Joining initiative for International Fat Liberation Day on March 4th

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23/02/2026

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Advocacy

This year the Body Liberation Network is excited to join organisations from around the world to take part in International Fat Liberation Day (IFLD) on March 4th, a global day of resistance and collective action against weight stigma and discrimination.

“The global weight loss industry holds enormous influence over public health policy and continues to reinforce weight-centric healthcare systems that are already deeply entrenched. World Ob*sity Day is backed by major institutions, including the United Nations, and has been established internationally for decades as a dominant public health awareness day.

Having witnessed the powerful and ongoing fat liberation efforts happening around the world, naming 4 March as International Fat Liberation Day strengthens those individual efforts, builds visible solidarity, and creates a coordinated counter-narrative to the systems we are collectively challenging.”

Mx Zabe Sharpcat, Founder and President of End Weight Bias

International Fat Liberation Day is not a neutral observance. It is a deliberate effort to reclaim 4th March, a date that has often been used for messaging that frames fat bodies as problems to be managed or eliminated, especially under the language of “health.” These narratives are not neutral because they produce stigma and legitimise discrimination, causing real harm to people living in larger bodies in healthcare, policy and everyday life.

IFLD exists to shift the focus away from weight loss, pathology and individual blame and toward the social, political and structural forces that shape whose bodies are valued and whose bodies are erased. By joining other major organizations from across the globe we wish to increase visibility of size discrimination as a complex issue that people across the world suffer from.