Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights: a review of the evidence (original) (raw)
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This report was specifically compiled for the United Nations Expert Workshop on Witchcraft and Human Rights, in Geneva on 21st and 22nd September 2017. The report outlines a study of all recorded online cases of human rights abuses linked to beliefs in witchcraft, muti and human sacrifice in 2016. It aims to provide some background understanding into the work carried out by the United Nations on these issues to date; outline the current scale of the abuses of human rights that are taking place across the world due such harmful beliefs and practices; identify emerging trends and, finally, act as a call to action for all UN, Government and civil society agencies working on these issues to redouble their efforts to develop solutions to prevent further abuses from taking place.
Witchcraft: A Story of Many Questions
Few categories of human conduct evoke greater social concern than violence in any given society. It is for this reason that societies are near unanimous in treating diverse form of violence as evil, regression and a sign of decay. Victims of witch-hunting today represent an island of ignorance where the march of human rights is still to reach or at least it so appears. These victims, mostly women, are in fact, victims of apathy, ignorance and suppression. They still continue to be denied the basic rights in a time which has been described as the age of rights. Lack of basic needs like medical services, security, and education abounds in areas where incidents of witchcraft are generally prevalent. And it requires the State to be pro-active so that hapless women are not crucified at the alter of witchcraft. State has a constitutional obligation, more so in this age of welfare state, to ensure the security and well-being of these women who are being deprived of their most cherished right, that is right to life
Piecing Together Perspectives on Witch Hunting: A Review of Literature (2013)
Piecing Together Perspectives on Witch Hunting: A Review of Literature (2013)
From the European witch-craze in the 16th century to modern day African witchcraft beliefs and contemporary cases of violent witch-hunting in India, history has been witness to witch-hunting across time and place. Why have witch-hunts taken place in the past? What makes them endure to the present? How are witchcraft beliefs different from place to place? Why are women targeted as witches? What is the role of gender in witch-hunting? How can we make sense of how witch-hunts play out in today’s world? This review of diverse materials including scholarly articles and NGO reports tries to answer these questions and more from a feminist perspective, and attempts to piece together varied understandings on witch-hunting so as to find ways forward in which to respond to ongoing attacks on women in the name of witch-hunting.It particularly explores the value of moving beyond discourses of culture, illiteracy, superstition and irrationality, to investigate the structural reasons that explain the gendered nature of witch hunting. The review is a second publication by PLD on witch hunting, and part of a larger ongoing initiative for creating evidence and a knowledge base on the targeting of women as witches.
The Accusation of Witchcraft as a Violence against Women
This research has explored the issue related to witchcraft and its accusation as violence against women in Nepal. The witchcraft related violence is a long-rooted problem and has been a challenging issue for both the government and people in Nepal. Many women have been the victims of this problem. Having considered this problem, the present study has made its attempt to examine how Nepalese adults in the diaspora context of Norway, who grew up in Nepal as children and experienced the problem of witchcraft, perceive witchcraft as violence against women in Nepal after residing in the equity promoting Norwegian context. It employs a qualitative case study research design. The data were collected through semi- structured interviews and some other secondary sources such as documents and newspapers. The findings were analyzed using the concepts from theories about diaspora, violence and gender inequality. The findings indicated that the issue of witchcraft and its accusation as violence against women plays a different role among Nepalese people in Nepal and Nepalese immigrants in the diaspora context of Norway. To put it in another way, the accusation of witchcraft is very common in Nepal and many Nepalese women have been the victims of it whereas the issue has null prevalence among Nepalese living in the diaspora context of Norway. The study has found several reasons behind why witchcraft prevails in Nepal. Some of the reasons include lack of education, poor job opportunities, gender discrimination, weak law enforcement, continuation of caste system and deep-rooted misogyny in religion (widowed Hindu women are often targeted). Meanwhile the Nepalese diaspora in Norway successfully removed the problem as they are living amongst the highly educated and scientific temperament of the Norwegian society. Nepal is lagging far behind Norway in HDI (Human Development Index) and other sectors too. Key Words: Witchcraft, Diaspora, Violence, Gender Equality, Immigration
Witchcraft: A Problem for All Times?
Histoire Sociale-social History, 2006
THE HISTORIOGRAPHY of witchcraft and magic has, like that of any other field of study, evolved over time in response to a number of ideological, methodological, and political influences. It has remained, however, a field dominated by the early modern period and by a sense that beliefs in witchcraft and magic-that is, the kind of beliefs that led to witchcraft trialsbelong to the past. Much of what has been written about witchcraft, and about witch-hunting in particular, includes some sort of statement of the scholar's need to "bridge the gap" between present and past, between modern scepticism and early modern belief. It is probably safe to say that, for most western scholars, mass witch-killings and the world views that produce them seem very distant. While we are, of course, aware of other atrocities, there is something comforting and intellectually liberating in the knowledge that history is unlikely to repeat itself in that particular way. But is it really so unlikely? Recent research shows that belief in witches has never disappeared and that witchcraft is a greater part of our world than we may have thought.
How States and Institutions Confront Witchcraft
Cahiers d'études africaines, 2018
Another issue on witchcraft in Africa? Hasn’t everything been said and written on the matter already? On the contrary: rapid social change, political crises, wars and conflicts of all kinds, and a tenacious religious vitality all mean our understanding of witchcraft must be constantly updated. These phenomena are prompting new kinds of accusation, particularly against the most vulnerable groups in society (foreigners, women, the elderly, children, and people with disabilities), and, in turn, provoking new outbreaks of violence.
Witchcraft Accusations as Gendered Persecution in Refugee Law
Social & Legal Studies
Witchcraft-related violence (WRV), in particular directed towards women and children, has become a source of increasing concern for human rights organizations in the current century. Yet for those fleeing WRV, this heightened attention has not translated across into refugee status. This research examines how claims of WRV were addressed in all available asylum decisions in English, drawn from five jurisdictions. We argue that WRV is a manifestation of gender-related harm; one which exposes major failings in the application of refugee jurisprudence. Inattention to the religious and organizational elements of witchcraft practices, combined with gender insensitivity in analysis, meant that claims were frequently reconfigured by decision makers as personal grudges, or family or community disputes, such that they were not cognizable harms within the terms of the Refugee Convention; or they were simply disbelieved as far-fetched. The success rate of claims was low, compared to available averages, and, when successful, claims were universally accepted on some basis other than the witchcraft element of the case. This article focuses in particular upon cases where the applicant feared harm as an accused witch, while a second related article addresses those fearing persecution from witches or through the medium of witchcraft.
The Social Burden of Witchcraft accusation and Its Victims: An Exercise in Philosophy
Yoruba Studies Review, 2021
The killing and burning of witches in contemporary era seem to be unabated. The contemporary minds have not succeeded in ‘scienticising’ belief in witchcraft. In Africa, Canada and India, the incidence, accusations and extrajudicial sanctions against witches are routine. The phenomenon of witchcraft is justified to be real. Before a misfortune could be plausibly attributed to witchcraft, it had to be seen as the outcome of a certain type of social situation. For in a witch-case the suspect was usually a person who had been involved in a relationship of real or presumed hostility towards the victim, then an accusation of witchcraft originated with someone living in close proximity to the suspect, and was meant to explain some local and personal misfortune. We then explain the socialization of witchcraft accusation in terms of the immediate social environment of the witch and her accuser. What we have in mind is that there are a lot of socialization between the witch and her victims i...
Witchcraft, Religion, and the State Apparatus: The Witch Craze Revisited
This paper revisits the phenomenon of witchcraft in relation to religion and the state apparatuses. It addresses the following questions: 1. How did the ISAs function during the witch hunt trials in Europe’s and USA’s witch craze? 2. What were the reasons behind the rise and fall of the witchcraft “epidemic”? Various scholars have attributed the rise of witchcraft to economic crises leading to a catastrophic rise in poverty and food shortages, to meteorological conditions brought about by the “little ice age,” which destroyed crops leading Europe into a period of famine, to the European religious wars, to some diseases that caused collective hysteria. As the majority of witches were poor women, some feminist argued for structural misogyny rooted in Christian religious doctrine. The persecution spread even to the New World. Social and natural catastrophes were attributed to witches who were perceived as wielding satanic powers that they gained through a covenant with Satan and the powers of the Anti-Christ. Both the Church and the State institutions worked hand in hand to rid their Christian societies of witchcraft, using the worst means available: torture, hanging, and burning victims at the stake. Both Catholics and Protestants had a share in this odious practice. It is still a mystery why the State and the Church suddenly stopped their trials over witchcraft accusations, despite the fact that it is still thriving as a belief system and secular entertainment. Some scholars attribute that shift to the early emergence of rational enlightenment ethos and the rise of the scientific worldview. And last but not least, 3. What are the implications for a critical study of witchcraft as a (counter)religious practice governed by the complex working of the ISAs?