Five years after the Law Commission recommended recognition of witchcraft, Malawi Government faces a fresh push to fast-track the review of the Witchcraft Act of 1911 to align with current needs.
In a statement issued yesterday, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation executive director Michael Kaiyatsa said the review is especially important in view of the resurgence of abductions of persons with albinism which are purportedly connected to witchcraft-related beliefs.
He said: “The resurgence of abductions and grave exhumations is a stark reminder that legislative inaction has real human costs.
“Without a modern, clear and human rights-based legal framework that addresses the abuses linked to witchcraft-related beliefs, efforts to protect persons with albinism will remain incomplete.”
The law decriminalises the practice of witchcraft in the country but some stakeholders including CHRR, are pushing for a recognition and criminalisation of witchcraft in the revised law.
In 2021, the Special Law Commission on the Witchcraft Act Review completed its review and recommended the need to recognise the practice in the country.
The commission said a majority of Malawians believe in witchcraft and that people’s beliefs cannot be supressed by legislation.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, the commission’s secretary Ndamo Somba said they submitted the review report to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs in 2021 for consideration.
“We can’t tell what the Ministry of Justice did to that report ever since,” he said.
Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs spokesperson Frank Namangale asked for more time on the status of the report.
