Tanzania ordered to end caning in jail sentences

The provisions for corporal punishment in Tanzania’s Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, Corporal Punishment Act and other laws need to be amended “in order to make them compliant with the prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has ordered Tanzania to remove corporal punishment from its laws to bring them in line with the Charter establishing the court. In its ruling, the African court noted that although the district court had imposed both the prison and caning sentence, which was subsequently upheld by both the High Court and the Court of Appeal, there was no record of whether the caning sentence “was actually carried out”. Is the African court trying to interfere with Tanzanians rule of law ?