The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has ordered Tanzania to remove corporal punishment from its laws to bring them in line with the Charter establishing the court.

In its September 5 ruling on an appeal by Yassin Rashid Maige against his 30-year sentence for armed robbery, the court sitting in Arusha concluded that Tanzanian courts had violated Maige’s right to dignity by sentencing him to be caned 12 times as part of his punishment.

It said provisions for corporal punishment in Tanzania’s Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Corporal Punishment Act and other laws need to be amended “in order to make them compliant with the prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”

The 11-judge panel ordered Tanzanian authorities to submit a report on the status of implementation of the order every six months “until the court considers that there has been full implementation.”

Tanzania’s history of opposition to corporal punishment as a disciplinary measure has been mainly confined to its application in schools due to frequent incidents of teachers and even local government officials using it to brutally punish pupils, often in front of their peers, for behavioural offences.

Notable instances in this regard include one in 2021 where a 13-year-old primary school student in Kagera region died after being beaten by one of his teachers for allegedly stealing from another teacher’s purse.

In October 2019, current Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Albert Chalamila caused a big public stir when he flogged 14 secondary school students in public for reportedly causing a fire that razed two dormitories at their boarding school in Mbeya region where he was posted as RC at the time.

The students allegedly torched the dormitories in retaliation to having their mobile phones confiscated by the school administration. While Chalamila’s action was roundly castigated by children’s rights advocates across the country, it gained him a commendation from then President John Magufuli.