Committee on the Rights of the Child

List of issues in relation to the sixth periodic report of the United Republic of Tanzania *

1.The State Party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information, of 10,700 words maximum, by 15 February 2026. The Committee may take up all aspects of children’s rights set out in the Convention during the dialogue with the State Party.

Part I

2.Please update the Committee on:

(a) Progress in the review of legislation, in particular concerning issues such as marriage as an exception to the offence of statutory rape committed against a girl child,child marriage, corporal punishment and equal inheritance rights for boys and girls, in line with the Convention;

(b) The proposed repeal of the Zanzibar Children’s Act, 2011, and measures to ensure that any new legislation does not weaken the protections guaranteed under that Act.

3.Please provide updated information on:

(a) The high-level interministerial body that is currently responsible for coordinating activities in the area of children’s rights, and the financial, technical and human resources allocated to it;

(b)The review of the Tanzania Child Development Policy (2008) and the adoption of the equivalent policy for Zanzibar;

(c)Progress with aligning budget commitments with the global and regional budget allocation standards, including 20 per cent for education and 15 per cent for health.

4.Please inform the Committee of any plans to empower the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance: (a) to conduct full investigations into all alleged human rights violations, including those involving military, police and security officers; and (b) to engage with international human rights bodies without seeking prior government approval.Please provide information on budget allocations to the Commission and measures to ensure that it has sufficient resources to effectively and independentlyfulfil its mandate.

5.Please update the Committee on the measures taken to implement the National Action Plan on Albinism (2021–2031) to end discrimination against children with albinism and ensure that they have adequate access to essential services, such as education and healthcare. Please clarify how the State Party’s law enforcement agencies are ensuring that children, including those with albinism, are protected from violence, ritual killings and abductions,and indicate what policies are in place and what action has been taken to remove discriminatory barriers affecting girls’ access to services.

6.Please update the Committee on the provision of free birth registration and certification services for children.

7.Please indicate what specific action has been taken, and the results thereof, to reduce violence against children, including sexual exploitation and abuse, within families, at school, online and as a result of so-called traditions, and to ensure that child victims of abusereceive support.

8.Please indicate whether the State Party has taken specific steps in all settings:

(a) To end child marriage of both girls and boys;

(b) To end corporal punishment, both in law and in practice;

(c) To strengthen the implementation of the national plan of action for the elimination of female genital mutilation and to disseminate and enforce legislationconcerning female genital mutilation.

9.Please indicate what steps have been taken:

(a) To develop and implement a clear national strategy for the reform of alternative care;

(b) To prioritize foster care;

(c) To monitor and inspect unregistered homes and informal family-based alternative care settings, as well as children’s institutions;

(d) Toensure thatchildren with albinismare not abandoned or institutionalized;

(e)To use separate facilities for children who are incarcerated with their mothers.

10.Please provide information on:

(a) The review of the National Policy on Disability (2004);

(b) The mainstreaming of sign language and the status of implementation of inclusive education throughout the country;

(c)The provision of assistive learning devices for children with disabilities and of sun protection for children with albinism.

11.Please provide information on measures taken:

(a) To reduce the rates of neonatal mortality and adolescent pregnancy;

(b) To ensure that children with additional needs and those living in rural areas have access to medical doctors, services and facilities;

(c) To ensure access to adequate nutrition for children in schools and in low‑income families;

(d) To provide safe sewage systems and clean and safe water infrastructure.

12.Please provide updated information on the legislative, administrative and budgetary measures taken to ensure that adolescents have access, particularly in rural areas, to sexual and reproductive health services, such as contraception, safe abortion, maternal healthcare and comprehensive sexual education, and on action taken to prevent HIV infection.

13.Please specify what steps have been taken:

(a) To provide adequate learning and teaching facilities, including for children with disabilities;

(b) To ensure the availability of qualified teachers and school feeding programmes from pre-primary to secondary school;

(c) To reduce the high dropout rate among children with albinism;

(d) To ensure that menstruation hygiene facilities are provided in schools and that pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers are supported to continue with their education;

(e) To end violence against children in schools, including harmful punishment;

(f) To increase the completion rate in secondary education.

14.Please provide information on measures taken to protect children from hazardous work, including drug-related, sexual and mining activities.

15.In the context of the child justice system, please provide the Committee with information on:

(a) The standards of pretrial and detention facilities;

(b) Diversion measures being used;

(c) The training of legal aid providers on juvenile justice services, especially in rural areas;

(d) The number of children serving sentences in adult prisons.

Part II

16.The Committee invites the State Party to provide a brief update, of no more than three pages, on the information set out in its report with regard to the following:

(a)New bills or laws, and their respective regulations;

(b)New institutions and their mandates or institutional reforms;

(c)Recently introduced policies, programmes and action plans and their scope and financing;

(d)Recent ratifications of human rights instruments.

Part III

Data, statistics and other information

17.Please provide consolidated information for the past three years on the budget lines regarding children and the social sectors, indicating the percentage of each budget line in terms of the total national budget and the gross national product. Please also provide information on the geographical allocation of those resources.

18.Please provide updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, ethnic origin, national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on the following:

(a)Cases of child marriage, child female genital mutilation and violence against children, including corporal punishment, abuse, neglect, domestic violence and sexual exploitation and abuse, that have been reported to the authorities, investigated and prosecuted, and the sanctions imposed on perpetrators;

(b)Children with disabilities who are or who have been out of school and who have reported having experienced violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse;

(c)Children with albinism who have suffered discrimination, violence, ritual killing orabduction or who have been placed in an institution;

(d)Children in street situations, who are living and working on the streets;

(e)Migrant children in border and nearby regions.

19.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, socioeconomic background, ethnic origin and geographical location, on the number of children deprived of a family environment who are or who have been living in:

(a)Informal family-based alternative care;

(b)Foster families;

(c)Institutions.

20.Please provide data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of disability, ethnic origin and geographical location, on the number of children with disabilities who are or who have been:

(a)Living with their families;

(b)Living in institutions;

(c)Attending regular primary schools;

(d)Attending regular secondary schools;

(e)Attending special schools;

(f)Out of school;

(g)Abandoned by their families.

21.Please provide updated statistical data, for the past three years, disaggregated by age, sex, type of offence, ethnic and national origin, geographical location and socioeconomic status, on the number of children suspected of, accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law who are or who have been:

(a)Arrested;

(b)Referred to diversion programmes;

(c)In pretrial detention;

(d)Serving a sentence in a detention facility, and the length of the sentence.

22.Please provide information on how a children’s rights-based approach is integrated into the planning, implementation and monitoring of measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, including with regard to the participation of children and data collection, and on how those measures promote the realization of children’s rights under the Convention and the Optional Protocols thereto.

23.Please provide the Committee with an update of any data in the report that may have become outdated by more recent data collected or other new developments.

24.In addition, the State Party may list areas affecting children that it considers to be of priority with regard to the implementation of the Convention.