6th April 2022
Kutlo Motseta
University of Botswana stakeholders gathered at the UB conference center Thursday, to discuss making changes to the national constitution, for the first in the country’s post-independence history.
A host of issues were discussed, one of the most contentious being the inclusion of second generation rights.
Second generation rights are socio-economic rights which guarantee access to socio economic resources for all residents or citizens of a country. This means that the government must ensure that everyone in a country has the basic resources to live with dignity and not in poverty.
For instance in South Africa, the constitution guarantees the right to land, housing, water, health care and basic right to have the resources to enable its citizens to live with dignity.
This right is guaranteed by the United Nations Charter and African Charter on Human Rights – treaties to which Botswana is a signatory.
University of Botswana lecturer Professor Kenneth Achiampong discussed vision 2036, which is Botswana’s national transformational agenda, which sets out its aspirations to convert the country from an upper middle income country to a high income country by 2036. He spoke with concern about the socio-economic inequality in Botswana.
He began by quoting Proverbs 29:18 saying: “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.”
He then proceeded, “When the aim is to achieve prosperity for all you don’t leave anybody behind. How can you have a country which has people who live in abject poverty though it is an upper middle income?” In elaborating on the importance of legal importance of socio-economic equality, “Our laws cannot be legitimate if they cannot serve every Tom, Dick and Harry”, he said.
A former judge of the local high court and the former head of the University of Botswana’s Law Department, Professor Kholisani Solo said that the practice of including socio economic rights in constitution is standard practice internationally.
He said the International Labour Organisation(ILO), requires countries to observe minimum standards of living for nationals in countries irrespective of the economic development of the country.
To further illustrate his point about the existence of the socio-economic provisions, he referenced section 27 of South Africa’s constitution, which states: “Everyone has the right of access to health care services”, he said.
As Professor Solo and Dr Achiampong illustrated, second generation rights are globally recognised as human rights. It can be reasonably expected that Botswana will include second generation rights in the new constitution in order to illustrate its intentions to comply with its international obligations. In addition the high courts have recognised that Botswana’s law cannot exist in a vacuum and cannot ignore the trends of developments in law in other countries.
