The Committee is concerned about the social situation of older women, including their poverty, isolation and lack of identity cards as well as cultural beliefs about older women, and accusations of witchcraft against them. The Committee also expresses concern regarding the particular vulnerabilities of women refugees and internally displaced persons.
43.
The Committee recommends that the State party pay special attention to the precarious situation of older women, women with disabilities, women refugees and internally displaced persons, to ensure
that, as appropriate, they have full access to health and social services and to decision-making processes, and that they have adequate jobs in the labour market. The Committee further urges the State party to adopt special programmes to alleviate poverty within those groups of
women, and to combat all forms of discrimination against them. The committee also urges the State party to challenge traditional views regarding older women, particularly accusations of witchcraft, and to provide identity cards free of charge, in o order to guarantee their full access to social services and social protection.
Witchcraft, Displacement and Human Rights Network 
April 22, 2009 at 4:03 pm |
The witchcraft issue is not a woman issue alone. From ethnic group to ethnic group it differs vastly, to whom witchcraft is contributed: Elderly men, the young and rich, the sexual attractive, the homosexuals, children…
It is a widely held misconception of european witchcraft history spread from romantic feminists and the “Völkische”, that the witchhunts in europe targeted only midwifes or women. It is true, that 2/3 of the victims were female. But that is not a reason to deal with the matter just from womens rights – there is enough other reason for womens rights movements, and in many parts of Africa it is true, that women are the victims. But that is not at all sufficient to deal with the witch-hunts.