The United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Convention relating to the Status of Refugees)126 obliges host governments to apply their national laws and to make their national courts and legal assistance also available to refugees.127 Tanzania ratified the Convention on the Status of Refugees in 1983 and must therefore ensure that its national laws and courts are accessible to refugees in Tanzania who have need for legal recourse. Tanzania ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1985. This Convention describes the obligations of States to ensure non-discrimination on the basis of sex and to ensure equal access to justice for all women in their territory, including refugee women. [128] If the Tanzanian government does not systematically prohibit or respond to sexual and domestic violence against refugee women in its territory, it sends a message that such attacks will be tolerated without punishment. Tanzania is not exercising due diligence to protect the rights of refugee women to physical integrity and, in extreme cases, to life. International human rights law increasingly recognizes a woman`s right to sexual autonomy, including her right to be free from non-consensual sexual relations, including in marriage, and her right to consensual sexual relations. At the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, Egypt, in October 1994, and at the United Nations Conference on Sexual Autonomy, women can also pose serious risks to their reproductive and sexual health. Rape victims may face reproductive health problems, including sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancies, miscarriages, complications resulting from unsafe abortions and other gynaecological injuries, maternal mortality, psychological trauma and social stigma. In theory, Tanzanian law provides some protection and recourse to women victims of violence when they are raped or physically assaulted. In 1998, Tanzania passed the Special Sexual Offences Act, which introduced more targeted penalties for crimes such as rape, attempted rape and lawful rape. Under the law, rape is punishable by up to thirty years in prison and attempted rape by up to ten years in prison.134 Legal rape, defined as sex with a girl under the age of fifteen, is punishable by death or life imprisonment.135 Tanzania has not yet enacted explicit laws criminalizing domestic violence, but physical assaults in a domestic environment should be punishable under the Common Law of Aggression in Tanzania. Refugee women in Tanzania have generally not been able to obtain the remedies to which they are entitled, particularly in cases of domestic violence. Since the beginning of 1999, UNHCR`s efforts to mobilize Tanzanian officials, including the police, to help refugee women victims of rape access justice through Tanzanian courts have intensified.
Unfortunately, this has not been the case with domestic violence.136 Women victims of domestic violence face significant obstacles in mobilizing the law to protect them. There is overwhelming opposition among Tanzanian officials, including the police, to the prosecution of cases of domestic violence, as outlined below. In addition, refugee women are reluctant to turn to the Tanzanian justice system to resolve cases of domestic violence for a variety of reasons – because they do not trust the police, because they fear being ostracized by other refugees if they report their compatriots, and for fear that their husbands or partners on whom they might depend, or to whom they have an emotional connection may be locked up. In short, the current system offers them little or no recourse in cases of domestic violence. Nevertheless, States have an obligation to « exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish acts of violence against women in accordance with national law, whether committed by the State or by individuals ». 125 Thus, the Tanzanian Government is expressly obliged to protect refugee women from sexual and domestic violence and to ensure that women exposed to such attacks have full access to the Tanzanian legal system. By failing to ensure that police and judicial authorities investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence against refugee women, Tanzania is failing to fulfil its obligations under international law to provide women with the same protection as described below. To store content in your account, please confirm that you agree to comply with our Acceptable Use Policy.
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