Every year, people all around the world gather on March 1st to mark “Zero Discrimination Day”. It was first marked on March 1st, 2014, after Michelle Sidibe, the second Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS, announced the start of Zero Discrimination Campaign on World AIDS Day in December 2013.
To draw attention to the worsening inequality and injustice that currently exists around the world, Zero Discrimination Day calls for urgent action to end inequalities related to income, gender, age, overall health, profession, sexual orientation, gender identification, racial group, ethnic background and religion.
Under the theme “Remove laws that harm, create laws that empower” UNAIDS highlights the urgent need to act against discriminatory laws on Zero Discrimination Day this year.
In many countries, laws result in people being treated differently, excluding them from essential health services or being subject to unnecessary restrictions, simply because of who they are, what they do or who they love. Such laws are discriminatory—they deny human rights and fundamental freedoms.
States have a moral and legal obligation to remove discriminatory laws and to implement laws that protect people from discrimination. We can all play our part in eliminating discrimination by calling on states to live up to their responsibilities and to contribute to efforts to remove discriminatory laws.
On Zero Discrimination Day, March 1st, we celebrate the right of everyone to live a full and happy life with dignity and without discrimination.
To find out more about this campaign, please visit UNAIDS website.