World Habitat Day (03/10)

Every year on the first Monday of October, the UN holiday — World Habitat Day is celebrated. One of the similar translations into Russian may be — World Housing Day (places of residence).

In 1985, in accordance with the recommendation of the Commission on Human Settlements, the UN General Assembly, by its resolution (A/RES/40/202), established this World Day with the goal of providing housing for the world's population by the year 2000. And the main idea of Day — is to think about the state of our cities and the fundamental universal right to adequate housing, and also to remind the world of collective responsibility for the future of the human environment.

Since 1996, World Architecture Day has also been dedicated to World Housing Day.

The problems of housing and living conditions were raised at the first UN conference on sustainable settlement development in Vancouver, Canada in 1976. The world has changed considerably since then, but the problems of housing shortages, poverty, pollution and disease do not lose their severity, quite the contrary.

In his 1999 World Housing Day address on «Cities for All», the UN Secretary-General stated that all residents of — cities, young and old, rich and poor, men and women — should have the opportunity to speak out in decision-making regarding their lives, and noted that when local governments maintain genuine partnerships with civil society, including with the poorest segments of the urban population, this has a beneficial effect on the entire environment.

Today's «housing» holiday naturally calls for attention to all of the above problems. Traditionally, on this day, the UN and the «Human Settlements Program UN-Habitat» hold official events (forums, round tables, conferences) in one of the world's cities, which are devoted to a specific topic every year.

So, over the years, the motto of the day was the words: «Asylum — my right», «Housing, healthcare and family», «Housing and sustainable development», «The area in which we live», «Cities of the future», «Cities for all», «Women's participation in city management», «Cities — engines of rural development», «Cities — magnets of hope», «Cities and climate change», «Voices from slums», «Public spaces for all», «Municipal solid waste management», «Housing for all: a better future for cities», «Cities step up action to achieve global carbon neutrality», «Take into account the gap. Leave no one and nothing behind», «Sustainable urban economy. Cities — are the driving force of growth and recovery» and others.

Also traditionally dedicated to this Day is the holding of a special ceremony for presenting the «World Habitat» Prize, which is awarded based on the results of a competition for innovative and practical projects aimed at meeting housing needs (one for a project for the northern, the other for a project for the southern hemisphere).

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