At a roundtable meeting hosted by the British High Commission in Accra on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, key stakeholders committed to collaborating to end witchcraft allegations.

They also committed to address the deplorable conditions in the alleged witch camps and to safely re-integrate the alleged witches into their communities of choice.

A new evidence-based research report from Songtaba has identified a strong gender element to witchcraft allegations, with the vast majority (93.5%) of the accused being women, and most of the accused being older and widowed.

The study also discovered that more than half of the women in the camps are depressed, and 97% have a low quality of life.

Representatives from the Alleged Witches Network spoke at the roundtable to explain how they have no food, no fuel, challenges accessing safe drinking water, no funds to educate their children or grandchildren, and very poor accommodations.

Many have experienced significant abuse following the witchcraft allegations against them. Nearly three-quarters of the women want to be re-integrated into their communities but are afraid of new allegations being made.

Speaking in response to the report, the Deputy Minister and Minister Designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abudu, reiterated the Ministry’s continued commitment to end all forms of negative cultural practices, to protect marginalised people in society against human rights abuses, and to continue to enact measures to alleviate the deplorable conditions faced by the women in the camps.

The Executive Director of Songtaba, Lamnatu Adam, said that "everyone here sees the issue of witchcraft allegations as a human rights violation. There is now that commitment from key stakeholders to do something about it".

Joseph Whittal, Commissioner of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), shared key findings from a recent report on the alleged witches’ lack of access to justice and called on the government to take on board the evidence presented and to move beyond reporting and rhetoric towards action.

The Deputy Director for Mental Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Ama Boadu and Prof Akwasi Osei, CEO of the Mental Health Authority, committed to supporting immediate efforts to address the mental health needs of the women in the camps.

The Members of Parliament (MP) Samuel Ablakwa and Francis Sosu spoke passionately on the subject, with the former labelling the presence of the camps in Ghana as "a national disgrace".

Mr. Sosu explained his motivation for working to present a Private Members' Bill to criminalise witchcraft allegations and invited interested parties to contribute to pre-consultations on the Bill.

Civil society representatives from Action Aid, STARGhana Foundation, BasicNeeds-Ghana and Sanneh Institute further committed to supporting Songtaba in their efforts.

Lamnatu Adam summarised key steps as needing to extend mental health and well-being support to the women now, as well as pushing for the closure of the camps and supporting women to safely reintegrate into their communities of choice as soon as possible.

Supporting the Bill to criminalise witchcraft allegations can also go a long way to ending this practice.