Tanzanians living with disabilities

According to its website, Shia is "an umbrella organisation within the disability movement which works at the request of 30 member organisations. Together we run international development co-operation in ... Tanzania. The goal for our joint work is to strengthen the local sister organisations’ possibilities for running effective advocacy work for the rights of their members. Shia’s role is to provide administrative support for our member organisations. We also work with quality assurance of the projects. Our vision is a society where the equality and the rights of everyone are respected."

This post highlights information from Disability Rights in Tanzania, a document co-produced by Shia and last updated 30 January 2011.

International treaties and Tanzanian law

Tanzania in 1991 ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which includes the rights of children living with disabilities. The government also in 2009 ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. According to Shia, however, "the political will to mainstream and actual implementation of the adopted frameworks remain limited and institutional checks and balances are too weak to change this. The rather active civil society, the media and the parliament have not yet been able to challenge the current system."

Aside from these international treaties, the Tanzanian constitution prohibits discrimination against people living with disabilities (PWDs). Tanzania also has statutes to "ensure access to vocational training, employment and care for PWDs. The Ministries of Education, Justice, and Labour are responsible for enforcing the protection of rights of persons with disabilities for education, legal claims, and labour rights, respectively whereas The Department of Social Welfare, located within the ministry of Health and Social Welfare, carries responsibility for coordinating all disability issues." In 2010, Tanzania enacted the Disability Law, which authorizes the establishment of the National Advisory Council for Persons with Disabilities. This council has not yet been established, however.

The National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty 2005-2010 recognized disability as a major cause of poverty, but this was ignored when the subsequent national budgets were prepared.

Tanzania's Health Policy guarantees free access to health services by PWDs. But "since it is not stated how PWD can benefit from the services, many PWD have limited access to the services. In reality this can be due to number of reasons including knowledge on the procedures to follow to access the free services; services are not enough/number of health facilities, specialists, medication, etc; lacking of communication skills for deaf and deaf blind persons."

Plight of persons living with disabilities

The Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics estimates that 9 percent of the Tanzanian population is living with a disability. The rate is somewhat higher in rural areas than urban areas, and is slightly higher in mainland Tanzania than on the island of Zanzibar.

"According to the 2008 Disability Survey, access to health information and services is a huge challenge for persons with disabilities, in particular for women ... in relation to sexual and reproductive health services. [D]isabled mothers are two or three times more likely to suffer from poor services than other women looking for pre-natal and ante-natal services...." Refer to the report entitled The Tanzanian Survey on Disability: Methodology and Overview of Results.

The Tanzania Commission for AIDS says that 9 percent of PWDs tested in 2009 were HIV-positive. 40 percent of those "claimed to know a PWD who had been raped." Refer to the report entitled The Forgotten: HIV and Disability in Tanzania.

PWDs "suffer from frequent violation of rights – often by the police, district officials and the legal system itself. A recent example of human rights violations is the killing of more than 45 persons with albinism—of a total population of about 17,000 people in Tanzania. They have been killed due to widespread belief in witchcraft, which makes wealthy people ready to pay several thousands of dollars for albino body parts ... to ensure ... good luck."

When the United Nations Human Rights Committee reviewed, in 2009, Tanzania's implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the "investigations of the albino killings was noted as an issue for immediate action together with addressing men’s violence against women, which is also widespread in Tanzania. International and national studies show that women with disabilities are more often subject to such violence than others."

The 2008 Disability Survey found that "four out of ten children with disabilities between 7 and 13 years [of age] attend school in Tanzania. When it comes to secondary [high school] and tertiary [college] education for PWD over 15 years [of age], only 5% had attended secondary school and less than 1% attend tertiary education. However, these figures seem to be unrealisticly high. There are 16 special schools in Tanzania, and 159 special units integrated into regular schools. [Only] 2% of children with disabilities are said to attend these schools."

Tanzanian organizations working for disability rights

MKUKUTA Disability Network - established in 2005 to monitor the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (commonly known by its Kiswahili acronym MKUKUTA). Tries to ensure that PWDs are included when implementing MKUKUTA and other development policies.

Tanzania Federation of Disabled People's Organizations - known in Kiswahili as SHIVYAWATA, its purpose is to unite all disabled people's organizations and the pro-disability organizations "for effective lobbying and advocacy work."

Tanzania Association for the Disabled - known in Kiswahili as CHAWATA.

Tanzania Albino Society

Tanzania League of the Blind

Tanzania Association of the Deaf - known in Kiswahili as CHAVITA.

Tanzania Society of the Deaf-Blind

Tanzania Association for the Mentally Handicapped

Tanzania Users & Survivors of Psychiatry Organisation

Kilimanjaro Association of Spinal Cord Injuries

Source: Disability Rights in Tanzania, by NIDS/MSC, Shia, and Annika Nilsson, 30 January 2011.