A/HRC/38/42 by leprosy. This gave rise to the establishment of leprosaria around the globe. 1948 signalled the year in which leprosy experts abandoned the policy of compulsory internment. 27 However, such a policy lasted in some countries until the late twentieth century. Moreover, it can still be found in some national legislations. 35. Thousands of leprosaria were established throughout the world after the late nineteenth century, many of them implementing an official State policy of compulsory internment of persons affected by leprosy, while others emerged as non-official State policy as a consequence of the social marginalization of persons affected by leprosy. 28 36. Segregation denied the civil and political rights of persons affected by leprosy, who were separated from their families and communities, often at a very early age. The same policy was applied in 1923 to children of persons affected by leprosy. 29 Children were forcibly separated from their parents at birth and many were also secluded from their communities. The dissemination of prophylactic propaganda was also part of this policy, which aimed at alerting the public to the dangers of contact with persons affected by leprosy. In 1924, recommendations were sent to the newly created League of Nations, urging it to take leadership in regulating the circulation of persons affected by leprosy and prohibiting them from entering foreign countries. 30 37. There was never any scientific evidence to support prophylactic segregation of persons affected by leprosy. Nevertheless, such a policy was widespread; it reinvented leprosy in modern times as a “dreadful” disease, disseminating stigma in many parts of the world. Much of the current discriminatory national legislation was produced during this period. Second period of the modern history of leprosy (1948–1981) 38. The second period of the modern history of leprosy began with the discovery, in 1943, by the North American Guy Faget of a drug with some reasonable degree of efficacy in curing leprosy, despite its long-term use and severe iatrogenic effects. 31 The efficacy of dapsone in curing leprosy led to a transition from a policy of compulsory segregation to a policy of decentralization to general health services. It was in this period that WHO took leadership in what was then called the eradication of leprosy32 with funds from the United Nations Children's Fund.33 This new policy also called upon States to amend discriminatory legislation, arguing that such legislation was a barrier to the eradication of leprosy. 34 It was in this period that the first calls emerged from leprosy colonies demanding recognition of the dignity and rights of persons affected by leprosy. It took over a half century to recognize their efforts. However, and in the spirit of the International Conference on Primary Health Care (Alma-Ata, 1978), leprosy was progressively reframed under the right to health. 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 8 International Leprosy Congress, Memoria del V Congreso Internacional de la Lepra. Celebrado en la Habana, Cuba del 3 al 11 de Abril de 1948. Organizado por el gobierno de la República de Cuba con la colaboración de la Asociación Internacional de la Lepra (Havana, Editorial Cenit, 1949). There are still thousands of leprosy colonies throughout the world. Many of those affected still live in these colonies, as well as their children and grandchildren. É mile Marchoux, III Conférence Internationale de la Lèpre. Strasbourg, 28 au 31 juillet 1923: communications et débats (Paris, Baillière et fils, 1924). Ibid. G.H. Faget and others, “La prominoterapia de la lepra: estudios en progreso”, International Journal of Leprosy and other Mycobacterial Diseases, vol. 11, No. 1 (1943), pp. 52–62. WHO, “Editorial: information and comments on development of international leprosy activities”, WHO Chronicle, vol. 14, No. 1 (1960), pp. 3–39. Michel F. Lechat, “The saga of dapsone”, in Multidrug Therapy against Leprosy: Development and Implementation over the Past 25 years, H. Sansarricq, ed. (Geneva, WHO, 2004), pp. 1–7. Frans Hemerijckx , “Social aspects of leprosy problem with reference to countries with high leprosy endemicity: epidemiology and control of leprosy”, in Transactions of the VIIth International Congress of Leprology. Tokyo, November 1958. Held Under the Joint Sponsorship of the International Leprosy Association; Tofu Kyokay (Japanese Leprosy Foundation) (Tokyo, Tofu Kyokai, 1959), pp. 442–447.