International Day of Cooperatives

In 1992, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the International Day of Cooperatives to be celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July. The aim of this International Day is to increase awareness on cooperatives. The cooperative movement is highly democratic, locally autonomous but internationally integrated, and a form of organization of associations and enterprises whereby citizens themselves rely on self-help and their own responsibility to meet goals that include not only economic but social and environmental objectives, such as overcoming poverty, securing productive employment and encouraging social integration.