DIVERSITY IS THE CELEBRATION OF THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

During the month of December, specifically on December 10th, we celebrate International Human Rights Day. This date is especially important now that we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The broader context of the post-World War II period is quite significant for tourism as we experience it today. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a fundamental tool for ensuring broad and safe tourism. One of the declaration's key characteristics is its direct impact on tourism, recognizing individual freedoms inherent to all human beings.

The declaration is a universal commitment and recognizes the uniqueness of each human being and their plurality. It also celebrates our commonality among equals in the face of rights that are fundamental to all people, regardless of their individual characteristics.

The declaration comes with a new perspective on an outdated view that all people should be equal in absolute terms, that is, very similar to views that shortly before the declaration would have had space in totalitarian regimes that tried to eliminate divergent and diverse populations and people.

The declaration itself is a celebration of human diversity and how people, regardless of their personal characteristics and their perceptions of the world, deserve dignified treatment.

Tourism itself is a celebration of peace, integration, and freedom. There is no sustainable tourism activity where prejudice and violence exist. We identify degrading tourism activities when there is a massified, and therefore invasive, aggressive, and totalitarian, view of this economic activity.

There's a movement in tourism today, similar to what's been happening mainly since the 2000s, in which all economic activities are seeking a path toward greater social and ecological sustainability, but also an understanding that economic sustainability is directly linked to our very survival as a species and civilization. Understanding diverse tourism that embraces all characteristics and all perceptions of the world in a respectful manner also means understanding tourism as something more responsible and as a tool for integrating cultures and building peace missions.

When we talk about diversity, we are not talking about some specific groups of minority populations, but rather about all people who share fundamental impressions and characteristics of dignity, and who can be segmented in different ways and understandings.

All of these segmentations have intersectionalities; therefore, they all represent different groups and intersect in this representation. Thinking about the population and humanity strictly through compartmentalized labels is exclusionary. It's important to understand that authenticity also exists in the interrelation of worlds, people, and perceptions. It's important to leave myopic and shallow thinking behind.

As we begin the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it's important to return to its foundations and original concepts. We need to reflect on what we want as a tourism industry and what we want as human beings: all individuals who participate and coexist in the same global community.