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Eswatini
care. Studies found they experienced greater financial hardship as a consequence of the COVID-19 lockdown than the Estonianspeaking majority.
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
In July, the Minister of Trade, a post held by the EKRE, attempted to halt grants to three human rights organizations working on gender and equality issues: the Estonian Women's Associations Roundtable, the Estonian Women's Studies and Resource Centre, and the Estonian Human Rights Centre.
Parliament failed to pass legislation to implement the 2016 Registered Partnership Act. A regulation to legitimize gender recognition of transgender people was removed from the new Public Health Act draft. LGBTI organizations continued to face explicit threats from far-right groups.
ESWATINI
Kingdom of Eswatini Head of state: Mswati III Head of government: Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini
Hundreds of families were threatened with forced eviction. LGBTI people were subjected to discrimination and harassment. A man was charged with marital rape for the first time. Repressive legislation was used to silence peaceful dissent and journalists faced arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and prosecution.
BACKGROUND
In March, the Prime Minister declared a twomonth state of emergency to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were reports that security forces harassed people when they went out for food or to seek medical attention. The lack of land policy or land act continued to disadvantage people who faced forced evictions. Hundreds of families in the Manzini region were threatened with eviction when landowners took steps to regain their farmland. The Human Rights Commission had intervened and was negotiating with the landowner in the case of over 100 people facing evictions in Sigombeni. If due process requirements are not followed and adequate compensation is not provided, this could result in a forced eviction. In July, an appeal by the Council of Eswatini Churches to the Ministry of Resources and Energy successfully averted the eviction of 45 families, including 38 children, from their land in Mbondzela, Shiselweni.
Local authorities in the Mangwaneni township of the capital, Mbabane, demolished one homestead in February and three in August, resulting in the forced eviction of 17 people in households headed by older people. After a resident was injured by a rubber bullet fired by police during clashes in the August demolition, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development halted the demolitions while the local traditional authorities worked to resolve the matter. However, most of the affected residents were too poor to rebuild or repair their structures and the municipality banned them from doing so.
LGBTI people were discriminated against, harassed and stigmatized. Consensual samesex relations remained a criminal offence.
In July, the Eswatini Sexual and Gender Minorities advocacy group challenged the Minister of Commerce and Industries’ decision to reject its application for registration. The case was adjourned twice before being heard in October at the High Court in Mbabane, although a judgment was not issued by the year ’s end.
