Parliament passes Criminal Amendment Bill 2022 prohibiting criminalizing witchcraft

Parliament has passed the criminal amendment bill 2022 prohibiting criminalizing witchcraft. The object of the Bill is to amend the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) to prohibit the practice by any person as a witch doctor or a witchfinder. It will also proscribe the declaration, accusation, naming, or labelling of another person as a witch, and for related matters.

It forms part of the broad policy measures to deal with attacks and human rights violations arising out of witchcraft accusations. Sponsor of the private member’s bill, Francis Xavier Sosu who is also a Member of Parliament for Madina said all witches camps in the country stand as illegal.

“It’s such goodness that I cannot hide my joy now, the reason being that all the 539 persons locked up in witch camps across the country are looking up to us to take some decisive steps in dealing with the situation. This problem has have been with us for over 100 years and we have been struggling to deal with it.

“To the extent that this 8th parliament has found the needful to pass it into law, for me, It’s going bring about a mind-shift, it is going to correct lots of ills in society, I’m confident that we are just building a better society for ourselves,” he said.

He added “We urge the president that this is another opportunity for us to up our ranking in human rights globally, I do believe he is very concerned about our human rights profile. I’m confident that he will sign it immediately into law.

“What we are saying is that you cannot accuse somebody of witchcraft, if you do, that’s criminal and so the law will take its cause. We are not interfering in anybody’s cultural settings, if you are using your wizardly or witchcraft for positive development, go ahead and do it. But if you accuse somebody based on your black magic, or charms, that is not acceptable,” that’s where the problem is.”

He added “By the passing of this law, it means that all witch camps stand proscribed. In other words, they are all illegal.”

By: Laud Nartey