COMMITTEE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD STARTS CONSIDERATION OF REPORT OF TANZANIA

CRC
27th session
1 June 2001
Morning



Delegation Says External Debt and Poverty are Hampering
Implementation of Convention


The Committee on the Rights of the Child this morning started its consideration of an initial report of Tanzania by hearing a Government delegation saying that external debt, poverty, HIV/AIDS and other adverse conditions have hampered the full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Introducing the report, Asha Rose Migiro, Minister for Community Development, Women Affairs and Children of Tanzania, said that despite the measures taken and the recorded achievements attained so far, the implementation of the Convention had met with a number of hurdles. She said the Government was optimistic that given the on-going reforms, good governance, political will, increased people's participation and democratization, the Convention would in the long-run be effectively implemented; and Tanzania counted on the support of non-governmental organizations, development partners and the international community to realize its goals.

Committee Experts asked questions on such issues as abortion and teenage pregnancy; sexual education in schools; early marriages; status of refugee children; commercial sexual exploitation and sale of children; sexual harassment of girls by teachers; and corporal punishment, among other things.

Also included in the delegation were Mary Issa Mushi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Community Development, Women Affairs and Children; A. S. Mchumo, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Tanzania to the United Nations Office at Geneva; Mola C. Sobayi, Private Secretary to the Minister; Paul V. J. Chiwile, Personal Assistant to the Permanent Secretary; Irene F. Kasyanju, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Tanzania at Geneva; and Said J. Othaman from the Minstry of Community Development, Women Affairs and Children.

As one of the 191 States parties to the Convention, Tanzania must present periodic reports to the Committee on its performance in implementing the provisions of the treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will conclude its discussion with the Tanzanian delegation and an Expert will offer preliminary remarks on the report.

Report of Tanzania

The initial report (CRC/C/8/Add.14/Rev.1) enumerates the economic and political situation in the country, including information on aspects of Tanzanian traditions like devotion to children as well as religious and cultural aspects. The report says that at present, a worrying contradiction exists between the intensive focus on macroeconomic issues, and insufficient attention and unsatisfactory progress in the critical areas of human and social development. The social fabric of the country is becoming fragile and the social system is under heavy stress.

The report says that half of Tanzania's 16 million children are not in school nor are they learning life skills or employment skills. Many children are on the streets and many girls bear children even when they are children themselves and cannot assume any meaningful parenthood role. These child mothers and their children are being pushed into poverty. Adolescent girls experience more health problems than boys due to an early start in their reproductive role. According to a 1993 study in Dar es Slaam, 10 per cent of first pregnancies occurred in children of 15 years of age and below.

According to the report, well over one million Tanzanians are HIV positive, and an estimated 65,000 new-born babies are seropositive; AIDS cases are at present estimated at 430,000; children affected by AIDS are estimated to number 800,000; the number of orphans is expected to be 1 million by the year 2000; and many families are forced to give care and support to an increasing number of sick relatives. In 1994, the proposition of newborns being infected with the HIV virus was as high as 8.3 per cent in some regions; most of these children die before their second birthday.

Two and a half million Tanzanian children under five are malnourished and malnutrition in combination with largely preventable diseases contributes to the death of at least 450 children every day, the report notes; 43 per cent of children are stunted and 31 per cent are underweight; 45 per cent of children are anaemic, contributing to a loss in intelligence of about nine IQ points; and about 30 per cent of school-age children are deficient in vitamin A and this is a leading cause of preventable childhood infections and blindness. Vitamin A deficiency and anaemia are widespread problems linked closely with poor food intake and heavy workload burdens of both adolescent children and women. Malaria, the leading killer disease of children under five, is responsible for 15 per cent of child deaths and is the reason for nearly a third of all hospital attendances; pneumonia kills about 38,000 children each year; and diarrhoea accounts for 8 per cent of all out-patient diagnoses.

The age of majority decree defines the age of adult capacity as being 18 years, but the exception to this definition is the capacity to marry, especially as provided for in religious law, the reports says. Islamic law seems to permit the marriage of individuals who have reached puberty. However, Islamic law in Zanzibar also seems to recognize the possibility that girl children may be married before they reached puberty and without their consent. The possibility of marriage before 15 is also recognized by the Zanzibar penal code.

Introduction of Report

ASHA ROSE MIGIRO, Minister for Community Development, Women Affairs and Children of Tanzania, said that when her country ratified the Convention without reservations in 1991, there had already existed a conducive situation in the country which catalysed the implementation of the treaty. The Government had in place the Universal Primary Education Programme which made it compulsory for all children aged seven to enrol for primary education.

Since the ratification of the Convention, a number of major steps had been taken as part of the general measures, Mrs. Migiro said. In the education sector, the Government had introduced a programme which focused, among other things, on access and equity in education. In addition, steps had been taken to ensure that all children had equal opportunities to education. Given the specific circumstances surrounding the girl child, the Government had put in place the "complementary basic education programme" in order to take care of primary school dropouts, the majority of whom were girls, and those who missed the chance of joining primary education.

Mrs. Migiro said that major reforms were underway aimed at improving health resources and service delivery systems. Communities would be capacitated to develop district health plans in which various programmes would be effected to answer the health needs of those communities. The programmes would address immunization against killer diseases of infants and children.

In the legal sector, the Government had taken a number of measures to progressively amend its laws so that eventually national legislation complied with the provisions of the Convention, the Minster said. The enactment of the Sexual Offences Act of 1998 had seen the amendment of various laws that touched on the rights, dignity and integrity of women and children. A clearer definition of rape, prohibition of female genital mutilation, and a widening of acts or omissions that constituted child abuse, among other things, had been dealt with by the amendment.

Mrs. Migiro said that to complement Government efforts, non-governmental organizations, community leaders and other civic groups were fully involved in sensitizing the society, in particular youth, on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The Government of Tanzania was committed to improving the standard of living of its people, Mrs. Migiro continued to say. It had introduced the Tanzanian Development Vision 2025 whose main objective was to guide economic and social development efforts up to the year 2025. Equally, the Government had developed a poverty reduction strategy programme. Those two policy documents sought to ensure sustainable development in which enforcement of rights such as those relating to children would be guaranteed.

In conclusion, Mrs. Migiro stressed that despite the measures taken and the recorded achievements attained so far, the implementation of the Convention had met with a number of hurdles; external debt, poverty, HIV/AIDS and other adverse conditions had hampered full implementation the Convention. However, the Government was optimistic that given the on-going reforms, good governance, political will, increased people's participation and democratization, the Convention would in the long-run be effectively implemented. Tanzania counted on the support of non-governmental organizations, development partners and the international community in realizing its goals.


Discussion

Following the presentation of the report by the Tanzanian delegation, Committee Experts raised a number of questions. An Expert noted that Tanzania was faced with economic difficulties, particularly with the payment of 40 per cent of its income to services related to external debt. In addition, there had been a problem of management due to lack of qualified personnel.

Asked about the status of the Convention and customary law within domestic legislation, the delegation said that customary law was considered as null and void if it contradicted the provisions of the Convention and that of the positive law.

Concerning the situation of Zanzibar with the mainland, the delegation said that the United Republic of Tanzania was formed on 26 April 1964 when Tanganyika united with Zanzibar. With regard to the implementation of the rights of the child, the Union had created two ministries so that in both territories, the provisions of the Convention could be realized. In addition, certain provisions of the Convention might have been implemented differently in the mainland and in Zanzibar.

Asked if Tanzania had implemented the Paris Agreement on the establishment of human rights institutions, the delegation said that a human rights commission had been created last April and the members of the commission would soon be elected. The mandate and the structure of the commission would be regulated by a special committee which would be created soon, and would nominate candidates to staff the Commission.

With regard to the definition of the child, the delegation said that the penal code had fixed the age of 12 years as the minimum age for criminal responsibility, however, that age had been lowered to 10 years following the 1998 amendment of the law. A child below the age of 10 years was not held responsible for his or her criminal acts. In addition, capital punishment or life imprisonment could not be pronounced against a child below 18 years. In Zanzibar, a child under 12 years was not criminally responsible for any act or omission, and a child between 12 and 14 was presumed not to have the capacity unless the contrary was proved.

The age of marriage was fixed at 15 years of age for girls and 18 for boys, the delegation said. The Islamic law seemed to permit the marriage of individuals who had reached puberty, at which point they were considered to be adults. Girls might get married before they reached puberty and without their consent, but they had the possibility of repudiating the marriage when they reached adulthood.

As to consent to sexual intercourse, the delegation said that a girl of 14 years and below could not give consent to sexual intercourse. However, recent research on adolescent sexuality showed that about 50 per cent of young people, boys and girls, had had sex by the age of 15.

Asked if the Government was planning to create an office of the ombudsman, the delegation said that it had no immediate plans to establish one.

Committee Experts continued to raised questions on such issues as abortion and teenage pregnancy; sexual education in schools; early marriages; status of refugee children; commercial sexual exploitation and sale of children; sexual harassment of girls by teachers; and corporal punishment, among other things.



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