In the dock: Swaziland aims to help witnesses feel safer in court

Swaziland has sought advice from the Commonwealth Secretariat in improving its treatment of vulnerable witnesses in court, as it continues to deal with high numbers of cases involving sexual violence against children.

Mark Guthrie, a Legal Adviser with the Secretariat, visited the country last month, to speak to judges and magistrates about improving measures to help vulnerable witnesses feel safer in court. A vulnerable witness in Swaziland’s legal system means a witness who is younger than 10 years old.

Mr Guthrie said: “I think the training raised awareness of the needs of vulnerable witnesses; it should improve the skills of judges and magistrates in carrying out their function and it should lead to small but effective measures being implemented in courts such as putting up a curtain around the witness box.”

A 2007 study by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the USA found that in Swaziland, a country of just over one million people, approximately one in three women experienced some form of sexual violence as a child. Incidents most frequently occurred in the home, either the home of the respondent or the home of a friend, relative or neighbour. Swaziland also has the highest rate of infection for HIV in the world.

No allowances made

Following a needs assessment last July, judges and magistrates, with the latter frequently dealing with the bulk of sexual offences cases, asked for training on working with vulnerable witnesses. At the time a vulnerable witness was treated as any other witness and no allowances were made for the witness being young, even when giving evidence in adult courts.

Delia Turner, a magistrate from Durban, South Africa, with experience of dealing with vulnerable witnesses, visited Swaziland in February 2010 to make sure that the training would meet the needs of magistrates and judges. The training course was designed with input from Shamim Qureshi, a District Judge in Birmingham, UK, and Director of Studies of the Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association (CMJA).

During the course in March, jointly organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat, CMJA and the Ministry of Justice of Swaziland, the team spoke about sensitivity and patience in dealing with child witnesses, and the use of video links, and screens in court, to provide greater reassurance for witnesses and to prevent them seeing the accused. Currently Swaziland has one court room equipped with CCTV.

They also discussed whether victims are tested for HIV, medical evidence, cross examination of child witnesses and the court’s duty to control it.

At the end of the course, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Justice said they would begin to use the measures immediately and train their colleagues in what they had learned.

Providing protection

The course comes at a particularly important time with the impending enactment of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill in Swaziland.

Under the country’s current pre-colonial laws, the indecent treatment of children and also rape of a male child are not considered crimes.

The Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill, which was gazetted on 10 July 2009, will strengthen and consolidate certain common law and statutory provisions so as to adequately provide for successfully dealing with, in a non-discriminatory manner, sexual offences and domestic violence. It will also provide adequate protection to complainants, such as special measures for the treatment of witnesses in court.

The Bill has broadened the definition of rape to cover not only unlawful sexual intercourse with another but also unlawful sexual acts committed under certain circumstances, including in any coercive manner, under false pretence or by fraudulent means, under duress, fear of violence or psychological oppression.

Upholding ethical standards

Mr Guthrie’s work did not just end in Swaziland, as he then headed to Mozambique to hold a seminar on developing a code of conduct for public officials and developing guidelines on conflict of interest.

In April 2008, Mozambique ratified the UN Convention against Corruption, and is now seeking to implement its obligations under the convention.

Article 5 of the convention provides that a state party is required to maintain effective anti-corruption policies and practices aimed at the prevention of corruption.

During a Secretariat needs assessment mission last September to Mozambique, its Ministry of Justice requested help in developing a code of conduct and guidelines on conflict of interest for public officials.

Mr Guthrie explained: “A code of conduct in public life means that officials uphold ethical standards and act impartially and honestly.

“No one should make a decision in which they have an interest in the outcome. Citizens have a right to expect that their public officials – both elected and non-elected - conduct themselves according to the highest ethical standards.”

Revising Mozambique’s anti-corruption law

The issue is particularly relevant for Mozambique where all land is owned by the state, which grants licences to investors for development, so it is important that these are granted without conflict of interest.

The seminar was held in conjunction with Mozambique’s Ministry of Justice and in particular UTREL, which is the agency responsible for legal reform in Mozambique.

Fifty people attended the seminar, including Supreme Court judges, policy advisers to the Ministry of Justice and senior-level civil servants, where the team discussed what should go into the code of conduct.

The discussions were led by Dr Abdul Carimo, Director of UTREL, and Philip Aylett, an expert from Public Administration International in London. Mr Aylett, whose participation was sponsored by the Commonwealth Secretariat, was adviser to the UK Committee on Standards in Public Life, and is Chair of two public standards committees in Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom.

Mozambique aims to revise its anti-corruption law by the end of April and draft the new code of conduct and guidelines by September 2010.

The seminar represented a model which, dependent on their needs, could also be held in other Commonwealth countries.

Key Links:

• Rule of Law
• Country Profile: Swaziland
• Country Profile: Mozambique