July 17 is World International Criminal Justice Day and World Emoji Day. This day is celebrated in Ukraine as Ethnographer’s Day, in the USA – National Hot Dog Day and Disneyland’s Birthday, and in Slovakia – Independence Day.
World Day of International Criminal Justice
July 17 is celebrated as World International Criminal Justice Day, also known as International Justice Day. This holiday was established in honor of the adoption of the Rome Statute in 1998 – the treaty that became the basis for the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Work on this document began back in December 1948, when the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and instructed the International Law Commission to consider the issue of creating an international judicial body to consider cases of crimes of genocide. The official adoption of the Rome Statute took place only half a century later – on July 15-17, 1998 in Rome at the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries under the auspices of the UN. On July 17, the conference participants signed this document, which entered into force on July 1, 2002 after ratification by 60 states.
Interesting facts about the ISS
Prior to the creation of the ICC, there were ad hoc international tribunals, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which investigated crimes committed during conflicts in those regions.
After the Second World War, the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials took place, where high-ranking Nazi and Japanese war criminals were tried. These trials became important precedents for international criminal justice.
The ICC has jurisdiction over four main types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. These crimes are considered the most serious and threaten international peace and security.
ICC judges are elected for a nine-year term and cannot be re-elected. This ensures their independence and impartiality in the performance of their duties.
The ICC operates on the basis of the principle of complementarity, which means that it can only investigate and prosecute when national judicial systems are unable or unwilling to do so.
The ISS is funded by States parties to the Rome Statute, as well as by voluntary contributions from governments, international organizations, private individuals and corporations.
The ICC works closely with other international organizations, such as the UN, as well as with non-governmental organizations to ensure effective investigations and prosecutions.
Witnesses play a key role in ICC proceedings. Their testimony is often decisive in proving the guilt or innocence of the accused.
National Hot Dog Day
Every year on the third Wednesday of July in the United States, National Hot Dog Day is celebrated, which was started by the United States Chamber of Commerce in 1957. A hot dog is a popular American dish consisting of a hot dog in an oblong bun with ketchup and mustard. The history of the origin of the hot dog is not exactly known, but it is believed that the idea of combining a sausage and a bun belongs to the Germans and was brought to the United States in 1871. In Germany, this recipe existed since 1487. Americans quickly fell in love with hot dogs, and already in 1994, the National Hot Dog Council was created. Before the holiday, US residents take part in costume parades, hot dog eating contests, concerts and other events.
Interesting facts about hot dogs:
- The average American eats 60 hot dogs a year.
- About 150 million hot dogs are consumed on US Independence Day.
- The record for eating hot dogs belongs to Joey Chesnutt – 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
- Children are not allowed to add ketchup to hot dogs.
- The hot dog was the first food on the moon.
- The most expensive hot dog cost more than 2 thousand dollars.
World Emoji Day
Emojis come in handy when we lack facial expressions, gestures and intonation to express our emotions. They can often be seen in social media posts, where they add the necessary emotional color.
Emojis are icons, or graphic symbols, that usually have a bright, “cartoony” look and are used in text messages. They are very diverse: they can be faces, characters, weather phenomena, vehicles, objects, food, plants, animals or symbols denoting an emotion or action. Thanks to their popularity in online communication, emojis have received their own holiday.
Other events of the day:
- 1915 – Germany and Austria-Hungary signed a secret agreement on cooperation with Bulgaria.
- 1917 – Speech of Polubotkiv residents in Kyiv, aimed at declaring the independence of Ukraine.
- 1933 – The Dnipro River became fully navigable for the first time after the completion of the construction of the Dniproges and the elimination of the Dnipro rapids. On this day, the first passenger steamer on the route Kyiv-Kherson-Kyiv was launched. In 1990, river transport served 18 million passengers. In addition to the civilian fleet, the Dnipro military flotilla was formed, which provided defensive and offensive operations on the Dnieper, Pripyat and Danube. During the Second World War, the flotilla included about 140 boats and ships.
- 1941 – By Hitler’s order, Eastern Galicia came under the control of the General Governorship as a separate district “Galichyna”.
- 1945 – The Potsdam Conference of the leaders of the Allied Powers in the Second World War began. It was the third and last official meeting of the leaders of the “big three” – the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. The conventional name of the meeting was the word “terminal”, and the preparatory activities were designated “Operation Palm”. For protection, 7 regiments of NKVD troops and 1,500 operatives were involved, and the protection was organized in three rings. There was a soldier every 100-125 meters of the road, and every 3-5 km there was an operative responsible for intelligence and operational measures in the area of the road. Saying goodbye, the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain talked about the possibility of a new meeting of the “Big Three”, which never took place. Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam will remain in history, and in a few days the world will learn about the horror of Hiroshima.
- 1958 – The Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR adopted a decision to reduce 8 out of 40 existing monasteries.
- 1973 – In Afghanistan, the monarchy was overthrown and a republic was proclaimed.
- 1976 – XXI Summer Olympic Games started in Montreal. During the opening ceremony, a naked man ran onto the field, which was seen by everyone except the spectators from the USSR, where censorship was protected.
- 1976 – During the semi-final match of the football tournament between the teams of the USSR and the GDR, a man ran onto the field with the flag of independent Ukraine and danced the hopak, after which he surrendered to the police. His name was Danylo Myhal. Later, he explained his act as a desire for the Ukrainian flag to be seen by the whole world.
- 1997 – Ukraine ratified the European Convention on Human Rights.
- 2013 – Incident with fishermen and Russian border guards in the Sea of Azov.
- 2014 – A Boeing 777 passenger plane of Malaysia Airlines was shot down by a Russian Buk anti-aircraft missile system near Torez, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
- 2020 – The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the reduction of the number of administrative districts from 490 to 138.
On July 17, 1944, the so-called “parade of the defeated” or military operation “The Great Waltz” took place (the name of a pre-war American comedy). The column of 57,600 German prisoners of war led by Friedrich Wilhelm von Paulus, 23 generals and 1,200 officers included prisoners of war captured during Operation Bagration (Belarusian operation).
The prisoners were prepared all night. Immediately before the parade, they were given an increased portion of porridge, bread and lard. The whole journey took 4 hours and 20 minutes. The NKVD, under the threat of execution, forbade the prisoners to leave the columns, so they had to relieve themselves on the go. Because of this, the march was called “proud”. After the passage of the prisoners of war, the streets had an unattractive appearance, so the symbolic act of washing the asphalt with watering equipment was not so symbolic.
Eyewitnesses recall that the Germans tried not to look around. Most walked with lowered eyes, only a few cast an indifferent look at the unfriendly (to put it mildly) spectators. The German officers tried with all their might to show that they were not broken. The march mostly took place in silence, under the shuffling of thousands of feet, the clink of empty cans tied to the belts of the prisoners, and the terrible smell. More than 16,000 NKVD and Red Army servicemen, including cavalrymen, were involved in escorting prisoners, with the main task of preventing lynching and attacks on former Wehrmacht servicemen. After the march, only four prisoners sought medical help.
Stalin’s ambitious idea did not bring the expected result, because the march was so miserable and cruel that it was condemned by many, and the Germans themselves considered it contrary to the laws of war. Although it also happened in their history – during the First World War, in 1914, the Germans led captured soldiers of General Samsonov’s army through Königsberg.
