Tanzania: Human Rights Restricted

Written by Mahin Bhabutta

Edited by Diana Ciurezu

On the 14th November 2019 the Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Prof Palamagamba Kabudi, signed off the decision for Tanzania to withdraw from Article 34(6) of the African Court Protocol. This withdrawal effectively removes the right of individuals and NGO’s to directly file cases in the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR).

The AfCHPR is a continental African Court, based in Tanzania, which has jurisdiction over cases concerning the interpretation and application of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights along with any other human rights instruments which an African state has ratified.

The step is a part of the regimes increasingly hostile outlook towards human rights by the current President, John Mugufuli. Individuals and NGO’s now cannot access redress for human rights violations in a country which is in almost constant breach of its human rights obligations.

President Mugufuli is proceeding with a very dangerous agenda which not only undermines the authority possessed by the AfCHPR but threatens the fundamental rights enshrined in the African Charter.

This is not an unprecedented move. Since taking the reins of the Presidency in 2015, President Mugufuli has systematically disemboweled ‘the country’s human rights framework.’ Human rights abuses under his government generally come from the limitation of freedom of expression. The government has nonchalantly refused to comply with three East African Court of Justice judgements.

In 2019 the court concluded that the 2016 Media Service Act violated freedom of press under the East African Community Treaty, this ruling was dismissed by Tanzania’s Attorney General in breach of the Treaty. Article 38 of The Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community states that ‘a partner state or the council shall take without delay, the measures required the implement a judgement of the court.’ In a display of reckless disregard for the court, the Attorney General remarked that, ‘these regional courts overstep and take up legal matters that have not exhausted local remedies.’

Further instruments which President Mugufuli has used to limit human rights are the 2015 Cybercrimes Act and the 2015 Statistics Act. These pieces of legislation heavily control the Tanzanian public’s access to information and in the eyes of Harold Sungusia, Advocate and Country Director for Sung Consultants, ‘the state wants to control everything at the expense of so many things.’ The public are restricted to only accessing state sanctioned truths. Even journalists refrain from publishing information not approved by the state in fear of bans or prosecution. The situation has become so regressive that in August 2019 the British High Commission in conjunction with the US embassy in Tanzania released a statement over their concern around the ‘erosion of due process’ in the country.

The withdrawal of the right to access the AfCHPR in Tanzania is just another step in President Mugufuli’s attempt to restricted human rights. It is clear that there is a dangerous climate of human rights abuses evolving in Tanzania.