Discriminatory laws cast “long shadows” of exclusion, subordination and social stigma, and we must commit to breaking down the barriers these laws can create, to embrace “inclusivity”.

That’s according to Justice Edwin Cameron, appointed by Nelson Mandela as the first openly gay Judge on South Africa’s Constitutional Court, and widely seen as a hero for his fight to end all forms of inequality and exclusion.

In what he described as “a very vicious circle”, Justice Cameron, who is HIV positive, said that people who are marginalized or stigmatized often don’t have access to health services, in stark contrast to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) call to ‘leave no one behind.’

While in New York for the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), Judge Cameron spoke to Liz Scaffidi, noting that it’s people themselves who are “the most powerful agents for change”.