Branding children as witches 'is criminal'

A CHILDREN'S charity has repeated a call to criminalise the branding of children as witches or as being possessed by evil spirits.

Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (Afruca) has made the demand following further publicity surrounding the subject.

A Channel Four documentary Britain's Witch Children went undercover in African churches in the UK to highlight the harm caused to children by church pastors who label them as witches or as possessed.

Debbie Ariyo, executive director of Afruca, said: "The Dispatches programme was a very powerful reminder of the terrible consequences the branding of children as witches can have on the children concerned. Of grave concern to us are the activities of some rogue pastors in our community who needlessly and falsely accuse vulnerable children of being witches or of being possessed by demons or evil spirits.

"While their motives are monetary, the terrible consequences of their evil acts on children can no longer be ignored.

"Branding a child as a witch is an incitement to harm and abuse children. It leads to extreme physical and emotional abuse as well as neglect of the children in question. It is a silent form of child abuse in our community and it is about time action is taken to address it.

"The impact of being branded as a witch and of having exorcism rites performed on children can have very dire and devastating consequences for the children involved.

"Our proposal for a law to ban the branding of children as witches has become necessary in order to protect children. Such a law will empower many people, especially Christians who are outraged at the way their religion is being used to harm children, to act."

Afruca is currently consulting on its proposals for a new law against child branding as witches.