Tanzania: Torture, Human Rights Defenders and Transnational Repression

Credible reports of the recent years have documented arbitrary arrests and prolonged incommunicado detention, as well as torture and other ill-treatment in police custody, facilitated in part by weak or manipulable detention record systems. Patterns of enforced disappearance and unlawful killings have also been reported. 

This submission to the 4th cycle of Universal Periodic Review of United Republic of Tanzania, examines patterns of torture and ill-treatment, repression of human rights defenders (HRDs), restrictions on civic space, and emerging practices of transnational repression in Tanzania. It draws on civil society documentation and first-hand testimony from a Tanzanian HRD in exile. The evidence indicates a systemic pattern of repression in which restrictive legal frameworks, abusive policing practices, arbitrary detention, and cross-border intimidation reinforce one another.

Read the full report here