Time for Botswana to abandon death penalty

In sub-Saharan Africa, Botswana stands out for its strong economy, stable democracy and commitment to the rule of law. But – says the Royal Commonwealth Society’s Mary-Jean Nleya – the country is ‘frighteningly narrow-minded’ in its support for capital punishment. ‘Botswana has executed about 50 people since independence in 1966 – but the very existence of capital punishment is a stain on the country,’ she says. She notes in a 2012 judgment, Botswana’s Court of Appeals wrote that capital punishment has been imposed ‘since time immemorial’ and ‘its abolition would be a departure from the accepted norm’. In an analysis in the Mail & Guardian, Nleya argues that taking a ‘progressive stance’ on the death penalty would seem a natural step in the evolution of Botswana’s ‘liberal’ agenda. But the government has only dug in deeper and ‘contradictory international laws’ mean that Botswana is under no great pressure to change course. She says while the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights contain de facto prohibitions on capital punishment, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) recognises a state’s authority to retain the practice. An ‘optional’ auxiliary amendment to the ICCPR, adopted in 1989, sought to close this loophole – but Botswana did not sign it. Nleya notes SA’s Constitutional Court ended capital punishment in 1995 in State v Makwanyane and Another, in which it ruled: ‘Everyone, including the most abominable of human beings, has the right to life.’ Nleya says the goal for leaders in Botswana ‘must be to convince their constituents, and perhaps also themselves, to embrace the universality of that sentiment’.