Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Release 2024, Remember their Names

REMEMBER THEIR NAMES – Victims of witch-hunts in South Africa 2000 to 2024

February 2024. An 85-year-old woman and her 90-year-old husband lost their lives on 12 February 2024, after their home became the alleged target of an arson attack. “The exact cause of the fire is still to be confirmed, and we are following up on all information. We are aware of the allegations of witchcraft, and this motive is still to be confirmed.” Captain Sipho Nkosi

’30 Days of Advocacy against Witchcraft Accusations and Witch-hunts’ – 29 March to 27 April.
https://paganrightsalliance.org/advocacy/

Touchstone Advocacy (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/TouchstoneAdvocacy/

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Release 2023

Pan-African Parliament Guidelines seek an end to witchcraft accusations

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.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Release 2023

Advocacy against witch-hunts in South Africa a success

We would like to thank formal SAPRA members, and international supporters, for their unwavering support for this campaign to end witch-hunts in South Africa. Thank you. We note that there have been no reports of witch-hunts in our country since 2021. We will continue to closely monitor published news reports to ensure that accusations of witchcraft never ever lead to witch-hunts in South Africa again.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2021, Witchcraft Suppression Act

UN Human Rights Council Resolution 47

The United Nations Human Rights Council’s draft resolution 47 entitled “Elimination of harmful practices related to accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks” finally, although indirectly only, acknowledges that Witchcraft is not the mischief requiring regulation or prohibition. The draft correctly identifies the true harm requiring remedy; the human rights abuses which flow from accusations of witchcraft.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2021

Cultural beliefs, religious identity and secular humanism

We honour Leo Igwe for his own successful campaigns against “child witchcraft accusations” in Nigeria.

We accept that his campaigns seek to deny the existence of Witches and Witchcraft; a natural consequence of his atheism. Our own campaigns in South Africa do not seek to deny the fact that real Witches do exist. We admit that navigating the thin line between religious identity and prejudicial accusation is always frought with difficulty.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2021

30 Days of Advocacy against Witchcraft Accusations and Witch-hunts – 29 March to 27 April 2021

During Human Rights Month – 21 March to 27 April – the South African Pagan Rights Alliance will be launching its annual ’30 Days of Advocacy against Witchcraft Accusations and Witch-hunts’ on 29 March 2021. If you would like to support this campaign, share links to our advocacy web-page and our Facebook page ‘Touchstone Advocacy’, and share our advocacy banner as your profile image.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2020

Witch-hunts: scapegoating, unfair discrimination and criminal acts

On Sunday morning, 15 March, an unnamed 83 year old woman and her 23 year old granddaughter became the first reported victims of witchcraft accusation in 2020. The grandmother was drowned by her assailants in a drum of water. Her granddaughter narrowly escaped being burned alive. The perpetrators alleged that the grandmother was guilty of bewitching a young man who was buried the day before in Majuba Village, Sterkspruit, in the Eastern Cape. These victims are the latest in a very long and growing list of individuals and families who have become scapegoats for unmerited blame in South Africa.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2019

Campaign against witchcraft accusations and witch-hunts in South Africa – 29 March to 7 April.

Campaign against witchcraft accusations and witch-hunts in South Africa from 29 March to 7 April. Advocacy against human rights abuses committed as a result of accusations of witchcraft and violent witch-hunts.https://www.paganrightsalliance.org/advocacy/ Remember their namesVictims of witch-hunts in South Africa 2000 to 2018.https://www.paganrightsalliance.org/remember-their-names/

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2016, Remember their Names, Witchcraft Suppression Act

SAPRA submission: National Action Plan 2016

SAPRA Submission on the National Action Plan to combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance Submitted to Ms. Danaline Franzman, Chief Director: Social Justice and Participatory Democracy, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development on 30 August 2016. The South African Pagan
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Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2016

Zuma: Independents are treacherous witches

The Editor – Independent Online – www.iol.co.za The South African Pagan Rights Alliance strongly objects to the implied incitement of violence against independent candidates as “witches” by President Zacob Zuma. Zuma: Independents are treacherous witcheshttp://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/zuma-independents-are-treacherous-witches-2050163 Bongani Hans | 27 Jul 2016Durban –
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Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2016, Remember their Names, Witchcraft Suppression Act

SALRC finds Witchcraft Suppression Act unconstitutional

The new Issue Paper released by the South African Law Reform Commission has confirmed the following:a) the Witchcraft Suppression Act’s prohibition of identifying as a witch and professing knowledge of witchcraft is unconstitutional, and b) the Act’s prohibition of engaging in divination’s
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