Is the International Day of the Boy Child a UN day or an official public holiday?

No. Unlike the International Day of the Girl Child, which the UN designated in 2011, the boy-child day has no UN backing and is not a public holiday, so it is a normal working day.

Who started the International Day of the Boy Child?

Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, a historian at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, called for it in a January 2018 letter to leaders and NGOs. He had earlier founded International Men's Day in 1999.

Is it the same as the Day of the Girl Child or International Men's Day?

No. The Day of the Girl Child is October 11 and is UN-designated, and International Men's Day is November 19; the Boy Child day is May 16. The same founder created the boy-child day and Men's Day.

Is the day meant to oppose women's or girls' advocacy?

No. Teelucksingh framed it as a complement to the Girl Child day, arguing that gender equality is not real without a focus on both the boy child and the girl child.

What does the day aim to do?

In the founder's words it both recognizes the positive things boys bring to their families and communities and highlights the documented challenges they face as they grow up.

Where is the day observed?

It is a grassroots observance picked up by schools, NGOs, and dads' groups, with notable activity in Nigeria, Australia, and the Caribbean. There is no documented count of officially observing countries.

International Day of the Boy Child

Next celebratedSunday, May 16, 2027

An observance on May 16 recognizing the wellbeing of boys, the contributions they make, and the documented challenges they face growing up.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated March 20, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEMay 16

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYAwareness

SUBCATEGORYYouth

ORIGIN

Individual Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

Dr Jerome Teelucksingh

FIRST OBSERVED

2018

“Teelucksingh's January 2018 letter called for a day for boys, observed first on 16 May 2018, to sit alongside the Girl Child day.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

One historian's case for the other child.

In a January 2018 letter to government leaders and NGOs, Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, a historian at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, called for the first International Day of the Boy Child, observed on 16 May 2018. He conceived it as a complement to the UN's International Day of the Girl Child, having earlier founded International Men's Day in 1999.

Read the founder's statementvia International Boys Day (Dads4Kids)

INTRO

The man who built a day for the other child

The same Trinidadian historian is behind two of the calendar's male-focused observances. Dr Jerome Teelucksingh founded International Men's Day in 1999, and in 2018 he added a day for boys. What is easy to miss is the direction he aimed it. He did not pitch it against the United Nations' Day of the Girl Child. He built it to stand beside it, arguing that gender equality stalls when only one child is in view.

That framing matters because the record on boys is not soft. Reading across OECD countries, when students fall below the baseline level of skill, roughly six in ten of them are boys, according to the OECD's analysis of PISA results. The day asks readers to sit with figures like that rather than wave them away.

So the page that follows observes rather than celebrates. It lays out what the day is, who started it, and the documented gaps it points to, while being honest about the one thing it is not: a United Nations day.

ORIGINS

International Day of the Boy Child history

INTRODUCTION

The history behind this observance is shorter than the problem it points at. To understand why a historian in Trinidad and Tobago felt a day for boys was missing, it helps to start with the day he was answering, then the gaps that made his case, and only then the letter that created it.

CHAPTER 01

The day that came first

In December 2011 the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 66/170, naming 11 October the International Day of the Girl Child, first marked in 2012, as the United Nations records. It put the rights and barriers facing girls on the global calendar with full intergovernmental backing.

That recognition framed a question for advocates working on boys. If the world had set aside a designated day to focus on the girl child, what about the boy child, and could one exist without being read as a rebuttal to the other.

CHAPTER 02

What the data on boys was showing

The evidence gave the question weight. The OECD's review of education found that girls outperform boys in reading in every single participating country, a gap that is consistent rather than scattered (OECD analysis). The picture is not one-sided. Higher up the system the balance has tipped the other way, with about 114 women now enrolled in tertiary education for every 100 men, on UNESCO's count, a reminder that the day is about specific gaps, not a contest over who has it worse.

Beyond the classroom, boys are over-represented in child labour. The 2024 global estimates from the International Labour Organization and UNICEF found boys more likely than girls to be working at every age. These were the documented edges the day would point to.

CHAPTER 03

A historian makes the case

Dr Jerome Teelucksingh was not new to this work. A lecturer in the Department of History at the University of the West Indies in St Augustine, he had founded International Men's Day back in 1999, as Caribbean press later recounted when Trinidad and Tobago gave him a national award in 2022.

In January 2018 he wrote to government leaders and NGOs calling for an inaugural International Day of the Boy Child on 16 May. He set it down as a complement to the Girl Child day, writing that without a focus on both, gender equality is not a reality, and the first observance followed on 16 May 2018 (International Boys Day history).

CHAPTER 04

How it spread

No single official body owns the day. In Australia the Dads4Kids charity, led by Warwick Marsh, answered the call and now runs the main International Boys Day site, while schools and NGOs took it up elsewhere, notably across Nigeria. The reach is grassroots, which is why it has no fixed count of observing countries.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why International Day of the Boy Child Matters

BALANCE

Equality, he argued, is not real with only one child in view.

Teelucksingh built the day to sit beside the UN's Girl Child day, arguing equality is not real without a focus on both children. That framing is why the founder's own materials reject reading it as anti-girl.

WELLBEING

Boys turn up in the hard numbers

Boys are over-represented among the world's child labourers and among students who fall short of baseline skills. The day points readers to those documented gaps rather than treating boyhood as a problem already solved.

STATUS

It is grassroots, not a UN day

Unlike the Girl Child day, this observance has no intergovernmental backing and no single official steward. Knowing that keeps the day honest about what it is and how far its reach actually extends.

BY THE NUMBERS

International Day of the Boy Child by the Numbers

14%: Boys below the OECD skills baseline
1 hour: Boys' weekly homework gap vs girls
138 million: Children in child labour worldwide

TIMELINE

Timeline

Teelucksingh founds Men's Day

Dr Jerome Teelucksingh inaugurates International Men's Day in Trinidad and Tobago, the precursor to his later boy-focused observance.

UN designates the Girl Child day

The UN General Assembly adopts resolution 66/170, naming 11 October the International Day of the Girl Child.

First Girl Child observance

The UN marks its first International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October.

Teelucksingh's call letter

In January, Teelucksingh writes to leaders and NGOs urging an inaugural boy-child day on 16 May.

First Boy Child observance

The first International Day of the Boy Child is observed on 16 May 2018.

Dads4Kids takes it up

Australia's Dads4Kids charity responds to the call and begins running the International Boys Day site, widening the day's reach.

Too many of our boys are invisible and forgotten. Each boy is important and in this race of life, nobody should be left behind.

Dr Jerome TeelucksinghFounder, International Day of the Boy Child

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe International Day of the Boy Child

Read the founder's own statement

Spend a few minutes with Teelucksingh's case for the day in his own words. The founder's statement lays out why he framed it as a complement to the Girl Child day.

LEARN

Learn what the education data actually says

Look up where boys lag and where they do not, instead of relying on slogans. The OECD analysis is a sober starting point on reading and homework gaps.

MENTOR

Mentor or support a boy in your life

Offer steady attention to a son, student, or younger relative who could use it. The day's stated aim is partly to counter the sense that boys go invisible and forgotten.

REFLECT

Reflect on the day alongside the Girl Child day

Hold both observances in mind rather than picking a side. The founder's argument is that progress for one child does not require neglecting the other.

OBSERVE

Observe it through a school or NGO

Join a classroom talk or community event where the day is already marked. Much of its real activity runs through schools and NGOs, notably across Nigeria and through Australia's Dads4Kids.

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