A/HRC/44/46 the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, article 6; Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, article 14; Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 39). The General Assembly adopted the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, in 2005, according to which reparation comprises restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. The Human Rights Committee has also affirmed the State’s obligation, under article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to promote changes in laws, official procedures and practices as part of reparation. The principles and guidelines for the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members calls for the reunification of families separated as a result of leprosy-related policies and practices, in full accordance with article 23 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 48. The Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence elaborates thoroughly on reparation measures, putting forward the idea that reparation programmes should ideally be of a complex nature that allows for benefits to fully acknowledge the complexity of the harm (see A/69/518). Reparation programmes should therefore comprise both material and symbolic reparations. Rehabilitation should be a core measure of reparation programmes, given that victims of serious human rights violations usually need specialized health-care services. By aiming at systemic change and non-recurrence, States should implement a comprehensive prevention structure that makes use of education, arts and culture, archives and documentation, linking reparation programmes with memorialization processes. 49. The principles and guidelines call for attention to be paid to the current situation of leprosy settlements and enumerate the rights of those inhabiting them. Such guidance is in accordance with general comment No. 4 (1991) on the right to adequate housing, in which the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defined seven components of the right to housing: juridical security; availability of services, materials, installations and infrastructure; accessibility of costs; habitability; accessibility of space; localization; and cultural adequacy. The Committee emphasized the universality of the right to housing and its interdependency with other rights.. The principles and guidelines also reflect article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on the right to make autonomous and free choices about one’s place of living. 50. Reparation programmes for persons affected and their family members who have been forcibly segregated and separated should be of a complex nature, encompassing material measures aimed at redressing structural disadvantages and symbolic measures aimed at systemic change, and including rehabilitation, a memorialization process and the enforcement of housing rights. Housing and property rights should also be given to second and third generation family members living in leprosy settlements. Even in the contexts in which segregation was not implemented as an official government policy, it was nevertheless the result of systemic stigmatization, and people who have been subjected to it should also be eligible for reparation programmes. 51. Given the deeply ingrained social representation of leprosy as a symbol for everything that should be kept apart, leprosy is particularly fitting to be used as a powerful example in general human rights education. As an historical epitome of dehumanization, leprosy holds a powerful aptitude to illustrate the importance of human rights for the building of a free and just society. C. In practice 52. Reparation measures for forced segregation have been implemented in Brazil and Japan. Japan has also enacted legislation to provide for reparation to family members, and the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil has granted reparations to persons who were separated from their parents due to the official policy, although only applicable in the state of Minas Gerais, and the remaining population remains to receive reparation. In Brazil, the regulation 13

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