Days Until International Day of Families

About International Day of Families

May 15 was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993, following the UN's designation of 1994 as the International Year of the Family, reflecting the importance the international community places on families as a basic unit of society.

The observance highlights issues relating to families worldwide, including work-family balance, poverty, and family-oriented social policy.

The UN's family-policy focus for the day has expanded over the decades to explicitly include changing family structures, migration's impact on families, and family-friendly workplace policy, reflecting shifts in how the UN frames "family" since the 1994 designation.

The UN's own reporting on the day has increasingly addressed the economic pressures facing families, including childcare costs and parental leave policy differences across member states.

The UN's own International Year of the Family in 1994 produced a set of guiding principles on family policy that observance organizers still reference annually in framing the day's specific thematic focus.