to do so, arguing it would break international law.
On 8 May 2025, the country will mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the end of the second world war in Europe. Many of the commemorations will take place in cemeteries where those who died during the conflict are remembered. This briefing focuses on the organisation behind these cemeteries, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It looks at how the commission developed and recent work on one of its key principles: equality in death.
