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Children of Swaziland

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Children's rights in Swaziland (2006)

 

Children's access to education was limited by the impact of poverty, HIV/AIDS, sexual violence and discrimination on the basis of gender and disability. The number of children orphaned by AIDS was estimated at 70,000 and 10 to 15 per cent of households were headed by children, mostly by girls who were vulnerable to multiple forms of abuse.

Additional training and capacity for the police Domestic Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (DV Unit), the establishment of child friendly interview facilities and the development of Community Child Protection Committees at local level began to improve children's access to justice in cases of abuse.

In September the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) expressed concern at the lack of a "systematic and comprehensive" legislative review to bring domestic legislation into line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The CRC was also concerned at the lack of protection under the law against early and forced marriage, the position of adolescent girls suffering marginalization and gender stereotyping and their low school completion rates. The CRC criticized the persistence of corporal punishment in the family and in schools, and the provision in the Constitution which permitted "moderate chastisement" of children. The courts continued to impose corporal punishment on under-18-year-old boys.

The government significantly increased its national budget allocation for the education of orphans and vulnerable children, but continuing delays in payments to schools jeopardized the children's access to education. In November the Swaziland National Association of Teachers applied to the High Court for an order to compel the government to make the payments. The case was postponed until 2007 because of the shortage of judges.

 

www.amnesty.org/en/region/africa/southern-africa/swaziland

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Uploaded on March 21, 2008
Taken on March 21, 2008