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US Department of State’s 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: |25 March 2023

Progression or regression in human rights practices domestically?

 

According to the US Department of State’s 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, although individuals in Seychelles continued to be more willing to exercise freedom of speech and to criticise the government with less fear of reprisal than previous years, many journalists“complained of harassment and intimidation and harsh criticisms by authorities due to their reporting”.

The newly published report, under section 2 which refers to ‘Respect for civil liberties’, highlights certain examples whereby freedom of press was not respected. This includes the summoning of Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) officials in November last year “following critical reporting of a government minister’s role in a traffic accident” and the protestation by journalists over government interference and intimidation by government officials.

Despite journalists being able to play a more proactive role in challenging the authorities since the 2020 elections, access to certain documentation remains a limiting factor, the report states.

 

Discrimination and societal abuses

In terms of discrimination and societal abuses, “sexual assault remained a problem” with increased reporting of cases.

The report notes that Seychellois authorities “did not prioritise domestic abuse cases”, while the Seychelles police are undertrained in handling, and rarely enforce the law in sexual harassment cases.

“Many survivors did not report rape or sexual assault due to social stigma and a reluctance to start lengthy court cases,” the report states.

On the other hand, there were no reports of women experiencing discrimination in marriage, education, housing and the judicial process, among others, and the government is praised for enforcing the law effectively.

Unlike many other countries, women are “well represented in both the public and private sectors”.

When it comes to children however, the 2022 report notes that although the law prohibits physical child abuse, it was a “prevalent” problem, as does child sexual abuse. The report cites the case of a man who was initially sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for sexually abusing a nine-year-old girl, but whose sentence was later reduced to 17 years by the Court of Appeal.

As for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) individuals, although there were no reports of violence against LGBTQI+ persons throughout the year, there were a few reports of discrimination. Reportedly, LGBTQI+ persons “stated that government discriminated against them when applying for public housing, applying for resident and work permits for same-sex spouses”.

 

Respect for the integrity of the person

Seychelles has made some progress in terms of prison conditions which improved over the year with a decrease in the inmate population, the expansion of prison facilities, fewer incidents of prisoner-on-prisoner violence, and improved rehabilitation programmes for detainees at the Montagne Posée prison facility.

Improvements in the prison’s rehabilitation services include the introduction of therapeutic activities and educational programmes.

The report also notes that government “generally respected judicial independence and impartiality”.

There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees throughout the year.

 

Worker rights

Despite the law prohibiting forced or compulsory labour, “government enforcement was ineffective” with inadequate resources, inspections and remediation efforts according to the report.

The report also states that there were reports of “forced labour” in the fishing, agriculture, and construction sectors, in addition to reports of “substandard living conditions and nonpayment of salaries”.

The 2022 country reports were officially released on March 20, 2023.

The annual reports cover 198 countries and territories individually, and is compiled using credible information from US embassies and consulates abroad, foreign government officials, non-governmental and international organisations, jurists and legal experts, journalists, academics, human rights defenders, labour activists, and published reports.

It covers a number of internationally recognised individual, civil, political and worker rights, set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements. 

 

Laura Pillay

 

 

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