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Ten years of leadership and the state of Human rights
2005-10-29 06:57:07
By Noel Kaganda
President Benjami Mkapa came into power in 1995. Preceding him was the former President, Ali-Hassan Mwinyi, who served second from the founder of the nation, Mwalimu Nyerere.
The state of human rights that shall be referred to in this article will thus include elements which the current regime inherited from the previous regimes and also those which emerged exclusively during the ten years of the third-phase governance.
Human rights are often the determinant of the level of democracy of a particular society.
There are several theories, and approaches, which one may apply to assess whether a particular society is in conformity with the internationally recognised human rights standards.
The United Nations is usually the main forum, to which most human rights standards stems from.
These standards may be adopted at regional level and thenceforth at domestic level.
It is still debatable whether there is a common standard to measuring human rights, however it is at least generally acceptable that some rights ought to be recognised as universally applicable to all persons in the world, regardless of their race, creed, nationality, gender or any other status.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an example of those instruments, which can be used to assess as to whether a country is in conformity with the universally recognised human rights standards.
The question of universal acceptability or uniformity of human rights is not the concern of this article, but was raised purposefully so as inform readers that the views about the human rights record of the third-phase government as shall be relayed by the author are not necessarily the views of other scholars, human rights activists or any other person in that regard. The author is simply exercising his right to freedom of speech.
It would be iniquitous to speak of the successes of the third-phase Government without acknowledging the contributions of the second-phase governance under the leadership of President Ali-Hassan Mwinyi.
The Bill of Rights was incorporated into the Constitution in 1984; however, it was not until 1988 when the same came into force.
As if that was not enough, the Government of the day went further to enact the Basic Rights and Duties Enforcement Act in 1994, just a year before President Mkapa came to power.
This Act specified the procedure for enforcement of Constitution basic rights.
Prior to the aforesaid Act, petitioners who wished to challenge any violative provisions or laws, which infringed their basic rights, as guaranteed under Constitution, were required to first obtain a leave from the High Court before proceeding with their claims.
The Act changed this procedural requirement and instead allowed petitioners to invoke petitions directly to the Registrar of the High Court.
Other commendable contributions of the second-phase Government, in a nutshell include the enactment of the Political Parties Act of 1992, which paved the way to multiparty democracy.
The freedom of press would not have been fully realised if it was not for the amendments of the Newspaper Act, which took place in 1994.
Likewise, the Broadcast Service Act, opened the country to the rest of the world. These are just few of the contributions of the second-phase Government.
After laying the necessary grounds, let me start by congratulating His Excellency for the great job of maintaining peace and security of our beloved country.
It is a factor amongst many, which we can pride ourselves as Tanzanians.
It would also be wise to acknowledge that outgoing President of the United Republic came to power in 1995, three years after Tanzania had declared itself a multiparty democracy.
This was indeed a huge challenge, one which was keenly observed by most people, especially those in the west and the east alike, who gazed attentively on Tanzania, to see whether it would prevail over this test of time.
Thumbs up to the President we have now surpassed the probation period to multi-party and at least we can say confidently that the days of the so-called single-party ’democracy’ are long gone, but not forgotten.
Some may view the transition from single-party to multiparty system of governance as a joke.
I put it to them that the process took the big democracies of the world several decades if not years to achieve.
To add on the foregoing, the process to achieve these democracies was not always smooth, as was the case in Tanzania.
That is once more a salute to President Mkapa, his Government and those who preceded him.
Democracy goes hand in hand with the tolerance of political activities.
This is the whole idea of people to exercising their basic rights to join any political party of their own choosing, to join other associations, and the right to vote as provided under Article 5 and 21 of the Constitution of the United Republic and so forth.
One would have hoped that within thirteen years of multiparty democracy, Tanzania would have at least 5 political parties, given the country’s political past.
To their surprise, as well as mine, the country currently has a total of 18 registered political parties, which enjoy the freedom to sell their ideas to the mass without any restrictions from the Government in office.
This is a huge success, given the fact that political parties could never exercise such right in the past, as it is still the case in some countries; let alone to relay their policies, which due to the nature of politics, often tends to be critical of the Government of the day.
Before departing entirely from the previous point; let me add a word or two on freedoms that we now enjoy, which as far as the politics and history books goes, were not enjoyed in the past, meaning over a quarter century ago.
Freedom of information, viz the right to access information is a fundamental human right.
This right was not fully enjoyed by the majority of Tanzanians in the past.
Lack of access to information is equivalent to lack of democracy, because one cannot exercise his or her democratic rights without knowing what those rights are.
The improved realisation of this right is manifested by number of media institutions, which are available in the country as opposed to what was available before the amendments to the Newspaper Act and the enactment of the Broadcasting Service Act.
Currently there are over 100 newspapers published both in English and Kiswahili, including 19 dailies and 53 weeklies.
Moreover, there are around 26 radio stations and 15 television stations. The cyber-web has also been made available to those who can afford to access the service.
With delight, most of the aforementioned media institutions are privately owned; even the Government newspapers regularly has reported events that portrayed the Government critically.
This is indeed a great achievement, though there is still room for improvement: the Government for example needs to be more open to share information with the public, so as to limit media speculations which often offends those in power.
Suffice to add, information, which is readily available to ordinary persons, needs to be made available to the indigents in rural Tanzania, the disabled, and those incarcerated in prisons, to name a few.
Departing from the aspects of media and access to information lets delve into matters of education.
The right to education is also a fundamental human right.
It is generally provided in the international human rights instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, that states parties should endeavour to make primary education available to all children regardless of gender, or any other status.
Prior to coming to force of the aforementioned instruments, Tanzania had already recognised that need and beyond.
The third-phase Government has played its part to a very satisfactory extent, by introducing policies that led to building more schools in the country and improving the quality of education.
Satisfying the figures, the number of primary school students has increased from 3 million students in 1995 to 7 million in 2005.
The number of secondary school students has also increased from 190,000 in 1995 over 500,000 in 2005.
As well as the Government efforts, it’s worth a while to recognise the efforts of private individuals who have revolutionised the education system, for instance by introducing the English Medium primary and Secondary Schools.
Employment is another area which the third-phase Government deserves some applaud.
Putting figures aside, it must be said that to a great extent the Government has attempted to provide employment through encouraging self-employment and introduction of other employment schemes.
Foreign and domestic investments have also encouraged employment by offering opportunities to the skilled and the non-skilled alike.
This went hand in hand with the enactment of new labour laws, which makes provisions fore core labour rights, sets basics employment standards, amongst other factors.
Notwithstanding the aforesaid achievements, levels of employment are still unsatisfactory.
We can never afford to rest in comfort, pleasing ourselves that we have done away with employment problems, whilst a huge number of Tanzanians are still unemployed and lack skills to either employ themselves or to compete in the labour market.
Migration of young persons and the old alike to urban areas is a manifestation of the magnitude of this problem.
Increasing levels of prostitution, petty and serious criminalities are also some of the results of poverty and lack of employment.
These are long-term issues, which have been addressed in the past and shall remain our concern for many years to come.
The Right to life is another fundamental human right.
This right is not an absolute right, meaning the state may derogate from it in some circumstances such as when passing a lawful death sentence after a conviction of murder.
It must be said with caution that since coming to office the President has not assented to execution of any inmate on death row.
This is a good sign, I would hope, a clear message to the coming regime to abolish death penalty once and for all.
The state of inmates who are currently languishing in the death row is not a matter, to be covered here.
This is without a doubt an area, which needs an immediate reform because the adherence of other fundamental rights will never be meaningful if we still retain the death penalty.
We hope that the forth-phase government would make efforts to sign and ratify the Second Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and put to rest this inhuman form of punishment.
The right to life has many denotations, including the right to be protected from harmful or life threatening diseases.
The third-phase Government has made tireless efforts to provide support to people living with HIV/AIDS.
It has gone to the extents of establishing the Tanzania Commission for Aids (TACAIDS), and making the life prolonging ARVs drugs readily available to the people.
Moreover it has embarked on several awareness programmes in collaboration with both international and domestic NGOs. More has to be done to fight the killer disease.
It is should also be the main priority of the coming government to deal with the pandemic as if it was a threat to national security.
Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading Treatment or punishment by the law enforcers has been curtailed though not completely eliminated.
The third-phase Government has encouraged human rights training to law enforcers, in partnership with International and domestic NGOs so as to enlighten them on aspects of human rights.
Use of corporal punishment in schools has been eliminated and brought in line with the existing regulations.
The practice is however, still applied to juvenile and adult offenders. Corporal punishment is a barbaric form of punishment.
It is a form of cruelty, one which we sometimes enact laws to suppress.
There is no logic or justification to apply the same to children in schools, to juvenile and adult offenders, however reasonable its application may be.
The Right to a fair public trial has been realised, however the court of laws are still somehow under resourced, overburdened, and faced with corruption.
It is not disputed that clerks often extend their arms to accept bribes to determine whether to open cases, to hide or misdirect files and so forth.
Magistrates have occasionally accepted bribes, and a few have been intercepted by officers from the Prevention of Corruption Bureau.
The same would accept bribes to determine guilt or innocence, pass biased sentences, withdraw charges, decide appeals or determine whether a suit is tried as a civil or criminal matter.
These are common huddles impeding peoples’ full enjoyment of the right to access to justice.
To give credit where its due, the Government has managed to build and refurbish most courts, especially primary courts, which are close to the majority in rural areas.
It has also increased the number of magistrates so as to reduce the backlog of files and to speed up the delivery of justice.
Freedom to practice any religion of ones choice is a fundamental right that Tanzanians, especially of the mainland, enjoyed much during the ten years of the third-phase governance.
The outgoing President often reminded Tanzanians that the Constitution of the United Republic, to which all Tanzanians swore allegiance to, favours no particular religion, thus each one of us can follow any belief or faith, within the boundaries spelled in the laws of the land.
The right to religion entails the enjoyment to practice as well as respecting the practice of other people’s religions.
In simple terms, one has a duty to refrain from interfering with other people’s religions, for doing so would be infringing their basic rights and may also disrupt law and order.
There have in the past been several clashes between followers of one religion against those of another or the government.
It is a tough line, to which we have to cross; signs are that we shall persevere, given the current democratic trends.
Gender based violence, and discrimination against women has been the concern of the third-phase government.
Much has been done, for instance increased number of female Members of Parliament, female Judges of the High Court and Court of Appeal, female members holding several top seats in the Government, including the Cabinet.
Women movement has been so strong at times, to the extent that Tanzania has a female presidential candidate.
Moreover, several policies have been implemented to discourage gender-based discrimination.
This is in conformity with the Government’s commitment to the Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Despite of the aforementioned advances, there are still remains laws that are either expressively or impliedly discriminatory against women.
For example, there are still some customary rules, which deny women inheritance rights, adoption rights, rights to property, those that legitimise wife beating, allows under age marital relationships, to cite a few.
To date there is no specific law to safeguard women’s interest, albeit there is clearly a need to have one.
Matters of child trafficking and child labour cannot be set aside.
Trafficking of children from rural to urban centres continues unabated.
Children are brought to cities to work as domestic servants, or to be engaged in prostitution.
Several reasons allow for the practice to flourish; amongst these though not limited is lack of intervention from concerned authorities, which sometimes arises due to lack of long-term intervention strategies or mere negligence.
Child labour is seriously concentrated in some parts of Tanzania such as the Makete in Iringa Region.
Children are forced to work in tea plantations so as to survive, given the fact that most of them are orphans who have lost one or both of their parents from AIDS pandemic.
Faced with early challenges in life, these children are often subjected to rape whilst working in plantations.
Others simply engage in prostitution because it offers an alternative to hard labour.
Tanzania has no specific law to safeguard children, despite its signature to the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) in 1991.
It amazes me as to why it’s taking such a long time to enact the child law, whilst it sometimes takes only months to enact other laws.
In my views tolerating the society of abused children will have dire consequences in the future.
Perhaps most of us won’t be there when it happens but surely we shall never be forgiven if we don’t act now. The rest I leave for your imagination.
Openness and transparency: good governance and the rule of law have somehow managed to reduce the force of corruption in Tanzania.
’Chai’, ’kitu kidogo,’ whatever name one would use to describe corruption, no longer takes place openly as it was the case prior to the current regime.
The Government has shown an unwavering commitment to eliminating the vice, and its succeeding in some areas but losing the battle in others, due to the fact that the vice is mutating and taking all sorts of shapes and forms thus making it difficult to detected, investigate and prosecute.
Corruption is a renowned barrier to the enjoyment of basic rights of the majority, thus its elimination is not an option but an obligation.
Purposeful steps should be taken to repeal all provisions of the laws that provides loopholes for people to furnish or receive bribes and gifts; provisions such as Section 98(2) and (3) to the Electoral Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act of 2002, which legitimises Takrima.
Establishment of the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance in 2001 is milestone achievement by the Government. The Commission has received and resolved many cases.
Figures would suggest that in 2003 alone it received more than 2000 cases and was able to resolve almost a half of the bulk.
The Commission is not fully independent from the Executive influence, and due to its mandate, its decisions against the government are simply advisory and not binding.
This was obvious in the ruling against the Government where the respondent was ordered to compensate and resettle the people it removed from a village called Nyamuma, in Mara Region, within 3 months of the ruling.
Much can be said about the state of human rights in Tanzania because much has been done by the third-phase Government under the leadership of President Mkapa.
However, there is still more to be done, in terms of upholding the rule of law and human rights in our country.
We cannot rest in this quest, for there is no time to rest, neither time to waste; if we fail to build our nation today, we are placing a heavier burden to the future generations.
Remember that we are lagging behind in the race as it is, whilst other are walking, we ought to be sprinting… LONG LIVE DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS.
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