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Tanzania

Tanzania is the country in this sub-region with the most positive human rights record. However there are clearly gaps between the political and legal commitments and the reality on the ground. Furthermore, a series of recent violations against journalists seeking to report on government corruption issues in particular have slightly tainted this record.

The death penalty continues to be retained and used in Tanzania. Extra judicial killings do continue to occur throughout the country. According to a report by the (LHRC), EHAHRD-Net Focal Point in Tanzania, the police was involved in the killings of 14 alleged bandits from Kenya. Findings revealed that their were many inLegal and Human Rights Centreconsistencies in the police’s description of the event and suggested that instead of having being killed in a shoot-out some of the members of the group may have in fact have been tortured before they were shot.1

Discrimination against minority groups persists. Members of the Hadzade tribe for example have seen their access to and control over land restricted. The government recently decided to evict the tribe from their ancestral land in two districts in order to sell the land to an investor. Female Genital Mutilation continues to be practiced by certain groups in the population notably by the Maasai.

Although violations of the rights of human rights defenders are rare in Tanzania defenders continue to work in a climate which is not always productive and does not guarantee the protection of their rights and their ability to carry out their legitimate work. According to, LHRC, Human Rights Defenders continue to be perceived as a threat to the government rather than an actor with which to work with so as to improve the country’s record. Human Rights Defenders are not specifically mentioned or recognized by the Constitution or any other law in Tanzania. There are therefore insufficient safeguards available to HRDs in Tanzania as compared to those made available in international human rights instruments. The concept of human rights defenders continues to be misunderstood both by the authorities and by many human rights defenders. As a result HRDs are forced to be affiliated with human rights organizations in order to have access to some sort of formal protection and support 
LHRC reports that some of their paralegals and collaborators have been victimized by the Tanzanian authorities for their human rights work. The cases brought against these activists are generally never carried through and are clearly aimed at merely intimidating and harassing the defenders.

As a result of social and cultural norms prohibiting women’s involvement in the public sphere there are very few women human rights defenders in Tanzania. In fact even feminist organizations tend to be headed by men.

The authorities continue to exert a certain amount of control over the country’s media through a series of laws – notably the National Security Act which allows the government to control information which goes out to the country and is disseminated abroad.
The human rights record of Tanzania has recently been tainted however by a series of attacks on journalists which clearly undermine freedom of expression as these incidences appear to be directly linked to the journalists’ legitimate work. In early January 2008 two editors of Mwanahalisi , a privately owned newspaper which tends to be highly critical and often covers sensitive issues notably regarding cases of public mismanagement and government corruption, were attacked at their offices in the Dar es Salaam suburb of Kinondoni, and seriously injured with acid and machetes by unknown assailants. On the 18th February 2008, two editors of an online popular discussion forum, Maxello Mello and Mike Mushi, were detained by police forces, without any charges being made against them. The Inspector General of Police Sam Mwema later stated that the editors were arrested on suspicion of criminal activity. The police confiscated their equipment including computers, shutting-down their website for five days. The editors stated that their discussion forum had played a major role in exposing a questionable energy contract involving the former Prime Minister Edward Lowassa and an American energy firm. The Prime minister resigned on 7th February 2008 after a parliamentary probe into the incident.