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  • Access to Legal Aid

Quick information guide

The Tanzania Legal Act, 2017 recognises the right of access to legal aid and orients providers to: 

  • Carry out educational programmes in national or local languages on legal issues and procedures of concern to the community;
  • Assist aided persons in the procedures to obtain necessary legal documents;
  • Guide aided person to a proper forum or to access justice; and
  • Advise the conflicting parties to seek amicable settlement or referring them to dispute settlement institutions

Why is legal aid important for women?

Research studies have shown that women in Tanzania are likely to suffer more when it comes to accessing and utilizing legal services compared to men simply because of:

  • Vulnerability: Women are more vulnerable to oppression than men due to socio-economic characters
  • Literacy: Majority of the women are illiterate; this becomes difficult for them to connect with legal aid and express themselves
  • Income: Women are less paid compared to men what disadvantages them when it comes to affording paid legal services
  • Cultural values: Some cultural practices have created in a woman a spirit of underestimation.

This makes it hard for women to fight for their rights.

Women Legal Aid Support Services in Tanzania

The government of Tanzania acknowledges that women have limited access to legal services due to various socio-economic factors.
 
To narrow the gap, some measures such as the development of national strategies and policies to redress gender gaps and inequalities between men and women have been initiated.

The National Strategy for Gender Development (NSGD) aims at guiding all stakeholders to work towards gender equality in a more harmonized manner.

Part four of the Tanzania Legal Aid Act of 2017 gives provisions for legal aid to eligible indent persons such as women and persons in lawful custody. Various NGOs have special programs to provide free legal aid services to needy women.

Legal Human Rights centre (LHRC)

supports women and children in accessing their rights through legal aid, advocacy and awareness creation

Women Legal Aid Centre (WLAC)

handles a wide range of legal issues including matrimonial, land and inheritance, child custody, rape, and others

Tanzanian Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA)

Helps women to access legal aid
angle-left Zanzibar Female Lawyers Association (ZAFELA)

Zanzibar Female Lawyers Association (ZAFELA)

About ZAFELA

The Zanzibar Female Lawyers Association (ZAFELA)     was established in 2003, driven by the challenges facing women and children in the community in Zanzibar.

ZAFELA seeks to ensure that women and children are no longer the victims of any form of violence by educating them about their civil and social rights, providing counselling and support through difficult life transitions, and safeguarding their future by creating awareness of their legal rights through legal aid.

The organization acts as a forum for providing legal advice to governmental and non-governmental institutions dealing with the women and children; spreads awareness to women at all levels of Zanzibar law, especially that which affects their lives directly or indirectly; ensures their participation in moves to change the laws concerning them directly and hampering progress in the development of women and children; conducts legal research and lobbies for amendments or new laws to promote gender equality.

Services Provided
  • Legal Aid: The provision of accessible, legal aid services to vulnerable women and children is at the core of ZAFELA’s mandate. Women and children are disproportionately affected by poverty, and other discriminatory culture practices, ZAFELA provision of legal services addresses this directly by enabling them to have access to their legal rights.
  • Legal Assistance:  ZAFELA provides reconciliation, client coaching, case follow-up, in-court representation, document drafting services, and legal and human rights education.
  • Human Rights Education: ZAFELA also provide human rights education for both young people and women especially who live in rural areas.
  •  Awareness Creation on Women and Children Rights: Due to a growing demand for legal services and awareness across the country, ZAFELA offers a variety of programs to provide both legal professionals and members of the community with capacity training and learning opportunities

Associated Costs

  • ZAFELA legal services are free for women in need through its team of registered lawyers who work as volunteers.

Public Events
  • ZAFELA features in public events like International Law Day every year

Contacts

ZANZIBAR FEMALE LAWYERS ASSOCIATION
POBOX 815
MPENDAE
ZANZIBAR TANZANIA
Email: zafelamember@yahoo.com
Mobile: +255 777-003 347
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