For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 24, 2003
United Nations Day, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The United Nations is a vital international arena for countries to
cooperate in pursuit of political, economic, and social freedoms.
Founded by 51 Member countries after World War II, the organization has
grown through the years to include 191 Member States. On United
Nations Day, we celebrate the organization's founding principles of
freedom, democracy, and human rights, and we recognize the
contributions of the United Nations to improving lives around the
world.
As an original signatory of the United Nations Charter, the United
States continues to advance the United Nations' founding principles.
We are working with the United Nations to reduce conflicts around the
world, fight terrorism, abolish trafficking in persons, and support
those in need, including the people of Afghanistan and Iraq as they
continue to build free and stable countries. As we commemorate the
58th anniversary of the United Nations, we honor the victims of the
recent bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad who worked
to advance peace and freedom.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States
of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution
and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 24, 2003, as
United Nations Day. I urge the Governors of the 50 States, the
Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the officials of other
areas under the flag of the United States to honor the observance of
United Nations Day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth
day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and
twenty-eighth.
GEORGE W. BUSH
# # #
|