Spiritual and Ritual Abuse - 'Survivor Stories' Conference

A safeguarding conference bringing survivors of spiritual and ritual abuse together with safeguarding professionals from across the United Kingdom.

In 2011 the National Working Group against Spritual and Ritual Abuse, (NWG SARA), originally called 'child abuse linked to faith or belief', was created by Parliament as a way to bring organisations together to share best practise and learning along with safeguarding children and adults from this form of abuse. The NWG now includes almost seventy national organisations from the UK and abroad, all working together to create greater awareness of this abuse.

In the last 6 years the UK has seen a 43% increase in reports of SARA in children alone, making this subject vitally important to professioanls so they can safeguard others.

SARA is embedded in all other forms of abuse that we as professioanls understand including child abuse, domestic abuse, forced marriage, FGM, Honour Based Abuse, slavery trafficking exploitation, VAWG and financial extortion. It is often used by the abuser as a justification for them to carry out the abuse itself.

This conference will provide you with the opportunity to listen and meet with people who have expereinced and survived this abuse, and for you to hear their stories of how it has impacted their lives. There will also be a number of leading professionals who are focused on preventing and protecting people further from spiritual and ritual abuse.

Expert professionals attending and speaking at this event will help you understand the need for cultural awareness, important legisaltion and amendments being brought to better recognise this abuse, along with being able to recognise and manage concerns.

This event will help you not just understand and be aware of how to recognise, report, refer and manage SARA, but most importantly, hear from victim-survivors yourself and learn from them.

With special thanks to Lancaster University AHRC IAA who have helped towards funding this event.

Who should attend this conference?

Anyone who works in any level of safeguarding or support/education of children and adults.

Guest Speakers

Rachael Reign - (Survivor)

My name is Rachael Reign, and I am the founder and lead campaigner of Surviving Universal UK (SUUK). For nearly 3 years, I have been advocating for fellow survivors of controversial megachurch, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG). I have been raising awareness about the various forms of abuse suffered in such groups, and how society and professional agencies alike can safeguard themselves, and others from such harm. I will be speaking about my own lived experiences of SARA, and the importance of public awareness including a recent BBC Panorama investigation featuring SUUK, into the UCKGs harmful practices in the UK.

Muluka-Anne Miti Drummond

Muluka-Anne Miti-Drummond is the United Nations Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism (Independent Expert on albinism). Appointed in July 2021, her role is to advance the rights of persons with albinism throughout the globe through, among other things, engaging with governments, international organisations and organisations of persons with albinism. The mandate of the UN Independent Expert on albinism was established in 2015 in response to high number of the ritual attacks against persons with albinism, but also because of the stigma and discrimination that those with albinism face. It is through the work of the mandate that the UN adopted the Resolution on the elimination of harmful practices related to accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks. In her presentation, Muluka-Anne will touch on the resolution and how it specifically applies to the work of her mandate, as well as steps that can be taken to ensure an end to ritual attacks against all targeted groups.

Dr Samantha Spence

Dr Samantha Spence is the Course Director for Postgraduate Law, Working with Children, Young People, and Families (CYPF) and International Studies.

Over recent years, her work has involved working with the United Nations, in order to highlight abuses linked to harmful practices. She is a member of an international working group who worked for many years to push for and produce a UN Resolution on the issue.

She has been invited to attend parliamentary events held in both the UK Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament, where the international working group were once again successful when the Pan-African Parliament adopted the Guidelines on Ending Harmful Practices related to the Manifestation of Beliefs in Witchcraft in November 2022.

She is the International Lead for the Violence against Women and Girls Hub and a member of the Centre for Crime Justice and Security. She is also a member of several international advisory boards relating to harmful practices and the rights of women and is a Visiting Professor at REVA University, India.

Dr Spence is also one of the Deputy Chairs for NWG SARA

Bal Kaur Howard (Survivor)

Founder of BKH Training, Bal advocates on the issues of domestic / honour-based abuse. Bal herself was forced into a child marriage. Escaping domestic abuse, after 8.5 years and disowned by her family, she uses her experience of spiritual and ritual abuse to raise awareness and reduce victim isolation. She was employed by Suffolk Constabulary for 7.5 years, training police officers and partner agencies to enhance the service to victims. She was twice nominated at the IKWRO True Honour Awards for her dedication to ending honour-based violence in the UK. In 2018, she was recognised by the East Anglian Daily Times as one of Suffolk’s 100 most inspirational women.

Becky Armstrong-Corbett (Survivor)

Becky Armstrong-Corbett is a psychotherapist and clinical hypnotherapist as well as a campaigner for the mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. Her passion to assist others recovering from abuse and to make the world a safer place for children is driven by her own childhood trauma.
Becky will talk about her experiences growing up with parents who were zealous members of a high control religion; in particular how their desire to present as the perfect family to those inside the religion and to protect the reputation of the religion to outsiders both facilitated and helped to cover up her abuse by a member of the congregation.

Benjamin (Survivor)

As a child Benjamin was subjected to ten years of physical, emotional and psychological abuse through his family and community who were convinced he was possessed by a 'rogue spirit'. His story will help you understand the need to recognise and take action to safeguard children from spiritual and ritual abuse, and the life long impact these practices have on people if not safeguarded from.

Nicola (Survivor)

As a girl Nicola was taken and forced into a black magic ritual that binded her to her abusers. Following the ritual she was sexually exploited, trafficked and brought to the UK where she spent years in domestic servitude before finally escaping. Her story will show how spiritual and riotual beliefs are used to target people, and use their own beliefs against them in order to control, coerce and exploit them into slavery.

Amma Anane-Aygei: Honorary Doctor of Letters, (DLitt)

Amma is the founder of New African Families Services National and International Network, UK (NAFSNIN)and a Patron to Ghanaian Social Workers Association in Midlands, UK (GHASWA). . She is a Qualified Social Worker, Trainer, Consultant, Registered Expert Witness Assessor and in 2019 she recieved the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Amma will be presenting on 'Spiritual and Ritual Abuse through the lens of Cultural Competency.'

Amma is also an Advisory Committee Member of the NWG SARA

Professor Charlotte Baker

Professor Charlotte Baker (Lancaster University) will speak about her work with stakeholders internationally to secure UN Resolution 47/8 on the Elimination of harmful practices related to accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks, which was passed by the UN Human Rights Council in July 2021. She will discuss the role of the International Network Against Accusations of Witchcraft and Associated Harmful Practices in taking this work forward and supporting the implementation of the Resolution.

Dr Alexandra Stein (Survivor)

Alexandra Stein is a social psychologist specializing in the study of cults, totalitarianism, and coercive control. As a young woman she spent 10 years in a political cult in the US. This experience led her to understand the wide use of coercive control by perpetrators across a range of religious, political, wellness, "personal growth", and other belief systems. She will be speaking about her early cult experience and later activism in this field.

Rev'd Professor Helen Hall

"Helen Hall is an Associate Professor in law at Nottingham Trent University and an Anglican priest. Her research specialism is Religion and Belief, with particular expertise in the law and exorcism. She teaches family and tort law, and writes widely on human rights, law and anthropology and legal history.

Dr Sam Warner, chartered and consultant clinical psychologist and Chair of the Association of Child Protection Professionals

Dr Warner works with child and adult victims of spiritual and ritual abuse/ SARA drawing on her work in the UK as an expert witness providing whole family assessments in childcare proceedings and as a therapist, working with children who are looked after, their carers and families.

Dr Warner will discuss setting the context in terms of reflecting on how grooming tactics of SARA act to control and silence individual victims. She will outline how such tactics can act to dissuade communities and services from recognising abuse and acting to safeguard and support children and vulnerable adults. She considers how children and carers cope with experiences of SARA and how this can negatively impact their mental health and encourages for a trauma-informed framework for understanding mental health effects and safeguarding needs of children and families impacted by SARA.

Javier Garcia Oliva

Javier Garcia Oliva is head of law at the University of Manchester. He is an expert in Public and Constitutional Law, and law and religion/belief. He has published extensively in English and Spanish, having completed his undergraduate, masters and doctoral studies at the University of Cadiz, before moving to the UK and spending time at Cardiff and Bangor universities, before joining the staff of Manchester.

Kathleen Hallisey

Kathleen Hallisey is an American lawyer and British solicitor who represents victims and survivors of abuse. She acted on behalf of the claimant in the first successful claim against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK. See A v Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of Britain [2015] EWHC 1722 (QB). For nearly a decade, she has acted exclusively on abuse cases and developed a particular specialism in representing survivors of abuse in religious settings and closed communities. Most recently, she was one of two solicitors recommended to victims and survivors of abuse in the Jesus Army and represented over 100 victims of abuse in that closed community. She is passionate about advocating for safeguarding in faith settings and raising awareness of the impact of spiritual abuse. She is an advisory committee member of NWG SARA.

Jordan Alexander

Chair of the National Working Group against Spiritual and Ritual Abuse, (SARA), Jordan has led and managed on multiple criminal investigations over the past 10 years, supporting victim-survivors following their reports to police. In 2018 he led the first ever criminal reports in the UK where spiruitual and ritual abuse was recognised by the courts as the reason a child was abused to remove evil from him. As Chair of the NWG SARA he now brings together almost 70 organisations from the UK, and overseas, to create greater awareness and safeguarding of this form of abuse

Drinks and Refreshments included.

Arrival Refreshments of Freshly Filtered Coffee and Brewed Tea along with a selection of Speciality Teas. Served with a choice of Pastries

Mid-Morning Refreshments of Freshly Filtered Coffee and Brewed Tea along with a selection of Speciality Teas. Served with a choice of Biscuits

2 Course Buffet Lunch of 2 Course Buffet - Chefs Choice Menu

Afternoon Refreshments of Freshly Filtered Coffee and Brewed Tea along with a selection of Speciality Teas. Served with Sweet Treats

Accomodation

If you are choosing to stay over the Pendulum Hotel have kindly offered a reduced rate of £90 per room which also includes breakfast. When booking please use code PRISM24

Event Venue

Manchester Conference Centre, Sackville Street, Manchester, United Kingdom