News that a father in
Swaziland tied his 11-year-old daughter to a house pillar and thrashed
her with a pipe until she became unconscious shines a
focus on the constant ill treatment of children in the kingdom.
He did it as a punishment because
she had arrived late home from school.
UNICEF the global children’s organisation estimates nearly
nine in ten children in Swaziland suffer ‘violent discipline’.
In a
report of a national survey
published in August 2017, UNICEF stated ‘violent discipline in the home, which
includes physical punishment and psychological aggression, affects more than 88
per cent of all children in Swaziland.
‘The study findings also
reveal that sexual violence and bullying affects 38 percent and 32 percent of
children in Swaziland, respectively. The study found that children experiencing
one type of violence were more likely to experience other types of violence.
‘One staggering statistic
to emerge from the data revealed that for every girl child known to Social
Welfare as having experienced sexual violence, there are an estimated 400 girls
who have never received help or assistance for sexual violence.’
UNICEF reported one of the
‘drivers’ of violence against children was Swazi culture. It stated, ‘The
widely accepted notion of keeping family matters private to protect the family
or community over the individual was repeatedly cited as a driver of violence
and was also found to be a factor dissuading individuals from intervening when
they suspect a child is abused.’
Article 29(2) of the
Swaziland Constitution 2005 states ‘a child shall not be subjected to abuse or
torture or other cruel inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment subject to
lawful and moderate chastisement for purposes of correction’. The Children’s Protection
and Welfare Act 2012 however provides for ‘justifiable’ discipline.
Corporal punishment was banned in Swazi schools by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2015, but caning continues. There are many reports from across Swaziland that pupils have been brutalised by their teachers.
Corporal punishment was banned in Swazi schools by the Ministry of Education and Training in 2015, but caning continues. There are many reports from across Swaziland that pupils have been brutalised by their teachers.
In a debate in the Swazi Parliament in March 2017
members of parliament called for the cane to be brought back into schools. The
MPs said the positive discipline adopted in schools was causing problems for
teachers because they no longer knew how to deal with wayward pupils.
There had been 4,556 cases of ‘severe corporal
punishment’ of children in Swaziland’s schools over the previous four years, Star Africa reported in March 2016.
Corporal punishment is everywhere in Swaziland. In
2014, more than 30 girls were
thrashed with a cane because they did not dance half naked in
front of Swaziland’s King Mswati III. They
were beaten so badly some needed treatment from paramedics.
The girls, described in local media as ‘maidens’, were expected to take part in
a ‘Reed Dance’ at Mbangweni Royal Residence in the Shiselweni region of the kingdom.
In October 2017 it was reported the
Swaziland Government was being sued for E2.5 million (US$185,000)
after a child was maimed by a teacher who was dishing out corporal punishment.
In 2011, Swaziland was told by the United Nations
Human Rights Periodic Review held in Geneva it should
stop using corporal punishment in schools, because it
violated the rights of children.
The United Nations Human Rights Periodic Review
received a report jointly written by Save The Children and other groups that
corporal punishment in Swazi schools was out of control. The report highlighted
Mhlatane High School in northern Swaziland where it said pupils were ‘tortured’
in the name of punishment.
In 2005 The International Save the Children Alliance
published research
into
Swazi children’s experiences of corporal punishment.
In a survey,
20 percent of children reported being hit with a hand and 59 percent of
children reported being beaten with an object at school during a two-week
period. In schools, children are most often hit with the hand, sticks, canes,
sjamboks and blackboard dusters.
Children reported being subjected to corporal
punishment at school due to making a noise or talking in class, coming late to
school, not completing work, not doing work correctly, failing tests, wearing
incorrect uniform items, dropping litter, losing books or leaving them at home.
See also
CHILDREN
FEAR BEATINGS, MISS SCHOOL
CANE
BANNED IN SWAZI SCHOOLS
TEACHERS
BEAT BOYS ON NAKED BUTTOCKS
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