Swazilandia

5% of girls there are married before the age of 18 and 1% are married before their 15th birthday.

1% of boys in Eswatini are married 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 14% of women aged 20-49 were married before the age of 18) and Hhohho (12%).

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 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: 30% of women with no education were married as children, compared to only 2% with higher education.

Poverty: 18% of women in Eswatini’s poorest households were married before the age of 18, compared to 4% in the richest households.

Eswatini has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government did not provide an update on progress towards this target during its Voluntary National Review at the 2019 High Level Political Forum. The government is due to submit a Voluntary National Review at the 2022 High Level Political Forum.

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 sets 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 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 has 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.