The human rights situation in Malawi remains challenging, with limited progress recorded in 2024. The country’s anti-homosexuality laws contravene several regional and international human rights treaties that Malawi has ratified. In June, Malawi’s Constitutional Court rejected a legal challenge to decriminalize same-sex conduct. With the case’s dismissal, the power to review and amend the Penal Code to end anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) discrimination now lies with the country’s parliament.
Abortion is still criminalized and heavily restricted in Malawi. The government has not enacted the Termination of Pregnancy Bill, which would regulate abortion.
On a positive note, to address violence and abuse against older people and to safeguard older people’s rights and welfare, Malawi enacted the Older Persons Law in June 2024.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
In June, Malawi’s Constitutional Court rejected a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the vague and overly broad provisions of Penal Code sections 153, 154, and 156. These sections can result in sentences of up to 14 years’ imprisonment for anyone found guilty of having “carnal knowledge” of any person “against the order of nature,” attempts to commit an “unnatural offence” or undertakes “indecent practices.”
The court’s decision exacerbates risks of arbitrary arrests and prosecutions against LGBT people, as well as the unlawful shutdown of LGBT rights organizations.
Rights of Older People
The number of older people abused and killed in Malawi as a result of witchcraft allegations continued to rise. The Malawi Network of Older Persons Organizations (MANEPO) documented a 68 percent rise in reported attacks and abuse of older people between 2020 and 2021, with 15 killed in 2002, and 25 in 2023. In January 2024 alone, six older people were reportedly killed on allegations of witchcraft. MANEPO told Human Rights Watch that by September, 18 older people had been killed and 123 had faced various human rights abuses.
In 2024, Malawi enacted the Older Persons Bill to safeguard older people’s rights and welfare. While the law seeks to address violence and abuse of older people alongside other rights, it is not fully compliant with Malawi’s human rights obligations under regional and international human rights standards, including on older people’s right to live a secure and dignified life. Malawi ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2017, under which it is obligated to protect the right of older people with disabilities to live independently within the community.
Right to Education
Although Malawi adopted constitutional protections that prohibit child marriage in 2017, and revised its guidelines on school readmission in 2018 to ensure girls can resume their education after a pregnancy, implementation remains a challenge. Reasons include lack of awareness of government law and policy, deeply entrenched social and cultural norms regarding teenage pregnancy and child marriage, poverty and inability to pay for school materials, and gaps in implementation of the readmission policy.
Reports indicate that some girls may face sexual exploitation by adults in exchange for money to buy school materials such as books and uniforms. Parents from low-income households may also encourage their adolescent daughters to marry for economic reasons and therefore see it as an “acceptable practice.”
Malawi is yet to develop mechanisms to follow up on and keep track of students who drop out of school, including due to pregnancy or marriage, with the aim of initiating their return to school. Malawi is also yet to adopt an unconditional positive continuation policy that outlines schools’ obligations to safeguard and monitor the implementation of the right to education for married, pregnant, and parenting children and older students. Such a policy would encourage pregnant students to remain in school for as long as they choose to, and not prescribe rigid compulsory leave after giving birth.
Right to Health
Malawi’s public healthcare spending falls far short of its commitments under the 2001 Abuja Declaration, in which governments of countries in the African Union set a target of allocating at least 15 percent of their national budgets to improve health care. The health budget allocation was 8.8 percent of the national budget in 2023/24 and 12 percent in the 2024/25 budget. While this represents an improvement on previous years, it falls short of public healthcare spending standards required to achieve universal health coverage and related healthcare goals fundamental to the realization of the right to health.
Rights of Women and Girls
Maternal mortality in Malawi stands at 381 deaths per 100,000 live births, placing Malawi among the 25 countries with the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Many women and girls still experience poor quality maternal health services. In particular, women and girls still experience obstetric violence when seeking antenatal care, intrapartum care, and postnatal care. In Malawi, obstetric violence—abuse, and mistreatment meted out against pregnant women and girls in healthcare facilities when they seek reproductive health services—persists because laws and policies and the methods of their implementation are not responsive to the realities of women and girls.
Abortion is criminalized and heavily restricted in Malawi. The government has not enacted the Termination of Pregnancy Bill, proposed by the Law Commission on the Review of the Law on Abortion in 2016, and would regulate abortion and clarify the instances in which it is allowed. Consequently, women and girls are forced to resort to unsafe abortion, which is responsible for 17 percent of maternal mortality in the country and even more morbidity.
Freedom of Expression
In February, top investigative journalist Gregory Gondwe went into hiding after the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) threatened to arrest him. This followed a report Gondwe wrote exposing the military’s multi-million-dollar payments to companies owned by a businessman under investigation for corruption. A statement issued by the regional nongovernmental organization Media Institute of Southern Africa Malawi described the threats toward Gondwe as having a chilling effect on journalists and the media in Malawi, and an attempt to intimidate whistleblowers who wish to report corrupt practices.