Tackling violence against children and juvenile justice reform the focus of a roundtable in Tanzania last week

Last week, 25 representatives from the Tanzanian government, criminal justice agencies and civil society organisations came together in Dar Es Salaam to discuss the findings and recommendations of the recent report, Review of law and policy to prevent and remedy violence against children in police and pre-trial detention in Tanzania, researched and published by PRI with our Tanzanian NGO partner, NOLA.

The report was timely given Tanzania’s new Tanzania National Child Justice Reform Strategy 2013-17 and the National Plan of Action to Prevent and Respond to Violence Against Children 2013-2016.

In opening the roundtable, the Director for Children, Ministry of Community, Development and Gender, welcomed the report and roundtable as a way to further the implementation of these national plans. Discussion covered issues such as community rehabilitation for juvenile offenders, monitoring of detention facilities (and the need to separate children from adults), and increased awareness amongst the police and courts on dealing with juvenile offenders. PRI was able to share good practices from its Juvenile Justice initiatives in other regions and participants discussed current practices and challenges, for example, in providing legal representation to children.

PRI co-facilitated the roundtable with its partners, the Tanzania Child Rights Forum (TCRF) and NOLA, with funding from the UK Government.