54. The State party ensured that the right to a name, identity and nationality is well captured in the
Law of Child Act (S. 6) in Mainland and the Births and Deaths Registration Act.43 The State Party has
finalied reviewing the Births and Deaths Registration Act in order to align it, inter alia, with Article 6 of the
Charter.
55. In Zanzibar, the State Party enacted Birth and Death Registration Act No.6/2006 that provides for
the right to name, nationality and identity. In 2014 a total of 36,826 children have been registered, among
them 18,303 were girls and 18,523 were boys. Similarly, the Children’s Act, 2011, S. 7(1) (2) provides for the
same rights.
Challenges
55A. The State Party faces a number of challenges in its endeavours to ensure that children in its
jurisdiction do effectively realize their rights to name, nationality, identity and registration at birth, including:
(a) lack of provisions in the law for birth registration and certification of children of Tanzanian
parents born out of Tanzania;
(b) Outdated legislation on birth registration;
(c) lack of awareness on the part of parents to ensure that they register and obtain birth certificates
their children as soon as they are born; and
(d) lack of financial and human resources to adequately support programmes or activities concerning
name, nationality, identity and registration at birth.
(b) Freedom of Expression (Article 7)
56. The State Party has retained express constitutional and statutory guarantees of this right in Article
18 of its Constitution. The State Party amended Article 18 of the Constitution of the United Republic of
Tanzania in 2005 and removed the claw-back clause that used to subject the right to freedom of expression to
any law enacted by Parliament. Now the right to freedom of expression is absolute, and it requires that “every
person” has: (a) the freedom of expressing one’s opinion and views; (b) the right to seek, to receive and
impart information irrespective of national frontiers; (c) the freedom to communicate with others without
being interfered in such communication; and (d) the right to be informed, at any time, of various events
important to his or her life and other members of the community and about any other events important to the
society around him or her.
57. In Zanzibar, the Constitution of Zanzibar guarantees the right of expression, which entails respect
for the view of the child. Statutorily, the State Party has enacted in section 11 of the Law of the Child Act the
child’s ‘right of opinion and no person shall deprive a child capable of forming views the right to express an
opinion, to be listened to and to participate in decisions which affect his well-being.’ A similar legal effect is
also provided for in section 5 of the Zanzibar Children’s Act (2011).
58. As to the administrative measures to ensure that the child’s right of expression is guaranteed and
protected, the State Party has established in both Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar ministries responsible for
communication and transport and Communication, Science and Technology which have respective
committees responsible for issuing licences to private bodies that desire to provide communication services to
the public including running of internet café. The committees have the duty to inspect and cancel licence to
any private institution if such institution is found to have abused the licence, which include destructing public
morals through allowing access to restricted sites particularly so in respect of allowing children to access
pornographic sites. The Section 83 of the Law of the Child Act (2009) and Section 13 of the Cyber Crimes
Act (2015)44 all prohibit access to child pornography.
43
44
Cap. 108 R.E. 2002.
Act No.14 of 2015.
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