What are harmful practices related to accusations of witchcraft?
Harmful Practices Definition
Harmful practices are various physically and/or psychologically damaging actions driven by belief, culture, tradition, faith, or other guiding principles. UNICEF defines harmful cultural practices as “discriminatory practices committed regularly over such long periods of time that societies begin to consider them acceptable.”
The National FGM Centre (UK) defines harmful practices as “persistent practices and behaviours that are grounded on discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, age and other grounds as well as multiple and/or intersecting forms of discrimination that often involve violence and cause physical and/or psychological harm or suffering.”
The Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women has defined harmful practices as “traditional social and cultural patterns of conduct which are deeply rooted in and justified by social attitudes, customs and norms according to which women and girls are regarded as inferior to men.” and as “such practices which constitute a denial of the dignity and/or the integrity of an individual, result in physical, psychological, economic and social harm and/or violence and limit women’s and girl’s capacity to participate fully in society.”
Types of Harmful Practices
According to the United Nations, “a variety of harmful practices exist, including female genital mutilation (FGM), child and forced marriage, virginity testing and related practices, extreme dietary restrictions, including during pregnancy (force-feeding, food taboos), binding, scarring, branding/infliction of tribal marks, corporal punishment, stoning, violent initiation rites, widowhood practices, accusations of witchcraft, infanticide, incest and body modifications that are performed for the purpose of beauty or marriageability of girls and women.”
Accusations of Witchcraft
Harmful practices related to accusations of witchcraft are cases when someone harms another person whom they suspect has bewitched them, their kin, or their property.
What are ritual attacks?
Ritual attacks include the harmful practice of removing body parts from others, particularly persons with albinism, for the sake of creating medicine.
Persons with Albinism
Persons with albinism, a genetic condition that causes the complete or partial absence of pigmentation in hair, skin, and eyes, endure an elevated risk of ritual attacks in many areas. These attacks are made to harvest body parts (hair, limbs, etc.) for use in rituals and potions. According to myth, the body parts of persons with albinism possess magical qualities which can bring about good fortune. The parts are believed to be particularly potent while the target is alive, so victims are not killed before body parts are removed.
In some cases, victims have been ritually sacrificed in the belief that killing a person with albinism will bring success and prosperity. In addition, many other toxic beliefs about persons with albinism continue to be spread.
Listen to Witch Hunt podcast episode “On Protecting Persons with Albinism with Jay Mohammed Osman Kamara” to learn more.
Eliminating harmful practices and ritual attacks
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals call for the elimination of all harmful practices by 2030, and the clock is ticking. Now is the time for nations to act to curb these practices. Witchcraft accusations and ritual attacks have specifically been targeted by UN Human Rights Council Resolution 47/8 “Elimination of harmful practices related to accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks.”
Resources for more information on harmful practices
- The International Network Against Accusations of Witchcraft and Ritual Attacks
- UNFPA: Five things you didn’t know about practices that harm girls
- UNICEF: Harmful Practices
- State of World Population 2020: Defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality
- National FGM Centre: Harmful Practices
- The Thing About Witch Hunts podcast episodes on Harmful Practices