Elderly Victimization in the Context of Witchcraft Accusations and Persons Accused of Witchcraft Practices Living Within the Gambaga Witches’ Camp: Understanding of Human Rights
| Published date | 01 October 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/25166069241281845 |
| Author | Nachinaab John Onzaberigu,Kwadwo Ofori-Dua,Peter Dwumah,Esmeranda Manful |
| Date | 01 October 2024 |
Elderly Victimization in
the Context of Witchcraft
Accusations and Persons
Accused of Witchcraft
Practices Living Within
the Gambaga Witches’
Camp: Understanding
of Human Rights
Nachinaab John Onzaberigu1, Kwadwo Ofori-Dua1,
Peter Dwumah1 and Esmeranda Manful1
Abstract
The practice of sociocultural belief systems in Ghana such as witchcraft accusations
leads to situations where some elderly people in the northern part of Ghana are
likely to be victimized based on sociocultural belief systems. Persons accused of
witchcraft practices can be denied some of their basic fundamental human rights.
The lack of a clear understanding of human rights standards among many rural
folks, especially in a rural part of Northern Ghana, makes many people consider
accusations of persons suspected of witchcraft practices as a non-abuse of victims’
human rights when persons accused of witchcraft are encamped in witches’ camps.
Hence, this study sought to explore the accused persons of witchcraft practice’s
understanding of human rights and how their conceptualization of human rights
has led to elderly victimization based on sociocultural practices regarding witch-
craft accusations. The study employed a qualitative method where 37 participants
were selected consisting of persons accused of witchcraft practices living within
the Gambaga witches’ camp. A thematic approach was used in the data analysis.
The study found that accused persons of witchcraft practices have a distinctive
understanding of human rights, which they conceptualized to include social and
cultural rights, economic rights, civil and political rights and legal rights and missed
out on the civil and political aspects of human rights. The study found that the
Original Article
Journal of Victimology
and Victim Justice
7(2) 145–167, 2024
2024 National Law
University Delhi
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/25166069241281845
journals.sagepub.com/home/vvj
1 Department of Sociology and Social Work, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana
Corresponding author:
Nachinaab John Onzaberigu, Department of Sociology and Social Work, College of Humanities and
Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana.
E-mail: onachinaabjohn@gmail.com
146 Journal of Victimology and Victim Justice 7(2)
accused persons’ lack of understanding of the civil rights concept of human rights
made most of the persons living within the Gambaga witches’ camp to be victims of
torture, undergo forced labour, lack their right to protection, gender discrimina-
tion and slavery within the camp. The study recommended that traditional leaders
should engage in community dialogues that facilitate open and inclusive community
dialogues to discuss the negative impact of witchcraft accusations on individuals
and the community as a whole.
Keywords
Victimization, victim protection, law and legal, justice
Introduction
Societies have always relied on their sociocultural belief systems in determining
the conduct of members.2,3,4 However, many modern societies nowadays place
more emphasis on human rights based on rational legal rules rooted in interna-
tional human rights stands.5 This has in a way created some discrepancies in tra-
ditional sociocultural belief systems and values in some rural traditional societies
around the world and the debate on human rights, as most human rights rules
conflict with traditional sociocultural belief systems.6,7 A case in point is where
some elderly persons are accused of witchcraft and hence detained in a witch
camp at Gambaga community based on the sociocultural values against their fun-
damental human right of freedom of movement and fair treatment.8,9
Globally, societies have adopted United Nations Universal Declaration of
Human Rights since 1948.10 Countries around the world have accepted these fun-
damental human rights enshrined in the UN Charter, which provides humanity
with great freedom from oppressive political leadership, servitude or slavery and
provides equal dignity and rights to all persons in the world. However, how coun-
tries and societies in the world have promoted the fundamental human right
2 G. Ritzer, Sociological Metatheory: A Defense of a Subeld by a Delineation of Its Parameters,
6(2) 187 (1988).
3 E. Quilty, Naked and Unafraid: Nudity in Reclaiming Witchcraft Rituals, 193
(2020).
4 M. Motsoeneng, The Lived Experiences of Elderly Women Accused of Witchcraft in a Rural
Community in South Africa, (3) 112 (2022).
5 N. Lerner, Religious Human Rights Under the United Nations. In
13 (2012).
6 R. Dixon, In Ghana’s Witch Camps, the Accused Are Never Safe, 2012 (last visited
Nov. 14, 2018).
7 J. Kroesbergen-Kamps, Witchcraft After Modernity: Old and New Directions in the Study of
Witchcraft in Africa, 10(3) 860 (2020).
8 N. Zugliani, Human Rights in International Investment Law: The 2016 Morocco–Nigeria Bilateral
Investment Treaty, 68(3) ICLQ 761 (2019).
9 A. K. P. Kludze, Constitutional Rights and Their Relationship with International Human Rights in
Ghana, 41(3) 677 (2008).
10 A. Katiuzhinsky & D. Okech, Human Rights, Cultural Practices, and State Policies: Implications
for Global Social Work Practice and Policy, 23(1) 80 (2014).
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