20yrs later: Eswatini to report to UN on torture
MBABANE – Can the country honestly report its own record of torture to peers? This question remains to be answered as Eswatini is currently preparing the State report on the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
According to the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Lindiwe Mbingo, the report is anticipated to have been finalised by the end of June 2024. “Drafting of a report goes through certain processes such as planning and organising, identifying key issues, information gathering, report drafting, stakeholder consultations on the draft report, report finalisation, and then submission to the treaty body,” Mbingo said in response to a questionnaire.
Eswatini ratified this convention, which is also known as the UNCAT or ‘the CAT’ in 2004, 20 years after it was adopted.
The convention was adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on December 10, 1984, setting up the Committee against Torture to accept State party reports as well as individual reports on torture.
It has taken the country another 20 years to pay attention to this treaty and adhere to its obligations, whose aim is to prevent torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment across the world. In the absence of compliance, the USA Department of State has highlighted reports of torture by the security agencies and the community policing forum.
In its 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices report, the US Department of State noted that government was inconsistent in its investigation, prosecution and punishment of officials who allegedly committed human rights abuses or engaged in government corruption.
Though the report, cited the lawful prohibition of security agencies being the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF), Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) ‘from inflicting, instigating, or tolerating torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment’, it listed some of the reports that are of torture.
The report states that on February 25, 2022 the REPS allegedly shot and wounded three persons who had assembled outside the High Court to protest an ongoing case involving the convicted former legislators, Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and
Mthandeni Dube.
The police were again alleged to have, on April 3, 2022, yet again shot and wounded a high school student in Siteki on his way home from a party.
In May 2022, during a protest organised by the Swaziland Union of Students, UEDF personnel allegedly beat and kicked president, Colani Maseko, who ended up being hospitalised for injuries.
The convicted former politicians Mabuza and Dube, while on detention were allegedly beaten and treated inhumanly. They were convicted on charges of contravening the Suppression of Terrorism Act for their alleged roles in the 2021 civil unrest
INJURIES
On September 23, the two detained parliamentarians required medical treatment for injuries sustained during an unannounced search of their cells for unauthorised items. The commissioner of HMCS initiated an internal investigation through a panel composed of HMCS officers to determine the facts of this incident, but the panel’s findings were not released at year’s end.
In August, 2022, seven community police members were arrested but released without charge after reportedly assaulting a group of individuals who confessed to stealing goats in Luve, report states. “Impunity was a problem in the security forces. The police service, the military, and the HMCS had internal mechanisms to investigate alleged wrongdoing and apply disciplinary measures. The integrity of such internal mechanisms, however, remained unclear,” the US State Deport report reads.
This week, 17 accused persons who were arrested for having allegedly committed terrorist acts, claimed to have been subjected to callous treatment in prison.
The Justice PS Mbingo said the ministry through technical support from the Commonwealth Secretariat organised a three-day workshop on February 6-8.
She said the meeting to strengthen the National Mechanism for Implementation and Follow-Up and further capacitate participants on the UN Human Rights system and obligations.
Mbingo said on day one and two of the workshop, participants focused on the strengthening of the National Mechanism for Implementation, Reporting and Follow-up (NMIRF) Unit, while on the last day focused on State party reporting under the UNCAT. “The participants for the workshop were drawn from the government (members of the NMRIF committee), non- government organisations/civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, the law society, and the commission on human rights and public administration,” she said.
She added that with the focus on UNCAT reporting, representatives from law enforcement agencies, the directorate of public prosecutions (DPP), NGOs and the Commission on Human Rights and Public Administrations participated as the country prepares to report under the treaty. It is also expected that there will be a peer review.
The process, according to Mbingo, further allows for anyone including civil society organisations, NGOs and the national human rights institution to submit their reports regarding the implementation of a particular Convention, known as shadow reports.
The UNCAT is an international human rights treaty that came to force in 1987.
The upcoming 79th UNCAT session is expected to take place in Geneva from April 15 to May 10, 2024. The UNCAT is one of 10 treaty bodies attached to various human rights conventions and is made up of 10 independent expert members who serve in their personal capacity.
They are excluded to be representatives of the State parties they survey.
According to the UN Treaty Body Database only ratified the UNCAT on March 26, 2004 but has not ratified the Optional Protocol of the