Challenging discriminatory laws

There are currently more than 100 discriminatory laws across the world. Many of these laws are historic laws based on wrong information and misguided fears about leprosy. These laws and regulations deny people affected by leprosy their human rights, such as the rights to:

• employment
• immigration
• voting
• marriage and divorce
• access to public transport

Although many of them can be found in India, we are doing excellent work with the Indian government to repeal each law. However, there are governments across the world who are doing nothing about these laws.

While these laws are still in existence we cannot end the discrimination that faces people affected by leprosy.

Play your part

We are calling on people from across the world to sign a petition that we will present to the UN Human Rights Council. The petition is calling for governments that still retain discriminatory laws on their legislative books to immediately repeal them.

We will present this petition to the Human Rights Council to coincide with a presentation by the UN Special Rapporteur on leprosy to the UN's General Assembly, when she will be discussing the issue of discriminatory laws.