A/HRC/41/47 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 35/9, in which the Council established the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members. In its resolution, the Council recognized that specific attention is needed to address all forms of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, and mandated the Special Rapporteur to report to the Council on progress made and measures taken by States for the effective implementation of the principles and guidelines for the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members (A/HRC/15/30, annex). 2. Following the first report (A/HRC/38/42), in which the Special Rapporteur outlined the vision, priorities and working methods of the mandate, the present report aims at unveiling the multiple nature of discrimination on the grounds of leprosy, focusing on the particular experience of women and children. In order to present a comprehensive description, foster bottom-up participation and promote future evidenced-based policies, the Special Rapporteur methodically resourced more than 600 contributions. She looks into the pervasive structural disadvantage that allocates women and children affected by leprosy to a context of intersecting vulnerabilities and multilayered discrimination, simultaneously acknowledging the shared subordinated status of both groups and rejecting their representation as a composite concept. The Special Rapporteur identifies specific human rights violations against each group, alongside pragmatic and concrete steps for eliminating ongoing institutionalized, structural and interpersonal discrimination. 1 3. As with some historically ascribed identity categories (such as race, gender or sexuality), leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, has been infused in such a way with moral, religious, cultural and political meanings throughout history that it became a label that unremittingly produces and reproduces a deeply stigmatized social category. Labelling is at the root of discrimination on the grounds of leprosy. It is labelling, and not leprosy itself, that disrupts the social location 2 of a person diagnosed with the disease and that symbolically homogenizes a group of people within deeply ingrained stereotypes framed by negative attributes. 4. The overlapping of harmful stereotypes, wrongful stereotyping3 and structural iniquities strengthens exclusion, discrimination and violence on the grounds of leprosy and compromises the enjoyment of fundamental rights, such as dignity, equality and nondiscrimination, by millions of persons affected by leprosy worldwide, as well as by many of their family members. Stigmatization of persons affected by leprosy remains institutionalized in the State’s architecture and functioning: more than 50 countries in the world keep hundreds of discriminatory laws against persons affected by leprosy in force, 4 while discriminatory practices at the State’s administration services endure. 1 2 3 4 2 The Special Rapporteur wishes to express her gratitude to the valuable cooperation received from States; national human rights institutions; the World Health Organization (WHO); the Pan-American Health Organization; national leprosy programmes; the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations, in particular the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation; the International Federation’s panel of persons affected by leprosy; Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy; leprosy and law experts and activists; organizations of persons affected by leprosy and their representatives; and, most of all, to the women and men affected by leprosy, as well as many of their family members, who consistently support the Special Rapporteur’s work. The Special Rapporteur makes use of the concept as presented in the report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (A/HRC/17/26). The Special Rapporteur makes use of the conceptual frame developed in the report commissioned by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights entitled Gender Stereotyping as a Human Rights Violation (2013). See www.ilepfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Updated-discriminatory-laws-table-Final1.pdf.