Sorcery Act reviewed

By SALLY POKITON
UPNG journalism student
THE Sorcery Act of 1971 is currently under review by the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC).
It is to make recommendations for law reform. Enacted in 1971, the act was to prevent and punish those who practise sorcery.
But people who practised sorcery ended up being protected by the law when the victims’ relatives take the law into their own hands and ended up being punished for killing those who practised sorcery.
Commission secretary Dr Eric Kwa, said the review would:
l    Assess the effectiveness of laws;
l    See what should be done if sorcery laws were mandated;
l    Propose amendments or new legis­lation if sorcery and sorcery-related killings were to be amended; and
l    See how best associated laws and practices could be modified to achieve reforms.
He said CLRC organised teams which visited 18 of the 20 provinces to get the views of the people so a proper draft report of the reviewed law to bring sorcery killers to justice could be made.
The report draft showed that from 2000 to 2006, 116 sorcery cases were published in the dailies, 55 from the highlands, 30 in Momase, 23 in southern and eight from the New Guinea islands.
Out of the 166 cases, 75 involved the torture and killing of 147 victims, 52 of which were males and 69 females.

The compiled report also showed that sorcery related articles published by The National between 2007 and 2009 revealed Eastern Highlands reported the highest with 16 incidents followed by Western Highlands. West Sepik had one case.
In a situation analysis on sorcery issue exercise conducted by the law and justice sector cross cutting issues measurement team in March 2009 in Chimbu and Eastern Highlands provinces identified that the main victims of sorcery were the women, people who were vulnerable, and widows.
 The final report will be finalised in February before it is given to the minister in March to bring up to cabinet before a new government takes office next August.