A/HRC/11/2 page 13 Southern Sudan abolished the death penalty for juveniles when it adopted its Interim Constitution in 2006, but there remained at least six offenders on death row sentenced for crimes committed as minors.21 The Interim National Constitution of the Sudan adopted in 2005, however, maintains an exception for “cases of retribution or hudud” in the prohibition of the imposition of the death penalty on a person under age 18 (art. 36 (2)). In August 2008, a counter-terrorism court in Khartoum sentenced a 17 year-old found guilty of having taken part in the Justice and Equality Movement attack against an omdurman in May 2008 to death on charges of hiraba (brigandage), a hudud offence.22 42. The execution of juvenile offenders is an affront to the fundamental principles of humane treatment and a blatant violation of international law. The insistence by one State in particular on continuing to impose and carry out such sentences thus represents a major challenge to the willingness of the Council to carry out the mandate entrusted to it. C. The killing of witches 43. The persecution and killing of individuals accused of practising so-called “witchcraft” - the vast majority of whom are women and children - is a significant phenomenon in many parts of the world, although it has not featured prominently on the radar screen of human rights monitors. This may be due partly to the difficulty of defining “witches” and “witchcraft” across cultures terms that, quite apart from their connotations in popular culture, may include an array of traditional or faith healing practices and are not easily defined. The fact remains, however, that under the rubric of the amorphous and manipulable designation of witchcraft, individuals (often those who are somehow different, feared or disliked) are singled out for arbitrary private acts of violence or for Government-sponsored or tolerated acts of violence. In too many settings, being classified as a witch is tantamount to receiving a death sentence. 44. While there has been a steady trickle of reports from civil society groups alleging the persecution and killing of persons accused of being witches, the problem has never been addressed systematically in the context of human rights. There is little systematic information available on the numbers of persons so accused, persecuted or killed, nor is there any detailed analysis of the dynamics and patterns of such killings, or of how the killings can be prevented. The lack of attention paid to the issue is especially true of the various United Nations human rights bodies that might have been expected to have engaged in in-depth examination. A prominent exception is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which acknowledges in its guidelines that women are still identified as witches in some communities and burned or stoned to death. These practices may be culturally condoned in the claimant’s community of origin but still amount to persecution.23 21 See the communication of 10 October 2008 to the Sudan in A/HRC/11/2/Add.1. 22 See the communication of 23 September 2008 to the Sudan in A/HRC/11/2/Add.1. 23 Guidelines on Religion-Based Refugee Claims (HCR/GIP/04/06), para. 24. See also Jill Schnoebelen (UNHCR), “Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights: a review of the evidence”, January 2009, available at www.unhcr.org/research/RESEARCH/ 4981ca712.pdf.