BONELA commends Parliament of Botswana for having passed the National Policy on the Rights of Persons with Disability: aligned to the UN Convention on The Rights of Persons with Disability- which government acceded to in recent past. The policy is aimed at promoting, protecting and ensuring equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disability. The focus of the policy is to empower people with disability to be active members of society who can effectively participate in socio – economic activities in Botswana.

For a long time, people with disabilities in Botswana have been facing major challenges such as social and economic exclusion, severe levels of poverty, abuse, including sexual abuse, restricted access to not only information but buildings and transportation.

The disability policy which had been in use from the year 1996 was focused more on access to health services. The policy presented the needs of persons with disability from a care perspective instead of a rights based approach. The 1996 disability policy was not meeting the needs of people with disabilities in Botswana.

However, implementation of the new policy, including availability of requisite resources to implement the policy remains government’s greatest challenge. Civil Society should therefore continue playing the critical role of monitoring and tracking effective implementation of the policy.

For more information, contact BONELA on: Katlego Sechele at ksechele@bonela.org or +267 72 282 025 | Cindy Kelemi at cindyk@bonela.org or +267 72385054