Celebrating International Widows Day

International Widows’ Day is a global awareness day that takes place annually on 23rd June. The day was launched by the United Nations in 2010 to raise awareness on the violation of human rights that widows suffer in many countries following the death of their spouses.
In many countries with traditional societies, women find themselves left in poverty when their husbands die. In some countries, these women find themselves denied of inheritance and land rights, evicted from their homes, ostracised and abused. The children of widows also often find themselves affected, withdrawn from school and more vulnerable to abuse, especially in the case of girls.
International Widows’ Day works to encourage action in achieving full rights for widows, highlighting the need for more research and statistics into violence, discrimination and poverty suffered by widows and develop policies and programmes to address the problem.
The ultimate goal of the day is to develop resources and policy to empower widows and allow them to have access to education, work, healthcare and live free of violence and abuse. Enabling them to create a life for themselves and their children following the death of their husbands and ending a cycle of poverty and abuse. 
International Widows’ Day is an initiative of the Loomba Foundation, launched at the House of Lords in London on 26 May 2005.
Following the launch, the Loomba Foundation led a five-year global campaign for UN recognition, which resulted in an unanimous decision to adopt International Widows’ Day as an annual global day of action by the UN General Assembly in December 2010.
Since then, International Widows’ Day has provided a focus for campaigning in many countries around the world, with opportunities to create awareness in communities and engage governments in developing effective policies. Much has already been achieved but, as Lord Loomba points out, millions remain in urgent need, and “we’ve barely started yet”.