Ghana: Amnesty Renews Call for Passage of Anti-Witchcraft Bill

What the report says

AllAfrica, carrying a Ghanaian Times report from Accra dated July 24, 2026, reported that Amnesty International has again urged Ghana’s government to pass legislation addressing witchcraft accusations, six years after 90-year-old Akua Denteh was killed at Kafaba in the Savannah Region. Denteh was accused of witchcraft and beaten to death on July 23, 2020; according to the report, two women seen assaulting her in footage of the incident were convicted in 2023 and given 12-year prison terms for manslaughter.

Amnesty said the failure to enact the Anti-Witchcraft Accusations Bill leaves many people, especially women, exposed to violence, displacement and discrimination. Lamnatu Adam, executive director of Songtaba, an Amnesty partner organisation, said accusations often arise after illness or death within families or communities, and that older women, women in poverty, those with disabilities or health conditions, and women who do not fit traditional gender expectations are particularly vulnerable.

The report said Ghana’s Parliament passed the bill in July 2023, but then-President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo did not assent to it, citing constitutional concerns because it had been introduced as a private member’s bill rather than by the government. The proposed law sought to criminalise witchcraft accusations, protect and support victims, and establish routes to justice and compensation, but it has not been reintroduced.

Amnesty also pointed to conditions in informal camps where accused people, mostly older women, have sought refuge. Its 2025 report, “Branded for Life,” described limited access to health care, food, clean water, safe housing and livelihoods, and the organisation said later testimonies from 2026 showed similar problems. Amnesty said a petition launched in November 2025 backing the bill had received nearly 19,000 signatures.