20 Nov 2018

Botswana plans to establish a human rights institution to ensure effective national implementation of human rights obligations.

Officiating at a two-day human rights symposium on November 20, Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration Minister Mr Nonofo Molefhi said the debate on the establishment of an autonomous, stand-alone human rights body in Botswana dated a couple of years back.

The minister said it was because of the need for such an institution that government had considered expanding the Ombudsman’s mandate to incorporate the human rights portfolio.

He said to kick-start the transformation of the Office of the Ombudsman, government undertook benchmarking visits to Ghana, Uganda, Namibia and Tanzania.

“This decision by government was followed by the acceptance of recommendations made during Botswana’ second cycle review under the universal periodic review mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland in 2013 to establish a national human rights institution in accordance with the Paris Principles,” he said.

Mr Molefhi said the commitment was further buttressed during the third cycle of the universal periodic review conducted in January this year.

He said Botswana was grateful for the support pledged by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the establishment of the institution in the 2017-2021 UN development framework.

“To this end, government and the United Nations have signed a four-year programme to support the fulfillment of human rights, access to justice and empowerment of youth and women projects which will provide support for the expansion of the Ombudsman mandate,” he stated.

Mr Molefhi assured participants that government recognised the fact that human rights body linked the responsibility of the state to the rights of citizens and aligned national laws to regional and international human rights systems.

UNDP resident representative Ms Jacinta Barrins hailed Botswana for its commitment towards the formation of the body which she said would be a link between government and the people of Botswana.

Once in place, she said, the institution would serve to promote, protect and fulfill human rights.

Ms Barrins, who noted that Botswana already had a lot of achievements in the area of human rights, the setting up of the institution would help create a culture where the subject of human rights became a topical issue.

Special envoy at the Global Alliance of National Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and former chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Ms Florence Simbiri-Jaoko said despite Botswana’s culture of being cautious when it came to ratifying conventions and treaties, the country had a history of doing well in implementing legal instruments aimed at protecting its people.

As such, she said, Botswana had a good foundation upon which the human rights institution would be founded.

Ms Simbiri-Jaoko said the body would need to be proactive in the discharge of its mandate.

She said by nature, such institutions did not wait for complaints and human rights violations to be reported but  continuously and proactively engaged directly with all sectors of society. ENDS