Pitseng Gaoberekwe’s burial in CKGR a victory for human rights

The burial of Mosarwa man, Pitseng Gaoberekwe on 10th December 2024, three years after his death on 31 December 2021, in his ancestral land of CKGR is a victory for human rights!

The event was deliberately timed to coincide with the commemoration of International Human Rights Day - a United Nations global commemoration - observed annually on 10th December to afford countries an opportunity to reflect on their human rights record, celebrate achievements, note challenges and re-commit to the continued promotion and protection of human rights.

Gaoberekwe’s family had to endure an incredible tortuous three years of legal gymnastics with the state, an adventure that, despite the pro bono (free of charge) legal services rendered the family by current Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Nelson Ramaotwana, was sealed by a Court of Appeal ruling in favour of the state.

Following the deadlock, when the family flatly refused to bury the body of their father in New Xade (a settlement outside CKGR), other options, including an appeal to the President and submitting a complaint to the African Court of Human and People’s Rights, were considered.

Thankfully, general elections arrived and a pro-human rights lawyer, familiar and invested with the case, Advocate Duma Boko of the UDC swept the stakes to assume power! President Boko then invoked a High Court Order that allows a successful litigant to abandon a judgement, and went a step ahead to announce plans for the burial of Gaoberekwe at his ancestral land in his maiden State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The family decided to give the new administration a chance to resolve the case before submitting the case to the African Union. The unsung hero behind the family's application to the African Union and

Presidential Appeal is Dr Moeti, a Law Lecturer at the University of Botswana, who also worked for free of charge.

Now that the country has passed through this hurdle, the real questions that confront the new administration are whether they will efficiently deal with the issues that were raised in the recommendations of the Fourth Cycle Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council.

Botswana was reviewed in May 2023 and is scheduled to submit its Mid Term Universal Periodic Report in May 2025. Contentious issues include recommendations for the abolition of the death penalty; protection of vulnerable populations, the review of the Refugee recognition and Protection Act; enactment of law against marital rape and gender based violence.

As a human rights lawyer president whose administration is anchored on the respect for human rights, Boko will be called to enact more liberal laws some of which may backfire on his electoral prospects, one such being the LGBTQ community, which his predecessor, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi touched and burned!

Implementing the UPR recommendations and reporting timeously to the United Nations Human Rights Committee presents a serious trial and test for the Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services, through its Human Rights Department.

However, based on its 2022 feat, when it cleared Botswana’s Human Rights State Reports which had been in arrears for a protracted time before various United Nations Treaty Bodies, the department may rise to the occasion.