Common Country Assessment - Swaziland, 1997

Contents | Introduction | Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Livelihoods | Advancement/Empowerment of Women | Child Rights/Child Development/Child Protection | Education | Population | Environment | Health | STD/HIV/AIDS | Food Security/Nutrition | Governance and Participation | Institution Building | Summary and Conclusion

Chapter Four - Child Development, Rights, and Protection

4.1 Child Development

The subject of child development pervades several of the other chapters of this report. Some of the most relevant points made concerning child development in Swaziland include the following:

"Poor nutritional choices, inadequate food intake, unsatisfactory living conditions and a relatively low utilisation of available health care services which interact in mutually reinforcing ways constitute the underlying conditions which determine the high mortality rates.

Infant mortality in Swaziland is not only unexpectedly high but also has an exceptional pattern... in Swaziland [instead of in the first month] most infant deaths occur after the first neonatal period... indicating that [they are] a direct consequence of the interactions of population, poverty and environmental factors [which] could be reduced by relatively simple initiatives.

Teenage pregnancies ... account for more than 27 percent of all deliveries in Swazi health facilities.

Profound... cultural resistance to behaviour change (in favour of contraception for example)... is a major barrier to attaining social development goals.

Only 61 percent of children who start primary school complete the full cycle; most drop out because of high repetition rates, above average age, pregnancy, and/or financial difficulties.

Gender disparity is widespread within the 10-19 age group where 25 percent of all girls drop out of school compared to only 15 percent of boys [due to] the late entry of boys into the school system because of work at home (particularly cattle herding) and the unequal pressure on boys as potential earners to acquire educational qualifications."¹

The lot of the poor - the daily struggle to make ends meet, usually involving many hours of drudgery for little reward - can often result in a lack of capacity to attend to longer term projects, such as overcoming ignorance and enhancing environmental health. So child development is inhibited, and the vicious cycle referred to by the Programme of Cooperation is perpetuated. Child development is thereby largely dependent upon the parents’ ability to find sustainable livelihoods. They can then direct their attention to the longer term objectives of education and paying attention to those ‘relatively simple initiatives’ which can so enhance their futures and the lives of their children.

The two-thirds of the population living below the total poverty line is therefore a severe inhibition to child development. With such limited incomes, maximising the number of a household means minimising the nurture. The average household size in Swaziland of 6.3 persons is therefore an important child development indicator when placed alongside the indicator of two-thirds below the poverty line. As poverty in Swaziland has been described as essentially a rural phenomenon, the average rural household size of 7.6 (compared to 3.8 in the wealthier urban areas) is an even stronger indicator.

There is sometimes a failure to adequately recognise that by subjecting a child to chronic malnutrition (for example, iodine deficiency) and to environmental contaminants such as lead, one is not only condemning that individual to a lifetime of diminished intellectual and physical capacity, but one is also depriving the nation of contributions the individual would have otherwise been able to make. Instead of a positive force, the child is made to become a burden, with severely curtailed choices and opportunities for a tolerable life. Failure to undertake expenses that are trifling compared to their opportunity costs is perhaps better described as social and economic myopia.

4.2 Child Rights and Protection

Swaziland signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 (ratified 1995), and in 1992 produced the "National Programme of Action for the Children of Swaziland 1993-2000." This document addresses most articles of the convention either directly or indirectly, "the only exception in this regard [being] the right to free and compulsory primary education which because of serious financial constraints cannot be ensured for the children of Swaziland during this planning period."²

The document also refers to thirteen statutes which have a bearing on child rights and protection, and while covering many aspects of the convention they were found to be deficient in certain respects. For example, whipping is prescribed as a punishment in the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (article 40), and the Adoption Act is deficient in terms of article 21 in terms of regulating inter-country and inter-nationality adoption. Moreover, there is no statutory provision in Swaziland against the sexual abuse of boys.³

The document also refers to customary law, noting that the fact that the husband does not have to offer a home to his wife’s children from other men is contrary to articles 2, 18 and 27 of the convention, and that the custom of the father ‘buying’ an illegitimate child from the mother with or without her consent can be traumatic.

There are several other aspects of both Roman-Dutch and customary law which do not sit well with the convention. Eminent legal authorities have stated that "the system of juvenile justice in Swaziland leaves a great deal to be desired. There is urgent need, therefore, to review the system in its entirety. . . The United Nations has settled minimum rules for the administration of juvenile justice which it is high time Swaziland applied"⁴ Further, "the application of any law operates against a background of a tenacious cultural background whose claims are often stronger than the common law imported in the colonial era."⁵

The emergence of street children is a comparatively recent phenomenon, still puzzling to many. This is because the breakdown in social structures, including landlessness, has not yet occurred in Swaziland to anywhere near the same extent as some other developing countries. The problem is increasing all the time, as population and unemployment pressures mount. Recent publicity concerning the plight of street children - including physical and sexual abuse, and substance abuse by the children themselves - preceded the provision of shelter and food by a private concern in Mbabane.

There are currently no children (15 years and under) convicted and serving time in jail, but children are in and out of jail from time to time. The 16 years and under figures for persons committed to prisons are as follows:

Source: CSO 1995 Annual Statistical Bulletin, p. 148

There are no statistics currently available on orphans, disaggregated for HIV. Physical and sexual abuse against children is regularly reported, often in the context of abuse of positions of trust. The depth of this problem is unquantified, but it is being raised to a high profile by an increasing number of concerned Swazis.

1. UNICEF/GOS. 1994. Programme of Cooperation 1996-2000. Mbabane.
2. GOS. 1992. The National Programme of Action for the Children of Swaziland 1993-2000. Mbabane. Ibid, p.17.
3. Dlamini, M. 1994. A Study of the Status and Rights of the Child under the Laws of Swaziland. Dept. Of Law, University of Swaziland, Kwaluseni. p.75.
4. Riba, V. 1997. Implementation of the CRC and CEDAW: Some Reflections on the influence of Tradition and Custom on the care and protection of Children and Women in Swaziland. Prepared and presented to the CRC-CEDAW Workshop. UNICEF, Mbabane.

Child Rights, Development, and Protection Indicators

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