[4] The Constitution of Botswana prohibits arbitrary detention, and detained individuals are entitled to legal representation.
Most law enforcement comply with these requirements, but the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services unlawfully detained political opponents in at least two instances in 2022.
[4] The Botswana Defence Force has been criticised for its aggressive actions against suspected poachers, including a shoot-to-kill order from 2013 to 2018.
To make them relocate, they were denied from accessing water from their land and faced arrest if they hunted, which was their primary source of food.
Officially, the government denies that there is any link to mining and claims the relocation is to preserve the wildlife and ecosystem, even though the San people have lived sustainably on the land for millennia.
"[6] He also expressed, “Many minority children living in remote areas of the country are torn from their families and forced to stay in boarding school hostels, sometimes hundreds of kilometres away from their communities; they may be taught in a language they do not yet speak, with over-burdened care-givers not familiar with their culture, and often lacking material and emotional support.
In addition, it has maintained a three-tiered legislative and institutional framework that appears to award privileges to the eight constitutionally recognized Tswana tribes, both in terms of representation in the House of Chiefs as well as with regard to control of local administration structures.”[6] According to Varennes, however, “Botswana has made considerable progress in economic development and other areas including education and literacy, religious freedom, the fight against HIV/AIDS and corruption, but more must be done for minorities.” [6] LGBT rights are a controversial subject in Botswana, and members of the LGBT community are often stigmatised.
As with many countries in Africa, Botswana has a significant population that rejects the existence of homosexuality on the continent, considering it to be a Western phenomenon.
Prior to this, it was a crime to engage in "carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature" or "acts of gross indecency".
[9] The High Court of Botswana ruled in 2017 that transgender people had a constitutional right to have their gender identity legally recognised.