On this day in vegan history · June 8, 2008
The UN Makes June 8 World Oceans Day
An idea that waited sixteen years for a vote finally got one: the ocean earns its own day on the UN calendar, and with it, a reminder that what gets caught by the ton is still counted one animal at a time.
The facts
- First proposed
- 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro
- Proposed by
- Canada's International Centre for Ocean Development and the Ocean Institute of Canada
- UN designation
- General Assembly resolution 63/111, adopted 5 December 2008
- Observed by
- All UN member states, every June 8
The idea started in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit, where Canada's International Centre for Ocean Development and the Ocean Institute of Canada proposed a day built around the sea. It took sixteen years to become official. On 5 December 2008, the UN General Assembly passed resolution 63/111, designating June 8 as World Oceans Day, observed by every UN member state. The resolution didn't change a single fishing quota or net design. What it did was put a fixed date on the calendar where the ocean is the subject rather than the backdrop, and where the animals living in it are, for one day, more than a commodity line.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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The concept of a 'World Oceans Day' was first proposed in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro as a way to celebrate our world's shared ocean and our personal connection to the sea
United Nations, World Oceans Day background page
Source: United Nations -
by its resolution 63/111 of 5 December 2008, the UN General Assembly designated 8 June as World Oceans Day.
United Nations, World Oceans Day background page
Source: United Nations
Why it still matters
It gave ocean advocacy a fixed date and a UN mandate, which counts for funding and attention that fish rarely get. It's also a quiet admission that the ocean's animals are usually measured in tons, never in lives.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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