Seychelles
Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands with a landmass of 445 square kilometers (172 square miles) scattered around more than 1,374,000 square kilometers (530,000 square miles) in the southwestern Indian Ocean, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) east of Kenya. In 2004 the estimated population of the country was 80,832. Seychelles has a relatively homogeneous and predominantly Christian population of mixed African, Asian, and European ancestry. Its literacy rate is estimated at 87.5 percent.
Seychelles was a French colony until the Treaty of Paris of 1814 gave Britain formal control of Seychelles and Mauritius. The people of Seychelles exercised some degree of involvement in self-governance before independence in 1976.
In 1964 two pioneering political parties emerged in the country: the Seychelles Democratic Party (SDP) led by James Mancham (b. 1939) and the then Seychelles People's Unity Party (SPUP) led by France Albert René (b. 1935). Negotiations with Britain resulted in Seychelles's independence on June 29, 1976. With independence, Mancham took office as the first president of Seychelles, with René as the prime minister. Tensions between the two rival parties led to President Mancham being overthrown by Prime Minister René while Mancham was at a Commonwealth Conference in London. René installed himself as the new president, suspended the constitution, dismissed the legislative assembly, and banned all political parties except his own. For fourteen years René ruled Seychelles by presidential fiat. In December 1991, however, René reinstated a multiparty system. Mancham, the former president, returned to Seychelles, and he and President René called for national reconciliation in support of a new democratic constitution, which was adopted in June 1993.
Seychelles is a presidential–parliamentary democracy with a "mixed statetist" economy. Executive power is vested in the president, who serves as both the chief of state and the head of government and is elected by universal suffrage for a maximum of three five-year terms of office. A Council of Ministers appointed by the president assists the president in the exercise of executive functions and serves as the president's cabinet. The vice president serves as the head of the president's executive cabinet. The president in 2004 was James Michel (b. 1944), a former vice president who took office in April 2004, when President René retired. (René had been reelected in the previous election held in 2001.)
(MAP BY MARYLAND CARTOGRAPHICS/THE GALE GROUP)Legislative power is vested in a unicameral National Assembly that consists of thirty-four members elected for five-year terms. The Seychelles People's Progressive Front (SPPF), René's political party, formerly the Seychelles People's Unity Party (SPUP), has continued to dominate the political landscape in both presidential and legislative elections.
Seychelles's legal system is a blend of the French and English legal systems. The constitution vests judicial powers in the Court of Appeals of Seychelles, the Court of Last Resort, and the Supreme Court, as well as other subordinate courts and tribunals. The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, with constitutional immunity protecting judges from liability resulting from judicial proceedings. However, the judiciary is not efficient, lacks adequate resources, and is subject to executive interference. Judges are appointed for seven years and may be reappointed by the president on the recommendation of the Constitutional Appointment Committee. Almost all judges in Seychelles are noncitizens, except for the Chief Justice, who must be a citizen. A common critique is that expatriate judges lack sensitivity on issues such as human rights.
Freedom House classifies Seychelles as a "partly free country" in its political and civil liberties ranking for 2003. The country ranks three on a scale of seven, in which one represents "most free" and seven represents "least free" in terms of guarantees enjoyed by citizens on both civil rights and civil liberties scales.
Bibliography
Bunge, Frederica M., ed. Indian Ocean: Five Island Countries, Foreign Area Studies. American University, Washington, DC: Headquarters Department of the Army, 1994.
Commonwealth Observer Group. The Presidential and National Assembly Elections in Seychelles, 20–23 July. London: Commonwealth Secretariat, 1993.
Freedom House. "Seychelles." Freedom in the World 2001–2002. New York: Freedom House, 2002. <http://www.freedomhouse.org/res earch/freeworld/2002/countryratings/sey chelles2.htm>.
Kurian, George, ed. Encyclopedia of the Third World, 4th ed. New York: Facts on File, 1992.
Mancham, James R. Paradise Raped: Life, Love, and Power in the Seychelles. London: Methuen, 1983.
Metz, Helen Chapin, ed. "Seychelles." Country Studies. Washington, DC: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, 1994. <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sc toc.html>.
Pufong, Marc-Georges. "Seychelles." In Legal Systems of the World: A Political, Social and Cultural Encyclopedia, ed. Herbert M. Kritzer. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2002.
René, France Albert. Seychelles: The New Era. Victoria, Seychelles: Ministry of Education and Information, 1982.
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy and Human Rights and Labor. International Religious Freedom Report 2003. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State, 2003. <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/ irf/2003/23749.htm>.
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2002. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State, 2002. <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/ hrrpt/2002/18224.htm>.
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs. "Seychelles." Background Notes. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, 2003. <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bg n/6268.htm>.
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