AFRUCA – Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (UK) is an organisation concerned about cruelty against the African child. With their Head Office in London and a Centre for African Children and Families in Manchester, they are the premier charity promoting the welfare of African children in the UK. They also work in partnership with other organisations in Africa and across Europe. See here for more details.
This international symposium focuses on the judicial treatment of witchcraft in Africa since independence as an object of social science research. It is, moreover, under the auspices of human rights, to inform the political authorities of African countries and especially the Central African Republic, where it is organized, advanced knowledge of anthropological, sociological, legal confronted with experiences judges on the forms of social violence in the affairs of witchcraft. Instructions and procedures are still under the influence of beliefs and local customs. This symposium aims to compare the expert analysis of this issue from research conducted in several areas and countries of sub-Saharan Africa. For more details please click here
Witchcraft is a topical subject and an intriguing phenomenon in Africa. Thriving on belief systems it baffles and confronts ruling elites with dilemmas on how to deal with it. Tanzania experiences grim consequences by the entrenchment of witchcraft in the country including social exclusion, expulsion and even murder of alleged witches. The legal system copes inadequately with the challenges of witchcraft because it does not accept the reality of witchcraft and the colonial inherited law is a blunt instrument in dealing with the problem. This article charts the history of the law on witchcraft in Tanzania and concludes that witchcraft beliefs are too strong to be driven out by legal methods and instead advocates for the removal of ignorance by introducing a scientific view of the world through
[mass] education.
Please click here to see the paper.
Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndge meets albinos who live in hiding in fear of being murdered because of their condition. See film here
Watch this space!
Each year, thousands of children die worldwide and the childhoods and development of millions more are scarred by harmful practices perpetrated by parents, relatives, religious and community leaders and other adults.
The report illustrates a devastating failure of international and regional human rights mechanisms to provoke the necessary challenge to these practices and their effective prohibition and elimination in all regions. It marks a failure of political and community leadership to move parents, families and societies on from harmful practices
to cultures fully respectful of children’s rights. It marks a failure of religious leaders to insist that no form of violence against children can be justified in the name of religion and to highlight, as the Convention on the Rights of the Child does, children’s own right to freedom of religion.
This report builds on the key recommendations of the UN Secretary General’s Study. It identifies a range
of international, regional and national bodies that need to work urgently and more visibly to end adults’ inexcusable justification of inhumanity to children.
Please click here to see report
This research (1) by Steven Rasmussen for his PHD secured detailed information on discourses and practices during selected episodes involving illness and/or death in Northwestern Tanzania with particular attention to the beliefs involved, and to the social outcomes of these practices and (2) used this material as the basis for a carefully documented critical contextualization and education process in which ministers inductively grappled with the theological and pastoral issues which these cases represent.
Please click here ILLNESS AND DEATH EXPERIENCES IN NORTHWESTERN TANZANIA
October 2012: The Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre (CWRC), based at the Institute of Education, was commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) to conduct a small-scale review of previous research on ‘child abuse linked to faith or belief’. This will be used to help inform future policy in the area.The review set out to address the following questions:
Q1: What does the literature tell us about the incidence of abuse in the UK, and other selected countries where belief in witchcraft and related concepts is a factor?
Q2: What is known about the characteristics and context of child abuse linked to faith or belief in the UK and other selected countries?
Q3: What does the literature reveal about good practice and lessons to be learned for practitioners, agencies and
communities so as to reduce this type of child abuse in the UK in the future?
Q4: What are the gaps in the evidence base?
Download the report here
May 2011: At a joint conference with the London Safeguarding Children Board, Trust for London launched this independent evaluation report of its Safeguarding Children’s Rights special initiative.
Safeguarding Children’s Rights was set up in 2007 to address the issue of faith-based child abuse linked to beliefs in spirit possession. Although this is a problem across many cultures and faiths, the initiative focuses on London’s African communities as it was established in response to concerns raised with Trust for London by African community groups we were already funding.
August 2012:An action plan to cut through the “wall of silence” around ritual child abuse and neglect in the name of witchcraft, spirit possession, the supernatural and faith has been released by the Department of Education. Drawn up with faith leaders, charities, the Metropolitan Police, and statutory partners, it says that there needs to be closer engagement with local communities and churches to prevent abuse.
It proposes stronger training and information for social workers, police and other frontline practitioners working with children; and better access to psychological and therapeutic support for victims. Click here to go to report.