There is no internationally recognised definition for Trafficking Body Parts

(Adapted from Literature Review on Trafficking Body parts by Mozambican Human Rights League)

Trafficking in human organs and body parts is mentioned in a number of documents. However, the majority of documents only consider trafficking of persons for the purpose of organ removal, rather than trafficking human body parts.

During the search for a definition, it was found that a comprehensive and internationally definition for Trafficking Body Parts (TBP) does not exist.

The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Protocol, 2000) provides the first internationally agreed upon definition of trafficking in persons:

(a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. (Article 3)

According to the Palermo Protocol, exploitation may include: sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery or servitude, the removal of organs.

TBP alone, separate from the victim, is not addressed in the UN Palermo Protocol. This was confirmed during the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking forum, Vienna, February 2008: “The trafficking of organs alone, separate from the donor, is not addressed by the Protocol, to constitute the crime of trafficking in persons for the purposes of organ removal, the actual person has to be transported for the purpose of removing their organs”.

The finding that there is no internationally recognized definition of TBP is supported by the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice: “A global comparison of trafficking in human organs and tissues is constrained by the lack of a uniform definition and the absence of consistent statistics and criminal reports”.

It is clear that there has been a long standing assumption that TBP relates only to transplants and therefore, generally speaking, the person would need to be trafficked for the purpose of removing the body part. It appears that the concept of using body parts for purposes other than transplants has not been considered when assessing the need for a definition.

Trafficking is the act of moving and trading something illegal. As being in possession of body parts for trade is considered illegal, this report argues that the movement of a body part for the purpose of sale or commercial transaction is trafficking body parts.

The 2008 research by the Mozambican Human Rights League, suggests the following:

Transportation or movement of a body part, either across a border or within a country for the purpose of sale or commercial transaction is considered trafficking body parts.

What is the difference between a traditional healer and a witchdoctor?

A group interview was conducted in Nampula with AMETRAMO (Traditional Healers’ Association of Mozambique). According to these interviewed Traditional Healers, a “witchdoctor is the one who does the evil”, they “act by envy and vengeance, creating inexplicable diseases to people until these lose their life.” AMETRAMO called them “second-rate” Traditional Healers because “they do not apply their knowledge of traditional healing as they should, in contrast with the first-rate Traditional Healers that investigate and deepen their knowledge to do good.” According to AMETRAMO, the witchdoctors “can incite people to commit murders as a means of making them rich”. They stated that “truthful Traditional Healers do not need to do treatments with human organs” and that the ones who do that “are crooks, who are not Traditional Healers.” The Traditional Healers said that there are treatments performed by witchdoctors using human body parts that they could do without using the body parts, but using the “strength of the spirits and God, without needing to kill anyone, that is done with the help of the roots.”

AMETRAMO members in Nampula said that even though they are incorrectly accused of using treatments with body parts they are “against the witchdoctors”.

SABC3 programme exposes sale of body parts

This is an award-winning SABC3 programme Special Assignment “Strong Medicine” by Journeyman Pictures, about corrupt inyangas* who claimed to be selling human organs in Johannesburg.

The investigation showed networks trafficking in human body parts in contravention of the Human Tissues Act. The body parts were sold to people desperate for cures for illness and financial good luck.

A corrupt inyanga was exposed operating from under a bridge in Eloff Street Extension, selling what were believed to be human body parts. The same man is also shown introducing a middleman at the Faraday taxi rank, who was also trying to sell human body parts.

Levi Masebe, who works at a mortuary at Medunsa in North West province, is also exposed after he sold two human right hands for R4,000 to the journalists.

The programme also tells the case of a baby girl who was killed by her own father, a self-appointed healer, who killed her in front of her mother, who said: "He took us to a secluded spot... where he beheaded her and chopped (off) her limbs and removed her intestines and then wrapped them in a plastic bag. He poured her blood into a calabash and carried them all home."

*Inyanga: a person who uses muti to cause harm, damage, suffering, bad luck, cure diseases, protect from evil spirits and uses mixtures shells, coins, bones, etc. to foretell the future of people, identify witches, perform spells for good and or evil purposes (Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill, 2007—draft version).

Training Workshop

A 3 day training workshop has started yesterday for the Mozambican researchers who will be working in our new project. It will help to improve the researchers' capacity to interview key informants and perform workshops.

Suspected Muti Killing

(Article from:The Phoenix and Verulam Sun Vol.7 No.30 – 30 July 2009. South Africa)

During the Human Rights League research (2008), male genitalia were found to be the body parts mentioned most during the interviews.

The interviewed Police officers stated that there are several cases of bodies being found missing body parts, however according to these informants, the parts are never found “But there are lots of cases in which the human organs are extracted but never found [...] We find many times bodies without organs or body parts” (MZ_Na_GI_2).

The informants interviewed in this research, when giving an example of an incident where body parts had either been taken or found, were asked what they thought the body part would be used for. Of the 62 informants who chose to answer this question, 93% believed they were either to be sold or used for activities relating to witchcraft and Muti. The objective of using body parts in the so-called ‘Muti murder’ is to create powerful traditional medicine based partly on human body parts. Traditional medicine has a wide range of purposes, for instance to heal illnesses, aid economic advancement or hurt enemies.

As part of Muti practices, some witchdoctors make use of the so-called ‘medicine murder’ or ‘Muti murder’, where body parts are removed from the bodies of living persons. The intention is not to kill the victims as such, but it is expected that they will die due to the damage inflicted (Ashforth, 2005). It is a deep founded belief of the witchdoctors that the body parts are necessary for the Muti to work and it is required that the victims are dismembered while they are still alive. The screams of the victims are believed to make the medicine more powerful by waking the spirits and empowering them, thus resulting in victims being mutilated alive (Griffin et al 2004, Labuschagne 2004). This research found some accounts where the victim was alive when the body parts were extracted, however a number of victims mentioned in this research were murdered and the body parts were removed post-mortem. An interviewed Doctor in Mozambique stated “The genital was removed with a very precise cut, or probably two cuts, one from each side removing the genitals. And the cuts were made after the person was dead […] no sign of bleeding. It means she was dead when the injuries were done” (MZ_MC_I_2).

"Harsh Sentence for Muti-killer", The Star, issue 264, 14 August 2009, South Africa

During our 2008 research on Trafficking Body Parts in Mozambique and South Africa, one of our informers said witchdoctors “can incite people to commit murders as a means of making them rich”. Other informers and Labuschagne (2004) believe the witchdoctor will not himself engage in ritual murders or killings, but will send a third party to do it. One of the interviewees stated “I do not think the healer himself will go out to kill. Instead some will send people (...) and promise them a lot of money on completion of the work.”

Further, it became clear during the research that many would cover up for the witchdoctors out of fear. One of the informers stated “someone knows them (the witchdoctors, ed.), but is not saying anything”. Another stated “It is all silenced. People are afraid to talk”. During an interview, an informant said: the “Sangoma (Traditional Healer, ed.) that lives in our neighbourhood was arrested because the Police found the body parts in his house”. After that the interviewer was informed that the Sangoma was later released from jail and is still practicing in the community.