When is the International Day of Missing Children?

The International Day of Missing Children commemorates the Day of Missing Children. On this day, propaganda to help lost children can be seen everywhere, calling on the society to pay attention to the incident of lost children. So when is the International Day of Missing Children?

When is the International Day of Missing Children? May 25th.

1983, the U.S. government designated May 25th as the Children's Missing Day, and began to coordinate official forces to deal with the problem of children's missing nationwide. Later, this form was used for reference by many countries and eventually formed the International Day of Missing Children.

The origin of the International Day of Missing Children

1On May 25th, 979, a boy named Etan Paz disappeared on his way to school in new york. This case was quickly widely reported by major media. Etan's father is a professional photographer. He posted photos of Etan everywhere, hoping to find him. Finally, Etan's photo was posted on the bottle that every household could see, which eventually became a national sport. Subsequently, the media launched a larger-scale report and search, and began to discuss the issue of kidnapping children, and criticized the government for its lack of measures to deal with this problem.

In the next three years, the media fully reported the cases that some children's bodies were found near ponds and swamps in Atlanta, Georgia. In 198 1, a suspect was arrested and confessed to 29 child murders. Finally, the criminal was sentenced to life imprisonment and is still in prison. On July 27th, 6-year-old Adam Walsh disappeared in a shopping mall in Florida. His parents then called the police, but unfortunately, law enforcement agencies did not take action to search for Adam Walsh at that time, and no organization could help them.

These tragedies happen because of the great power of American states. At that time, there was little cooperation between law enforcement agencies across the country. Each state acts in its own way, and no federal department is responsible for coordinating the search for missing persons. However, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a large number of children's disappearance cases like Etan Patz occurred in the United States, which attracted the attention of more and more social groups and was widely reported by the media. Finally, in 1983, then President Reagan declared May 25th as the Day of Missing Children, and set up departments nationwide to coordinate local law enforcement departments. In the following years, the Canadian government and the European Union also declared May 25th as the Day of Missing Children.

At present, European and American countries mainly take two actions to solve the problem of children's disappearance. First, publicity by non-governmental organizations and the media, such as organizing demonstrations, distributing leaflets, TV publicity, and establishing websites to release the latest information of missing persons. This not only reminds the society to pay attention to children's safety, but also makes the public pay attention to children who may be missing around them; Second, governments should cooperate to establish a local and even international database of missing persons, and law enforcement departments should establish corresponding websites to seek non-governmental cooperation.