A/HRC/21/42 82. In line with the above, the Special Rapporteur offers the following recommendations: (a) States must tackle the practice of stigmatization in their strategies for fully realizing the rights to water and sanitation, in the elaboration and implementation of national plans of action for water and sanitation and in financing water and sanitation sectors; (b) In order to better understand this phenomenon, States must undertake a comprehensive study on stigma, through a widely participatory process, to identify stigmatized populations, as well as to analyse the drivers of stigma in relation to the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. This process should be based on the experience of people who face stigmatization, giving them space for articulation and empowering them to claim their human rights; (c) Such study and its findings should, in particular: (i) Serve as the basis for the adoption of new legislation and policies or the revision or amendment of existing legislation and policies which may not expressly address stigma as one of the key obstacles to exercising the rights to water and sanitation by individuals or specific population groups. Where legislation and policies reflect stigmatizing attitudes, institutionalizing and formalizing stigma, they must be repealed; (ii) Be widely disseminated, including with the purpose of increasing awareness about the pervasive impact of stigma in the exercise of the rights to water and sanitation. States and other stakeholders should adopt broad-based awareness-raising and advocacy campaigns to ensure the visibility of the situation of individuals or groups of individuals facing stigma; (iii) Serve as a basis for challenging stereotypes. Based on the findings, States should start tackling stigma within the State institutions and adopt public campaigns. They should focus on school interventions, and target stereotypes and harmful practices that find a formal “justification” under the umbrella of culture, law or tradition; (iv) Serve as the basis for the design of specific policies and programmes, the allocation of financial and human resources, targeted evidence-based measures and, where needed, temporary special measures for groups and individuals facing stigma in relation to the rights to water and sanitation; (v) Provide guidance in the prioritization of measures taken in the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. As stigmatized individuals are often among the most marginalized and lack access to basic levels of services, States must target them with priority. States should earmark resources in the national and municipal budgets for this purpose; (vi) Be systematically included in periodic reports to treaty body monitoring mechanisms and to the universal periodic review. Regional human rights mechanisms should also receive information on a regular basis on stigma preventing the full enjoyment of the rights to water and sanitation; (d) National human rights institutions, as well as civil society organizations, should explicitly address stigma as part of their work, empowering stigmatized individuals to claim their rights and supporting States to address stigma as part of their human rights obligations; (e) States must put in place accountability mechanisms and ensure access to justice where stigmatization results in human rights violations. Mechanisms must be 21