08 Jul 2025

Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services has prioritised a holistic review of the justice system.

Answering a Parliamentary question yesterday, Minister Nelson Ramaotwana said this would improve capacities across the criminal justice sector, to better plan for timely delivery, high quality, fair and accessible justice services. He said as part of their demonstration to deliver new justice reforms, a qualitative situational analysis, which assessed the state of a child-friendly justice in Botswana was conducted and completed on July 2023.

The purpose of the survey, he said, was necessitated by government efforts to restructure the child-friendliness of its juvenile justice in order to protect children’s rights as stipulated in the Children’s Act as well as enshrined on other related International Treaties.

Furthermore, he said the research study also intended to enhance justice system that would guarantee the respect and effective implementation of all children’s rights, considering the child’s level of maturity and understanding circumstances pertaining to their cases.

He added that as government continued efforts to support the justice reforms through the conducted research study in collaboration with United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the ministry hosted the first national symposium on a child friendly justice locally in August 2023.

Moreover, he said the findings of the research study and that of the symposium were then developed into a child-friendly system roadmap. He said the roadmap would serve as a yardstick to ensure guidance on the justice system that is responsive to cases involving children without compromising on their rights.

Mr Ramaotwana said Section 39 of the Children’s Act No 8 of 2009, recognised the need for child-friendly courts and therefore, every magistrate courts had been designated as a children’s courts. He said with the recommendation from the alluded assessments, it was envisaged that magistrate courts would be further refurbished to accommodate the specification requirements.

Minister Ramaotwana emphasised that as part of the implementation plan, in support of UNICEF and British Council in July 2024, they conducted a training for magistrates, prosecutors, social workers, health workers, prisons and other law enforcement officers on how to administer justice when handling cases involving children.

He however added that the implementation plan envisaged more training, benchmarking with assistance from other implementers to explore other alternatives that would promote courts that were child-friendly and also aligned to international standards.

The MP for Kgatleng East, Mr Mabuse Pule had asked the minister if there were any plans to establish child-friendly courts equipped with specialised personnel, child sensitive procedures and appropriate facilities to handle cases involving minors, considering the sensitive nature of child related cases and the need for safe, supportive judicial environment.  He also asked the minister to further state if there were any ongoing feasibility studies to determine the need for such courts across the country.

Mr Pule also asked if there were any steps taken to ensure availability of trained personnel, such as child psychologists, social workers and legal experts to support children throughout judicial proceedings.  Moreover, he asked if the ministry had aims to explore best practices from other countries that have implemented child-friendly courts successfully. ENDS