Call to eSwatini PM to protect human rights
Thursday November 01 2018
eSwatini's King Mswati III. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Lobby group Amnesty International (AI) has urged eSwatini (former Swaziland) new Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini to ensure respect for human rights.
“As prime minister, (Mr) Ambrose Dlamini has a real opportunity to take eSwatini in a new direction, ensuring that all human rights are fully guaranteed,” AI quoted Mr Deprose Muchena, its Regional Director for southern Africa, as saying.
“Ambrose Dlamini must build a country that all the people of eSwatini can be proud of, starting with declaring a nationwide moratorium on mass evictions until adequate legal and procedural safeguards are in place and ensuring that those who have been forcibly evicted receive reparations,” he was further quoted.
Forced evictions
According to AI, the people of eSwatini have, for many years, experienced multiple human rights violations, including forced evictions, leaving them in deeper poverty with no protection from the state.
King Mswati III last Saturday appointed Mr Dlamini as prime minister.
The appointment came after the king dissolved the 10th Parliament on June 30, ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections on September 21.
The previous prime minister, Mr Barnabus Sibusisuo Dlamini, who served between 1996-2003 and again from 2008-2018, died on September 28, 2018.
Life expectancy
The eSwatini , landlocked between South Africa and Mozambique, is one of the world’s few absolute monarchs.
The kingdom has a population of 1.2 million with a life expectancy of just 31.88 years, the lowest documented in the world and less than half the global average.
ESwatini has the world's highest estimated prevalence rate of HIV/Aids-infected adults, at about 26 per cent of people aged 15-49.
King Mswati, 50, who succeeded his father King Sobhuza II in 1986 aged 18, rules by decree.