Group launches first annual human rights report

Tanzania's first annual home-grown human rights report has highlighted continued abuses of police power, low levels of awareness about human rights, abuses of economic and cultural rights and the tabling of several constricting bills in parliament amongst its major concerns. The main thrust of the report is to "draw up the positive developments and the negative trends in 2002", the Dar es Salaam-based Legal and Human Rights Centre said at the launch of its report on Friday. On the positive side, the centre reported that systematic and large-scale abuses of human rights were not the norm. It said that the establishment of the Tanzanian Commission on Human Rights should be seen as a positive development and that there had been some commendable progress in the resolution of the political conflict on Zanzibar. "In general, human rights are taken seriously in Tanzania, but there is a need to push and promote them, because if we are complacent, the situation will not only remain as it is, but it will deteriorate," Palamagamba Kabudi, a director at centre, said while presenting the report. The centre was critical of the lack of improvement in the treatment of prisoners, citing an incident in November 2001 when 17 remand prisoners suffocated in overcrowded cells at the Rujewa Police Station in the southwestern region of Mbeya. "Prison conditions remained bad due to dirtiness, overcrowding and poor health services. Food and other essentials to human life remained inadequate," the centre reported. These conditions, it added, contravenes the constitution that prohibited torture or inhuman degrading punishment or treatment. The centre said that despite reports of these problems, the government had failed to act. The centre also said that in cases pertaining to human rights, the right to a fair trial was very limited as these cases could only be heard at the high court and there were very few high court registries in Tanzania. "Therefore, we would like to see resident magistrate courts being allowed to handle cases referring to violations of human rights," Kabudi said. The centre also criticised several bills drafted over the last year for what it said were part of a growing trend of "legislation abrogating human rights guaranteed by the Constitution". Kabudi said that although there was little doubt of the need for a Prevention of Terrorism Act, "if we look at the law as it is now, it has the potential for allowing for and justifying human rights violations in the name of fighting terrorism". Similarly, the centre said that the NGO act constituted "two steps back" in the provision of autonomy of civil society and, if badly interpreted, would end up "suffocating" NGOs. In light of the far-reaching reforms that have taken place in Tanzania over recent years, Kabudi said, there was now need to place emphasis on people's economic, social and cultural rights, as well as their civil and political rights. "As much as privatisation is positive, we need to think seriously as most of the labour laws are old and they did not envisage this type of change," he said. "In order to make the investment environment suitable, there have been a lot of compromises in people's rights, conditions and pay." However, one of the biggest barriers to people's enjoyment of their human rights is the overall lack of awareness concerning the issue in Tanzania "Because it was only introduced in 1998, many people are not aware of the Bill of Rights in our constitution," Helen Kijo-Bisimba, the centre's executive director, said. "This makes it difficult to ensure that people's rights are observed. Not only are people unaware of what right they deserve, but the state functionaries are denying people their rights without knowing it."