Zero Discrimination Day

What does Zero Discrimination mean to you? Equality, Diversity and Inclusion are a focus for us throughout the year, but to mark today's Zero Discrimination Day, members of our Practice have given this question some extra thought.

Zero Discrimination Day is an annual day celebrated aiming to promote equality in law and practice throughout all of the member countries of the UN. The day was first celebrated on March 1, 2014.

Organisations like the United Nations (UN) actively promote the day with various activities to celebrate everyone’s right to live a full life with dignity regardless of age, gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, skin color, height, weight, profession, education, and beliefs. 

In February 2017, UNAIDS called on people to "make some noise around zero discrimination, to speak up and prevent discrimination from standing in the way of achieving ambitions, goals and dreams."

The symbol for Zero Discrimination Day is the butterfly. It widely used by people, alongside their stories and photos, as a symbol for ending discrimination and working towards positive transformation.

To mark the day, we'll be sharing our thoughts on what zero discrimination means on our twitter feed, one at a time. You can also see the full set of thoughts below.

"Zero Discrimination is allowing all to come as they are despite having no understanding or commonality. All that's required is love."
- Patience Straker

 

"Avoid judging people by their gender, appearance and ancestral background, but rather pay attention to their talent, achievements and the content of their character, for those are the things within their control."
- Sannah Tariq

 

"The modern society we live in as a whole has made rapid improvements in terms of equal opportunities for all, as well as access to rise the social ladder. However, unconscious bias and negative stereotypes still exist towards certain demographics in varying proportions amongst us. Unless and until we can eliminate unconscious bias and negative stereotypes, we need to have zero discrimination days to highlight the issues faced and remind us of the goal of 'live and let live'."
- Zaryawb Hussain

 

"A world where no personal characteristic hinders, limits or prevents success and opportunities in whatever form it is wanted."
- Victoria Fenwick-Moore

 

"Zero Discrimination Day represents to me an opportunity to reflect on the work that has been done and the work that is yet to be done to build an environment that provides everyone with the same level of opportunities and respect."
- Florence Lansdown

 

"Zero Discrimation is about actively taking the time to support everyone in their engagement with the practice and its aims, so that all are able to contribute and feel part of it."
- David Lindsey

 

"One of my favorite quotes can be found in the book 'The Help' by Kathlyn Stockett:
'Once upon a time they was two girls, I say. One girl had black skin, one girl had white skin (...). Little colored girl say to little white girl, 'How come your skin be so pale?' White girl say, 'I don't know. How come your skin be so black? What you think that mean?' But neither one a them little girls knew. So little white girl say, 'Well, let's see. You got hair, I got hair'.(...) Little colored girl say 'I got a nose, you got a nose'. (...) Little white girl say, 'I got toes, you got toes'. (...) 'So we's the same. Just a different color', say that little colored girl. The little white girl she agreed and they was friends. The End.'"
- Bina Nikolova

 

"To me Zero Discrimination means having a culture where everyone can comfortably be themselves. It means seeing each person as an individual, and valuing their unique perspective."
- Katie Clemence-Jackson