Gender equality in Botswana common law

A comprehensive government-commissioned review of all laws which discriminated against women has been completed. Below you find some of the changes made;

• Following the landmark case of Unity Dow v Attorney-General in 1995, the Citizenship Act was amended to enable Batswana women married to non-citizens to pass on their Botswana citizenship to their children.       


• In 1998, the Penal Code was amended to have a gender-neutral definition of rape. 


• The Abolition of Marital Powers Act of 2005 now gives both partners in common law marriage equal powers in the family.  Prior to this legislation, women who were married were regarded as minors and policies in government departments and financial institutions demanded that a married woman obtained the consent of her husband to carry out any transactions and gave the husband all the property rights.  


• The Deeds Registry Act has since been amended to enable women to register immovable property in their own names.


• The Mines and Quarries Act now allows women to work underground.

The government has not, however, taken any steps to outlaw marital rape, possibly because of the public confusion about conjugal rights and consent within marriage.

There are also no laws in place to allow a woman to choose to have an abortion, except in the case of rape.

Although these legislative changes improve the position of women, there are also laws which discriminate against men, to the detriment of both the men and of their children.

The Deserted Wives and Children’s Protection Act addresses the maintenance of children born within marriage, but assumes the wife has been deserted by the husband.  It does not say whether a man deserted by his wife can claim maintenance for children.  In the case of divorce or judicial separation, custody generally goes to the mother and the Matrimonial Causes Act  has no specific provisions concerning visitation rights for the non-custodian parent.

The Affiliation Proceedings Act 1999 mitigated the discrimination against children born out of wedlock, allowing women (or guardians and/or care-takers of orphans) to seek maintenance from the father, but does not specifically provide for men to seek maintenance from the mother, when the children are in the father’s custody.

http://www.ditshwanelo.org.bw/gender.html#gen