Africa-Press – Botswana. President Advocate Duma Boko says there is urgent need for stronger legal frameworks and effective enforcement mechanisms to hold perpetrators of gender-based violence (GBV) accountable.
Welcoming the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) Secretary General, Mr Jagan Chapagain at the Office of the President on August 11, President Boko highlighted that GBV continued to be a challenge in the country. He noted that prevalence rates remained alarmingly high, particularly among women and girls.
President Boko acknowledged that while Botswana had made strides through legislative and policy reforms aimed at combating GBV, there were persistent challenges in the effective implementation of these measures.
He stressed the importance of ensuring access to justice and adequate support services for survivors.
The meeting underscored government’s commitment to addressing GBV and the need for continued collaboration with international partners to develop robust strategies that protect vulnerable populations and promote gender equality.
“It should be everyone’s responsibility to help curb GBV as it usually occurs in secret places and we only come to be aware of it when incidents like deaths and serious fights have occurred,” President Boko said.
He noted that policing such secretive and private spaces remained a challenge thus pleaded with the Red Cross society to come on board and assist with ways to root out domestic unrest before they escalated into violence.
Additionally, President Boko appreciated long standing collaborations with the Red Cross society, a partnership which he said had existed over the years.
“It has been a partnership that addressed global issues from humanitarian to gender issues, thus vital to addressing many social ills”, President Boko said.
He commended the Red Cross for championing programmes and policies aimed to promote youth empowerment, humanitarian responses, all of which were in alignment with government priorities as government continues to wrestle with such on daily basis.
President Boko said Botswana looked forward to strengthening capacity building in relations to eliminating certain issues outside the community.
Furthermore, he said, Botswana was also struggling with issues of health care in all its many facets.
Mr Chapagain commended government for creating an enabling environment for Botswana Red Cross to effectively dispatch its services to the public. With regard to the country’s deteriorating health care system, Mr Chapagain promised Red Cross’ support toward the country’s health system through the provision of mobile clinics and health volunteers particularly at remote areas and hard to reach places.
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