REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA

Mainly covers the period June 1998 to April 2001 as well as including some earlier information.

  • Population:
    – total: 1,597,000
    – under-18s: 749,000
  • Government armed forces:
    – active: 9,000
    – paramilitary: 1,000
  • Compulsory recruitment age: no conscription
  • Voluntary recruitment age: apparent age of 18
  • Voting age (government elections): 18
  • Child soldiers: unknown
  • CRC-OP-CAC: not signed
  • Other treaties ratified: CRC; GC/API+II; ICC; ILO 138; ILO 182
  • While there is currently no evidence of under-18s in government armed forces, the lack of formal age qualification for volunteers indicates that under-18s could be enlisted.

GOVERNMENT

National Recruitment Legislation and Practice

Recruitment into the Botswana Defence Forces is on a voluntary basis.270 Enlistment is regulated in Chapter 21(5) of the Botswana Defence Force Act, April 15, 1977. Section 17 states that "a person offering to enlist in the Regular Force shall be given a notice in the prescribed form setting out the questions to be answered on attestation and stating the general conditions of the engagement." An officer shall recruit a person only if he has been given such a notice, understands it and wishes to be enlisted.

The only formal age qualification is that the volunteer have the apparent age of 18. Section 26(1) of the Botswana Defence Force Act states that "if a person appearing before a recruiting officer for the purpose of being enlisted in the Regular Force knowingly makes a false answer to any question contained in the attestation paper and put to him by or by the direction of the recruiting officer, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding P100 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both." However, it is not known if the attestation paper contains questions pertaining to the applicant's age.

Child Recruitment

It is not known how the exact age of volunteers is determined and therefore whether there are in fact underage recruits in the armed forces. However there is no evidence indicating that underage recruitment has taken place. From September 1998 to April 1999 Botswana contributed troops as part of the peacekeeping mission of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Lesotho. There is no evidence that any underage soldiers were among the Botswana contingents.

Military Training and Military Schools

The National Service programme (Tirelo Setshaba) established in 1980 consists primarily of community service and is not linked to the military. All O-level students between the ages of 16 and 20 are required to serve for 12 months.271

270 Report of the Secretary-General, UN doc. E/CN.4/2000/55, op. cit.

271 Glaletsang Maakwe, Director of Tirelo Setshabe, "National service programs and proposals,Botswana", paper submitted for the conference on National youth service: a global perspective (Wisconsin, 6/92), Revised 22/9/97. See http://www.utas.edu.au/docs/ahugu/NCYS/first/1-Bostwana.html.

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