Postponement of lawsuit a setback, say rights groups

Gender activists in Swaziland said a decision to halt a lawsuit challenging the absolute power of the monarchy was a serious setback for women's rights in the country. Lindiwe Dlamini, the mother of 18-year-old Zena Mahlangu went to court last month to demand that her daughter be returned after palace aides allegedly abducted the girl from school to become King Mswati III's 10th wife. On Tuesday, however, Dlamini requested that the court postpone the matter indefinitely, saying she "doubted she had any chance of winning following news of her daughter's apparent engagement to the king over the weekend," the Times of Swaziland reported. Under Swazi tradition, the engagement on Sunday effectively made Mahlangu the king's 10th wife. "This case has touched on women's rights and also the rights of the girl child. The decision to postpone the case is a hard blow for women in this country. We had hoped that Lindiwe would have continued with the case until she got her child back. This sets a terrible precedent for other women who want to stand up for their rights," Zakhe Hlanze, research director for the Swaziland branch of Women and Law for Southern Africa, told IRIN. Rights groups said the case had drawn attention to gender rights in the mountain kingdom, where women are still legal minors. According to Swazi law and custom women cannot own property, take out loans or enter into contracts without their husbands' consent. "Lindiwe Dlamini was extremely brave to challenge the monarchy and for that she must be commended. Hopefully, because of all of the attention the case has received both locally and abroad, there will be some moves to improve the situation of women in Swaziland," spokeswoman of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse, Margaret Thembe said. Amnesty International has called on the monarchy to respect the cardinal values embodied in international and regional human rights treaties. The rights group said: "The king and his agents had, by their actions, violated the internationally recognised human rights of women and girls, including their right not to be arbitrarily detained and the right not to be subjected to forced marriage." Under international and regional human rights standards Dlamini was "fully entitled to have access to her daughter, who has been held effectively incommunicado since she was secretly removed from her mother's custody for the purpose of making her the 10th wife of the king," Amnesty International noted. In another development, the country's Attorney-General Phesheya Dlamini submitted a formal apology for interfering with the court's independence, French news agency, AFP reported on Tuesday. The unprecedented case has pitted the tiny southern African nation's traditional royalty against the court system. Last month Mswati sent his security chief, police commissioner and army commander to tell the three judges presiding over the case that they must dismiss the lawsuit or resign, the judges refused.