Eswatini’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to allow LGBTQ rights organizations to legally register.
In 2019, the Registrar of Companies rejected a request to register Eswatini’s sexual and sexual minorities.
Advocacy groups petitioned the Supreme Court in 2020 to hear the case. The Supreme Court initially ruled against Eswatini’s sexual and sexual minorities, but this decision was appealed.
Eswatini’s Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Trade has announced that it will no longer allow the group to register in 2023. In a unanimous ruling on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ordered the Swazi government to allow Eswatini’s sexual and sexual minorities to register.
“Eswatini Sexual and Sexual Minority Organizations have been fighting the Swazi government for seven years to ensure that our people have the right to freedom of association,” Eswatini Sexual and Sexual Minority Organizations said in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “But this is an uphill battle against a government and king who believe there is no place for LGBTI people in the kingdom and who seek to limit the power of civil society groups.”
Eswatini is a small landlocked country in southern Africa bordering South Africa and Mozambique.
Consensual same-sex sexual relations between men remain a crime in the country.
Discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity is common in Eswatini. In 2018, against this backdrop, the country’s first Pride Parade was held.
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