Date of publication:

05/27/2025

United Republic of Tanzania (the)

Do domestic laws and policies prevent and respond to violence, abuse and exploitation of forcibly displaced and stateless children?

ANALYSIS

Assessment by population

Refugees
Asylum-seekers
Stateless persons
Analysis

Tanzania ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1991, committing to protect all children from violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation. This commitment was domestically reinforced through the enactment of the Law of the Child Act in 2009, which aligns national legislation with the CRC's provisions. Despite these legal frameworks, challenges persist in effectively safeguarding children, particularly those who are forcibly displaced or stateless. These children face heightened risks of violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect, exacerbated by factors such as displacement, lack of legal identity, and limited access to protection services. Efforts by organizations like UNHCR and UNICEF aim to strengthen child protection systems and address these vulnerabilities. ​ 

    LAW & POLICY

    Related provisions of domestic law or policy

    The Law of the Child Act

    Legal provision

    Section 13.1 - Protection from torture and degrading treatment

    A person shall not subject a child to torture, or other cruel, inhuman punishment or degrading treatment including any cultural practice which dehumanizes or is injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a child.

    Section 78.1 - Prohibition of exploitative labour

    A person shall not employ or engage a child in any kind of exploitative labour.

    The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act

    Legal provision

    Section 4.1 - Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons

    A person commits an offence of trafficking in person if that person - (a) recruits, transports, transfers, harbors, provides or receives a person by any means, including those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment, training or apprenticeship, for the( of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labour; slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage; (b) introduces or matches a person to a foreign national for marriage for the of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or trading the person in order that person be engaged in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage; (c) offers or contracts marriage, real or simulated, for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or trading a person in order that person be engaged in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labour or slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage; (d) undertakes or organizes sex tourism or sexual exploitation; (e) maintains or hires a person to engage in prostitution or pornography; (0 adopts or facilitates the adoption of persons for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexua lexploitation, forced-labour and slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage; (g) recruits, hires, adopts, transports or abducts - (i) a person, by means of threat or use of force, fraud, deceit, violence ,coercion or intimidation for the purpose of removal or sale of organs of the person; or a child or a disabled person for the purposes of engaging the child or the disabled person in armed activities.

    Section 18.1 - Protection and Assistance to Victims of Trafficking

    The Minister shall, in consultation with the Minister responsible for social welfare services, put in place appropriate mechanisms to ensure the provision of basic material support, appropriate housing, counseling and information, medical, psychological and legal assistance to victims of trafficking in persons.