CHALLENGES FACING PROTECTION OF FEMALE-CHILD FROM EARLY MARRIAGES IN TANZANIA

Abstract

For the longest time there has been a battle towards the elimination of harmful practices against women, such battles have been fought domestically within individual countries and at the regional and international levels. In the United Republic of Tanzania some of the practices includes denial of right to inheritance to women, whereby women were denied the right to inherit clan land. Women were also subjected to female genital mutilation, on the other hand domestic wives were denied division of matrimonial properties after divorce. Later on the aforementioned challenges were dealt with through judicial decisions and parliamentary enactments. Currently, the soul breaking challenge in Tanzania is statutorily permissible female-child early marriages, whereby domestic laws in particular the Law of Marriage Act does legalize female-child marriages. This paper therefore analyzes the current situation, the challenges and solutions as against female-child marriages in Tanzania.