Flimsy excuses surround Gender Protocol

Mmegi Editor | Thursday April 17, 2014 12:01

While the country has made tremendous strides in terms of women empowerment and gender equality, it remains a sore point that after all these years Botswana is still to sign the SADC Protocol for Gender and Development.   In fact, in the six years since it was established, Botswana is one of only two countries in the region that are still to sign the Protocol.

It is baffling why government still refuses to sign the protocol, which is after all, an instrument that would show its commitment to developing and implementing legislation and policies to provide for gender equality and women empowerment. Some of the arguments proffered against signing in the past have included the alleged financial implications of the Protocol, an excuse that seems to have become a standard chorus despite the lack of proper substantiation.

Even more worrying, however, is the other reason: that the “language within the Protocol is too instructive”. Ignoring the patently chauvinistic connotations of that statement, the excuse falls below the criterion of logic when one considers that the Protocol was reached at after regional debate and consensus.The government’s refusal to sign boggles the mind more when one considers that the country has in fact achieved a number of the targets set by the Protocol such as availing education to both boys and girls as well, as reducing the maternal mortality rates.

Some studies actually suggest that Botswana is ahead of the regional pack in terms of women in senior civil service positions as well as decision-making posts within the private sector. In this light, it would appear that the reluctance to sign is motivated by a desire to be free of a binding commitment. Should the levels of women in these positions decline next year, no instrument except sheer goodwill would exist to ensure that deserving women are appropriately appointed. As gender activists suggested this week, government’s reasons for not signing the protocol are just flimsy and suggest a disregard for the full promotion of gender equality and women empowerment.

This is disheartening in view of the Protocol’s Article on Gender Based Violence (GBV), which recommends that State Parties shall enact and enforce legislation prohibiting all forms of GBV. Botswana has in recent years struggled with high incidences of femicide in the so-called passion-killings.  It is disturbing too that Botswana is yet to enact a Marital Rape law. The failure to sign the Protocol has become symptomatic of general unease with gender empowerment within the Executive and unwillingness across the political divide, where Old Boys’ Clubs seek to protect their turf. This is perhaps the lack of political will that gender activists talk about when discussions switch to the participation of women in politics and the reasons why Botswana still has only a handful of women in Parliament.

                                                Today’s thought

“To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior.”

 

                                               – Mahatma Gandhi