The protection of human rights is a topical issue in Botswana, with conversations currently ongoing around whether to maintain or abolish capital punishment.
 
Botswana remains the only SADC country that administers the death penalty.
  
Speaker of Parliament Dithapelo Keorapetse recently told NBC News on the sidelines of the just-ended Southern African Dialogue on Reimagining the Future of Human Rights in Africa in Gaborone that the death penalty is a retributive justice.
 
Keorapetse said conversations continue with the Botswanan law, as the death penalty is recognised under the Penal Code and in the Constitution.
 
"It has been a thorny issue for many years, the issue of the death penalty. We need to have an honest conversation about it. Right now, I think we are the only country in the region that still practises the death penalty. Again, the scientific evidence before us is very clear: the death penalty is not a deterrent to perpetrators. This issue will form an integral part of the review of our Constitution.”
 
The latest study conducted by Afro-barometer found that more than eight out of ten people in Botswana, which is about 82% of the population, believe that the death penalty is the most appropriate punishment for murder.