08 May 2023

Aspects such as gender inequality, abuse of power and harmful norms in the society are still rooted in gender-based violence (GBV) thereby making it difficult for countries to achieve gender equality and empowerment of women and girls by 2030.

This is according to the European Union head of delegation to Botswana and SADC, Ms Petra Pereyra when giving remarks at a workshop organised to validate the draft guidelines for gender mainstreaming by the Botswana-EU Policy Dialogue forum.

She said while there had been some significant, albeit uneven progress, no country in the world was currently on track to achieving gender equality.

“In Botswana, the National Vision 2036 calls for the elimination of gender discrimination and GBV in to achieve a tolerant and inclusive nation, yet one in three women still experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, and it is shocking that such violence often happens within homes and families where we should all feel safe and secure,” she said.

Ms Pereyra said the sad part was that convictions of GBV perpetrators had remained low globally, which rendered mainstreaming gender within the justice system an urgent human right to protect vulnerable populations, especially women and girls.

“It is the reason why the EU  strongly supported the choice of the government of Botswana to select the gender mainstreaming within the justice system as one of the key priorities to be implemented under the EU-Botswana Policy Dialogue Facility,” she said.

Ms Pereyra also labelled GBV one of the most prevalent violations of human rights with tremendous cost to most countries in the world.

She said GBV was also a concern in that its effects could remain with the victims for a lifetime, and even be passed to the following generations.

“Studies show that children who have witnessed or have been subjected to violence are more likely to become victims or abusers themselves,” she said.

She also cautioned that if Botswana failed to empower women and girls, who constituted more than half its population, then it would be difficult for the country to achieve its ambitious targets of transforming the country from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy and achieving high income status by 2030.

She observed that even though the world celebrates 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it will take nearly 300 years at the current rate of progress to achieve equal rights for women and girls in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

She said that was the reason the EU promoted gender equality in all areas of its foreign and security policy, and that locally, the EU continued to support civil society initiatives against GBV and gender dialogue by government and active members of the civil society.  ENDS