15 Oct 2020

Botswana attaches great importance  to the protection and promotion of women and girls’ rights and is deeply concerned by the persistence and rise of violence against them. 

This was said by Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism Ms Phildah Kereng during a virtual meeting of Commonwealth foreign affairs ministers on Wednesday.

“We recognise that ending violations of women’s rights   is a   moral   imperative which   we   must collectively fight,” she said.

Minister Kereng therefore  stressed the need to intensify efforts to prevent all forms of violence against women and girls. 

Botswana, she said, joined other nations in supporting the Commonwealth “Say No More Campaign.”

 Among humanity’s other pressing challenges, Ms Kereng mentioned the deepening climate crisis, poverty, unemployment particularly amongst the youth, diseases and violations   of   human   rights.

 On racism   and   racial discrimination, Ms Kereng said fighting it was a priority for the international community noting that the world continued to witness the scourge as well as xenophobia and related intolerance.

 She said the Commonwealth should continue   to   advocate   for   equal   rights   for   all   without distinction.    

To that end, Minister Kereng said Botswana was looking forward to endorsing  a Commonwealth statement on racism.

Regarding climate change, she said the last Commonwealth meeting of heads and government committed to taking more action in response to the issue.

“It is thus imperative to strengthen the capacity of our countries to access climate funding for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, including their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs),” she said.

About COVID-19, Minister Kereng said the pandemic hit at a time when Botswana was already facing challenges such as high unemployment, slow job creation, high income inequality and  climate change impacts.

Ms Kereng said the fight against COVID-19 required strong political will and leadership, international   cooperation and   solidarity. 

The current health and economic crisis reaffirmed that Botswana’s strength lay in timely, coordinated and joint actions, she said.

However, Ms Kereng said even though COVID-19 had brought the world to its knees, there were some positives in the context of climate change such as reduction of emissions due to less demand for fossil fuels.

The situation called for innovative ways of sustaining positives from the COVID-19 impact, she said. ends