Swaziland
came a long way last in a survey of 36 African countries looking at political
freedom. Of those asked, ‘In this country how free are you to join any
political organisation you want?’ only 7 percent responded, ‘completely free.’
This was only one of the indicators that there is a huge issue with human
rights in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s
last absolute monarch.
In a
review of events in 2016, Human Rights Watch stated the King, ‘[C]ontinued to
repress political dissent and disregard human rights and rule of law principles
in 2016. Political parties remained banned, as they have been since 1973; the
independence of the judiciary is severely compromised, and repressive laws
continued to be used to target critics of the government and the king despite
the 2005 Swaziland Constitution guaranteeing basic rights.’
Human
rights abuses reported during the first quarter of 2017 include police
torturing a man for 11 days to make him confess to crimes and a 13-year-old boy
flogged by police with a sjambok. Police also used guns against striking
workers and protesting students in separate incidents.
These are
some of the events reported by Swazi Media Commentary website and brought
together in this Volume 25 of Swaziland:
Striving for Freedom. It is available free of charge on Scribd. Media Commentary website has no
physical base and is completely independent of any political faction and
receives no income from any individual or organisation. People who contribute
ideas or write for it do so as volunteers and receive no payment.
See
also
HUMAN RIGHTS
YEAR-END REVIEW
PROGRESS
TO SWAZI DEMOCRACY?
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