Swaziland

Making love a crime: Criminalization of same-sex conduct in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published by on June 25, 2013

Amnesty International 25 June 2013 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report provides an analysis of the legal environment and wider context of human rights violations against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent years have seen increasing reports of people being harassed, marginalized, discriminated against and attacked because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. This is occurring in countries whose legal systems still condone the criminalization of consensual same-sex behaviour, and in countries where the police and justice systems are failing to prevent these crimes from happening. The continued criminalization of consensual same-sex Read the full article…

Swaziland: Freedom in the World 2013

Published by on June 3, 2013

Freedom House 3 June 2013 Antiregime protests in April and a teachers’ union strike in June were violently dispersed by security forces. Press freedom in the kingdom took a further hit after senior editors at the Swazi Observer were suspended for political reasons in July and not reinstated by year’s end. Read full report here.

Swaziland: Amnesty International Annual Report 2013

Published by on May 23, 2013

Amnesty International 23 May 2013 The rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly continued to be violated, with arbitrary arrests and excessive force used to crush political protests. Torture and other ill-treatment remained a persistent concern. Some progress was made in the reform of laws which discriminated against women. Read full report here.

Human Rights and Democracy: The 2012 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report

Published by on April 1, 2013

UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office April 2013 SECTION IX: Human Rights in the Countries of Concern This section contains our review of the human rights situation in 27 countries where the UK Government has wide-ranging concerns. For this year’s report, we decided to review thoroughly the criteria we use for deciding which countries are of most human rights concern to the UK. We drew on feedback from the Foreign Affairs Committee and consulted with the Foreign Secretary’s Advisory Group on Human Rights in doing so. Our geographical directors, with input from our embassies and high commissions overseas, subsequently assessed all Read the full article…

Swazi police break up prayer meeting

Published by on February 18, 2013

Richard Lee, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa 18 February 2013 In Swaziland it is usually sensible to ignore the words of those in power, especially when they are preaching peace and dialogue, and concentrate on their deeds. Take this weekend for example. Giving his annual State of the Nation Address on Friday 15th February, King Mswati III did what he invariably does – painted a picture of a nation that was on the right track despite problems beyond the government’s control and emphasised the importance of peace and dialogue (rather than any of the many urgently-needed reforms to the Read the full article…

Swaziland: Amnesty International annual report 2012

Published by on May 24, 2012

Amnesty International Annual Report 2012: the state of the world’s human rights Swaziland Published 24 May 2012 A crisis in the rule of law and the unfair dismissal of a judge undermined the independence of the judiciary. Arbitrary and secret detentions, political prosecutions and excessive force were used to crush political protests. A parliamentary committee report highlighted the risks to the right to life from anti-poaching legislation. There was slow progress in repealing laws that discriminated against women. Access to treatment for HIV/AIDS was increasingly threatened by the deteriorating financial situation in the country. Background The government’s financial situation deteriorated Read the full article…

Swaziland crushes pro-democracy protest

Published by on April 13, 2012

Freedom House 13 April 2012   Freedom House is deeply concerned by the ongoing suppression of civil liberties in Swaziland, where a planned pro-democracy protest was preemptively dispersed on April 12 through arrests and intimidation by police and military forces. According to media reports, at least 15 protest organizers were arrested and later released. The protest was supposed to take place in Coronation Park in the capital city of Mbabane, but as protesters arrived they found the park filled with armed security forces who turned them away and detained anyone who tried to enter. Roadblocks were set up to prevent Read the full article…

Swaziland: proposed law would ban Facebook, Twitter users from insulting Swaziland monarch

Published by on March 26, 2012

Freedom House 26 March 2012 In an alarming move to restrict freedom of expression, the government of Swaziland has proposed a law that will make it illegal to criticize King Mswati III on Facebook and Twitter. Justice Minister Mgwagwa Gamedze proposed the legislation, informing the Swazi Senate they would take a “tough” stance on those who criticize the king via social media and “set an example.” The new law follows a period of economic crisis marked by increased social unrest and protests. Although only a fraction of the 1.2 million individuals in the country have Internet access, social networking has Read the full article…