Report on the State of Pastoralists´Human Rights in Tanzania

Pastoralists in Tanzania are suffering from many human rights violations, including forced evictions from their lands. This report gives a comprehensive analysis of the human rights situation of indigenous peoples in Tanzania, and documents cases of human rights violations against Maasai pastoralists during 2011.

The information contained in this report is a result of a comprehensive survey and human rights analysis, which used both primary and secondary data collection methodologies covering a total of 10 districts and 18 villages.

The report has five comprehensive chapters. Chapters 2 – 4 covers: Civil and Political Rights; Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and Collective Rights. In each of these three groups, a few categories of human rights are picked to illustrate the general and special human rights situation that the indigenous peoples are experiencing in Tanzania. A chapter on Tanzania’s obligations relating to international human rights law is also included together with a note on the current constitutional revision process in Tanzania. In order to give the reader, especially those who are not Tanzanians, a general socio-economic and political overview, Chapter One covers that.

It is written for government officials, parliamentarians, development partners, CSOs, ordinary citizens, as well as academics wishing to learn more about the situation of indigenous peoples in Tanzania. The report is first and foremost an advocacy tool for positive change but can also be used as an educational material as it contains a flow of arguments supported by national and international human rights instruments/ standards.