Women in Judicial Leadership and Decision-making Structures in

Tanzania, 2015 – 2020

By

Hanif Tuwa
Research Consultant
E-mail: haniftuwa@gmail.com

June 2021

1
Abbreviations

AU African Union
ACHPR African Charter of Human and People’s Rights
BDPA Beijing Declaration and Plan of Action
CCA Chief Court Administrator
CEDAW Convention on Elimination of Discrimination of All Forms against Women
CGE Centre for Gender Equality
CR Chief Registrar
ICJ International Council of Judges
JAs Justices of Appeal
JI/C Judges in-Charge
JSC Judiciary Service Commission
RCA Registrar of the Court of Appeal
RMi/c Resident Magistrate In-Charge
SADC Southern African Development Committee
TAWJA Tanzania Women Judges Association
TGNP Tanzania Gender Network Programme
UNDG United Nations Development Goals
UNGA United Nations General Assembly
URT United Republic of Tanzania

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Introduction
Women have historically suffered discrimination and exclusion from public life. Inclusion and diversity has
now become the cherished values in international human rights law and feature ever more in the
development discourse. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Convention for
Elimination of Discrimination and All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1979 that call
on the States on removing any discrimination against women in political and public life. However, judicial
institutions in as many states rarely reflect the diversity of the people they serve (Moghadam, 2006).
Patriarchy and sexism ascribe to paucity of gender balance (Commission for Gender Equality, 2016:59).
Locally, guarantee of the rights of women and gender equality and women’s empowerment is embraced in
most of the conventions, where the State is a signatory1. The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania
Article 13(5) of 1977 prohibits discrimination based on gender. The Judiciary in Tanzania has the authority
and mandate as per articles 107A (1) and 107B of the Constitution of 1977 to dispense justice with equity and
compassion. As a public institution, the judiciary is presupposed to reflect the diversity of society to become
truly legitimate and deliver equal justice and uphold equality before the law (International Commission of
Jurists (2014:15-21); International Development Law Organization, 2018:13).
Investigating gender equality in the judiciary is not a popular research task in Tanzania, and thus little public
knowledge on this. To assess the status of women judicial leadership and decision-making, this paper rely
on the evidence generated from mapping study conducted in 2019. This background research had a limited
scope 2015 and 2019, but covered all the five tiers of the judiciary2. The data presented herein passed through
the validation process that involved the Office of the Chief Registrar, and Office of the Director of
Administration and Human Resources.
The Supreme Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal is the Supreme Court and the final appellate court in Tanzania. Established by article
117(1) of the Constitution, it has jurisdiction over the entire State including appeals arising from the High
Court of Tanzania and the High Court of Zanzibar. The Chief Justice is the head of the Judiciary and presides
over the Court of Appeal. Dating back to 1920, there have been 18 Chief Justices and 6 of them Tanzanians
(since 1971), but never a woman.
Information gathered for the 2015-2019 period shows that the number Judges of Appeal (JAs) has increased
from 16 to 18. There were 17 female JAs in 2016 and the number decreased to 15 in 2017. Compared to men,
the rate of women appointment as JAs has been slow, only three (3) women appointed against eight (8) men.
As shown in Figure 1, the big change came in 2019 after appointment of 6 justices 4 of who were women,
thereby increasing the overall proportion from 20% to 39%. This is possibly a turning point toward a more
gender inclusive appellant court in Tanzania.

1
CEDAW of 1979, BDPA of 1995, the African Political and SADC Heads of States Declaration on Gender and Development of
1997, the ACHPR (AU Protocol), the SADC Protocol on Gender.
2
Hierarchy: Court of Appeal, High Court, Resident Magistrates Courts, District Magistrates Courts, Primary Courts.

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 Figure 1: Share of women justices in Tanzania 2017-2019
39%
2019 11
7
20%
2018 12
3
20%
2017 12
3
23%
2016 13
4
25%
2015 12
4
% Women Men Women
Source: Office of the Director of Administration and Human Resources (2019)

The High Court of Tanzania

The High Court of Tanzania as a superior court having full jurisdiction by virtue of section 2 (1) of the
Judicature and Application of Laws Act, chapter 358 RE: 2002. Under article 109(1) of the Constitution, the
Principal Judge and not less than 30 judges compose the High Court. The Principal Judge or “Jaji Kiongozi”
functions as the head of the High Court and the special assistant of the Chief Justice in the administration
of the High court and subordinate courts.Only men have held this position throughout the history of
judiciary of Tanzania. Judges on the bench between 2015 and 2019 have been 359. By head count, male judges
(207) outnumbered female judges (152), with the latter’s proportion erratic, as show in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Proportion of Women Judges in High Court 2015-2019

33% 2015
45% 2016
41%
2017
2018
46% 2019
48%

Source: Office of the Director of Administration and Human Resources (2019)

Women share of judges had increased slightly from 45% in 2015 to 46% in 2016, and skipped to 48% in
2017, before reverse trend occurred that witnessed a fall to 41% in 2018 and further down to 33% in 2019.
The explanation behind the trend is unequal number of appointments between male and female judges,
whereby out of 53 appointments between 2015 and 2019, only 14 (27%) were women as compared to 39
(73%) male judges.
The High Court has four divisions, namely the Commercial Division, the Land Division, the Labour Division,
and the Corruption and Economic Crimes Division. There are also 16 Zones established across the country.
At the level of Division and Zone, Judges are appointed serving as Judges in-Charge (JI/C), to provide

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leadership at these levels. For the period under study, there has been a gradual but consistent increase in the
number of Judges appointed to these leadership positions every year, from 17 in 2016 to 21 in 2019. The
concern here is that, despite these appointments happening in response to the so-called wide reaching
judiciary reforms and amendments,3 gender gap in these judicial leadership positions has increased. Data
reveals share of women JI/C fell from 47% in 2016 to 29% in 2019, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Proportion of Women Judges-in-Charge 20015-2019
%Women %Men
71
65
56
47 53
44
35
29

2016 2017 2018 2019

Source: Office of the Director of Administration and Human Resources (2019)

Unequal representation of women in judgeship and the downward trend points to the need for rethinking
of the merit-based criteria and the appointment system in the judiciary. Pursuant to Constitution article
109(7), Judges must possess the special qualifications,4 some of which may put women at disadvantage.
However, the President has powers to dispense with the special qualifications, subject to demonstration of a
person’s ability and sufficient knowledge. This provides an important but often missed opportunity to rectify
the gender imbalance in the judicial service.
As argued by Valdini and Shortell (2014), the selection mechanisms for judgeship tend to discriminate against
women, either consciously or unconsciously. Women are more likely to win appointments to the highest
courts through exposed selection processes, rather than through the Judicial Commissions, which are
sheltered in favour of men. The International Council of Jurists (2014) reiterate that social resistance and
stereotypes can explain women’s under-representation as judges. Mainstreaming gender in the judicial
recruitment system, thus, cannot be overemphasized.

Court Administrators
In the operations of the judiciary in Tanzania, the Court Administration is a critical function with different
positions of leadership and activities stretching from the superior courts to the lower courts. The head of the
Court Administration is the Chief Court Administrator (CCA), who works directly under the Chief Justice.
The immediate subordinates are the Court Administrators of the Court of Appeal and the High Court. Data

3
Daily News, 9 November 2019
4
Including a law degree, experience as magistrate and/or public servant, and decade long qualified as an advocate

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has exposed a complete non-representation of women in these three top leadership positions in the court
administration since 2015. In fact, there has yet to be a female CAA in the Tanzania’s judiciary.
Gross under-representation is evident at the subordinate levels with few women serving as Court
Administrators and Directors of departments in the High Court. The number of women increased from 32
in 2015 to 38 in 2019, but this still constitute a meagre 13% of all Court Administrators by end of 2019. All
Directors (7) in the High Courts are men and only a single female out of nine (9) held the position for the
lower courts. Strong presence of women is notable for the position of Deputy Director, as they constitute
36% of 69 deputies since 2015.

Court Registrars
The Registrars and Deputy Registrars are positions found at both the superior and subordinate courts in
Tanzania. The Chief Registrar (CR) is the head of all the court registrars, and the Registrar of the Court of
Appeal (RCA) and Registrar of High Court (RHC) that comes next in rank. Data collected between 2015 and
2019 shows that a woman had served as the RHC and two men as CR and RCA. All these three positions
have been vacant between 2016 and 2019.
In the subordinate courts, there are nine (9) Registrars, 3 (33%) women and 6 (67%) men as of 2019.
Between 2015 and 2017, women constituted one of the three Registrars, and a 50/50 balance of gender
attained briefly in 2018. The appointments of 7 Registrars in 2019, two women and five men, tilted the scale,
in favour of men as shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Proportion of Women as Court Registrars 2015-2019
Sex Number of Registrars and Years
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Women 1 (33%) 1(33%) 1(33%) 1(50%) 3(33%)
Men 2 (67%) 2(67%) 2(67%) 1(50%) 6(67%)

Source: Office of the Director of Administration and Human Resources (2019)

Deputy Registrars exists at the High Court, the Resident Magistrate Courts, the District Magistrates Courts
and the Primary Courts. In recent years, share of women in this designated position has overall increased
but the trend depict erratic movement between 2015 and 2019. Proportion of women occupying this position
slightly decreased from 31% in 2015 to 29% in 2016, but rose subsequently to 35% in 2018 and to 39% in
2019. Yet, men outnumbered women and their proportion remained higher as Table 2 indicates.

Table 2: Number and Sex of Deputy Court Registrars 2015-2019

Number of Deputy Registrars and Years
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Total 43 39 45 39 52
Women 12(28%) 12 (31%) 13 (29%) 17 (35%) 20 (39%)
Men 31(72%) 27 (69%) 32 (71%) 32 (65%) 32 (61%)

Source: Office of the Director of Administration and Human Resources (2019)

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Women in Subordinate and Lower Courts
The Magistrate Courts Act of 1984, [Cap 11 RE 2002] establishes the Resident Magistrate Courts (RMCs) and
the District Magistrate Courts (DMCs), as the Subordinate Courts in Tanzania. Women presence in the RMCs
and DMCs is relatively strong in comparison to the superior courts. By end of 2019, women comprised 393
(49%) of the presiding Resident Magistrates in 799 RMCs and 406 (51%) were men. Impressive as well was
the finding that 12 out of 30 or 40% of the Resident Magistrates In-Charge, who provide leadership to the
judicial staff at this level, were women.
Similar to the pattern observed above, gender composition in the DMCs is indicative of the contribution of
women judicial officers in dispensing of justice at the lower levels. Women comprise almost a half (56 or
49%) of the 113 District Resident Magistrates in-charge. In the Primary Courts, which are the lowest courts
established under the Magistrates Courts Act of 1984, presence of women magistrates is equally strong. Out
of 348 Magistrates, women constitute 148 (41%) and 210 (59%) are men. Figure 15 shows the share of
women in the district and primary courts as of 2019.
Pattern of representation at the district and primary courts reveals that women are in relatively high number
as Magistrates. This could be associated with the qualifications and the low profile of these courts in the
judicial system. Nonetheless, strong presence of female magistrates offers important chance in the protection
of women’s rights. In Tanzania, civil cases on property and family law matters, which apply customary law
and Islamic law in Tanzania, starts from the Primary Court level. Women’s denial of property rights and
gender-based violence occurs mostly at the family level, and that the traditional customs perpetuate such
injustices.

The Judicial Service Commission

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is established under article 112 (1) of the Constitution as the
appointment advisory organ for Judges and Magistrates in Tanzania. The JSC advises the President on
appointments of the Principal Judge, Judges of the High Court, the CCA, CR, RCA and RHC. The JSC recruits
and promotes rest of judicial officers. Based on its functions and powers as stipulated in articles 113(1) and
(4), the JSC is a powerful organ when it comes to appointments, welfare, and discipline of judicial officers
within the Judiciary.
By virtue of the Constitution Article 112(1), the JSC is composed of the Chief Justice, the Principal Judge, the
Attorney General, and the CCA – all men, and a Justice of the Court of Appeal who is currently the only
woman in the Commission. President appoints two members of the Commission. As at December 2019,
these positions were vacant. Historically, women were side-lined from the Commission. The first female
appointment came in 2013 following a lobbying by the Tanzania Women Judges Association (TAWJA).

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Conclusion
This paper has situated women in judicial leadership and decision-making positions in Tanzania. It reveals
the slow progress in the appointment of women into the top-tiers of the judicial decision-making. Women
are mostly dominant in the prestigious lower courts, a trend which is largely consistent with a significant
body of research from elsewhere.
Nonetheless, the judiciary of Tanzania cannot afford to lag in promoting gender parity, as it is an
international best practice. Indeed, prospects of attaining gender parity in leadership positions lies largely
with the JSC and capacity of its members to approach recruitment issues with a gender perspective. In this
regard, the judiciary can benefit from adopting a more progressive approach to ensure gender diversity and
reserve positions for women in the Commission. There is a need, therefore, to review of the judicial
recruitment and selection framework and processes to mainstream gender and alleviate inequality in all
structures and ranks.

References
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International Commission of Jurists (2013). Women and Judiciary. Geneva Forum Series No.1. Geneva: ICJ.
International Development Law Organization (2018). Women Delivering Justice. VialeVaticano: IDLO
United Nations Development Goals (2015). Delivering the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Opportunities at
the National and Local Levels. New York: UN
Moghadam, V. (2006). Women, law, and judicial decision-making: A regional and comparative overview.
UNESCO Seminar “Women, Law, and Judicial decision-making in the Middle East and North Africa:
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Msuya, N.H. (2019). Challenges Surrounding the Adjudication of Women's Rights in Relation to Customary
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