Yesterday, 1 March, was Zero Discrimination Day, a date proposed 10 years ago by the United Nations General Assembly to commemorate the fight against discrimination.
The term "discriminate" comes from the Latin word "DISCRIMINARE" which means: "to distinguish by separating". We currently understand discrimination as the unequal treatment of a person or a collectivity because of race, religion, political ideology, gender, and physical or mental conditions. Zero discrimination therefore refers to the universal right everyone has to be treated fairly and with dignity regardless of these factors.
On this day it is remembered and celebrated that all people in the world, in principle, have the same fundamental rights. For many, this day is considered a truism, a mere formality to give visibility to certain groups that may be of media or political interest. How many times have we heard from the mouths of friends, celebrities or politicians, opinions and sentences that ignore discrimination and make the suffering of a minority invisible? How many times have we looked away or passed over a news item because we simply consider that this is not for us, as if by doing so, the problem would cease to exist?
This day matters because transgressions of fundamental human rights happen every day, in our city, in our country, in the neighbouring country... It is a problem that affects us all, regardless of our condition, because even if it does not harm us personally, we all have the responsibility to eliminate intolerance of any kind.
Zero Discrimination Day is not only about fighting discrimination, but also about celebrating inclusion and diversity. But this is not something that is reserved exclusively for 1 March. Thousands of people fight for the reafirmation of our rights every day, because intolerance does not have a break and neither should we.
From Libros de las Malas Compañías we have guided our work in these 9 years since our foundation in the visibility of silenced populations, raising awareness through our stories in intercultural education, education for peace, environmental education, and in an endless number of values that define us and that are developed in the SDGs that we try to fulfil in each of the actions that we carry out.
As a sample of this work, we think it is important to point out some of our books.
For the fight for human dignity, we have this book on functional diversity:
For the visibilisation of homelessness there is:
For peace education and the visibility of people living in war, we have:
This book aims to raise the visibility of the indigenous peoples, the quality of their oral literature, their sustainable way of subsisting in the jungle and their right to their lands, and also collaborates with Zerca y Lejos, an association that works with the pygmy population in the struggle for their human rights:
In order to make visible the discrimination and persecution suffered by people with albinism and to provide them with the same qualities as pigmented people, we have this book, which also collaborates with a centre for people with albinism managed by Africa Direct together with the Mercedarian Sisters of Maputo:
In order to give visibility to the refugees who have been abandoned in the Sahrawi camps for years and to give a voice to these women who support their communities, we have this book:
To work on intercultural education, to get to know and enjoy the stories and customs of the Senegalese people, there is this book, which also collaborates with a library in the village of Oussouye:
In order to make visible the importance of many women who were often silenced and to provide new generations with female references, we have:
In addition, our next new publication, a book written by the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid, will be on pre-sale very soon and is not to be missed.
Clara Colás
