Following the violent confrontations in 2021, the UK remains disappointed by the lack of progress towards meaningful dialogue in Eswatini to address the restrictions on democratic and civil rights. The High Commissioner raised our concerns with His Majesty King Mswati III and senior Ministers earlier this month, and explored ways in which the UK and other international partners could facilitate constructive engagement. The Prime Minister also raised the political situation with the King at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda.

The International Labour Organisation has recently facilitated a bipartite dialogue between representatives of employers and workers to address outstanding questions of labour rights and mistreatment. This has provided a platform for constructive exchange and the High Commission is supporting efforts for further inclusive exchanges with other stakeholders.

Following the violent confrontations in 2021, the UK remains disappointed by the lack of progress towards meaningful dialogue in Eswatini to address the restrictions on democratic and civil rights. The High Commissioner raised our concerns with His Majesty King Mswati III and senior Ministers earlier this month, and explored ways in which the UK and other international partners could facilitate constructive engagement. The Prime Minister also raised the political situation with the King at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda.

The International Labour Organisation has recently facilitated a bipartite dialogue between representatives of employers and workers to address outstanding questions of labour rights and mistreatment. This has provided a platform for constructive exchange and the High Commission is supporting efforts for further inclusive exchanges with other stakeholders.

​​Officials at our High Commission in Pretoria regularly meet with civil society representatives from Swaziland. These representatives are affiliated to a number of different organisations, including the People's United Democratic Movement in Swaziland and the Swaziland Democratic Party. These meetings have historically taken place more regularly in Swaziland than in South Africa. The next such opportunity to engage will be in late March when the Article 8 EU Political Dialogue with Swaziland takes place in Mbabane.

​Officials in Africa Directorate regularly meet with civil society groups on a range of issues and are open to meeting with Action for Southern Africa, Swaziland Human Rights Network UK or other groups to discuss human rights and democracy in Swaziland.

I regret that due to an administrative error, my previous response initially contained incorrect information. This has been corrected on the Official Report (PQ HL4591) since the question was tabled.

In fact, the British Council supported one project in Swaziland and one in Lesotho in 2017. In both cases, this was the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP). The CSFP is an annual scheme made available to all the Commonwealth countries by the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission.

The CSFP is aimed at students of Commonwealth countries who can make a significant contribution to their home country after the completion of a higher education programme in the UK. The British Council provides pre-departure briefings for all scholars on living and studying in the UK, and looks after alumni relations including periodic networking events. The British Council held pre-departure briefings in 2017 and 2016 for scholars from Swaziland and Lesotho.

The British Council have advised that in each of the last five years the number of education projects the British Council has supported in each country is:

The UK provided £5.7million of bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Lesotho in 2016. DFID provided £4.8 million of this total in drought response through the United Nations Humanitarian appeal for assistance for food security, access to water, and recovery of livelihoods and the contribution helped to provide targeted assistance to 375,000 people affect by the drought.

UK bilateral ODA to Botswana and Swaziland in 2016 supported education programmes funded through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The table below shows the amount of UK bilateral ODA that was received by Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland between 2015 and 2016.

Source: Statistics on International Development (SID) 2017 (see below)

Full details on all the projects supported in these countries can be found on gov.uk website.

The total amount of UK Net Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend to Swaziland since 1997, when my Department was established, was £6.8 million. This figure is sourced from the OECD DAC database and Statistics on International Development (DFID).

We regularly press the Swazi Government on the need for democratic reform and respect for human rights in line with the Commonwealth Charter. Furthermore, we remain committed to registering our concerns with respect to the right to freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association contained in the Swazi Constitution. We do not have any current plans to make representations to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group.

Former High Commissioner, Dame Judith Macgregor, made a farewell visit to Swaziland in March 2017, where she urged the need for further democratic reform with His Majesty King Mswati III. In addition, the Deputy High Commissioner to Swaziland visited three times between November 2016 and May 2017, each time meeting with civil society activists, as well as representatives from the Swaziland Democratic Party.

Work to combat violence and discrimination against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people forms an important part of our wider international human rights work. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office works through our Embassies and High Commissions, and through international organisations, including the Commonwealth, the EU and the UN, to promote tolerance and non-discrimination against LGBT people and to address discriminatory laws, in particular those that criminalise homosexuality.

The UK has been a member of the LGBT core group in Geneva since 2011, playing a key role in passing the UN’s first ever resolution on LGBT rights and recently joined its counterpart group in New York.

Within the Commonwealth we continue to encourage the Secretariat and the Secretary-General to do more to promote the rights of its LGBT people. The former Foreign Secretary, my Rt hon friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (William Hague), wrote to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in March urging him to take concrete action to address this issue within the Commonwealth.

We are concerned by the arrests of Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini at a Workers' Event in Swaziland on 1 May. They have been charged under the Sedition and Subversive Activities and Suppression of Terrorism Acts and continue to be held in custody pending trial proceedings. We are also concerned by the situation of Thulani Maseko, a lawyer, and Bheki Makhubu, a journalist, who remain in custody in Swaziland following their re-arrest on 9 April 2014. We encourage the Swazi Government to respect the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly in Swaziland, as set out in the Swazi constitution, and their international human rights obligations.

We have not received any specific reports about the Zakhele Remand Centre. However, we remain concerned by the human rights situation in Swaziland, including restrictions to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. We call on the Swazi Government to respect the human rights of all detainees and the independence of the judiciary. We will continue to work with international partners including the EU, US, Commonwealth and the South African Development Community (SADC) to exert international pressure for change.

We will continue to raise human rights concerns, such as Mr Masuku’s arrest and current detention with the Swazi authorities at senior levels. The UK has no permanent diplomatic presence in Swaziland. However, our high commission in South

Africa covers our relations with Swaziland and our officials visit Swaziland regularly.

While I share the assessment of the Commonwealth Observer Mission that Swaziland's recent elections were, in terms of process, competently conducted we continue to have concerns about the inability of political parties to participate openly in the election itself. In addition, the King continues to control the political process.

We continue to raise the need for democratic reforms with the Government of Swaziland and with international partners. For example, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Mr Simmonds), emphasised the importance of swifter progress toward democracy in Swaziland in his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Masuku earlier this year.

As the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's most recent annual Human Rights Report set out, Swaziland continues to suffer from a range of governance problems which adversely impact human rights and inhibit the country’s social and economic development. Restrictions on political parties, the rights of trade unions, freedom of association, independence of the judiciary, and equality of women are areas where greater progress needs to be made.