Why Cabinet sits on vital policy document
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The Botswana government has not ratified the United Nations (UN) convention on People with Disabilities (PWD) and it has emerged that the country is not ready to domesticate the protocol nine years on for fear that it may violate the set rules.
The Executive Director of the Botswana Council for Disabled, Sekgabo Ramsay says the government excuse for not domesticating the convention is that “the system is not ready.”
“If the government ratify the convention, it would be required to domesticate it and therefore bound to comply with it. The government could easily be sued by people with disability if for some reasons it offends the convention, but we have to lobby and advocate for the ratification regardless of whether they are ready or not. If we wait they (government) will never be ready,” Ramsay further explained.
As the world celebrates the human rights Month this March, the eyes of the country’s human rights groups such as BCD and the Botswana Network on Law and AIDS (BONELA) are on whether the government would take a step closer to ratifying the convention which seeks to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.
Persons with disabilities according to the convention include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.
“We are outraged by the fact that Botswana has not signed the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.
As a result Botswana does not have a specific disability law. The National Disability Policy of 1996 has been under review for more than two years. The absence of a policy and legislative framework to acknowledge disability as a human right, has resulted in a fragmented response to disability issues including addressing the needs of persons with disabilities,” added another human rights activist, Cindy Kelemi who is the Director of BONELA.
The review on the 1996 national policy on disability was completed and submitted to Cabinet about two years ago and it is yet to be brought before Parliament and Kelemi is of the view that the policy could provide a conducive environment for minority groups to claim their rights.
“While we acknowledge that significant strides have been made to address the needs of persons with disabilities, a lot more still needs to be done and having a policy in place will be a good starting point. We need to increase efforts to raise awareness about disability issues, empower people with disabilities to actively participate in the political, social, economic, cultural and religious discourse and creating strategic partnerships to advance the rights of persons with disabilities,” Kelemi added.
Kelemi’s contention is that without disability specific legislation in place, the ability of government to protect the people living with disability is quite limited and the prospects of the future of the disadvantaged group depend on the ability and willingness of public officers to implement the existing policies.
Although the government has not ratified the convention in question, it has put up disability programmes in different Ministries and an office directly dealing with disability under the Office of the President. However, Kelemi is not happy with the office’s performance and is disappointed that it has failed to convince the Minister of Presidential Affairs to take the policy to Parliament to date.
“We were truly elated when the office of disability was established under the office of the president. We had hoped that the office will be able to advocate for persons with disabilities from within government. We had hoped that the Disability Office will work towards ensuring that Government of Botswana signs the UN Convention on the rights for persons with disability which is legally binding in nature. But we are disappointed that this office is only limited to coordination, integration and resource mobilisation. While these activities are critically important, as long as we do not have a conducive policy and legal environment these efforts will remain futile. As long as disability issues are not addressed from a human rights approach, we will continuously experience problems,” Kelemi pointed out.
BONELA and the Botswana Council of the Disabled remain committed to advocating for ratification of this convention and will continue to engage with government on this issue. Meanwhile the current session of Parliament closes in less than two weeks time and the policy issue is not in the agenda. The next session only comes in July this year.
The Coordinator in the office of People living with disability, under the office of the President, Thomas Motingwa was yet to respond to Weekend Post enquiries at the time of going to print.
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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help
President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.
Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”
Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.
On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.
He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”
President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.
“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”
When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.
“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”
He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.
“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:
He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”
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Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.
“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”
In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.
It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.
Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.
President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”
In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”
He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.
“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”
Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”
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Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV
Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”
Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.
“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”
He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.
Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.
Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”
“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”
Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.
“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”