International Men’s Day (IMD) is an annual international event celebrated on 19 November.
Objectives of International Men’s Day include a focus on men’s and boy’s health, promoting gender equality, and highlighting positive aspects of male experience. It is an occasion for men to highlight discrimination against them and to celebrate their achievements and contributions. November 19 is a significant date as it interfaces with the WhiteRibbon.org campaign to stop violence against all people, the popular ‘Movember’ charity event and also with Universal Children’s Day on 20 November with which IMD forms a 48 hour celebration of men and children respectively.
The International Men’s Day theme for 2015 — “Working To Expand Reproductive Options for Men” — is designed to encourage cooperation in addressing reproductive issues that affect men and boys around the world, such as family planning, men’s limited number of reproductive choices, sexual health, and safe sexual practices. We ask if consent to sex is also a consent to fatherhood, or alternatively of how we might improve men’s freedom to choose parenthood through cultural, legal, technological and educational avenues.
