A/HRC/44/46 I. Introduction 1. Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 35/9, in which the Council affirmed the need to intensify efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, and stressed the importance of implementing the principles and guidelines for the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, the Special Rapporteur, Alice Cruz, has set out a policy framework with the aim of assisting States in the development of rights-based national and regional action plans. The Special Rapporteur hopes to contribute to a much-needed paradigmatic shift, from traditional medical and charity-based approaches to the enforcement of de facto equality for persons affected and their family members. Concomitantly, the Special Rapporteur aims to foster the recognition and inclusion of persons affected and their families, who have systematically been left behind and might continue to be the furthest behind, if no positive action is taken, in the global implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. 2. The principles and guidelines underpin the normative integration of several international human rights instruments, interpreting and translating legally binding norms in close connection with the conditions required by and the needs of persons affected by leprosy and their family members. The need for a rights-based policy framework is put forward in the principles and guidelines, when identifying development, implementation and follow-up activities, within a participatory arrangement, as the obligations of States. Having identified substantive discrimination as a leading cause of systemic marginalization, the Special Rapporteur agrees with the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who has raised the matter of the insufficiency of anti-discrimination policies for bringing people who have been subjected to discrimination and poverty into mainstream society groups (see A/72/502). Guaranteeing equal opportunities to people living in poverty may be nothing more than a well-intentioned discourse. A comprehensive multisectoral policy is therefore key for achieving the goal of eliminating discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members. 3. The Special Rapporteur considers a policy to be any means through which States define and implement action within a comprehensive framework that puts into practice the principles of the indivisibility, interdependence and universality of rights through coordinated interventions between the different aspects of governmentality. In accordance with standardized practice for developing a policy framework, the present report is set out as a continuation of the previous report (A/HRC/41/47), in which the Special Rapporteur recognized the problematic situation with resource to a comprehensive description of the situation of persons affected and their family members that identified root causes of discrimination through a bottom-up approach firmly anchored in the experience of affected persons, their families and key stakeholders in the field of leprosy. 4. In the previous report, the Special Rapporteur identified a lack of acknowledgement among policymakers of the broad structural causes of ongoing discrimination and the limited number of interventions outside the health field. Such gaps call for a rights-based policy framework structured on the following four main axes: (a) adequate standard of living and economic autonomy, which includes social protection, work and training opportunities and access to health systems; (b) non-discrimination, independent living and inclusion in the community, which includes anti-discrimination principles, accessibility and independent living; (c) elimination of stereotypes and the right to truth and memory, which includes awareness-raising and capacity-building, reparation and the preservation of history; (d) empowerment, with a focus on vulnerable groups, which includes education, participation and access to justice. 5. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges the epidemiological, social, cultural and political heterogeneity of the expression of leprosy worldwide and, for that reason, has strived to develop a policy framework that simultaneously safeguards universal basic human rights principles and norms and leaves room for the specificities of national and local contexts. Importantly, the policy framework is suitable for implementation within already existing national human rights policies and programmes. However, such integration cannot jeopardize an efficient response to the needs of the target population, for which it 2