The Botswana Centre for Human Rights (Ditshwanelo)...

The Botswana Centre for Human Rights (Ditshwanelo) criticised Botswana authorities for continuing to hang death row convicts. In a letter to the recently concluded 34th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul, Gambia, Ditshwanelo protested that the Botswana government had not stopped hanging such inmates.
Ditshwanelo also complained that condemned prisoners were denied a fair hearing.
They were being secretly hanged without the knowledge of their legal representatives or families, the letter added.
In 1999, the Banjul-based ACHPR passed a resolution urging African countries that uphold the death penalty to suspend further hangings and ensure that those facing the death penalty are afforded the necessary legal and human rights.
The Botswana centre said that such condemned prisoners suffered psychological torture because they were notified of the decision to hang them only 24 hours before it was due to happen.
It also said that the clemency committee, which had the job of deciding on the fate of a condemned prisoner and was chaired by the president, lacked transparency.