10 Dec 2020

Government continues to ensure that the country’s obligations to its people on human rights are implemented in line with its responsibilities as required by various international treaties.

This was said by Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration Mr Dumezweni Mthimkhulu at the just ended 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence annual international campaign in Gaborone yesterday.

 To that end, he said, Botswana continued to work on legal and institutional infrastructure to align them with the international instruments which were not yet ratified.

He said since independence, Botswana had made the protection of human rights the foundation of all laws, policies and strategies through constitutional provisions.

Government, he said, was committed to amend the constitution because it recognised that societal norms and values evolved.

Mr Mthimkhulu revealed that work towards the establishment of a national human rights institution was ongoing.

He said having recognised that poverty played a major role in the inability to fully enjoy one’s human rights, government was developing a national poverty eradication policy.

The policy called for expansion of the poverty measures from consumptive to a multi-dimensional approach, he said.

The assistant minister said building a robust sustainable, efficient, effective and coordinated social protection system as well as a comprehensive social registry had been identified as priorities under National Development Plan 11.

  Meanwhile the assistant minister has reiterated government’s commitment to building a society free from gender based violence (GBV). Ends