A/HRC/40/64/Add.2 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on minority issues conducted an official visit to Botswana from 12 to 24 August 2018, at the invitation of the Government. He visited the capital, Gaborone, and localities with minority populations in the North-East, Central, Ghanzi, Chobe and Ngamiland Districts. He consulted widely with hundreds of government representatives and stakeholders, both national and local, including ministers and senior government officials of the ministry of foreign affairs; the ministry for presidential affairs, governance and public administration; the police commissioner’s office; the ministry of defence; the ministry of local government and rural development; the ministry of land management, water and sanitation services; the ministry of health; the ministry for youth empowerment, sport and culture development; Statistics Botswana; the ministry of nationality, immigration and gender affairs; the Attorney General’s office; the ministry of education; the Chief Justice’s office; the ministry of employment; the office of the Ombudsman; and the Government Implementation Coordination Office. He also consulted with the United Nations country team and met with local administration representatives in Ghanzi and Maun. 2. In addition, the Special Rapporteur consulted with a wide spectrum of civil society organizations working on issues affecting minorities. He also met with minority communities themselves and their representatives, the Baherero, Basarwa (including the San and Naro), Kalanga, Ovambanderu, Subiya and Wayeyi communities, among others, in and around Gaborone, Francistown, Letlhakane, Maun, Ghanzi, Kasane and Kavimba. As deaf and hard-of-hearing persons who use sign language are considered to be members of a linguistic minority, he met with their representatives, as well as minority rights defenders, women, youth and community workers. 3. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government of Botswana for the constructive spirit and cooperation shown during the visit and its readiness to engage in an open dialogue to better understand and assess the human rights situation of minorities in the country. He also expresses his gratitude to the United Nations country team for its support and assistance and to the numerous national and international non-governmental organizations that provided information and met with him. II. Visit objectives 4. The overall aim of the visit was to examine existing legislation, policies and practices for the protection and promotion of the rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities. The Special Rapporteur wanted to explore issues pertaining to various minorities, such as access to quality education, health and other public services, the use of minority languages, access to landownership and resources, the political participation of minorities and efforts to fight hate speech. He also wanted to get a precise understanding of the normative framework regulating human rights in general, and those of most relevance for minorities in particular, including the latest amendments to legislation and other mechanisms that have been established in that regard. As often explained in his meetings during the visit, the Special Rapporteur understands minorities to refer to a numerical category defined as a linguistic, religious or ethnic group that makes up less than half the population of the country. The term has no negative connotation, does not depend on official recognition and does not involve any issue of domination, subservience or socioeconomic status. III. General context 5. Located in Southern Africa, Botswana has a large territory and a small population of approximately 2.2 million people, making it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. After independence, it was considered among the poorest countries but is currently one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, dominated by the mining, cattle 3