Tanzania : Acts of harassment and intimidation against LHRC staffs

TZA 002 / 1125 / OBS 074
Harassment / Intimidation /
Restriction on freedom of association
Tanzania
18 November 2025

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Tanzania.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed of the acts of harassment and intimidation against a team of staff from the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC). LHRC is an advocacy focused organisation, working to empower and conscientise the people of Tanzania on legal and human rights issues. LHRC is a member organisation of FIDH.

On 12 November 2025, around 9 pm, the White Sands Hotel in Dar-es-Salaam, where LHRC staff were engaged in routine human rights activities, was placed under siege by elements of the police. The LHRC team was specifically targeted and subjected to harassment and intimidation. Their equipment, including laptops, identification cards, and mobile phones were confiscated, and they were instructed to report to the Zonal Crimes Office (ZCO) in Dar-es-Salaam, at 10 am the following morning for interviews and further investigation.

On 13 November 2025, following the -quite informal (not even notes were taken)- interviews at the ZCO, all devices were returned without condition. However, LHRC cannot confirm the security and integrity of the returned laptops and phones.

The Observatory recalls that this incident occurred at a time when the Tanzania Police Force has been associated with unnecessary and excessive use of force and intimidation against civilians, in the context of the 29 October 2025 general elections. According to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, hundreds of protesters were killed by the police, while others were injured or arbitrarily detained, including human rights defenders. In June 2025, Kenyan and Ugandan human rights defenders Boniface Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire were subjected to enforced disappearance and acts of torture in Serena Hotel in Dar-es-Salaam, highlighting a pattern of transnational repression against activists in the region.

The Observatory strongly condemns the acts of harassment against LHRC staff, which seem to be only aimed at intimidating them in the context of their legitimate human rights activities.

The Observatory calls on the Tanzanian authorities to guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of LHRC staffs and all human rights defenders in the country.

The Observatory further calls on the Tanzanian authorities to create and maintain a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders, allowing them to exercise their fundamental rights, such as freedom of association, in line with Article 20 of the Tanzanian Constitution, Article 10 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and to carry out their legitimate activities effectively and independently, without fear of reprisals, including judicial harassment.

Action required:

Please write to the authorities of Tanzania asking them to:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical integrity and psychological well-being of LHRC staffs and all human rights defenders in the country; and
2. Guarantee, in all circumstances, that human rights defenders in Tanzania are able to carry out their legitimate activities without fear of reprisals, and free of all undue restrictions, including enforced disappearance, torture or other arbitrary sanctions.

Addresses:

• President of Tanzania, Hon. Samia Suluhu Hassan; E-mail: ikulu@ikulu.go.tz;

• Prime Minister of Tanzania, Dr. Mwigulu Lameck Nchemba E-mail: ps@pmo.go.tz;

• Embassy of Tanzania in Brussels, Belgium; E-mail: tanzania@skynet.be

• Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania to the United Nations ; Geneva and Vienna; E-mail: mission.tanzania@ties.itu.int.

Please also write to the diplomatic representations of Tanzania in your respective countries.

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Paris-Geneva, 18 November 2025

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken, quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rights defenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civil society.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

• E-mail: alert@observatoryfordefenders.org

• Tel FIDH: + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18

• Tel OMCT: + 41 22 809 49 39