Death penalty tops agenda as UN grills Botswana

The Geneva, Switzerland meeting is the third cycle of reviews under the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Peer Review.  Batshu and other officials left last Friday and will present a country report before answering questions from countries and various NGOs. 

According to written questions already submitted ahead of tomorrow’s presentation, Batshu will again be forced to defend the country’s retention of the death penalty.  Several European countries have already tabled queries demanding to know what progress Botswana has made in instituting a national debate on the death penalty.