Roses Revolution, Orange Week, World Aids Day, International Day for People with Disabilities ... One "day of the ..." follows the next. Almost every day in the calendar is an international day of remembrance. But do we really need a separate day for every cause, or do we risk important issues getting lost in a tangle of symbolic gestures?
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Today is the 5th of December. This is also International Volunteer Day and International Soil Day. Further research also reveals curious things such as International Ninja Day and Bathtub Party Day.
Anyone who works as a journalist is persecuted by them. "Do we have something on that?" the editor-in-chief used to ask me. Each day of action required a report on the status quo, the demands for a better future and, most importantly, testimonials from those affected. On more than one occasion, I received feedback from those affected that they would be happy to receive more attention on all the other days of the year. Instead, they were interviewed by three different journalists on a single day, only to feel ignored for another year.
Days of action have an undeniable raison d'être. They get the media and politicians, as well as society as a whole, to address issues that have too often been ignored until then. Discussions are initiated, problems are made visible and those affected are heard and supported.
Proof of this impact is one of the first global days of action: International Women's Day, which was established in 1911. Since then, it has done much to make the concerns of the women's movement visible. It is not obsolete today, as there is still room for improvement. But women's rights are – fortunately – no longer just talked about on that one day. The progress that women's rights have experienced since then shows that such days can fulfil a real social function.
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