United Nations announces 2015 program

The United Nations Postal Administration recently announced its 2015 program on its website, https://unstamps.org.

Among the commemoratives scheduled to be issued during the year are six stamps and three souvenir sheets Oct. 23 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. United Nations Day is observed annually on Oct. 24 to mark the ratification of the U.N. Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States) on Oct. 24, 1945.

Six stamps to be issued March 20 will honor World Poetry Day. In 1999, UNESCO proclaimed that World Poetry Day would be observed each year on March 21.

UNICEF’s campaign to end violence against children will be promoted on six stamps to be issued Aug. 20, and the U.N. Human Rights Office’s Free and Equal Campaign on six stamps and a souvenir card to be issued Nov. 5.

A U.N. press release announcing the end violence against children initiative on July 31, 2013, urged the “international community to speak out more forcefully against the scourge, which leaves millions of girls and boys physically and emotionally scarred every year.”

Free and Equal is a global public education campaign for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality.

The UNPA will continue its Coin and Flag series on Feb. 6, its Endangered Species series April 16 with stamps featuring birds of paradise, and its World Heritage series June 5. The World Heritage stamps and prestige booklets will focus on Southeast Asia.

A pane of 10 stamps and 10 se-tenant labels for the year of the ram will be issued Jan. 23.

Panes of 10 stamps and 10 labels for use from the three UNPA post offices will be issued Jan. 28 for Vienna, Austria; May 7 for New York City; and Sept. 3 for Geneva, Switzerland.

The program also will include definitive stamps for the New York City and Vienna post offices on May 7, and postal stationery for the Vienna office on the same date.