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Legal & H.R. Centre and Centre for Reproductive Rights (on behalf of Tanzanian girls) v. Tanz. (Afr. Committee of Experts on the RTS & Welfare of the Child (ACERWC))

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2023

Rosa Celorio*
Affiliation:
Burnett Family Associate Dean and Distinguished Professorial Lecturer in International and Comparative Law and Policy, George Washington University Law School, United States and Former Senior Human Rights Attorney, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Extract

On September 15, 2022, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (hereinafter ACERWC or Committee) issued its decision in the matter of Legal and Human Rights Centre and Centre for Reproductive Rights v. Tanzania. This case is related to the practice of forced pregnancy testing in schools in Tanzania and the later expulsion of girls who are found to be pregnant and/or married. The Communication was presented by the Legal and Human Rights Centre and the Centre for Reproductive Rights, on behalf of Tanzanian girls. This decision represents an important contribution to the line of international cases advancing the rights of girls under 18 years old, in particular in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and education, exemplified by increasing jurisprudence issued by regional human rights bodies.

Type
International Legal Documents
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The American Society of International Law

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References

ENDNOTES

1 See generally Decision, Communication No. 0012/Com/001/2019, Legal and Human Rights Centre and Centre for Reproductive Rights (on behalf of Tanzanian girls) v. United Republic of Tanzania, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC).

2 Id. ¶ 1.

3 Id. ¶¶ 2–3.

4 Id. ¶¶ 2–4.

5 Id. ¶ 4.

6 Id. ¶ 5.

7 Id. ¶ 7.

8 Id. ¶ 8.

9 Id. ¶ 25.

10 Id. ¶ 26.

11 Id. ¶ 28.

12 Id. ¶ 27.

13 Id. ¶ 33.

14 Id. ¶ 35–36.

15 Id. ¶ 41–43.

16 Id. ¶ 42.

17 Id. ¶ 46.

18 Id. ¶ 49.

19 Id. ¶ 57.

20 Id. ¶ 87.

21 Id. ¶ 64.

22 See, e.g. Guzman Albarracín v. Ecuador, Merits, Reparations, and Costs, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R., Series C, No. 405, ¶¶ 96–98, 109–144 (June 24, 2020) (in which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found human rights violations related to the sexual abuse of an adolescent girl by her vice-principal, which eventually led to her suicide, and underscored the right of girls to receive education on sexuality and reproductive rights in schools).

23 For a comprehensive overview of the rates of violence against adolescent girls in different settings, see UNICEF, A Statistical Snapshot of Violence against Adolescent Girls (2014), at 1–16.