Witchcraft Accusations as Gendered Persecution in Refugee Law
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12282971 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sara Dehm (0000-0002-5504-4639), Jenni Millbank (0000-0002-8934-7945, UTS, Australia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 202-226 |
| Publication date | 2018-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social & Legal Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0964-6639 • E-ISSN: 1461-7390 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663917753725 |
| OpenAlex | W2790884044 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 38 |
Witchcraft-related violence (WRV), in particular directed towards women and children, has become a source of increasing concern for human rights organizations in the current century. Yet for those fleeing WRV, this heightened attention has not translated across into refugee status. This research examines how claims of WRV were addressed in all available asylum decisions in English, drawn from five jurisdictions. We argue that WRV is a manifestation of gender-related harm; one which exposes major failings in the application of refugee jurisprudence. Inattention to the religious and organizational elements of witchcraft practices, combined with gender insensitivity in analysis, meant that claims were frequently reconfigured by decision makers as personal grudges, or family or community disputes, such that they were not cognizable harms within the terms of the Refugee Convention; or they were simply disbelieved as far-fetched. The success rate of claims was low, compared to available averages, and, when successful, claims were universally accepted on some basis other than the witchcraft element of the case. This article focuses in particular upon cases where the applicant feared harm as an accused witch, while a second related article addresses those fearing persecution from witches or through the medium of witchcraft
Convention · Criminology · Element (criminal law · False accusation · Harm · Human rights · Jurisprudence · Persecution · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Refugee law · Religious persecution · Sociology · Witch · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Sex work and related issues · Torture, Ethics, and Law
An Illustration of Anthropology’s Contribution to Refugee Law Research
Gender-Oriented Analysis of Witchcraft Discourse in Social Media
Debating Religion and Forced Migration Entanglements
Is queer-and-trans youth homelessness a form of displacement? A queer epistemological review of refugee studies’ theoretical borders
The Role of Expert Witnesses in the Adjudication of Religious and Culture-based Asylum Claims in the United Kingdom
Superstitions and criminal behavior
Mapping a research-advocacy-policy agenda on human rights and albinism
A Wilting Whisper of Antjie Somers
Religious Hate Propaganda
Witchcraft, Intimacy, and Trust
The modernity of witchcraft
Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction
Gendered Asylum
The Law of Refugee Status
Rejecting Refugees
World Report 2016
Women Within the Refugee Construct
Gender in Refugee Law. From the Margins to the Centre
Fleeing Homophobia
Reason to disbelieve
From discretion to disbelief
Women as Easy Scapegoats
Hearing the Right Gaps’
She, of Course, Holds No Political Opinions’
Adjudicating Fear of Witchcraft Claims in Refugee Law
Domestic Violence and Gender-Based Persecution
Forced Marriage as a Harm in Domestic and International Law
Claims for Protection Based on Religion or Belief
The Regulation of Witchcraft and Sorcery Practices and Beliefs
Witchcraft in Statecraft
Containing Witchcraft
Occult economies and the violence of abstraction
Witchcraft, Justice, and Human Rights in Africa
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |