SWAGAA: Three Decades of Survivor-Centred Response to Gender-Based Violence in Eswatini

The Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA), based in Manzini, has worked since 1990 to prevent gender-based violence (GBV) and support survivors in Eswatini, marking over three decades of continuous operation by its 30th anniversary in 2020.
Human Rights Watch's World Report 2025 cites SWAGAA data showing 1,172 GBV cases recorded between January and May 2024 alone, including 260 cases in May, with emotional abuse the most common form and roughly 85% of incidents occurring in domestic settings between people with existing relationships.
SWAGAA was among the civil society organisations that pushed for Eswatini's 2018 Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act, a landmark law criminalising domestic and sexual violence.
Human Rights Watch notes that implementation has lagged the legislation: the SODV Act remains underfunded, inter-departmental coordination is weak, and Eswatini's first government-run survivor shelter only opened in 2021 — leaving NGOs like SWAGAA to fill large service gaps, against a backdrop of widespread underreporting.

Read the full analysis: https://swagaa.org/