"Africa's last remaining absolute monarch, King Mswati III of Swaziland, took power at the age of eighteen. Since then he has allowed his country to slide into extreme poverty, with 69 percent of the Swazi people living on less than $1 a day. Swaziland has the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world: almost 40 percent. The nation operated without a constitution for thirty years. Mswati agreed to implement a new one in 2006; however, it bans political parties, gives Mswati the right to reject any laws passed by the legislature, and grants him immunity from all possible crimes."