a document manual based on the child's rights and protection. this manual is useful for setting up child protection policies for any organization, institution, or any other body that engage with child advocacy matters

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Living a significant life…
Voice Up! Stand UP! Step UP….
to protect children

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ACRONYMS
AIDS- acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
CBO- community-based organization
CP -child protection
CPS -child protection system
CRC- Convention on the Rights of the Child
FGM/C- female genital mutilation/cutting
GBV -gender-based violence
HIV -human immunodeficiency virus
ILO- International Labour Organization
IP- implementing partner
NGO -nongovernmental organization
UN United Nations
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
KEY CONSEPTS OF CHILD ADVOCACY;
• Child: The United Nations Convention of the Rights of
the Child defines a child as a human being younger than
18, unless majority under the law applicable to the child
is attained earlier
• Child abuse: Child abuse is any deliberate behavior or
action that endangers a child’s health, survival, well-
being and development. There are three types of child
abuse: physical, emotional and sexual. Neglect is also
considered a form of child abuse.
• Child exploitation: Child exploitation is the use of
children for someone else’s economic or sexual
advantage, gratification or profit, often resulting in
unjust, cruel and harmful treatment of the child.
• Child labor: Child labor is unpaid and paid activities
that are mentally, physically, emotionally, socially or
morally dangerous and harmful to children. It is the
kind of work that interferes with the development and
education of children.
• Child protection: This is a broad term used to describe
efforts that aim to keep children safe from harm. The
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) uses the term
“child protection” to refer to preventing and responding
to violence, exploitation and abuse against children.

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• Child protection system: A child protection system
consists of laws and policies, meaningful coordination
across government departments and between sectors at
different levels, multiple governmental and
nongovernmental actors working in synergy, knowledge
of and data on child protection issues and good
practices, minimum child protection standards and
oversight, preventive and responsive services, a skilled
child protection workforce, adequate funding, children’s
voices and participation and an aware and supportive
public
• Child well-being: Child well-being can be understood as
the quality of a child’s life. It is a dynamic state that is
enhanced when a person can fulfill his or her personal
and social goals. A wide variety of domains and
measures are used to assess levels of childhood well-
being. The United Nations Children’s Fund uses six
dimensions: material well-being, health and safety,
education, peer and family relationships, behaviors and
risks, and children’s own subjective sense of well-being.
CHILD PROTECTION BACK GROUND IN TANZANIA
While significant steps have been taken to improve
the legal framework for the protection of the rights of
children in Tanzania, many children are still vulnerable to
violence,
exploitation, neglect and abuse. Commonly, the very
institutions and individuals that are supposed to protect
children – teachers, police, and relatives – are cited as the
perpetuators of the violence or abuse.
The Law of the Child Act, approved by the
Tanzanian
Parliament in November 2009 and the Children’s Act,
passed by Zanzibar’s Parliament in March 2011, enshrine
fundamental rights of children and lay the foundation for
a
child protection system that will oblige a range of bodies to
prevent and respond to violence, abuse and exploitation of
children.
Tanzania is committed to ensuring that the rights of
children
are respected. Nevertheless, the challenge remains to
use and translate laws and policies effectively to deliver
equitable and lasting
results for children.
National Plan of
Action for the Prevention
and Response
to Violence against
Children (2011-2015)
Tanzania’s Multi-
Sector Task Force is
working on Violence against
Children, led by the
Ministry of Community
Development, Gender and
Children. The Task Force is
responsible for guiding the
Violence against Children survey and overseeing the

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development and implementation of a National Plan of
Action to Prevent and Respond to Violence against
Children, involving the police, justice system, health and
social welfare services, HIV/AIDS sector, education and
civil society. This multisector plan reflects work that is
ongoing to strengthen child protection systems and seeks
to support and expand upon existing national efforts to
prevent and respond to all forms of violence, abuse and
exploitation against children. A Communication Strategy
is also being implemented that aims to encourage children
to recognize and report violence and abuse and to promote
appropriate responses to violence and abuse by adults,
engaging a wide range of mass media and inter-personal
communication channels.
©CHILD’S RIGHTS
• Human rights
The Convention on the
Rights of the Child
(1989) outlines the
fundamental rights of
children, including the
right to be protected from
economic exploitation and
harmful work, from all
forms of sexual
exploitation and abuse,
and from physical or
mental violence, as well as
ensuring that children will not be separated from their
family against their will. These rights are further refined
by two Optional Protocols, one on the sale of children,
child prostitution and child pornography, and the other
on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
Facts and figures
• Approximately 126 million children aged 5–17 are
believed to be engaged in hazardous work, excluding
child domestic labor.
• More than 1 million children worldwide are detained by
law enforcement officials.
• It is estimated that more than 130 million women and
girls alive today have undergone some form of female
genital mutilation/cutting (UNICEF May 2006)
Millennium Development Goals
Child protection issues intersect with every one of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
From poverty reduction to getting children into school,
from eliminating gender inequality to reducing child
mortality.
Most of the MDGs simply cannot be achieved if failures
to protect children are not addressed.
Child labor squanders a nation’s human capital
and conflicts with eradicating extreme poverty (MDG 1),
Armed conflict disrupts efforts to achieve universal
primary education (MDG 2),
Child marriage leads to the removal of girls from
school and thus prevents gender equality (MDG 3),

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Children separated from their mothers,
particularly if they remain in institutional settings, are
at greater risk of early death, which hinders efforts to
reduce child mortality (MDG 4),
Female genital mutilation/ cutting undermines
efforts to maternal health (MDG 5),
Sexual exploitation and abuse hamper efforts to
combat HIV infection (MDG 6),
Environmental disasters make children vulnerable
to exploitation and abuse, hence the need for
environmental sustainability (MDG 7),
Overall, protecting children requires close
cooperation between different partners, which
consolidates the need for a global partnership for
development (MDG 8).
Child Protection Basics
has three main sections:
1. Understanding child
protection: This section
describes key CP concepts
and terms, the reasons
why children need to be
protected, the roles and
responsibilities of key
stakeholders in the
protection of children and
the international legal
framework and principles that protect children.
2. Understanding child maltreatment: This section
describes the different types of child maltreatment,
factors that contribute to make children vulnerable to
maltreatment and the impact that maltreatment has on
children.
3. Children in special need of protection: This section
identifies subgroups of children who may be particularly
vulnerable to maltreatment and in need of extra
protection within community-based care and support
programs.
Creating a protective environment for children
The protective
environment framework
developed by UNICEF
(see Figure 1) is an
example of a
multidisciplinary,
multisectoral and
holistic, approach to CP.
This framework is the
basis of UNICEF’s
strategy to protect
children from
maltreatment. According
to UNICEF, a protective environment is one where all
actors — from children and health workers to
governments and the private sector — live up to their
responsibilities to ensure that children are protected from
abuse and exploitation. A protective environment has

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eight key elements. Absent any one of them, children are
more vulnerable to abuse, violence, discrimination and
violation of their rights. These elements are:
1. Attitudes, traditions, customs, behavior and practices:
Children are not safe in societies where norms or
traditions facilitate abuse. For example, social norms that
tolerate adults having sex with minors or violence against
children facilitate abuse. Children affected by HIV are
more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation in societies
that discriminate against them because of their status.
Children are more likely to be protected in societies
where all forms of maltreatment of children are taboo and
where the rights of children are
broadly respected by customs and tradition.
2. Governmental commitment to fulfilling protection rights:
This is an essential element of a protective environment.
Governments need to show commitment to creating,
enforcing and implementing strong legal frameworks that
comply with international legal standards, policies and
programs.
3. Open discussion and engagement with CP issues:
Above all, children need to be free to speak up about CP
concerns affecting them or other children. At the national
level, media attention and civil society engagement with
child protection issues strengthen a protective
environment. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
need to make protection a priority. The silence must be
broken.
4. Protective legislation and enforcement: An adequate
legislative framework designed to protect children from
abuse must be not only adopted but also implemented
and enforced.
5. The capacity of people in routine contact with children
to protect them: Health workers, teachers, police, social
workers and many others who interact with children
need to be equipped with the
motivation, skills and authority to identify and respond
to child protection abuses.
6. Children’s life skills, knowledge and participation:
Children are less vulnerable to abuse when they are
aware of their right not to be exploited or of services
available to protect them. With this information, children
can draw upon their knowledge, skills and
resilience to reduce their risk of exploitation
7. Monitoring and reporting of child protection issues: An
effective monitoring system records the incidence and
nature of child protection abuses and allows for
informed and strategic responses.
8. Services for recovery and reintegration: Child victims of
any form of neglect, exploitation or abuse are entitled to
care and non- discriminatory access to basic social
services. These services must be provided in an
environment that fosters the health, self-respect and
dignity of the child.

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Figure 1; showing child protective environment frame
work
Key results for Child Protection by 2015
• Supporting the development of child-specific rules,
procedures and programs to ensure the rights of children
in conflict with the law are respected, to reduce the use of
detention and to ensure that children in detention are
protected from abuse.
• Ensuring that lawyers, judges, police, social workers
and other professionals are trained and understand how
to implement the Law of the Child Act and to know the
factors that expose children to risk of abuse and neglect
and to put in place appropriate measures for prevention
and response
• Establishing Gender and Children’s Desks in all police
stations staffed by trained police officers who are
sensitive to situation of children and families affected
by violence.
• Strengthening referral pathways and services,
including the Child Helpline, in line with provisions
within the National Plan of Action for the Prevention
and Response to Violence against Children (2011–
2015).
• Enhancing coordination among all sectors responsible
for prevention, response, care, protection and justice for
children.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT POLICY OF UNITED
REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA
Tanzania is one of UN member states which has ratified
the convention on the rights of the child, according to
the convention the basic rights of the child are defined
as;
i. Survival rights
ii. Development rights
iii. Protection rights
iv. Participation rights
v. The right not to be discriminated against

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Factors affecting the provision of child rights in
Tanzania
The basic rights of the child are frequently violated by
the community, parents and guardians who have been
left to bring up children and care for them and their
interests without taking into account their economic
status, education, traditions and customs and the
environment in which they live.
Deficiencies in the enforcement of the laws concerning
child’s rights have also contributed to denial of these
rights
Measures to promote the rights of the child
In order to rectify the deficiency in provision of the child
rights, the following needs to be done.
1. To review existing laws and to enact new ones to
address the following;
• To ensure child’s survival from the time of
pregnancy to her/his reaching adulthood
• To make both parents accountable for caring for
and providing basic needs for their children
• To maintain sanctity of married life which is the
basis for good child care
• To make male parents responsible for caring for
children born before marriage
• To protect school children from acts aimed at
curtailing their studies
• To make parents responsible for their children
living in streets
• To ensure children do not have access to false or
immoral information
• All areas set aside for leisure and playground for
children should be protected and all intruders removed
• To protect children against child labour
• To mobilize the community against harmful
traditional practices
2. To mobilize and educate the communities and
children themselves on the rights of the child and involve
them fully in their implementations
3. To supervise and follow up fully the enforcement of
the laws concerning the rights of the child and protect the
interest of children involved in criminal offences
The roles of children, parents, guardians,
institutions and ministries
1. Institutions involved in the overseeing and
enforcing of the laws including the ministry concerned
with the legal affairs, the police and the judiciary
should ensure that right are enshrined in existing laws
are not violated and respected, in addition these
institutions should ensure that the deficient laws are
rectified in accordance with the rights of the child

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2. The ministry responsible for children, in
collaboration with legal institutions, should educate
and mobilize the community on the rights of the child
in Tanzania and how to put them into practice
3. The ministry of social welfare should ensure that
vulnerable children receive their rights and basic needs,
it should also ensure that the interest of of children
involved in criminal offences are protected.
4. Police, judiciary and prisons should ensure that
child offenders are treated in such a way that their
rights as children according to existing laws are not
affected
5. Voluntary organizations responsible for human
rights and religious institutions should educate the
public on the rights of the child and participate fully in
defending the rights and the interest of the child.
6. Children should obey and respect their parents,
guardians and the community in general and live
according to national customs and traditions.
7. Parents should take into account their
responsibilities and capabilities and plan their families
according to their resources. Acceptable tradition
methods of family planning should be encouraged and
maintained alongside modern methods for benefit of
parents and children.

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FURTHER READINGS
• Child development policy, United Republic of
Tanzania 2nd Edition 2008.
• Child protection fact sheet UNICEF 2015
• Child protection basics, FHI360, child protection
tool kit 2012