Church House: The Venue

Mr Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for the Elimination of Leprosy and the Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, gave a keynote address to the religious leaders at the conference asking for an end to the use of the word "leper," which he described as "an extremely damaging term."

Mr Sasakawa said the word often implied a sense of social exclusion, and said that people affected by leprosy have demanded that the term not be used any longer. He added that the term "carries the meaning of a pariah, or social outcast. Once that label has been applied it sticks for the rest of a person's life. The stigma remains even after he or she has been cured."

This year's Global Appeal is publicly supported by leaders of religious faiths from around the world. Sixteen religious leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, the Chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulamas, the President of the Japan Buddhist Federation, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care at the Vatican, and the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches -- have all signed the appeal.

Mr. Sasakawa pointed out, "Since an effective cure became available in the mid-1980's, 16 million people have been cured of leprosy worldwide. But, if we include family members, perhaps as many as 100 million people face leprosy-related discrimination in some form, often on a daily basis."

Reading the Appeal

The UN Human Rights Council passed a unanimous resolution in June 2008 to call for the elimination of the stigma and discrimination against leprosy-affected people. Mr Sasakawa and the Nippon Foundation initiated and strongly lobbied the Human Rights Council to adopt this resolution. 59 countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan, eventually sponsored the resolution.

Mr. Sasakawa said that removing "discrimination from society requires the cooperation of society's most influential members. Therefore I ask the religious leaders who have signed this year's Global Appeal to convey its message to their believers and followers."

The leaders of the various religious faiths in Britain attending this London Global Appeal conference each rose to voice their support for the initiative, and two representatives of people affected by leprosy who attended the conference -- one from Indonesia and the other from Ghana -- read together the Global Appeal message which called for the end to social discrimination, and appealed for the recognition of their basic human rights.