Articles and Documents

“In response to the overwhelming effects of Sorcery- Accusation Related Violence (SARV) in the country, the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG) established a national committee that drafted the Sorcery National Action Plan 2015. In that plan, counselling has rightfully been identified as one important support service for survivors of SARV and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in PNG (www.stopsorceryviolence.org). However, there is little or no counselling services for survivors in both urban and rural areas. …”

“Jesten Jessy was bedridden with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 during the pandemic. Later, he recalled that he had seen a woman doing something, involving sugarcane sprouts. A magic spell to give him fever and weakness? So, while she was sleeping, he beat her to death with a piece of timber. Not every case like this makes it to court, but this one did. The Judge was not impressed. …”

This Policy Brief presents an analysis of decisions by the Papua New Guinea courts on cases involving sorcery accusation related violence (SARV). The analysis contributes an important dimension to debates around how to respond to and address SARV by providing an evidence base about how many and what types of perpetrators of SARV are convicted and imprisoned. …

“The recent murder of nineteen-year-old Jenelyn Kennedy, the brutal beating of elite athlete Debbie Kaore and the torture of four women in Enga province provide a window into the prevalence of violence against women in Papua New Guinea (PNG). These incidents are just the tip of the iceberg of what is a day-to-day experience in PNG. …”

The concern for women’s safety and the need to focus more attention on addressing gender based violence, especially domestic or interpersonal violence in Papua New Guinea has been brought to the forefront again as a result of several high-profile cases. The Papua New Guinea Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender Based Violence 2016-2025 defines gender based violence as physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse directed against a person because of his or her gender in a society or culture including, but not limited to, acts committed with force, manipulation or coercion and without the informed consent of the survivor, to gain control and power over them. This broad definition of gender based violence covers a wide range of violence and recognises that violence occurs within relations of power and inequality. …

The international conference Witchcraft and Human Rights: Past, Present, Future Perspectives, held at Lancaster University on 10-11 January 2019, brought together academics, practitioners and activists from around the world to present on various aspects of sorcery and witchcraft accusations and related efforts to curb accusations and other harmful practices. The conference was a follow up to the UN Experts Workshop on Witchcraft and Human rights on September 2017 in Geneva. This blog post shares some of the key learnings from the conference and relate them to the PNG context.

“Between 1450 and 1750, some 45,000 men, women and children were executed in Western Europe as accused witches. Today, emerging new research shows that, during the past 20 years, upwards of 600 people were reported killed in witchcraft related attacks in Papua New Guinea, while current estimates are that thousands are killed in witchcraft-related violence around the world each year.”

“Participants at workshops in an environment like PNG are likely to have diverse cultural understandings about sorcery or witchcraft. This may make group work difficult as participants struggle to understand each other’s worldviews and particular local traditions. This problem is not assisted by terms such as sorcery and witchcraft that are used to cover a wide variety of very disparate practices. One way forward is to acknowledge the differences in sorcery and witchcraft traditions throughout PNG at the start of the program, and provide a few examples. Then, participants may be encouraged to focus on how the beliefs are manifested in the particular location of their work rather than their place of origin, particularly those that lead to the most violent behaviour…”

“On 21-22 September 2017, a UN Experts Workshop on Witchcraft and Human Rights was held in Geneva. This was the first UN and international level event with a specific focus on witchcraft beliefs and practices. It brought together a range of key UN office holders, including Kate Gilmore, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, with academics, activists, faith-based organisations, NGOs and survivors of violence emanating from witchcraft beliefs and practices. This post reflects on the key learnings from the workshop of relevance for Papua New Guinea…”

This article reviews and analyzes the growing bodies of literature on the regulation of sorcery and witchcraft beliefs and practices. The most visible problems relating to these beliefs and practices are the violent exorcisms, banishment, torture, and killing inflicted upon those accused of practicing sorcery and witchcraft in many parts of the global South. Sorcery and witchcraft are also (once again) becoming a challenge for countries in the global North, mainly within migrant communities in relation to children accused of witchcraft and exorcized and also in the context of claims to refugee status and freedom of religion. The article covers scholarly literature (legal, anthropological, economic, historical), law reform commission reports, nongovernmental organization (NGO) reports, and UN documents over the past 15 years concerning the regulation of the negative societal impacts of sorcery and witchcraft practices and beliefs. It concludes that there is a need for greater empirical study of the impacts of various regulatory initiatives adopted and promoted by national governments, NGOs, and international organizations.

This paper details a number of recent networked actions that have led to positive directions in the fight against sorcery accusation related violence in PNG. It also identifies some common themes and issues arising from these responses to analyse current responses and identify potential future directions. There is a common narrative in PNG that cases of sorcery related violence are rising, and that this is despite hard work by a range of actors. There is currently no reliable data about whether or not the cases are actually on the rise overall or are just more visible today (as a result of Facebook, newspaper reports etc). Regardless of whether there is in fact an upwards trend in the numbers of cases, sorcery accusation related violence is currently a major problem in many parts of the country, particularly the Highlands and Bougainville. This makes it crucial to uncover and to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness (or non-effectiveness) of the mechanisms that are being used to combat this type of violence. The Sorcery National Action Plan (“SNAP”) was passed by the National Executive Council in July 2015, together with funding of three million kina. Although the funding has not as yet been formally allocated, the SNAP is being actively implemented under the leadership of the Department of Justice and Attorney General (DJAG). An eighteen month implementation plan was developed and approved by the SNAP core committee in April 2016. A major part of the theory underlying the SNAP is that the best chance of success is in finding multiple ways to connect together the different sets of actors involved in combating sorcery accusation related violence. The diverse champions in this fight include relatives and neighbours of victims, police officers, church and community leaders, community activists and so on. It is imperative to find ways that such people can act with support from a broader network, comprised of both state and non-state, and ocal and national actors. There have been four incidents in the past few months that have demonstrated the benefits of the network building approach that underlies the SNAP. The accounts below are based mainly on newspaper reports, interviews conducted by Father Philip Gibbs, and preliminary fieldwork pending major fieldwork starting next year.

Sorcery and witchcraft practices and beliefs are pervasive across Melanesia. They are in part created by, and give rise to, a wide variety of poor social and developmental outcomes. These include uneven economic development, low public health, lack of social cohesion, crime, fear and insecurity. A further very visible problem is the attacks on men and women who are accused of being practitioners of witchcraft or sorcery, which can lead to serious bodily harm, banishment and sometimes death. Today, many communities, individuals, church organisations and policymakers in Melanesia and internationally are exploring ways to overcome the negative social outcomes associated with witchcraft and sorcery practices and beliefs. This book brings together a collection of chapters written by a diverse range of authors, both Melanesian and non-Melanesian, providing crucial insights both into how these practices and beliefs are playing out in contemporary Melanesia, and also the types of interventions that are being trialled or debated to address the problems associated with them.