The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today concluded its consideration of the combined seventeenth to twenty-second periodic report of Botswana, with Committee Experts commending the State on providing HIV/AIDS treatment to foreign citizens, and asking questions on evictions of indigenous persons from ancestral lands and minority language education.
Régine Esseneme, Committee Expert and Country Co-Rapporteur, said that it was pleasing to note that since 2020, all non-nations were able to access preventative treatment for HIV/AIDS. How many non-citizens with HIV/AIDS lived in Botswana?
Ms. Esseneme referenced a High Court decision determining that the eviction of the San/Basarwa from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the refusal to give them hunting licences was illegal and unconstitutional. Why did the police prevent the San/Basarwa from carrying out their traditional ancestral activities?
Ms. Esseneme further noted that the teaching of ethnic minority languages in schools remained prohibited, and children from minority groups, particularly the Basarwa and Wayeyi, were the most numerous in poor boarding schools, where the Setswana language was imposed on them. The school results of these children were poor. What measures were in place to provide minority children with a better-quality education?
The delegation said that one case decided at the Court of Appeal had led to free antiretroviral therapy services being provided to foreign prison inmates in 2015. The Government had since expanded antiretroviral therapy and related services to all foreign nationals. Treatment was provided for free as soon as HIV/AIDS was detected. Around 700 foreign nationals and 20 refugees were receiving such treatment.
Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme, Permanent Representative of Botswana to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said the Government had taken note of the High Court’s ruling on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and provided support beyond the extent of the ruling. It supported the education of children of the indigenous inhabitants of the Reserve, and supported the livelihoods of the inhabitants through the provision of social services. There was no systematic harassment of these citizens by the police.
Dumezweni Meshack Mthimkhulu, Assistant Minister, Ministry for State President and head of the delegation, said that the Government had approved the language policy of 2022, which would introduce the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in early childhood learning from 2023. Thirteen languages, including sign language, had been approved for use in the first phase. The delegation added that there were enough teaching materials to facilitate education in these languages, and teachers’ aides who could instruct in these languages were being hired from the community.
In concluding remarks, Ms. Esseneme extended thanks to the delegation for providing clear responses to the Committee’s questions. Ms. Esseneme wished Botswana further success in integrating its communities, so that all communities, including non-Tswana communities, could equally access justice, services and rights.
Mr. Meshack Mthimkhulu, in his concluding remarks, thanked the Committee for the thorough, focused and rich discussion on the steps Botswana had taken to implement the Convention. The Government of Botswana was committed to ending racial discrimination. Future measures such as the planned comprehensive review of the Constitution and new legislation would further strengthen protections from discrimination. The State party would work to implement the Committee’s concluding observations through its dedicated follow-up mechanism.
The delegation of Botswana consisted of representatives of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development; Ministry of Justice; National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency; Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture; Ministry of Defence and Security; Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs; and the Permanent Mission of Botswana to the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The Committee will issue its concluding observations on the report of Botswana after the conclusion of its one hundred and eighth session on 2 December. Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, while webcasts of the public meetings can be found here. The programme of work of the Committee’s one hundred and eighth session and other documents related to the session can be found here.
The Committee will next meet in public on Wednesday, 23 November at 3 p.m. to consider the combined ninth to tenth periodic report of Georgia (CERD/C/GEO/9-10).
Report
The Committee has before it the combined seventeenth to twenty-second periodic report of Botswana (CERD/C/BWA/17-22).
Presentation of Report
DUMEZWENI MESHACK MTHIMKHULU, Assistant Minister, Ministry for State President of Botswana and head of the delegation, said Botswana was firmly opposed to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other related intolerances. The Government genuinely implemented the Convention both in letter and in spirit.
The Constitution of Botswana guaranteed equality for all people. It allowed any person who alleged that its provisions were being contravened to apply to the High Court for redress. The definition of racial discrimination, found in several pieces of legislation, criminalised discrimination on the grounds of descent, nationality or ethnic origin. The Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Act defined racist or xenophobic material as any material which advocated, promoted or incited hatred, discrimination or violence against any person or group of persons based on race, colour, descent, nationality, ethnic origin, tribe or religion. Botswana had adopted its Vision 2036 strategy, which reaffirmed the State’s commitment to combat all forms of racial discrimination.
The Government had established a new Ministry of Justice with the sole responsibility for the justice portfolio in April 2022. The new Ministry now housed the Human Rights Unit, which was the national focal point for the coordination of human rights issues. The Government established the National Human Rights Coordination Committee in 2020, a forum for meaningful engagement between the Government and non-governmental organizations. A notable milestone of the Committee was the draft comprehensive human rights strategy and national action plan which, among others, drove the implementation of treaty body recommendations as well as timely reporting.
Botswana acceded to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in July 2021. To domesticate the Convention, Parliament approved the Revised Disability Policy and the drafting of the Disability Bill was ongoing. An amendment of the Constitution of Botswana had also been prepared that expanded representation and inclusion of all Batswana in the Ntlo Ya Dikgosi (House of Chiefs).
The 2019 Creative Industry Strategy provided opportunities for the flourishing of diverse cultures, cultural preservation and participation by all people of Botswana. Repository centres for the respective cultures of Botswana were being constructed. The Government had also approved the language policy of 2022, which would introduce the use of mother tongue as a medium of instruction in early childhood learning from 2023. Thirteen languages, including sign language, had been approved for use in the first phase.
In 2021, the Government developed the draft national action plan to end statelessness in Botswana. To operationalise the plan, a draft Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was being finalised. All asylum seekers were housed in Dukwi Refugee Camp while their claims for asylum were being assessed. In addition, housing units had been constructed at the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants to accommodate families of rejected asylum seekers while they were processed for repatriation by immigration officials.
Questions by Committee Experts
RÉGINE ESSENEME, Committee Expert and Country Co-Rapporteur, welcomed the introduction of recent legislation prohibiting discrimination, the strengthening of institutions and the implementation of the Committee’s concluding observations, including the introduction of a law on chieftaincy and the creation of a Human Rights Department within the Ministry of Presidential Affairs. The Committee further welcomed the State party’s open invitation to visits from Special Procedure mandate holders.
Ms. Esseneme asked if there were plans to amend the Constitution to include descent and national origin as grounds for discrimination. Would the Penal Code be reviewed to harmonise national laws with the Convention? What was the State party doing to combat indirect racial discrimination hidden in measures that were unfavourable to certain categories of persons or groups of persons, such as the national ban on hunting decided in 2014?
How were international legal instruments integrated into domestic law? What activities were carried out by the Human Rights Department regarding raising public awareness of the Convention? What was the relationship between the Human Rights Unit and the Inter-Ministerial Treaty Committee, two bodies that were now being established? When would these bodies start operating? What actions had been taken by the State party to ensure the implementation of the recommendations made by the Committee and what were the results? What were some examples of decisions in which the Convention had been applied by judges?
In the judicial system, reportedly only Tswana customary law was applied and imposed on ethnic minorities in the courts in civil matters and in the Kgotla. Tswana traditional leaders tried criminal cases even though they were not trained in the application of the Criminal Code. What kind of cases were tried by each court, and what legislation applied in different jurisdictions? What qualifications were needed for officials dispensing justice in customary courts? Could appeals be launched regarding the decisions of civil and customary courts? In the event of a discrepancy between a domestic norm and an international legal instrument, which rule was applied? Did redress provided to victims in the Code of Criminal Procedure apply to cases of racial discrimination? The legal aid mechanism established in 2013 was granted only in civil proceedings. What was the scope of this legal aid? What were the conditions to be fulfilled to benefit from it? Why did legal aid not apply in criminal proceedings?
The Committee welcomed awareness-raising for young people in schools on the prevention of HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence. What education on human rights was provided to students? What was the content of the human rights training modules for law enforcement officials? How many staff had been trained? How were magistrates and lawyers trained on the prohibition of discrimination and the application of the Convention?
The Cybercrime and Computer Crime Act did not appear to cover the full scope of dissemination of racist ideas and speech. How were racial hate speech and incitement to racial discrimination in the media and on the Internet dealt with in practice?
Could the State party provide the Committee with more recent statistics on the ethnic make-up of the State?
The Committee noted the steps taken by the Government to implement the High Court decision in the case of Roy Sesana and others v. Attorney General, which determined that the eviction of the San/Basarwa from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the refusal to give them hunting licences was illegal and unconstitutional. Why did the police prevent the San/Basarwa from carrying out their traditional ancestral activities? What measures were in place to share the profits of mining activities on the Reserve with the San/Basarwa, and to protect them from the invasion of elephants?
What measures were being taken to ensure that the ethnic groups living in the Okavango Delta were lifted out of poverty and did not lose their cultural practices? What compensation was provided to the San and Hambukushu people of Tsodilo Mountain, who were relocated following the inscription of Tsodilo Mountain as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 2001? What was the difference between tribal land, freehold land and state land? What were the requirements for land allocation, and how were people made aware of the land allocation process? What was the composition of the Land Councils?
MAZALO TEBIE, Committee Expert and Country Co-Rapporteur, asked about the status of the draft law on the establishment of a national human rights institution that was to be tabled in Parliament in 2020. Had such an institution been established? The Human Rights Department and the Ombudsman’s Office were responsible for raising public awareness of human rights and racism. What awareness-raising activities on the Convention and racial discrimination had been organised and what were their outcomes? The Committee welcomed measures promoting tolerance, understanding and dialogue through Botswana’s Vision 2016 programme. What had been the impacts of these different measures?
How did the State party aim to raise awareness among all social strata about their human rights and fundamental freedoms, considering that radio and television stations broadcast only in English and Setswana and community radio was not permitted? What measures were being taken to regulate the media? How did the State promote awareness among media professionals of their responsibility not to propagate prejudices? How many journalists from both the public and private media have been brought before the Press Council, and what were the sanctions imposed on them? How effectively did media outlets cover rural areas? Were indigenous peoples, minorities and women appropriately represented in the media? Why had a plan to transform the state broadcaster into a more independent public service been rejected?