Tuesday, March 7, 2017

NO LET UP IN SWAZI POVERTY



Two thirds of the people in Swaziland continued to live below the poverty line, Amnesty International has reported.
 
The Afrobarometer research network reported that around half the population said they often went without food and water, and over a third said that medical care was inadequate, Amnesty said in its annual report on human rights in Swaziland. 

In Swaziland, nearly seven in 10 of the kingdom’s 1.3 million people have incomes of less than $US2 a day. Meanwhile, King Mswati III, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch lives a lavish lifestyle, with at least 13 palaces, fleets of top-of-the-range Mercedes Benz and BMW cars and at least one Rolls Royce. He has a private jet airplane and is soon to get a second. 

 
Amnesty reported that Swaziland’s human rights record was examined under the UN Universal Periodic Review process and a number of concerns were raised. 

‘They included the need to address barriers in access to primary education; the reintegration of girls into the education system after giving birth; non-discriminatory access to health and education services irrespective of perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity; and the need for measures to be taken to combat and eradicate forced labour.’

See also

NO AMNESTY IN ‘TERROR’ CASES

SWAZI LGBTI PEOPLE LIVE IN FEAR

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