The united republic of tanzania

PART A:

COMMON CORE DOCUMENT

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE REPORTING STATE PARTY

1.1 General Background

1. The State Party, United Republic of Tanzania (URT), ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991. It acceded to the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict in November 2004 and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography in April 2003. The State Party also ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its two supplementing Protocols in May 2006. It ratified ILO Convention No. 182 (1999) on the worst forms of child labour in 2001, ILO Convention No. 138 (1973) Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment in 1983, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) in March 2003. It is a state party to a number of international and regional human rights instruments to which it has been submitting periodic progress/implementation reports as required under the said International human rights instruments.

2. In August 2004, the State Party submitted its second periodic report on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The report was considered by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva in May 2006. The State Party also submitted its initial reports to the two Optional Protocols to the CRC in 2006, which were considered in 2008. This current document is the consolidated third, fourth and fifth reports due on 9 January 2012 (that is, 18 months before the due date of the fifth report), as directed by the Committee in its previous Concluding Observations.¹ This document has been prepared in conformity with the Treaty-specific Guidelines regarding the form and content of periodic reports to be submitted by States Parties under Article 44(1)(b) of the CRC, which were developed in accordance with the harmonized guidelines on reporting to the international human rights treaty bodies (last revised in 2009).² This report has also been prepared in compliance with the Committee’s directive made in its previous Concluding Observations to the effect that the consolidated reports should not exceed 120 pages.³

3. In the preparation of these consolidated reports, government ministries, departments and agencies (MDA’s), NGOs and other relevant international organizations such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF, Save the Children, Tanzania Child Rights Forum (TCRF)with specific expertise of members of the Forum – namely Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) and National Organisation for Legal Assistance (nola), the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration – were consulted in the preparation of this report. To achieve this, the report was disseminated to all relevant stakeholders, and a consultative meeting was held to discuss and agree on the sufficiency and correctness of the information contained in the report. Children were also widely and adequately consulted in the preparation and validation of the reports.

1.2 History, Geographical Location and Climate

4. The State Party is located in Eastern Africa between Longitude 29° and 41° East, Latitude 1° and 12° South. As a semi-autonomous country within the State Party, Zanzibar is located in the Indian Ocean; approximately 30km off the east coast of Africa, between Latitude 5 and 7 degrees south off the equator. Zanzibar consists of two Islands, Unguja and Pemba, and several other smaller islands some of which are uninhabited. Tanzania is the largest country in East Africa, covering 946,166 Sq.km, within which Zanzibar covers an area of 2,654sqkm, Unguja, which is the larger island of Zanzibar, has an area of 1,666 square kilometres while Pemba has an area of 988 square kilometres.⁴ The State Party borders countries of Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. It is also bordered by three great Lakes-Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile River, in the north, Lake Tanganyika to the west and Lake Nyasa to the south west. The land boundaries of the State Party with its neighbours cover about 3,402km, including the border with Burundi (415km), with Kenya (769km), with Malawi (475km), with Mozambique (756), with Rwanda (217km), with Uganda (396km), and with Zambia (338km).⁵

5. The State Party was formed on 26^th April, 1964 out of the union of two hitherto countries namely Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which consists of two large Islands, Unguja and Pemba and few sparsely populated islands such as Tumbatu and Uzi in Unguja, Kojani, Fundo, Shamiani and Makoongwe in Pemba. Whereas Tanganyika became a sovereign state on 9^th December, 1961 and became a republic in the following year; Zanzibar became independent after the revolution on 12^th January 1964. The State Party is a unitary republic consisting of the Union Government and the Zanzibar Revolutionary Government.

6. Tanzania Mainland has four distinct climatic zones: the humid coastal zone, the central plateau zone, the lake zone with high rainfall and the southern highlands zone which is the most fertile and density populated. Tanzania has Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. Volcanic in origin, it created the Great Rift Valley which forms a trench up to 2000 metres deep from the Jordan Dead Sea to Mozambique.

7. The climate of Zanzibar is equatorial and humid. The maximum temperatures revolve around 30oC during the hot season lasting from December to March and minimum temperatures are approximately 20^oC during the cool season lasting from June to November. Zanzibar has two main rain seasons: the long rainy period (Masika) during March to June and short rainy period (Vuli) that starts in October and ends in December. The humidity is high ranging from 900 – 1000 mm during heavy rain season and 400 – 500 mm during short rainy period. The humidity is slightly higher in Pemba in comparison to Unguja. Because of the two rainfall peaks, Zanzibar is usually green all the year.⁶

8. Surrounded by three largest lakes in Africa – Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa, the State Party is endowed with abundant wildlife consisting of 15 national parks⁷ and 17 game reserves⁸. Forming one of Africa’s most dense forests, the State Party also boasts of a number of minerals, including Phosphates, Tin, iron core, Diamond, Coal, Uranium, Gold, Natural Gas and Tanzanite, which is only available in Tanzania.