The US State Department reporting on
human rights in Swaziland in 2011 said, ‘The three main human rights
abuses were police use of excessive force, including use of torture and
beatings; a breakdown of the judiciary system and judicial independence;
and discrimination and abuse of women and children.
‘Other significant human rights problems
included extrajudicial killings by security forces; arbitrary arrests
and lengthy pretrial detention; arbitrary interference with privacy and
home; restrictions on freedom of speech, assembly, and association;
prohibitions on political activity and harassment of political
activists; trafficking in persons; societal discrimination against
members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community;
harassment of labor leaders; restrictions on worker rights; child
labor; and mob violence.’
Clearly, there is lot of work for
democracy activists to do. But, there is a growing campaign inside
Swaziland for democracy and this is getting noticed on an international
scale. As each month passes it becomes more difficult for the king and
his ‘traditionalist’ supporters in the kingdom to maintain the fiction
that Swaziland is free.
Social media will play a large part in
getting the message for freedom out. One of these is Swazi Media
Commentary which was launched in 2007 and is one of the longest running
blog or social media sites supporting the campaign for democracy in
Swaziland.
Swaziland: Striving For Freedom
(available on scribd dot com) is the first volume of information,
commentary and analysis on human rights taken from articles first
published on the Swazi Media Commentary blogsite in 2013. Each month
throughout the coming year a digest of articles will be published
bringing together in one place material that is rarely found elsewhere.
In this first volume you can read about
how the Swazi state wants to prosecute for treason those campaigners who
advocate a boycott of the non-democratic national election (the death
penalty is available for those convicted); how traditionalists want to
continue forcing children into marriages (something that is called
paedophilia in civilised countries) and how, because King Mswati has
ruined the kingdom’s economy, one in ten of his subjects will go hungry
this year.
Also included are reports on attacks by
the state on women who wish to wear mini-skirts (they face jail time
under a law made in 1889); how a pregnant woman was sent to prison
because her mother thought she needed to be punished, although she had
committed no crime, and how police routinely use torture.
This month there is also an extensive
look at press standards in Swaziland and how newspapers deliberately lie
to their readers in pursuit of profits.
Swaziland: Striving for Freedom. Vol 1: January 2013 by Swazi Media
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