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Title | Date added | Template | Original document | Paragraph text | Body | Document type | Thematics | Topic(s) | Person(s) affected | Year |
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Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 7 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Myths about albinism include the belief that a child with albinism is a curse meted out on the mother or family of the child. It is also sometimes believed that children with albinism are the result of their family's or parent's evildoing and they are therefore considered a punishment to the whole family and community. In most cases, the blame for having a child with albinism is often attributed to the mother because the curse is believed to be matrilineal, transmitted by the mother's side of the family. There are also beliefs that women who give birth to children with albinism are unclean, or even in some cases witches. A similar myth is that the mother of a child with albinism stepped onto something evil, leading to a curse on the whole family. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 11 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The lack of understanding of the condition is also illustrated by myths that persons with albinism cannot have children who do not have albinism, or that they are sterile. Furthermore, it is often believed that persons with albinism can only be found within one`s proximate race; consequently, the worldwide status of the condition is often not generally known. This narrow understanding of the frequency of albinism feeds into myths which present the condition as a particular problem supernaturally aimed at specific women and families. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 12 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | It is evident that none of these myths are true, yet they demonstrate the lack of understanding of the genetic nature of albinism. This absence of scientific knowledge and the resort to myths to provide explanations concerning albinism lead to discrimination against persons with albinism and their families, mothers in particular. However, this should not lead to the conclusion that public education alone will eradicate these myths. Evidence shows that even where the truth and the scientific basis of albinism are known, they can co-exist with myths. Scientific explanations of the origins of albinism can answer the question "why?". But they fail to answer particular, localized and personal questions such as "why in this particular person?" and "why at this particular time and place?". The inability of science to answer these questions means that many turn to explanations proposed by supernatural beliefs such as witchcraft, and its practitioners, also known as witchdoctors. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Witchcraft and the human rights of persons with albinism 2017, para. 23 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | From the sociological and anthropological perspectives, the following definition for witchcraft has been proposed by Marc Augé: witchcraft is "a set of beliefs, structured and shared by a given population that addresses the origin of misfortune, illness and death, and the set of practices for detection, treatment and punishment that corresponds to these beliefs". Often, the diagnostic aspect of witchcraft often pinpoints an individual person as the source of the misfortune within the family, place of employment or community. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 26 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Family members, friends and service providers are not immune to the practice of self-distancing from persons with albinism. This is illustrated by the following testimony of a person with albinism: "my mother distances herself from me … I had girlfriends who preferred to quietly meet me away from the public. You go to a party; they won't want to dance with you". Similarly, it was reported that, in certain cases, nurses and other medical professionals, including physicians, were reluctant to touch or treat patients with albinism. In such a context, it is not uncommon that persons with albinism self-limit their interactions within the community and shy away from attending school. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 49 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Civil society reports nearly 500 cases of attacks against persons with albinism across 26 countries. They include various forms of attack, including physical assault, murder and sexual violence tied to witchcraft beliefs and practices. In relation to the relatively small numbers of persons with albinism, usually in the single digits of thousands to tens of thousands per country, this number of cases is highly concerning. Moreover, these are reported cases alone. Civil society activists on the issue believe far more cases go unreported owing to family collusion and the secrecy surrounding witchcraft practices. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 23 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In areas where myths are prevalent, the birth of a child with albinism is often viewed as a social tragedy. Ridicule, blame-throwing, harrowing family intervention and pressure placed on parents or on the mother of the child are commonplace. Because of the social stigma attached to having a child with albinism, fathers of children with albinism sometimes decide to abandon their partners, leaving those children to be brought up in challenging conditions by single mothers. Often, such a single mother and her child are further relegated to the fringes of the community to avoid contaminating others with her "curse". In other instances, mothers voluntarily relocate away from the community to minimize taunts and harassment from others. Therefore, raising a child with albinism in these contexts, either as a single mother or in a family, is synonymous with a life of exclusion and poverty - one that leaves the child with albinism vulnerable to both sexual and physical attack, as has been demonstrated by reported cases. In other cases, children with albinism have been abandoned or rejected from their birth by both mother and father and have grown up in orphanages and on the streets. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Preliminary survey on the root causes of attacks and discrimination against persons with albinism 2016, para. 22 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | Myths yield several interrelated consequences. According to contributions received by the Independent Expert, these consequences are manifested in the lives of persons with albinism in the form of abandonment by their families; normalized isolation and discrimination by their communities; vulnerability to attacks; and infanticide. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 | ||
Witchcraft and the human rights of persons with albinism 2017, para. 38 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | In addition, the common belief that persons with albinism are a bad omen or a curse on their family or on the community, although not, stricto sensu, a witchcraft accusation, does attribute evil qualities to a newborn, with an impact on the mothers and family members in a manner that is strongly analogous to the impact stemming from witchcraft accusations. Consequently, infanticide, abandonment of children with albinism and exclusion of the children and their mothers from community life (either structural expulsion or exclusion from participation) have been reported to the Independent Expert. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2017 | ||
Vision for the mandate 2016, para. 22 | Aug 19, 2019 | Paragraph | The large number of cases reported by civil society no doubt represents a fraction of the attacks against persons with albinism. The secrecy that often surrounds ritual attacks, the complicity of family members in certain cases, the difficulty in accessing data owing to the fact that most attacks occur in rural environments, as well as the low response to such attacks may serve as hindrances to the reporting and visibility of attacks. Moreover, discrimination against persons with albinism and significant impunity may also have an impact on the reporting of such cases. Impunity was also highlighted by OHCHR, which had received information that persons with albinism faced significant difficulties in having their cases brought to justice. In a similar vein, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children has stated that the human rights violations committed against children with albinism are of the highest severity. Discrimination, harassment and violence, including cases of mutilation and murder, are often met with passivity and rarely reported, as they often take place in remote areas and because such children are perceived as bringing bad luck and being a source of shame to even their own families and communities. Mutilation and murders of children with albinism are mostly met by social silence and indifference. | Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism | Special Procedures' report |
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| 2016 |
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