UN to grill Botswana over absence of workers’ sexual harassment law

The WORLD Policy Analysis Center has called on the United Nations to press Botswana to adopt comprehensive laws protecting workers from sexual harassment in the workplace. The advocacy comes as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) prepares to engage Botswana on its human rights obligations.

The Center has urged CEDAW to question Botswana during its review process on whether the country has any concrete, near-term plans to pass legislation prohibiting workplace sexual harassment. If no such plans exist, the Center recommends that the Committee include specific calls for action in its concluding observations to the Botswana government.

The Center wants Botswana to  adopt a robust anti-sexual harassment framework, with provisions that include: a definition of sexual harassment covering both quid pro quo scenarios and the creation of a hostile work environment. It calls for a laws that recognise  sex-based harassment alongside sexual-behavior-based harassment as well as protections for employees from harassment by supervisors, co-workers, and other workplace actors.

The WORLD Policy Analysis Center argues that the absence of such protections leaves workers, particularly women, vulnerable to abuse in professional settings. Botswana has faced criticism for its slow progress in addressing gender-based violence and workplace discrimination, despite being a signatory to international conventions promoting equality.

The WORLD Policy Analysis Center hopes the Committee’s intervention will spur Botswana to prioritize this issue, aligning its legal framework with global standards. This push comes amid growing recognition of the need for gender-equitable labor environments to foster sustainable economic and social development. CEDAW is expected to review Botswana’s human rights record and issue its recommendations in the coming months.

“According to our research Botswanan law contains no provisions on sexual harassment in the workplace,” says the Centre. 

“Our review of Botswana’s legislation identified narrow protections against terminations on the basis of gender and marital status, as well as a prohibition of retaliatory dismissal for bringing forward workplace discrimination claims. We found no provisions on discrimination in areas of work other than terminations, no protections on the basis of pregnancy and family status, and no protections against indirect discrimination,” says the WORLD Policy Analysis Center. 

Therefore, the Center is calling upon the CEDAW, in its list of issues, to ask Botswana: can Botswana outline any concrete, near-term plans to pass legislation that prohibits indirect discrimination at work on the basis of gender and comprehensively prohibits discrimination at work — in hiring, training, promotions and demotions, remuneration, and terminations – on the basis of family statIn its list of issues, the CEDAW  is also being called upon to ask Botswana to outline any concrete, near-term plans to pass legislation that prohibits sexual harassment at work?

If concrete, near-term plans are not in place, recommend in its concluding observations that Botswana pass and implement legislation that enacts protections against sexual harassment at work.us, marital status, and pregnancy?

The Centre also indicated that in its  research it found no provisions on sexual harassment in education.

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