Types of Harm/Violence Undertaken in Harmful Practices Related to Accusations of Witchcraft and Ritual Attacks Globally: A Scoping Review. Protocol

Ali Moloney; Miranda Forsyth; Ibi Losoncz; Matt Mason

doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/EJWT9

Accusations of witchcraft or sorcery and related ‘ritual attacks’ are recognised internationally as harmful practices associated with serious human rights violations, including ill-treatment, torture, sexual violence, mutilation, displacement, and homicide (United Nations, 2023; United Nations Human Rights, 2026). The United Nations of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) describes harmful practices related to accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks as a contemporary, global human rights problem that disproportionately affects people who are socially marginalised or perceived as vulnerable, including women, children, older persons, and persons with disabilities (United Nations General Assembly, 2023). While these forms of harm are often discussed in relation to particular regions (especially in the Pacific and parts of Africa), available evidence indicates that witchcraft accusations and violence linked to belief in witchcraft, spirit possession, or similar explanatory frameworks occur across multiple world regions and settings (United Nations General Assembly, 2023; United Nations Human Rights, 2022). In parallel, child protection and social welfare literature has documented how allegations of witchcraft against children can intersect with poverty, family disruption, disability stigma, and religious or spiritual ‘deliverance’ practices, creating environments where abuse can be justified as discipline, exorcism or treatment (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2010). A core concern for health, legal, and human rights sectors is that violence associated with witchcraft accusations frequently involves acts consistent with torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Internationally, The Istanbul Protocol provides the principal guidance for the effective investigation and documentation of torture and ill-treatment and underscores the wide range of physical and psychological sequalae that follow exposure to severe violence (United Nations Human Rights, 2022). In witchcraft accusation contexts, reported harms include, but are not limited to, beatings, cuttings, burning, restraint and confinement, forced ingestion of substances, sexual violence, forced displacement/banishment, and attacks designed to extract ‘confessions’ or compel recantation, which is often perpetrated by family members, community groups, or self-appointed spiritual or traditional authorities, and sometimes in settings where formal protections are limited (Forsyth, 2021; Forsyth et al., 2021; The Pan African Parliament, 2021). Despite growing recognition, the evidence base within these harmful practices remains fragmented across disciplines (for example, public health, anthropology, law, human rights, healthcare and child protection) and across publication types (for example, peer-reviewed studies, NGO reports, UN Documentation, legal analyses, and media investigations). For example, the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights has highlighted the need for coordinated strategies, legal responses, and prevention measures that address both the belief systems and the structural factors that allow violence to be enacted with impunity (United Nations Human Rights, 2022). The United Children’s Fund and related sources have also documented the complexity of accusations; particularly regarding children, and the close relationship between accusations and serious rights violations (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2010).

Types of Harm/Violence Undertaken in Harmful Practices Related to Accusations of Witchcraft and Ritual Attacks Globally: A Scoping Review. Protocol

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