Mrs. Alice Mogwe, Director of DITSHWANELO, the Botswana Centre for Human Rights), was a trainee in our 27th Geneva Course (June-July 2012). After the first UPR of Botswana (January 2013), the Government created a Joint Task Force composed of several Ministries and two NGOs to examine the UPR recommendations and prepare a national strategy. With the support of Botswana’s government, DITSHWANELO, the NGO focal point for the UPR process in the country, and GHR convened three (two-day) consecutive National Workshops in Gaborone. The first one was devoted to the analysis of the recommendations from the UPR process, from the UN Special procedures and the African system (April 2013). The second Workshop (February 2014) concerned the elaboration of a draft Comprehensive Human Rights Strategy and National Action Plan (CHRSNAP). The third Seminar focused on the civil society contribution to the CHRSNAP process (November 2018). Each time, DITSHWANELO and GHR visited the main stakeholders before and after the workshops (NGO coalition, Ombudsman, President’s Office, Attorney General, several Ministries, employers and trade unions, development agencies). In November 2020, the Office of the President invited them to prepare a new Workshop. But, GHR could not join this new event. Since the beginning of the pandemic, DITSHWANELO and GHR continued to meet on-line.
