[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 44 (Monday, November 3, 2003)]
[Page 1469]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7726--United Nations Day, 2003

 October 24, 2003

 By the President of the United States

 of America

 A Proclamation

    The United Nations is a vital international arena for countries to 
cooperate in pursuit of political, economic, and social freedoms. 
Founded by 51 Member countries after World War II, the organization has 
grown through the years to include 191 Member States. On United Nations 
Day, we celebrate the organization's founding principles of freedom, 
democracy, and human rights, and we recognize the contributions of the 
United Nations to improving lives around the world.
    As an original signatory of the United Nations Charter, the United 
States continues to advance the United Nations' founding principles. We 
are working with the United Nations to reduce conflicts around the 
world, fight terrorism, abolish trafficking in persons, and support 
those in need, including the people of Afghanistan and Iraq as they 
continue to build free and stable countries. As we commemorate the 58th 
anniversary of the United Nations, we honor the victims of the recent 
bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad who worked to 
advance peace and freedom.
    Now, Therefore, I, George W. Bush, President of the United States of 
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and 
laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 24, 2003, as 
United Nations Day. I urge the Governors of the 50 States, the Governor 
of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the officials of other areas 
under the flag of the United States to honor the observance of United 
Nations Day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth 
day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
eighth.
                                                George W. Bush

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:24 a.m., October 27, 
2003]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
28. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.