2.
ARTICLE 1: RECOGNITION OF RIGHTS, DUTIES AND, FREEDOMS
Tanzania recognises the rights and duties enshrined in the Charter. It is a party to various
regional and international treaties on human rights. During the period of reporting,
Tanzania became a party to the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court, 1998
which it ratified on the 201h August, 2002 and Protocol on the Establishment of the
-African Court on Human and Peoples Rights, 2004 which was ratified in February 2006.
Tanzania also in 2003, ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and the Declaration made in
accordance with Article 8 and Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. It ratified the
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, on 16th March, 2003.
Tanzania follows the dual system in which terms of an International treaty becomes
applicable in Tanzania upon both ratifying and domesticating the treaty terms. This
means that a treaty becomes incorporated into law by either amending or repealing an
existing legislation, or enacting new legislation altogether.
Tanzania, on acceding and ratifying the African Charter on Human and People's Rights
was undertaking a solemn declaration to respect and, ensure that all individuals within its
territory and jurisdiction enjoy Human Rights, enumerated in the Charter. Human Rights
in Tanzania are respected, protected and entrenched in the Constitution of the United
Republic of 1977.
This followed the entrenchment of the Bill of Rights in the
Constitution of United Republic of Tanzania in 1985 whose Article 12 - 29 incorporate
various rights and duties along the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of
1948. The Bill of Rights provides for the basic rights, which the individual is entitled to.
To make the Bill of Rights a living document, in 1994 the Parliament of the United
Republic of Tanzania enacted the Basic Rights and Duties Enforcement Act Cap 3 RE
2002, in order to enable her citizens to access the bas ic ri ghts as guaranteed in the
Constitution .
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