Statement at UN Human Rights Council Session 25: Accusations of ‘Witchcraft’ – Women & Girls with Disabilities

By Stephanie Ortoleva, President & Founder, Women Enabled International

March 10, 2014

The notion that disability is a “curse” and that people with disabilities are “possessed” or “evil” and the societal views of women as “witches” or “demonic,” persists today, with origins dating from 1485 and earlier. Murder of women and girls with disabilities as witches is highlighted as a human rights violation by Philip Alston, Former UN Special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in his 2009 Report. The medieval notion that one can identify a “witch” by the fact that her offspring are children with disabilities still persists. Further, having an offspring with a disability is seen as a “curse” on the woman herself for some alleged “wrongdoing” or breach of a societal taboo. Some mothers in India told me they were beaten by husbands for bringing the “curse” of a disabled child into the family.