Malawi study on witchcraft violence with Norway funds
A Malawian rights group fighting abuses against people accused as witches said on Saturday it had launched a donor-funded study on witchcraft violence and will also lobby for new legislation.
“The project, which is currently in progress, is in the form of a study aimed at assessing the extent and nature of witchcraft-based violence against children, women and the elderly,”Association for Secular Humanism (ASH) executive director George Thindwa told AFP.
Part of the US$71,000 (S$85,832) grant from the Norwegian embassy will also be used to advocate a new witchcraft act which should safeguard the rights of victims.
The state-funded Law Commission is reviewing a law dating to 1911 during the British colonial era which makes it illegal to accuse anyone of being a witch or to claim that one practises witchcraft. –-AFP
