PROPOSAL
PROPOSAL
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RESEARCH PROPOSAL
ON
Contents page no
1.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................4
2.0 BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM.................................................................................................5
3.0 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.....................................................................................................6
4.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES..................................................................................................................7
4.0.1 Specific Objective...........................................................................................................................8
4.0.2 General Objective...........................................................................................................................8
5.0 SCOPE OF THE STUDY......................................................................................................................8
6.0 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH...............................................................................................8
7.0RESEARCH HYPOTHESES.................................................................................................................9
8.0 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY..................................................................................9
8.0.1 RESEARCH DESIGN....................................................................................................................9
8.0.2 AREA OF STUDY.......................................................................................................................10
8.0.3 POPULATION SAMPLE.............................................................................................................10
8.0.4 SAMPLING TECHNIQUE..........................................................................................................10
8.0.5 DATA COLLECTION.................................................................................................................10
8.0.5.1 Primary Data..............................................................................................................................11
8.0.5.2 Secondary Data..........................................................................................................................11
8.0.6 DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE...............................................................................................11
9.0 LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................12
REFERENCE
STATUTES
INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS.
African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) of 1982
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of 1966
CASE
BOOKS
Dr. ASHUTOSH, RIGHTS OF ACCUSED, Universal law publishing Co. PVT. LTD, New
Delhi, (2009)
Human rights manuals for prosecutors, EGBERT MAYER, BARRY HANCOCK &
NICHOLAS COWDERY, wolf Legal publishers, (2003)
MCHOME, S.E, Brief Survey of the Law Relating to the treatment of suspects and accused,
University of Dar es salaam
PETER CHRIS MAINA. Legal Aid and Access to justice in Zanzibar: Examining Criteria for
provision of legal assistance, in perspective on Legal Aid and Access to justice in Zanzibar 2003
OTHER SOURCES
Pre-trial Rights in Africa: A guide to international Human Rights standards (2016)
Legal and Human Rights Centre (Tanzania), Tanzania Human Rights report of 2015
Legal and Human Rights Centre (Tanzania), Tanzania Human Rights report of 2010
ABBREVIATIONS
Human rights are fundamental rights which human have by the fact of being human, which are
neither created nor can be abrogated by any government. According to Lugakingira J as he then
was in the case of Rev. Christopher Mtikila v Attorney General1, he stated that
“Fundamental rights are not gift from the state but they are inherent in a person by virtue of
birth, and they are prior to the state and the law; the enactment of those rights in the
Constitution is mere evidence of their recognition and the intention that they should be
enforceable in a court of law.
This is a study of the assessment on what the laws provide about protection of human rights of
pre-trial detainees under domestic law and how it is implemented in practices.
The law in Tanzania has made a significant progress in the protection of the right to personal
liberty and rights of persons deprived of their liberty through Constitutional reform since 1984
by guarantee certain basic human rights by various Acts of government as well as international
instruments. Foremost among these covenants is the constitution of the United Republic of
Tanzania, to which a Bill of Rights was added in 1984.
The Constitution contains the Bill of Rights which guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms
of all persons including the pre-trial detainees. However problems of abuse of powers by law
enforcement officials. For instance, arbitrary deprivation of liberty has become a common
practice in Tanzania suspects of criminal offences are denied their right to bail, to legal
assistance, to communicate with relatives, in some cases pre-trial detainees are subjected to
torture and other ill treatments. Thus, there is a gap between what the law provides as rights and
the practices of law enforcement officials.
Therefore this study will improve awareness to the citizens on their rights when they are detained
as well of the police about the requirement of the law to protect human rights. After the
1
[1995] TLR 31
identification of the gaps between the law and practices conclusion(s) and recommendation(s)
will be given for improvement of the law and practices
But even though currently different laws of the country including Constitution of the united
republic of Tanzania and international laws guarantee basic rights including rights of the person
detained awaiting trial, Denial of human rights to suspects of criminal offences is very alarming
worldwide including Tanzania; there are several instances of Police Force violate the rights of
the pre-trial detainees domesticated in our laws and different international laws but in practice
the situation more worth in protection of the right by law enforcers.
Tanzania being a democratic country as in the other common law countries, its constitution
guarantees fundamental rights for all citizens, including the rights of persons who are suspects or
2
Act No.33 of 1994
3
Adopted 27,june 1982 and entered into force 21. October 1986
4
Of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966
accused in criminal proceedings. The Constitution provides for rights relating to human dignity,
the right to life, the presumption of innocence and the right to be detained in conditions that are
consistent with human dignity. These rights are inherent to every suspect or accused person.
These rights are enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Tanzania of 1977. Although the
Constitution is fair and just, its provisions are not always practiced accordingly.
The domestic law and international human rights law requires that an individual should be
arrested or detained according to the procedures established by law, At domestic level, both
Constitutions recognize the requirement for compliance of legal procedures for any deprivation
of liberty of the individual. Under sections 21 and 22 5 lays down grounds regarding the
circumstances, manner and extent to which police officers may affect arrest or detention of
persons suspected of criminal offence but it is clear that the rights of the detainees are violated
and the prospects of realization of their rights will be demonstrated after research findings. Even
though qualities of some of the grounds justifying deprivation of liberty in those sections do not
meet the requirements of the international and domestic human rights standards such as under
section 22(b) of the Criminal procedure Act, grants any police officer too wide power to arrest
any person without a warrant in large number of circumstances that include arrest of any person
when suspect him commit an offence or upon receiving information. But the law provides no
guidelines on how to define what constitutes “reasonable suspicion” or “credible information”.
This means the law leaves substantial discretion powers to any police officer to decide what is
reasonable and credible as a result may lead to deprivation of personal liberty for example, The
law requires existence of ‘reasonable suspicion’ or ‘credible information’ before any deprivation
of liberty is effected. Upon receipt of any information of criminal offence the investigating
officer has duty to carry out investigative process in order to verify the information received
before the suspect is arrested. If the outcomes of the investigation link the suspect with the
alleged offence then the suspect will be arrested and detained if necessary. In practice, the police
first arrest the suspect and the investigation comes afterwards when the suspect is already in
police custody and Sometimes the police may state that they were hunting for criminals and after
5
Of The Criminal Procedure Act
investigation those found guilty will be sent to court. In fact, police have no power to determine
whether the suspect is guilty or not. The duty of the police is to collect relevant evidence that
will enable the court to determine whether the suspect has committed the alleged offence or not.
Although, the law has made a significant progress in the protection of the right to personal
liberty and rights of persons deprived of their liberty through different laws try to guarantees
fundamental rights and freedoms of all persons including the pre-trial detainees. However, there
has been continuing problems of abuse of powers by law enforcement officials. For instance,
arbitrary deprivation of liberty has become a common practice in our country; suspects of
criminal offences are denied their right to bail, to legal assistance, to communicate with relatives,
in some cases pre-trial detainees are subjected to torture and other ill treatments. Thus, there is a
gap between what the law provides as rights and the practices of law enforcement officials.
Therefore, this study will examine some of the basic safeguards protecting the rights of pre-trial
detainees as implemented in practice in order to find out whether practices of law enforcers
conform to the requirements of the law and the right to challenge the legality of deprivation of
liberty during pre-trial and the study will give out the recommendation on how to protect the
rights of pre-trial detainees.
1. The study will explore some of the rights of the pre-trial detainees guaranteed by the law
2. The study also will address on whether in practices law enforcers like police conform to
the requirement of the law.
Whether most of the people they are not aware on their rights when they detained
In that regard, possibly increase of the violation of the rights of pre-trial detainees caused
by ineffective mechanism of accountability of the law enforcers who violate such rights.
For the data to be well understandable organized into a meaning full before presented. Therefore
the researcher will adopt method of analyzing data into qualitative data analysis. Qualitative
analysis will be used to provide logical interpretation and explain of the findings, the finding of
the study will be analyzed and presented using the simple content analysis to made the findings
In his study Mchome, S.E6 observed that it is very clear that in most cases interrogations at
police stations are conducted in the absence of a lawyer or a relative, hence, “almost all
statements produced before the court do not show anywhere that there was a lawyer, a friend or
relative when it was taken”. Thus, rights of the suspects become under serious risk of being
violated. In this study the research managed to show the circumstance under which the rights of
suspect likely to be violated by police officer interrogation due to the fact that right to have
lawyer or relative as the right provided under section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Act 7 but in
practice most of suspect during interrogation are conducted while they are alone in absence of
lawyer or relative as the case may be. Besides the contribution made by the research but he fail
to come up with the suggestion to the effect that it should be mandatory procedure for an accused
to be informed this right first before interrogation so as to promote the rights to the suspects by
giving the statement freely and confident knowing that accompanied with the lawyer or relative.
In Haroub Othman and Chris Maina Peter (eds.) 8, has observed that enforcement of the
rights of pre-trial detainees is hindered by economic situation of the government and the
individuals. The government fails to fulfill its obligations and promises due to economic
problems of which some of them are associated with Structural Adjustment Programmes and
related economic policies by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and by the World Bank
which have direct impact on the justice system in many developing countries.
6
Assistant Lecturer in Law at University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in his paper “Brief Survey of the Law
Relating to the Treatment of Suspects and Accused” (undated) p. 11
7
(CAP 20 R.E 2002)
8
Perspective on Legal Aid and Access to Justice in Zanzibar 2003, p.20
According to James L. Mwalusanya, the protection of Human Rights in the criminal justice
proceedings-Tanzania Experience, in M. Cherif Bassiouni & Ziyad Maotola9 the matter by
suggesting the High Court is an appropriate organ for redress for person to whom his right has
been violated by stating that the right to compensation for the infringement of the constitutional
right to liberty has yet to be tested in courts but failure to address the problem on the other side
of the coin most persons may fail to enforce their right due to the fact that a lot of persons are not
aware about the availability of the procedure and how one goes about invoking it and lack of
access to legal expert that could assist on the formulation and submission of a complaint before
the high Court.
9
the protection of Human rights in Africa Criminal proceedings, kiluwe Academic publishers (1995) p.302, address