A Lancaster University academic, who helped put the horrific issue of human rights atrocities linked to witchcraft on the United Nations radar, is to launch a new campaign calling more effective action at a faster pace.

And, says Professor Charlotte Baker, of Lancaster University's School of Global Affairs and the International Network Against Accusations of Witchcraft and Associated Harmful Practices (TINAAWAHP), while the global battle to stamp out these barbaric practices, which include ritual killings, is producing some results, there is still a long way to go.

Professor Baker was part of the small, but high profile, team who successfully inspired the United Nations Human Rights Council to pass a Resolution calling for the elimination of such harmful practices.

The new campaign will start with a powerful exhibition, funded by the Lancaster University Arts and Humanities Council Impact Acceleration Account and curated by Professor Baker working with the University-based Lancaster Arts, to herald the start of renewed action to crack down on the atrocities.

The exhibition, a collection of 30 moving and poignant images, will be launched by the UN Independent Expert on the Rights of Persons with Albinism, Muluka-Anne Miti-Drummond, on September 19 at the Peter Scott Gallery at Lancaster University, to coincide with the second two-day international conference on witchcraft and human rights taking place on campus.

It will then tour the globe, visiting key locations in Australia, Papua New Guinea, the US, India, Nigeria and Ghana, to raise awareness on witchcraft and human rights.

The exhibition captures the global scale of grave human rights abuses that take place due to beliefs in witchcraft.

Speaking about the exhibition Professor Baker says: “The photographic exhibition aims to make visible the issues associated with accusations of witchcraft and associated harmful practices and highlights how individuals and communities are working to tackle these human rights abuses.

“Implementation of the Resolution is only just beginning, but we can already see it having an impact.

“Our campaign will highlight the importance of tackling these abuses, and will inspire people to continue to work locally, nationally and internationally to tackle this issue.

“We call on stakeholders to work together to review legislation, to develop and implement national action plans, and to support advocates and civil society groups in their work to bring an end to witchcraft accusation and harmful practices.”

It was back in 2021 that Professor Baker, who has published widely on albinism in Africa, Lancaster University honorary graduate and human rights advocate Gary Foxcroft, the then UN Independent Expert on Albinism (also a Lancaster University honorary graduate) Ikponwosa Ero, and international human rights barrister Kirsty Brimelow KC, worked tirelessly as part of a wider team to ensure that the extent of the shocking issue was heard at UN level.

They achieved the first crucial steps with the successful acceptance of a United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution which, in calling for the elimination of these harmful practices, affirms that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security and upholds the fundamental principles of equality, non-discrimination and human dignity that underpin human rights.

The ground-breaking Resolution to the UN brought together, for the first time, witchcraft and human rights in a systematic and in-depth manner at the UN and international level.

It marked an important step in the continued collaboration of UN Experts, members of civil society and academics to tackle the violence associated with such beliefs and practices for groups that are particularly vulnerable.

In numerous countries, witchcraft-related beliefs have resulted in serious violations of human rights including, beatings, banishment, the cutting of body parts, and amputation of limbs, being set on fire, torture and murder.

Women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities, particularly those with albinism, a genetic condition that impairs the ability to create pigment in the body, are particularly vulnerable and despite the seriousness of these human rights abuses, there is often no robust state-led response.

Thousands of people are accused of witchcraft each year globally, often with fatal consequences, and others are mutilated and killed for witchcraft-related rituals.

Despite the seriousness of these human rights abuses, there is often no robust state-led response and, often, judicial systems do not act to prevent, investigate or prosecute human rights abuses linked to beliefs in witchcraft.

In the last decade, more than 700 attacks on people with albinism have been reported in 28 countries, although the former UN Independent Expert on the Rights of Persons with Albinism, Ikponwosa Ero, remarked that many more are going unreported.

Trade in the body parts of people with albinism is big business in some African countries with the International Red Cross reporting a ‘going rate’ of $75,000 for a full set of body parts.

Since the UN resolution was passed, significant milestones have been achieved including:

• In August 2023 a coalition of UK and Nigeria based NGOs used the International Day Against Witch Hunts to call for government and key partners to join hands to implement the UN resolution on the elimination of witchcraft.
• In July 2023, Ghana’s MPs passed a bill criminalising witchcraft
• In March 2023, the Pan-African Parliament released its Guidelines on Accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks: towards eliminating harmful practices and other human rights violations, at the joint sittings of the Committee on Gender, Youth, Family and People with Disability, the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs, and the Committee on Education, Culture, Tourism, and Human Resources at the PAP headquarters in Midrand, South Africa.
• In March 2023, the UN issued a thematic report on the issue https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5247-study-situation-violations-and-abuses-human-rights-rooted
• In 2022, an article by a Canadian research team recommends that future research should incorporate the terminology of the Resolution when gathering data on albinism, particularly where negative myths and stigma on the condition are well documented (Reimer-Kirkham et al. 2022)
• In 2022, the South African Law Commission undertook a review of the Witchcraft Suppression Act https://www.justice.gov.za/salrc/dpapers/dp158-p135-Revised-Review-WitchcraftSuppressionAct.pdf
• Calls to pardon those historically accused of witchcraft in the UK leverage the Resolution Legally pardon those convicted in Great Britain for offences of witchcraft - Petitions (parliament.uk)

For more details of the exhibition please go to Lancaster Arts: Witch Hunts Now: A Human rights Catastrophe in Photographs.

Image: ‘Across Generations’. A sorcery accusation survivor and her sick granddaughter rest in the garden in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Their family were attacked four times in eight months. Many victims of sorcery accusation die or experience physical injury. However, the consequences are grave even for survivors, who experience high levels of social isolation and stigma, continuing threats, forced relocation and the loss of livelihoods and property. Credit Adam Browne.