Plan focuses on addressing sorcery violence

National

THE Department of Justice and Attorney-General under the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) drew up a national action plan in 2015 to address sorcery accusation related violence or SARVNAP, an official says.
Rachael Vapuak, from CLRC when highlighting the work it had been doing to address sorcery-related violence during a UN women’s mutli-sectoral response to GBV workshop recently, said the action plan had five strategic areas.
They are research, advocacy and communication, legal and protection, councilling and care and health.
SARV is an emerging form of violence that needs to be addressed specifically, says CLCR’s Pamela Kamya.
Kamya said the issue should be addressed differently to gender-based and other forms of violence because of the nature of what triggered it.
“The nature of the trigger of SARV is different from other forms of violence because it stems from a belief system,” she said
Kamya said cultural beliefs triggered off sorcery accusation related violence.
It’s not country specific only but can be community specific or culturally specific because different communities had different cultural beliefs around sorcery.
“Some have belief in sorcery while some don’t even believe in sorcery.
“For example, Enga communities don’t have the belief of sorcery but they still resort to some form of violence or accusation,” Kamya said.