The government failed to investigate extrajudicial killings, including of the human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko. Journalists and other government critics continued to face widespread political repression, including arbitrary arrests and detentions. Detainees were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. The economic crisis deepened, creating conditions that exacerbated inequality. Gender-based violence was widespread and the rights of LGBTI people were severely undermined.

Background

Social unrest increased and there were ongoing demands for democratic reforms under the absolute monarchy of King Mswati III. The government acknowledged the high levels of poverty and unemployment as a national emergency. Unemployment reached 35.4% overall and 48.7% among young people.

Extrajudicial executions

The government failed to conduct transparent, independent and impartial investigations into extrajudicial killings carried out between 2021 and 2024. The lack of a transparent judicial process and the government’s failure to heed calls for accountability effectively denied the rights of victims of government violence, or their family members, to justice, compensation and reparations. Such cases included that of Thulani Maseko, who was killed by unidentified gunmen in his home in 2023, amid an escalation in attacks on state critics.

Freedom of expression

The authorities used the 2008 Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA) to target activists, journalists and pro-democracy advocates. Its vaguely worded provisions allowed the government to justify arbitrary arrests and detentions of its critics.

Journalists increasingly faced harassment and intimidation, particularly when covering human rights abuses and government corruption. Intimidation could extend to legal threats, as in the case of Swazi journalist Zweli Martin Dlamini, editor of the Swaziland News newspaper, who had been living in exile in South Africa for several years. In February the government filed a case against him and Swaziland News to the Mpumalanga High Court in South Africa for articles which it claimed defamed King Mswati III and various government ministers and public officials, and proved a threat to national security.

Freedom of peaceful assembly

On 15 July, MPs Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube were sentenced to 25 and 18 years in prison respectively under the STA for their involvement in protests in 2021 calling for political reform. Their cases became symbolic of the government’s crackdown on political dissent.

Torture and other ill-treatment

Detainees, especially those imprisoned for expressing political opinions, were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in custody. Following Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza’s sentencing (see above), prison guards at the Matsapha Correctional Complex denied him food, including food brought to him from outside the prison that he required as part of his dietary requirements for hypertension, for at least four days.

Economic, social and cultural rights

Right to food

About 22% of the population (almost 270,000 people) were projected to face crisis-level food insecurity by March 2025 according to the Integrated Food Classification Index. This was driven by the soaring prices of food and other essential commodities resulting from inflation and disruption to imports. Rural and low-income urban households were particularly vulnerable to food insecurity.

Right to health

The government’s austerity measures further reduced public healthcare spending, leading to a maternal healthcare crisis in rural areas. Women struggled to access basic services. The Health Labour Market Analysis Report projected that, without urgent government intervention, there would be a shortage of 26,563 health workers by 2032, which would further threaten essential services.

Women’s and girls’ rights

High rates of gender-based violence persisted, with the government failing to protect women and girls from, or enforce laws against, such abuses, leaving perpetrators largely unpunished. A national NGO, Swatini Action Group Against Abuse, said in April that rape continued to be a major problem. The number of women and girls affected remained unknown because most survivors did not report abuse or withdrew their testimonies following coercion to do so, among other factors.

Discriminatory and weak legal protections for rural women, including those relating to land inheritance, exacerbated the economic marginalization of rural women in particular and left them with limited access to land, healthcare and education.

LGBTI people’s rights

The government continued to deny the Eswatini Sexual and Gender Minorities its right to register as a non-profit organization, despite a 2023 Supreme Court decision ordering the minister of commerce, industry and trade to reconsider the application.