The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 1995 the United Nations Year for Tolerance with UNESCO as the lead organization. (It had invited the Economic and Social Council to consider the matter in an earlier session.)
The idea and practice of tolerance was widely promoted in schools in many member states. Tolerance was held to be an 'endangered virtue' in many parts of the world, particularly those who were under racial and religious wars, such as those in Bosnia and Rwanda. UNESCO said that five key planks were required to overcome intolerance: law, education, access to information, individual awareness and local solutions. Tolerance is thus a political, legal and moral duty to protect and preserve human rights.
The International Day for Tolerance is now celebrated on November 16 every year, in recognition of the Paris Declaration which was signed that day in 1995 by 185 member states.
In 1995, a press conference was held at the United Nations by 12 year old Mark Semotiuk who launched his book "401 Goofy Jokes for Kids" which united kids from Ukraine, Canada and the United States, as one of the symbols for the United Nations Year for Tolerance.
Famous quotes containing the words united, nations, year and/or tolerance:
“Toil and pleasure, dissimilar in nature, are nevertheless united by a certain natural bond.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A man I praise that once in Tara’s Halls
Said to the woman on his knees, “Lie still,
My hundredth year is at an end. I think
That something is about to happen, I think
That the adventure of old age begins....””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Children who begin life with an eagerness to please, need to know that not pleasing is also all right now and then. They learn tolerance for others’ faults through our tolerance of their own.”
—Cathy Rindner Tempelsman (20th century)