Botswana operates a dual legal system: customary and common law. The majority of Botswana’s two million people continue to choose customary or traditional law over common law courts. No legal representation is required by customary law courts. It is said that the nature of dispute resolution in customary courts is reconciliatory, aimed at restoring harmonious relations between members of the community. However, it has been demonstrated that customary law continues to relegate women to positions of subservience.
In 1992, the Dow Case – or the Citizenship Case as it is called – ended with a landmark decision that determined the Citizenship Act of 1984 to be unlawful on the grounds that it discriminated against women. The Act conferred citizenship on a child born in Botswana only if (a) the father was a citizen of Botswana; or (b) in the case of a person born out of wedlock, the mother was a citizen of Botswana. At the time, Unity Dow was a Motswana woman, mother of three children, married to a non-citizen who brought this action.
