"security force use of excessive force, including torture, which resulted in deaths and injuries; official impunity; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention; lengthy pretrial detention; executive influence over the judiciary; infringement of citizens' privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of press, assembly, and movement; official corruption; discrimination and violence against women; child abuse, including female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual exploitation of children; regional and ethnic discrimination; trafficking in persons, especially women and children; societal discrimination against persons with disabilities; official and societal discrimination against homosexual persons; societal discrimination against persons with HIV; and forced labor, including by children."

Togo is in 163rd place out of 191 countries and territories in 2021 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and the living standards of a country, making it one of the world's poorest nations, with a life expectancy of 61.62 years (2021). Nearly 81.2% of Togo's rural population lives under the global poverty line with the welfare of children remaining a significant challenge as 49.5% of those impoverished are under 18 years of age. This situation is not helped by poor prospects as while education is highly prioritized by families in Togo with most children now attending primary school, only about 41% of children are enrolled in secondary school with just 60% of teenagers being literate (recently 59% of students failed the government final exam for their grade level.) Current education spending in Togo is 5.3696% of GDP in 2018 compared with Nigeria at 7.04%, though significantly higher than neighbouring Benin at 2.934% and Ghana at 3.9894% in 2018 and on a par with Burkina Faso at 5.4%.

Although crime is widespread in Togo with tourists regularly subjected to theft and pick-pocketing, especially in Lome along the beach and in the markets, Togo has many tourist draws including a somewhat unique landscape spread across the country's five regions, historic monuments and sites including fortress-like clay huts dating to the 17th century that were lived in by the Batammariba people, and a 28 mile coastline with beautiful fine sand beaches, bordering the Atlantic ocean.