第59回人権理事会 議題3 ハンセン病差別撤廃特別報告者とのインタラクティブ・ダイアローグにおける尾池厚之大使ステートメント（2025年6月20日）
令和7年6月20日
The 59th Session of the Human Rights Council
Item 3: Interactive dialogue with Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination
against persons affected by leprosy (Hansen’s disease)
Statement by Ambassador OIKE Atsuyuki
The Permanent Mission of Japan in Geneva
20 June 2025
Item 3: Interactive dialogue with Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination
against persons affected by leprosy (Hansen’s disease)
Statement by Ambassador OIKE Atsuyuki
The Permanent Mission of Japan in Geneva
20 June 2025
Thank you, Madam Vice-President.
Japan welcomes the extensive efforts by the Special Rapporteur, Dr. Miranda-Galarza, since her appointment last October and appreciates her report on the important role of international cooperation.
As Madam Special Rapporteur says in her report, while the disease itself is curable with medication today, discrimination related to Hansen’s disease is not a thing of the past and continues to manifest itself in multiple forms of human rights violations.
Stigma and prejudice persisting since ancient times expose patients, recovered patients, and their families to lifelong discrimination and social exclusion. Women and children are especially vulnerable to multilayered discrimination. Women tend to be left by their husbands or subjected to violence, while children affected by the disease are expelled from school or abandoned by their parents. Also, we must not forget that some older persons who contracted the disease when they were young are still forced to live in sanitariums today, out of fear of discrimination if they were to return home.
Japan would like to remind all member states, whether endemic or non-endemic countries, of the importance of the international community’s continued efforts to eliminate discrimination and prejudice against persons affected by Hansen’s disease and their family members.
I thank you.
Japan welcomes the extensive efforts by the Special Rapporteur, Dr. Miranda-Galarza, since her appointment last October and appreciates her report on the important role of international cooperation.
As Madam Special Rapporteur says in her report, while the disease itself is curable with medication today, discrimination related to Hansen’s disease is not a thing of the past and continues to manifest itself in multiple forms of human rights violations.
Stigma and prejudice persisting since ancient times expose patients, recovered patients, and their families to lifelong discrimination and social exclusion. Women and children are especially vulnerable to multilayered discrimination. Women tend to be left by their husbands or subjected to violence, while children affected by the disease are expelled from school or abandoned by their parents. Also, we must not forget that some older persons who contracted the disease when they were young are still forced to live in sanitariums today, out of fear of discrimination if they were to return home.
Japan would like to remind all member states, whether endemic or non-endemic countries, of the importance of the international community’s continued efforts to eliminate discrimination and prejudice against persons affected by Hansen’s disease and their family members.
I thank you.