Features of Constitution1
|Is there a constitution?||Yes|
|Does the constitution provide for freedom of religion?||Yes|
|Last Amended||not amended|
|Source||Centre for Human Rights (University of Pretoria)|
|Translation||Original was written in English|
|Current as of||May 11, 2011|
Constitution Excerpts (clauses that reference religion)2
Whereas We the People of the Kingdom of Swaziland do hereby undertake in humble submission to Almighty God to start afresh under a new framework of constitutional dispensation;
14. Fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual
(1) The fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual enshrined in this Chapter are hereby declared and guaranteed, namely
(a) respect for life, liberty, right to fair hearing, equality before the law and equal protection of the law;
(b) freedom of conscience, of expression and of peaceful assembly and association and of movement;
(c) protection of the privacy of the home and other property rights of the individual;
(d) protection from deprivation of property without compensation;
(e) protection from inhuman or degrading treatment, slavery and forced labor, arbitrary search and entry; and
(f) respect for rights of the family, women, children, workers and persons with disabilities.
(2) The fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in this Chapter shall be respected and upheld by the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary and other organs or agencies of Government and, where applicable to them, by all natural and legal persons in Swaziland, and shall be enforceable by the courts as provided in this Constitution.
(3) A person of whatever gender, race, place of origin, political opinion, color, religion, creed, age or disability shall be entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual contained in this Chapter but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest.
17. Protection from slavery and forced labor
(1) A person shall not be held in slavery or servitude.
(2) A person shall not be required to perform forced labor.
(3) For the purposes of this section, the expression "forced labor" does not include any labor
(a) required in consequence of the sentence or order of a court;
(b) required of any person while that person is lawfully detained which, though not required in consequence of the sentence or order of the court, is reasonably necessary in the interests of hygiene or for the maintenance of the place at which that person is detained;
(c) required of a member of a disciplined force in pursuance of the duties of that member or, in the case of a person who has conscientious objections to service as a member of a naval, military or air force, any labor that that person is required by law to perform in place of that service;
(d) required during a period of public emergency or in the event of any other emergency or calamity that threatens the life or well-being of the community, to the extent that the requiring of that labor is reasonably justifiable in the circumstances of any situation arising or existing during that period or as a result of that other emergency or calamity, for the purpose of dealing with that situation; or
(e) reasonably required as part of reasonable and normal parental, cultural, communal or other civic obligations, unless it is repugnant to the general principles of humanity.
20. Equality before the law
(1) All persons are equal before and under the law in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life and in every other respect and shall enjoy equal protection of the law.
(2) For the avoidance of any doubt, a person shall not be discriminated against on the grounds of gender, race, color, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, or social or economic standing, political opinion, age or disability.
(3) For the purposes of this section, "discriminate" means to give different treatment to different persons attributable only or mainly to their respective descriptions by gender, race, color, ethnic origin, birth, tribe, creed or religion, or social or economic standing, political opinion, age or disability.
(4) Subject to the provisions of subsection (5) Parliament shall not be competent to enact a law that is discriminatory either of itself or in its effect.
(5) Nothing in this section shall prevent Parliament from enacting laws that are necessary for implementing policies and programs aimed at redressing social, economic or educational or other imbalances in society.
23. Protection of freedom of conscience or religion
(1) A person has a right to freedom of thought, conscience or religion.
(2) Except with the free consent of that person, a person shall not be hindered in the enjoyment of the freedom of conscience, and for the purposes of this section freedom of conscience includes freedom of thought and of religion, freedom to change religion or belief, and freedom of worship either alone or in community with others.
(3) A religious community is entitled to establish and maintain places of education and to manage any place of education which that community wholly maintains, and that community may not be prevented from providing religious instruction for persons of that community in the course of any education provided at any place of education which that community wholly maintains or in the course of any education which that community otherwise provides.
(4) Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of this section to the extent that the law in question makes provision -
(a) that is reasonably required in the interest of defense, public safety, public order, public morality or public health; or
(b) that is reasonably required for the purpose of protecting the rights and freedoms of other persons, including the right to observe and practice any religion or belief without the unsolicited intervention of members of any other religion or belief.
SECOND SCHEDULE: OATHS
Sections 45(4), 73, 90(9), 128(1),143, 178 and 231(6)
(Oath or affirmation of allegiance)
I, .. do swear (or solemnly affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to King , his heirs and successors, according to law.
So help me God. (To be omitted in affirmation.)
(Oath or Affirmation for due execution of office)
I . do swear (or solemnly affirm) that I will well and truly serve King .., his heirs and successors, in the office of (here insert the description of the office).
So help me God. (To be omitted in Affirmation)
(Judicial oath or Affirmation)
I do swear (or solemnly affirm) that I will well and truly serve King , his heirs and successors, in the office of (here insert the description of the judicial office) and I will do right to all manner of people according to the law without fear or favor, affection or ill will.
So help me God. (To be omitted in Affirmation)
1. Data under the "Features of Constitution" heading are drawn from coding of the U.S. State Department's 2008 International Religious Freedom Reports conducted by researchers at the Association of Religion Data Archives. The article by Brian Grim and Roger Finke describes the coding of the International Religious Freedom reports. A dataset with these and the other international measures highlighted on the country pages can be downloaded from this website. Used with permission.
2. The constitutional excerpts shown above are reproduced from the websites given in the "Source" field; the links to these websites were active as of May 2011. Where the constitutional text shown on these websites was provided in a language other than English, this text was translated to English by ARDA staff with assistance from web-based translation utilities such as Google Translate and Yahoo! Babel Fish. Constitutional text was converted to American English where applicable. Constitutional clauses were judged to contain religious content based largely on the standards used in the construction of the Religion and State Constitutions Dataset collected by Jonathan Fox. Emphases were added to the text by ARDA staff to highlight religious content in articles that also contain content that does not pertain to matters of religion. The data on this page were correct to the best of the knowledge of the ARDA as of the date listed in the "Current as of" field shown above. Please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.org if you are aware of any incorrect information provided on this page.