A/HRC/20/16 and/or to keep them under economic subjugation, sexual exploitation, gender domination and control.53 In Nepal, particularly in the southern Terai region, elderly women, widows, destitute women and women of low caste are often targeted and deprived of their property rights or victimized to settle a personal vendetta.54 40. In Papua New Guinea, cases of torture and murder of an estimated 500 women accused of practising sorcery/witchcraft have been reported. 55 Sorcery allegations against women have been increasing, in particular in the Highlands region.56 Suspected witches have been thrown from cliffs, tortured, dragged behind cars, burned or buried alive. Victims of such attacks and killings are mainly widows or other vulnerable elderly women who do not have children or relatives to protect them, women born out of wedlock or women who do not have any standing in the family. 57 According to police reports, women are six times more likely than men to be accused of sorcery.58 41. Those who torture or kill are almost exclusively men, and are often related socially or biologically to the victim. 59 Some accusations of sorcery are economically motivated, for the purpose of taking over land or possessions of those accused, or because payments have been made by third parties to name alleged sorcerers. According to expert reports, ―increasingly, there is a perception that accusations of sorcery are a convenient disguise for premeditated killings based more on a person‘s dislike for another, jealousy, envy, greed, rivalry or revenge and targeting women from the tribes or communities‖.60 42. A study showing sentencing patterns in witchcraft-related cases in Southern Africa reveals that men accused of killings of women were sentenced to shorter periods of time, and often the charges were reduced to minor crimes. Overall, sentences were lenient when the perpetrator was the husband or a male relative of the woman killed. In Zambia, for instance, the average sentence was one to two years for charges of premeditated homicide of women.61 Killings of women and girls in the name of “honour” 3. 43. As noted by the Secretary-General, certain cultural norms and beliefs are the causal factors of harmful practices resulting in violence against women, such as crimes committed in the name of ―honour‖.62 Honour killings have been characterized as being among the most severe manifestations of harmful practices. 63 Murder to cleanse family honour is 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 A/HRC/11/6/Add.1, 2009, at para. 228. See also Saravanan, S., Violence against women in India: A literature review (New Delhi, Institute of Social Studies Trust, 2000); Chen, M. A., ―Widowhood and aging in India‖, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development case study available at: http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/projects.nsf/(httpAuxPages)/25DCC0F9F3E206C3C1256BB20 0552FC6?OpenDocument&category=Case+Studies. Jill Schnoebelen, ―Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights: a review of the evidence‖, New Issues in Refugee Research, Research Paper No. 169, Policy Development and Evaluation Service, 2009, p. 11. Supra Note 45 at p. 49 The broad majority of the population in the highlands believes in extra-natural explanations to life misfortunes. When a death, sickness or an accident occurs, it is common to explain it as having been caused by the use of sorcery. Sorcery, Witchcraft and Christianity in Melanesia by Franco Zocca and Jack Urame, Melenesian Institute 2008. See also Amnesty International 2009 and The National, June 19, 2003, p. 6. Supra Note 46. Ibid., p. 3. Rude, D. and M. Kazunga. (1995) ―Report on the femicide research‖. Report by country. Zambia. Women in Law and Development in Africa. Supra Note 6, at para. 78. Ibid., at para. 123. 11