Demand the United Nations takes action on discriminatory laws

Scotland can help lead the fight against laws targeting people affected by leprosy, standing up for justice and fairness around the world.

The Leprosy Mission Scotland, is calling on people from across the country to join others from around the world and sign a global petition calling for an end to 130 discriminatory laws against the human rights of people affected by leprosy.

Leprosy one of the world’s oldest diseases still has many misconceptions – that it is fatal, that it is highly infectious – and over time those perceptions gave rise to stigma, discrimination and these punitive laws. 

In fact, leprosy isn’t fatal, it only mildly infectious (it usually takes prolonged exposure) and since the 1980s it can be cured with a multi-drug therapy taken as a simple pills. Around 95% of the world is naturally immune and in Scotland it is not a public health issue. 

For people affected by leprosy discriminatory laws are in many cases, just as damaging as or even worse than the disease itself.  

Leprosy can be grounds to be permanently expelled from school, fired from your job, separated from your children, removed from your home, segregated from society and detained in an asylum. 

Linda Todd, chief executive of the charity, said: “We are all looking forward to the removal of the restrictions we are currently under with the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. Imagine living in a world where Covid-19 curable and transmission could be stopped and yet the restrictions still remained. This is the reality for people affected by leprosy. They have been waiting for the removal of discriminatory leprosy laws for decades.”

“One example is that children of a parent or parents with leprosy are expelled from school. Those children, when they are grown and have children of their own, then find their children are also excluded from school. So it is inter-generational; they carry a deep shame even after they are cured.”

Some of these laws around the world enshrine that stigma and discrimination in law – and that is what this petition is about and The Leprosy Mission Scotland is calling for people to sign it before it is presented to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in September.

In Scotland and around the world we rely on people getting tested for Covid-19 so that we can trace and beat outbreaks of the virus.  

Leprosy is kept alive in some of the poorest parts of the world because of the discriminatory laws, the restrictions are seen as worse than the disease itself. People with symptoms see what has happened to others who are diagnosed with leprosy and elect not to go to the doctor to get tested. 

The petition is aimed at ridding the world of these outdated and discriminatory leprosy laws – and Scotland, with its experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, can help end such discrimination.

To sign the petition to end the discriminatory laws against people affected by leprosy visit here.