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Summary: General overview of Tanzania's national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.
National laws on children's rights Status of the CRC in national law Constitution: Part III of the Constitution of Tanzania contains a number of rights provisions that apply without reference to age, but no provisions that make specific reference to the rights of children. Legislation: A great deal of the legal provisions relating to the rights of children are found in the Law of the Child Act, but pertinent provisions can also be found in a number of other Acts. Relevant legislation includes, but is by no means limited to: It should be noted that legislation differs in the territory of Zanzibar, where relevant laws include: Legal Research: Case Law Case law research Compliance with the CRC In depth analysis A number of concerns were also raised with regards to the juvenile justice system. While the Committee welcomed the establishment of juvenile courts in Dar-es-Salaam, it urged the State to extend this programme to the rest of the country. The Committee also highlighted the practice of detaining children in cells with adults, and noted that children between the ages of 16 and 18 were afforded weaker protections than younger children. Accordingly, the Committee urged the State to implement a broad range of reforms to the juvenile justice system, including clearly establishing a minimum age of criminal responsibility not lower than 12 years, instituting a prohibition on corporal punishment and providing for alternatives to detention so that it is only used as a measure of last resort. With regards to sexual exploitation, the Committee expressed particular concern at the rapidly growing phenomenon of child prostitution, and recommended that the State strengthen its legislation to combat the practise in a manner that avoids criminalising children. Current legal reform projects
International treaties must be specifically incorporated into Tanzanian law to have full effect in national law. As of 2008, the Convention on the Rights of the Child had not been incorporated, and so its provisions could not be directly enforced in court. Nevertheless, international instruments including the CRC can be and have been cited as persuasive or interpretive sources of law.
The Tanzanian Parliament maintains an official website (http://www.parliament.go.tz/bunge/acts.php), which publishes full-text legislation. The World Law Guide also provides links to legislation (http://www.lexadin.nl/wlg/legis/nofr/oeur/lxwetan.htm), and the Constitution is available through the webiste of the African Institute for Security Studies (http://www.issafrica.org/search_google.php?searchbox=constitution%20of%20tanzania). In addition, the GlobaLex initiative at New York University has published a guide to legal research in Tanzania (http://www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex/Tanzania1.htm), and the U.S. Law Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/tanzania.php) and the World Legal Information Institute (http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/2713.html) provide links to a selection of legal and governmental resources.
CRC Jurisprudence
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any cases in national courts that reference the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Judiciary of Tanzania maintains an official website containing a database of case law from the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the Labour Court and the Commercial Court (http://www.judiciary.go.tz:8081/help/index.jsp). The Southern African Legal Information Institute has published the case law of the High Court (http://www.saflii.org/tz/cases/TZHC/) and the Court of Appeal (http://www.saflii.org/tz/cases/TZCA/), though it has not yet published decisions made after 2009.
In its 2005 Concluding Observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child welcomed Tanzania's report that it was conducting a legislative review process involving all stakeholders, including children. The Committee expressed concern, however, at the lack of a clear time frame to finalise the consultative process and enact a new Children's Act. The Committee urged the State to make the matter a priority and to dedicate all necessary resources to enact a Children's Act in mainland Tanzania and a similar Act in Zanzibar. The Law of the Child Act was subsequently enacted, but has not yet been examined by the Committee in terms of its compatibility with the Convention.
As of the Committee's 2005 Concluding Observations, a number of areas of Tanzanian law contained inconsistencies with the CRC. The Committee highlighted the disparity between the minimum age of marriage for girls (15 years) and that for boys (18 years) and recommended that the State legislate to provide for a universal minimum age set at an internationally acceptable standard.
Please contact CRIN if you are aware of any current legal reform projects.