GENEVA — The United Nation’s Human Rights Council opened a two-day workshop Thursday, concerning abuses and deaths in some way related to witchcraft. This 2017 meeting, facilitated in part by the Witchcraft and Human Rights Information Network (WHRIN), marks the first time that the UN has aggressively addressed this world crisis – one that sees adults and children beaten, dismembered, and even killed in the name of the witchcraft.
Human Rights Council, Geneva 2013 [U.S. Mission Geneva / Eric Bridiers]
“This ground-breaking event means that, for the first time, witchcraft and human rights will be discussed in a holistic, systematic and in-depth manner, building on and consolidating critical work done on the issue to date by various experts including co-organizers of the event,” said Ikponwosa Ero, one of the main convenors of the event.
Ms. Ero is also the United Nations Independent expert on the human rights of persons with albinism – a sector of the world population that is acutely affected by witchcraft-related abuses.
“These attacks and violations, which frequently target people in vulnerable situations including persons with albinism, are astonishing in their brutality,” Ero said in a statement.
“In addition, there are gaps in applicable legal frameworks and challenges with implementation and enforcement, and far too often perpetrators are not brought to justice. This impunity simply cannot be tolerated,” she added.
As TWH has reported extensively in the past, this worldwide human rights crisis does not center on Witchcraft as is practiced or understood by much of the Wild Hunt readership. Most victims of witchcraft-related violence are not, in fact, practicing Witches or necessarily using any form of magic on their own, religious or otherwise.
The victims of witchcraft-related violence are most commonly those people erroneously accused of the practice in order to augment someone else’s political, social, or economic gain, or to place blame for some other unforeseen tragedy. In addition, there are cases, such as in Tanzania, where the victims are collateral damage, so to speak, in the practice of a profit-based magic of sorts.
While the UN workshop’s focus is not on Witchcraft as our readers might practice or know, WHRIN organizers did reach out to a South Africann-based Pagan organization in hopes that a member would attend in order to offer a Pagan voice at the UN event.
South African Pagan Rights Alliance director Damon Leff had to decline due to personal obligations. There is currently no Pagan speaking at the UN workshop.
However, WHRIN’s Gary Foxcroft has since told The Wild Hunt that his organization is eager for more modern Witches and Pagans to get involved with this global cause and to share their voices on this complex human rights topic at the world table.
For those interested in the proceedings, the landmark UN Human Rights workshop is reportedly being live-streamed on the UN’s web TV, and the agenda is published online, including a list of the many speakers who are in attendance.
Ms. Ero’s hope, as well as Foxcroft and the many other activists working toward a solution, is that the UN workshop “enables experts, States, academics and members of civil society to develop a greater understanding of witchcraft” and the many harmful practices that are done in its name.
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