Gaborone:  Botswana Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) has urged government to facilitate progress in giving effect to the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).   BOCONGO prepared and presented a shadow report and an oral statement to the 45th Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women sitting in Geneva from January 18 to February 5 2010.

The oral statement focused on five priority areas that merited the attention of the committee in its review of the Botswana state periodic report. These are inadequate and ineffective legal and structural framework for the protection of women, dissemination of CEDAW and all laws affecting the status of women, substantive equality in power sharing and political representation of women violence against women, sexual reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.

BOCONGO noted that CEDAW has not been fully integrated into domestic law in Botswana. Even where attempts have been made to incorporate some aspects of the convention, this has been done in a piecemeal fashion, which limits the effectiveness of such reviews. Chigedzi Chinyepi, the BOCONGO Gender and Development Sector coordinator said government has in response to a list of issues and questions raised by the CEDAW committee, indicated that following the review in 1997 of all laws affecting the status of women in Botswana, some laws were not amended in line with the convention. The laws, which were not amended are Deserted Wives and Children Protection Act, Penal Code Amendment on Abortion, Law of Delicts and Customary Law.

She revealed that the Botswana delegation, which presented the report in Geneva failed to explain why the laws were not amended. BOCONGO recommends automatic incorporation of all treaties upon ratification. BOCONGO stated that government fails to recognise that many women in Botswana cannot afford legal services, or are unaware of legal remedies. BOCONGO holds the view that the non-adoption of the national gender policy as well as the positioning of Women Affairs Department (WAD) and its resourcing are limiting factors that hinder the effective structural framework for the protection of women. Government has conceded in its response that the placement of the WAD in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs poses problems of authority of coordination. "It has limited capacity to coordinate implementation of the convention. It operates with 33% of staff complement. The department is allocated two percent of the total Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs budget," the government has said.

Chinyepi said an illustration of such limitations has been the failure of the department to have a comprehensive action plan with clear targets and performance indicators to accelerate the harmonisation of all laws and policies with the convention. "Mainstreaming gender throughout the government machinery (and other sectors) remains a pipe dream.  Consequently BOCONGO recommends that WAD be better resourced and empowered to coordinate, implement, monitor and evaluate substantive equality of women," she said.

BOCONGO stated that government has failed to ensure both de jure and de facto compliance with the provisions of CEDAW and that the inadequate dissemination of CEDAW and all laws that affect the status of women has denied them the benefits of the convention. Chinyepi said rural women, ethnic women, sexual minorities and women with disabilities are especially disadvantaged as there are no targeted interventions for their needs. She explained that the benefits are further limited by distance, the effect of poverty and the non-conducive legal environment that makes it difficult to access programs. "BOCONGO recommends that serious consideration be given to closer collaboration between WAD and other stakeholders including NGOs in the dissemination of information on CEDAW and all Laws that affect the status of women as well as in the monitoring and evaluation of the impact of amended and newly enacted Laws," Chinyepi said.

She added that there is lack of political will on the part of government to recognise and reform the non-enabling environment that has been created by the patriarchal socialisation of Batswana on gender issues, as a factor which disadvantages women and renders them unequal partners in decision making at all levels of life. She stated that the entrenched patriarchal attitudes discourage women from participating in politics and the limited access to financial resources hinders their capacity to meaningfully compete for political positions.  She explained that the number of women in the current Parliament versus that of men is a clear illustration of this. There are only four women out of the 57 MPs.

"BOCONGO implores government to demonstrate political will to substantively empower women, by reconsidering its position on the use of quotas as a temporary measure to address the imbalances in political representation of women and also its position regarding the non-signing of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development," she said. 

She added that BOCONGO is concerned about the un-abating levels of violence against women in Botswana and holds the view that efforts to combat violence have largely been ineffective due a number of reasons, among them poor dissemination of information on laws and programmes meant to benefit victims of gender violence/domestic violence negatively impacts on their effectiveness. She said non-criminalisation of marital rape by the Domestic Violence Act leads to the failure of the law to protect women against one of the heinous acts of violence against them.

She said that the Abolition of the Marital Power Act does not apply to customary and religious marriages.  "A sizable number of Batswana choose customary law as their living law and this law not only perpetuates unequal power relations between men and women but also tolerates violence as a means of enforcing such power relations," Chinyepi said. 

She stated that BOCONGO advocates for the speedy setting up of Legal Aid for women and increased support to open and maintain shelters for victims of domestic violence. Customary law must be reviewed to remove discriminatory practices that tolerate and perpetuate gender-based violence. BOCONGO has observed that access to sexual and reproductive health services remains a challenge for sexual minorities, including sex workers.

Chinyepi said because abortion is illegal in Botswana except in very limited cases, many women resort to unhygienic termination of pregnancies, which are unsafe and can result in long-term complications or fatalities. BOCONGO contends that failure to provide adequate, safe and affordable sexual and reproductive health services for all women amounts to a violation of their right to health.