CANGO calls for investigating the police for extra judicial killings

The Human Rights and Governance consortium under the Coordinating Assembly (CANGO) is alarmed by the extra judicial execution of inmates said to have escaped from the Big Bend Correctional Facility.
   The Consortium’s Chairperson Zelda Nhlabatsi in a press release by CANGO called for independent investigations on who authorised what is suspected as overboard extra judicial execution.
      She explained that they understood that the escapees had committed a serious crime and might have been armed, however, there was still need for an explanation on whether there could have been an alternative such as rounding up the suspects and returning them to jail alive than the sting operation carried out by a joint task team of security officers which led to their death. This explanation she said, would strengthen the country’s accountability to upholding human rights.
         “Because the police cannot investigate themselves, we call for transparent and independent investigation in the shooting and killing scene which is said to have happened around Mpaka, the Lubombo region,” Nhlabatsi said. 
      Nhlabatsi noted that the country has not aimed at eliminating extra judicial killings as it has not yet implemented recommendations by UN member countries including France, Slovenia and Brazil raised through the Universal Periodic Review to sign and ratify the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court (ICC). 
          The Rome Statute system ICC aims to promote a universal culture of upholding the Rule of Law, human rights and human dignity, by contributing to put an end to impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. It does so by advancing access to justice for victims through the universal ratification and effective implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal.
            The Constitution provides that a person shall not be regarded as having been unlawfully deprived of life if the death results from use of force to such extent that is reasonably justifiable and proportionate in the circumstances of the case –  
Protection of right to life 
"15.   (1)  A  person  shall  not  be  deprived  of  life  intentionally  save  in  the  execution  of  the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence under the law of Swaziland of which that person has been convicted. 
(2)   The death penalty shall not be mandatory. 
(3)   A sentence of life imprisonment shall not be less than twenty five years. 
(4)  Without prejudice to any liability for a contravention of any other law with respect to the  use  of  force  in  such  cases as  are  mentioned  in  this  subsection,  a  person  shall  not  be regarded as having been deprived of life in contravention of this section if death results from use of force to such extent as is reasonably justifiable and proportionate in the circumstances of the case ­
(a)   for the defence of any person from violence or for the defence of property; 
(b)   in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained; 
(c)   for the purpose of suppressing a riot, insurrection or mutiny; or 
(d)   in  order  to  prevent  the  commission  by  that  person  of  a  serious  criminal offence." 
         According to the ALIGNMENT OF ESWATINI’S DOMESTIC LAWS WITH RECOMMENDATIONS OF UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS 2018 report, these provisions are concerning because they are overly broad and they allow impunity for extrajudicial killings.

For more information,
Nkosingiphile Myeni
Communications Officer
CANGO
2404 4721
communications@cango.org.sz