Eswatini

2% of girls in Eswatini marry before the age of 18 and 0.1% marry before the age of 15.

0% of boys in Eswatini marry before the age of 18.

Eswatini has one of the lowest rates of child marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Child marriage is most prevalent in Lubombo (where 7.4% of women aged 20-49 were married before the age of 18) and Hhohho (6.4%).

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

In Eswatini, child marriage is also driven by:

● Harmful practices: Harmful customs against girls such as inhlanti (the giving of a younger sister for marriage to a woman’s husband, usually invoked when she cannot bear children of her own) and kwendzisa (an arranged marriage which can take place at a very young age) are prohibited but are allowed by traditional authorities. The arranged marriage of minors has been publicly legitimised by the King who has previously taken adolescent girls as new wives at an annual Swazi and Zulu event known as Umhlanga, meant to celebrate the chastity and virginity of women and girls.

● Level of education: 8% of girls between the ages of 15-19 who are currently married completed primary education and 2% completed secondary education. After the COVID-19 pandemic, 14.9% of girls were unable to afford school fees to return to school and 25.6% did not return to school due to child marriage or adolescent pregnancy.

Poverty: 2.8% of girls married between the ages of 15-19 years are from Eswatini’s poorest households, compared to 0.8% in the richest households.

Eswatini has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The government submitted a Voluntary National Review at the 2022 High Level Political Forum. The government noted that several steps have been taken to end and prevent child marriage, such as introducing and reforming legislation to promote gender equality. In particular, amendments were made to the Marriage Act 1964 and the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act of 2018, both of which prohibit child marriage and sexual and gender-based violence.

Eswatini co-sponsored the 2017 Human Rights Council resolution recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts. Eswatini signed a joint statement at the 2014 Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Eswatini ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2004, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

In 2014, the CEDAW Committee urged the country to take effective legal measures to prohibit and eliminate child and/or forced marriage and abolish polygamy.

During its 2021 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child raised concern at the inconsistencies with the definition of a child as a person under the age of 18, particularly in the Marriage Act 1964 and customary law. The Committee urged the government to revise and amend the Marriage Act to ensure that the legal minimum age of marriage be established at 18 years for both boys and girls and that all measures should be taken to eliminate child marriage.

During its 2021 Universal Periodic Review, Eswatini raised that there are ongoing community dialogues, campaigns and media advocacy that aim to raise awareness on harmful practices, including child marriage. The government mentioned that where there have been reported cases of child marriage, they are reported to the criminal justice system for further investigation and prosecution.

During its 2016 Universal Periodic Review, Eswatini agreed to examine recommendations to enact legislation to ban child marriage.

In 1992 Eswatini signed, but has not yet ratified, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, including Article 21 regarding the prohibition of child marriage. In 2012 Eswatini ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, including Article 6 which sets the minimum age for marriage as 18.

Eswatini is one of 20 countries which committed to ending child marriage by the end of 2020 under the Ministerial Commitment on comprehensive sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents and young people in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Eswatini is one of the countries where the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)/DREAMS Initiative is working to reduce rates of HIV among adolescent girls and young women.

Under the Marriage Act 1964 the minimum legal age is 16 years for girls and 18 years for boys. However, they may marry below that age with special dispensation from the Minister.

Eswatini adopted the Children’s Protection and Welfare Act of 2012, which grants any person under 18 the right to refuse any custom or traditional practice that can negatively affect them. The law penalises parents and guardians who collude with adult men to orchestrate child marriages through a practice known as kwendizisa. Offenders face prison terms of up to 20 years.