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Botswana, UN Sign Gender Programme

By Grace Shaibu
Friday, July 13th, 2018
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 Reports of women being raped, violated, disempowered and killed are a cause for concern, the Minister Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs, Ms Dorcas Makgato has said.

Speaking at the signing ceremony of the United Nations Joint Gender Programme (UNJGP) 2018-2020 on Tuesday, Ms Makgato said studies had revealed that only 1.2 per cent of Gender Based Violence (GBV) cases were reported with 67 percent of women having experienced some form of violence.

RBA-botswana-GBV

“When we correlate these figures, one would be asking how many cases have gone un-reported,” she said.

Minister Makgato also lamented that talking about rape and marital rape still made some people uncomfortable in a country where 44 per cent of men had admitted to have perpetrated violence.

Men, she added, also needed to be assisted and educated about the dangers of GBV.

Meanwhile the ministry’s permanent secretary Ms Kebonye Moepeng said this was not the first time Botswana was signing the programme revealing that one was signed in 2014.

 Ms Moepeng said the signing would ensure that both parties dealt with issues of GBV adding that Botswana was commended for implementation of recommendations from the 2012 GBV study.

She said another GBV study was nearing completion expressing the hope that the UN family would continue supporting the ministry financially and technically.

UN Resident Coordinator, Jacinta Barrins said GBV continued to be one of the most prevalent human rights abuses around the world and Botswana was no exception.

She said GBV included acts that inflicted physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering, threats such as coercion and other deprivations of liberty, hence the need to eliminate it.

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