The worldwide problem of belief in witchcraft and the appalling human rights abuses to which it leads received a boost in September at the 12th session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, Switzerland.

IHEU presented a written statement on this issue, since published by the UN, [1] highlighting the problem in Africa, and especially Nigeria, where IHEU’s representative Leo Igwe has been battling heroically against both the practice of witchcraft and against those who falsely, and profitably, accuse others - especially young children - of being witches. We followed up our written statement with an oral statement at the plenary of the Council on 22 September – see below.

It was encouraging to see that plight of those falsely accused of witchcraft – after years of silence in the Human Rights Council – is beginning to receive the recognition that it deserves. Accusations of witchcraft, targeting mainly the old, the weak and the most disadvantaged in society is a world-wide scourge. And horrific though the actual practice of witchcraft may be, with children being killed for their body parts for use in spells, the number of these victims is exceeded many-fold by the number of children tortured and killed after having been falsely accused of being witches.

The problem is indeed worldwide. We heard at a seminar organized by the High Commission for Human Rights of abuse of those accused of witchcraft from Nepal to Tanzania. And from Papua/New Guinea to the United Kingdom. The UN High Commission for Refugees has published a report highlighting the scale of the problem in refugee camps. That the seminar was organized by the High Commission itself rather than by one or two concerned NGOs was an important sign that this scourge may now be moving centre stage at the UN.

The seminar featured eight experts who exposed both the world-wide nature of the problem: its span across cultures and continents, and how deeply held are these beliefs which are all too frequently related to religion: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and traditional beliefs.

The seminar audience of some 60 delegates and NGO representatives was notable for the high proportion of western faces – with only three Africans present – and for the realization that beliefs and practices that had been comprehensively laid to rest in the West two hundred years ago were still ubiquitous in the rest of the world.

Some organisations working in the field have actually abandoned attempts to combat these beliefs, focusing instead on working to rehabilitate victims of witchcraft accusations, even going so far as to persuade local priests to “exorcise” and cleanse the victim of the evil spirits that have supposedly taken over their bodies. The absence of Africans from the seminar does not speak well of recognition of the problem among governments on that continent. Indeed, we were shocked at reports from the Gambia recently of witch hunts carried out under the orders of the president, a matter we referred to in our statements.

What can be done?

One speaker at the seminar noted that criminalizing the practice of witchcraft had led to negative consequences in many countries, where new laws have tended to encourage local people to take the law into their own hands and to lynch those accused of witchcraft. What is needed are laws which criminalise the practice of making accusations of witchcraft. The experience of the way that the United States eliminated the widespread practice of mob lynching in the 19th century was offered as a model. There, the communities where victims had been lynched were collectively held to account, were fined and forced to compensate the families of the victims. This approach might offer promise in India, for example, where we have seen police intervention after the murder of those accused of witchcraft - where it happens at all - directed towards persuasion but with little chance of finding or indicting those directly responsible, and without the possibility of holding the entire community to account.

Longer term, the answer must lie in education – education in the reality that evil spirits and supernatural powers do not exist. But sadly, human nature may be working against us. We have evolved to seek cause and effect and to make decisions on insufficient evidence. This may have served our ancestors well as a survival mechanism, but we have no instinct to seek proof: that needs to be learned.

Gary Foxcroft of Stepping Stones Nigeria introduced two important initiatives. The first was for a conference to be held in London in April 2010 to bring together organizations working on this problem to come together and exchange views and ideas. The second was an announcement of a network to coordinate the highly fragmented work of both international institutions and NGOs on the issue. IHEU should strongly support both of these initiatives.

Witchcraft in Africa

Joint statement by IHEU and the Association for World Education,
UN Human Rights Council 12th session, 22 September 2009

Mr President,

Witchcraft is still widely practiced in many countries in Africa by witchdoctors who often use human body parts in their spells. Some witchdoctors employ gangs of young men to attack and kill victims, often young children, for their body parts, which are frequently removed while the victim is still alive. [2] An estimated 300 people are killed each year in South Africa alone as a result of this practice. [3]

But horrific though this practice is, it is only part of the problem. In Nigeria, in both the Muslim North and the Christian South, witch hunts are not uncommon and this has led to a second form of abuse. Some unscrupulous pastors, many linked to Pentecostal churches, have a lucrative trade in making unfounded accusations of witchcraft against young children. [The pastors then agree to “cure” the witches for a substantial fee. Many children are being ostracized and abandoned by their parents as a result of these accusations.]

Victims accused of witchcraft often suffer appalling abuse, reminiscent of the European witch hunts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many being burned alive. [4]

Recent reports of witch hunting and kidnappings by militias in the Gambia under the orders of the President have highlighted the problem of witch hunts. [5]

In Tanzania, Albinos are targeted for their body parts which are believed to bring good luck. [6]

[Similar situations exist in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. [7, 8, 9] It has been a tradition in Ghana, Zambia and Kenya to accuse childless old women of witchcraft.]

In Nigeria one unscrupulous pastor who has made a fortune from unfounded accusations of witchcraft is Helen Ukpabio, the leader of Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries.

[In her book 'Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft' she states that a child under the age of two that cries at night and has poor health is 'an agent of Satan'. This ridiculous claim has ensured Ms Ukpabio a steady stream of parents paying to have their children ‘cured’.]

[IHEU and the UK charity Stepping Stones Nigeria have been campaigning against witchcraft and false accusations of witchcraft in Nigeria. At an anti-witchcraft conference in Calabar, Cross River State last month, one of our international representatives, Leo Igwe, was assaulted and robbed by about 100 supporters of Helen Ukpabio.]

Mr President, we are calling on this Council, the African Union and the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights, to urge governments to do more - through improved education and better policing - to eliminate the twin scourges of those practicing witchcraft and those claiming to find and “cure” witches.

Thank you sir.

Note: The words in [square brackets] could not be read in the two minutes available.

1 http://www.iheu.org/un-publishes-iheu-statement-witchcraft-africa
2 http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Witchcraft-Killers-Want-Body-Parts/Article/20061131240912?lpos=Home_Article_Related_Content_Region_5&lid=ARTICLE_1240912_Witchcraft_Killers_Want_Body_Parts
3 http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-10033336-details/Exposed:+witch-doctors/article.do
4 http://www.stolenchildhood.net/entry/endless-suffering-of-small-nigerian-souls-as-a-result-of-religious-hypocrisy/
5 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6797697.ece
6 http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Africa-Young-Albino-Girl-Killed-And-Mutilated-To-Give-Body-Parts-To-Witch-Doctors-In-Tanzania/Article/200810315125431
7 http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,4565c2253b,46545ce12,496323c31e,0.html
8 http://www.africanewssearch.com/olink.php?ARG1=http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/14/663393&
ARG2=302188
9 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20080904+ITEM-012-03+DOC+XML+V0//EN