UN declares Vesak as ‘floating’ holiday
The 193-member UN General Assembly, which in 1999 declared an “International Day of Observance for Vesak” — on the initiative of the then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar — has gone one better, this time declaring May 20 this year an unofficial UN holiday for Vesak.
Respecting the diverse religious affiliations of UN staffers, the General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution last week recognising seven new UN “floating holidays”, including Vesak, Orthodox Good Friday, Yom Kippur and Diwali.
According to the resolution, staff members should inform their supervisors in advance, as early in the year as possible, of the floating holiday they wish to observe.
Meanwhile, the UN will continue with its nine “official holidays” which include Christmas, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving Day, the last two celebrated by the Americans. When Sri Lanka approached the UN, seeking a holiday for Vesak in the 1990s, it was rebuffed on the grounds that it will incur additional costs on the world body.
In 2014, when Israel raised the issue of a Yom Kippur holiday for Jews, the UN’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee was quick to endorse the proposal — and saw no financial implications. ”We saw the opportunity and went in with both guns blazing,” a former Sri Lankan diplomat said last year.
“If 14 million Jews in the world could ask for a religious holiday at the UN on Yom Kippur, surely 530 million Buddhists could ask for Vesak,” he said. India jumped in later seeking a holiday for Diwali or Deepavali.
The vigorous lobbying before the Committee this time round was done by Chamitri Rambukwella, then Vice chair of the Budget Committee and a former Second Secretary at the Sri Lanka Mission to the UN. The Committee finally endorsed the proposal and sent it to the General Assembly for ratification last week.
Sri Lanka’s efforts were strongly backed by several countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolia, Malaysia and Singapore.
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