Members of the gay community are taking the government to court to challenge the constitutionality of its anti-sodomy laws. In 2005 gays attempted to register their association, the Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO), with the Registrar of Societies, but their application was turned down in 2007 on the grounds that the republican Constitution does not recognise homosexuals.

Infuriated gays and lesbians of Botswana have fired back at Deputy Speaker of Botswana’s National Assembly Pono Moathlodi, who recently told a delegation on HIV prevention that he would 'never tolerate' gays and lesbians, stating that he (Moatlhodi) must think thoroughly before speaking and evaluate the potential impact his utterances might have in the lives of other people.

Media in Southern Africa still has a long way to go towards gender sensitive reporting in newsrooms, a study by Gender Links has revealed. Most Southern African media houses in 14 countries had very few reports on gender based violence from mid October to mid November in 2009 in a study carried out during that period. A media progress study and gender in media education audit workshop by Gender Links in Gaborone also revealed that Botswana remained in the lower ranks of most categories of the study.

Survival International has reported that: 'In a momentous decision, Botswana’s Court of Appeal today quashed a ruling that denied the Kalahari Bushmen access to water on their ancestral lands...Celebrating after the decision, a Bushman spokesman said, "We are very happy that our rights have finally been recognised. Like any human beings, we need water to live."' Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow says, 'This is a major win, it’s the first test case of our right to water resolution at the United Nations.'

Botswana’s government has green-lighted a massive $3bn mine in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve – in the middle of the Kalahari Bushmen’s appeal against the Botswana authorities’ refusal to allow them access to water there. Gem Diamonds announced that its application to open a huge diamond mine near the Bushman community of Gope in the reserve has been approved.

The lives of Botswana’s transgender people are seemingly about to change for the better, following the registration of Rainbow Identity Association (RIA), a trans and intersex oriented organisation, formed in 2007 after founder, Skipper Mogapi, realised marginalisation of these gender identities among the general lesbian, gay and bisexual movement in that country.

As the transgender movement rises across Africa and the world Batswana have formed their own transgender identity oriented organisation titled Rainbow Identity Association (RIA). It aims to offer support to trans people not recognised by the lesbian, gay and bisexual community as well as the general society.

Over 30 laureates of the Right Livelihood Award, known as the ‘alternative Nobel Prize’, have signed an open letter to President Khama of Botswana urging him to allow the Bushmen access to water. The appeal comes as world experts arrive in Stockholm for World Water Week, and ahead of the Right Livelihood Award conference in Bonn, 14-19th September. It follows the UN’s adoption of water as a human right in July.

Maude Barlow, former UN advisor on water, ‘Alternative Nobel’ prize winner and founder of the Blue Planet Project, has condemned the Botswana government’s failure to allow Bushmen to access water. Barlow’s remarks come a week after the United Nations declared water a fundamental human right, and two weeks after a Botswana High Court judge ruled that the Kalahari Bushmen cannot access a water borehole on their lands.

San bushmen in Botswana have lost a court case to allow them to re-open a vital waterhole in the centre of the Kalahari desert. Diamonds were found in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, traditional home to the bushmen, in the 1980s - and the government asked them to leave.

Squealing with delight, young Elvis rushes off to greet his mother as she wends her way towards the family's hut in north-eastern Botswana's Dukwi refugee camp. The Zimbabwean infant, aged almost three, is a picture of health. But one year ago, carrying the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), he was near death's door. Elvis could barely sit up. His body was wracked with opportunistic infections, including tuberculosis, and he was constantly in hospital for treatment.

The seven states comprising the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) group are meeting in Gaborone, Botswana this week following negotiations with the European Union (EU) in Belgium last month. The meeting, which will run from Thursday to Friday, stems from a decision made at the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) Heads of State meeting in Namibia on April 22.

Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is alarmed by allegations that Namibian and Botswana Governments as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are intent on forcibly repatriating some 1 000 Caprivian refugees from Botswana. Concerned Caprivian refugee sources anonymously informed NSHR that they had fear of an “imminent abduction” from Botswana.

A High Court judge has reserved judgement on the Kalahari Bushmen’s bid to gain access to a borehole which they rely on for water. The Bushmen were at the Botswana High Court to hear their application for permission to use their borehole which the Botswana government has banned them from using.

Kalahari Bushmen are taking the government of Botswana to court over its refusal to allow them access to a water borehole on their land. The case is due to be heard at Botswana’s High Court in Lobatse on 9 June 2010.

Trucks of soldiers and police have entered the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Survival believes this is to intimidate the Bushmen, and perhaps even force them out, because:
1) Gem Diamonds wants to open a diamond mine on their land;
2) the Botswana High Court is now due to hear a Bushman application to reinstate their water borehole.

Squealing with delight, young Elvis rushes off to greet his mother as she wends her way towards the family's hut in north-eastern Botswana's Dukwi refugee camp. The Zimbabwean infant, aged almost three, is a picture of health. But one year ago, carrying the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), he was near death's door. Elvis could barely sit up. His body was wracked with opportunistic infections, including tuberculosis, and he was constantly in hospital for treatment.

Survival has urged the World Travel and Tourism Council to withdraw Wilderness Safaris from the list of nominees for its annual awards. Wilderness Safaris has been nominated for the Council’s annual Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, to be announced on the 26th May, in the ‘Global Tourism Business’ category which recognizes ‘best practices in sustainable tourism’.

Twenty villages in Botswana have been evacuated after the Okavango River burst its banks. Water in the river, which starts in Angola, passes through Namibia and empties into Botswana's Okavango swamp, has reached unprecedented levels.

Were it not for the police men in blue tunics with a Botswana coat of arms patrolling the cordoned off area, most visitors to the Dukwi refugee camp would barely realize that they are in Botswana. The camp, which is synonymous with Botswana’s hard line policy towards refugees, is a grim hovel where those inside have different rights from those outside. Residents can not move out of the camp without an official pass.