Amnesty International Report 2010: Continuing abuse of HR in Swaziland

The rights to freedom of association, expression and assembly
continued to be repressed. Security legislation was used to violate
people’s rights. Police used excessive force against peaceful
demonstrators.

Torture and the unjustified use of lethal force by law enforcement
officials were reported. Nearly 70 per cent of Swaziland’s
population lived in poverty and a quarter of the population required
food aid. Women and girls continued to be disproportionately affected
by violence, poverty and the country’s HIV pandemic.

Background

The new government that took office in October 2008 continued to
respond to political opposition and dissent by using the 2008
Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA). In July, civil society
organizations met in Manzini and called for greater protection of
human rights, including rights linked to health, education, housing
and security, and for an end to violence against women and the repeal
of the STA. The government’s National Smart Partnership Dialogue,
held in August, was criticized by political organizations and civil
society for failing to be inclusive.

In September, the government announced the appointment of the
Commission on Human Rights and Public Administration, which had been
pending since the new Constitution came into force in 2006. However,
the King appointed the Commissioners without enabling legislation and
full public consultation or involvement in the nominations. Delays in
judicial appointments began to be addressed, but there were
continuing concerns about effective guarantees of judicial
independence.

Counter-terror and security

Despite growing domestic and international criticism, the
government declared it would not amend the STA. The authorities also
used other security legislation to arrest and prosecute government
critics.

# On 3 June, human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko was arrested under
the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act, allegedly for uttering
words “with a subversive intention” at a public gathering.
Following court appearances, he was remanded into custody at
Sidwashini Maximum Security Prison. On 10 June, his lawyers obtained
a High Court order to allow him confidential legal access and two
days later he was released on bail. No trial date had been set by the
end of the year.

# In July, police arrested political activists Mphandlana Shongwe
and Norman Xaba at a civil society gathering in Manzini, apparently
for shouting slogans and wearing T-shirts associated with
organizations proscribed as terrorist in 2008 under the STA. They
were released on bail. No trial date had been set by the end of the
year.

# On 21 September, on the first day of the trial, the High Court
acquitted Mario Masuku, President of the proscribed People’s United
Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), of a charge brought against him under
the STA. The court found that the state’s evidence was either
inadmissible or failed to prove the case.

# The trial of the remanded South African national Amos Mbedzi on
subversion and other charges in connection with the attempted bombing
of a bridge in 2008 was postponed until March 2010.

# Sixteen defendants charged in 2006 with treason in connection
with bombing incidents were not brought to trial. They remained out
of custody under conditional bail. The government had still not made
public the report of an inquiry into their allegations of torture in
pre-trial detention.

Freedom of association, expression and assembly

The sweeping and imprecise provisions of the STA and associated
severe penalties continued to intimidate government critics. Civil
society activists and government opponents reported increased
incidents of harassment, searches and seizures of materials, and
monitoring of electronic communications, telephone calls and
meetings, some of which were disrupted by the police.

The media and journalists faced continuous pressure and some overt
acts of intimidation. Police increasingly pressed journalists to name
their sources and to refrain from publishing certain information
which, under the STA, could associate them with the activities of
organizations declared to be terrorist. The Times of Swaziland was
pressured to stop publishing the weekly columns of a government
critic, Mfomfo Nkhambule.

On 21 May, the Supreme Court ruled, in a case brought by trade
unions and political organizations, that there was no conflict
between the right of Swazi citizens to form and join political
parties under Section 25 of the Constitution, and Section 79, which
allows participation in elections only on the basis of “individual
merit”. A dissenting ruling, by Justice Thomas Masuku, had found
that the substantive right to freedom of association protected under
Section 25 was nullified by Section 79 and that this derogation could
not be reasonably justified.

Torture and excessive use of force

Police and other security officials, including informal policing
groups, continued to use excessive force against criminal suspects,
political activists and unarmed demonstrators. Incidents of torture
and other ill-treatment were also reported. The problem of impunity
for such abuses remained unaddressed. Although the new Commissioner
of Police, Isaac Magagula, stressed the need to respond to the
public’s concern about crime without resorting to “police
brutality” and limited police use of lethal force to circumstances
where the lives of police or others were at risk, victims of police
abuses continued to have no access to an independent complaints
investigation body.

# On 16 April church and labour union organizers had to call off a
march for free education after violence erupted. A breakaway group
damaged property and assaulted a police officer. The security forces
used disproportionate force against some demonstrators, including a
man whom they beat with batons, kicked, strangled and stamped on
apparently because he had insulted the national flag.

# On 4 September,Wandile Dludlu, president of SWAYOCO, the
Swaziland Youth Congress, was unlawfully arrested by four police
officers near the border with South Africa. He was taken to a
forested area near Bhunya and interrogated about weapons while being
subjected to repeated suffocation torture, with his hands and ankles
tied tightly behind him. About seven hours later the police dumped
him, uncharged, in Mbabane. He needed hospital treatment for injuries
and psychological trauma consistent with his allegations. He lodged a
criminal complaint against named police officers at Mbabane police
station, but by the end of the year the investigation had not
resulted in any arrests. He also lodged a civil claim for damages.

# On 21 September, Correctional Services security officers,
without issuing a warning to disperse, assaulted political activists
who had gathered peacefully to wait for the release of Mario Masuku
(see above) from Matsapha Central Correctional facility. The security
officers also demanded that journalists stop filming and
photographing their actions. They seized cameras and other reporting
equipment and verbally abused, threatened and physically assaulted
several journalists. The police investigation into the incident had
not resulted in any arrests by the end of the year. In addition, no
publicly known steps were taken by the authorities against the
Department of Correctional Services, despite public calls for an
inquiry into the violence and the intimidation of media workers.

Poverty, HIV and the right to health Swaziland’s HIV prevalence
rate remained the highest in the world. Most recent available UNAIDS
statistics indicated that 42 per cent of pregnant women attending
antenatal clinics in 2008 were HIV positive. Access to antiretroviral
treatment for AIDS continued to increase, but lack of access to
adequate daily food, particularly in rural areas, continued to impede
the ability of people living with AIDS to adhere to the treatment,
which must be taken with food at regular intervals daily. An
estimated 256,383 people required food aid. Fifteen per cent of
households were headed by orphaned children. In October on World
Poverty Day, the UN Resident Coordinator expressed concern that there
were no signs of abatement in poverty levels.

Substantial gender differences in rates of poverty and HIV
infection persisted, with women disproportionately affected and
infected. Women continued to experience violations of their sexual
and reproductive rights through violence or threats of violence from
male partners refusing to use condoms. In November, the Campaign on
Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Swaziland was launched
with official support. The maternal mortality ratio was estimated to
be 370 per 100,000 live births in 2006.

Women’s and children’s rights

In March, the High Court ruled that the government was obliged,
under the Constitution, to provide children with free primary school
education. However, the Prime Minister stated that the ruling could
only be implemented in phases from 2010. Finalization of draft
legislation affecting women’s right to equality under the law and
on children’s rights continued to be delayed, despite the
appointment of additional legislative drafters by the Ministry of
Justice to speed up the reform of In October, parliament passed the
People Trafficking and People Smuggling (Prohibition) Bill.

Death penalty

Although the 2006 Constitution permits the use of capital
punishment, no executions have been carried out since 1983. No new
death sentences were imposed in 2009. Three people remained under
sentence of death.

Amnesty International visit/reports

Amnesty International delegates visited Swaziland in March.

Swaziland: Suppression of Terrorism Act undermines human rights in
Swaziland (AFR 55/001/2009) (joint publication with the Human Rights
Institute of the International Bar Association)

# Swaziland: An atmosphere of intimidation – Counter-terrorism
legislation used to silence dissent in Swaziland (AFR 55/004/2009) #
Swaziland: Amnesty International condemns use of excessive force
against media workers and political activists by prison officials
(AFR 55/006/2009)