Implications of harmful cultural practices in the context of the right to health: the case of child sorcery accusations in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Chapter one opens with a recent documentary that exposed the issue of child sorcery accusations and inflicted harm to the eyes of the world, and enumerates similar reports in other parts of the world. The chapter elucidates where the practices derive from and the trigger that incentivises perpetrators. Chapter two takes an in-depth look at colonial influence on customary laws and how the State is adhering to International, regional and domestic norms Chapter three provides in-depth interviews with thirteen children. Images of maimed children provide supporting evidence on the type of harm that the children have undergone and the consequences. Chapter 4 discusses the findings and links the right to health discourse along side the religious and cultural discourse as means test. It x-rays the actors using the analogy of the onion peel. Chapter 5 in positing solutions for the way forward emphasises the core positioning of the State in complying with the right to children of the highest attainable standard of health.The need to identify a critical mass of drivers of change and galvanise the support of mainstream churches. Concluding that going against the moral fibre of a society is anathema, be it culture, religion or rights.