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November 24, 2020

Tanzania: U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Issues Decision in Case of Detained Tanzanian Human Rights Lawyer, Tito Magoti

Human rights activist Tito Magoti speaks during an event in Dodoma, Tanzania on November 6, 2019.

Human rights activist Tito Magoti speaks during an event in Dodoma, Tanzania on November 6, 2019.

Photo courtesy of the Legal and Human Rights Center

In September 2020, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) issued a decision in the case of detained Tanzanian human rights lawyer, Tito Magoti. The UNWGAD held that the fair trial violations in Mr. Magoti's case were of such gravity to give his pre-trial detention an arbitrary character. The UNWGAD further held that Tanzania is in violation of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The UNWGAD decision calls for the immediate release of Mr. Magoti and that he should be compensated. The ABA Justice Defenders Program provided pro bono technical legal assistance to the Legal Human Rights Center (LHRC) to submit the petition on behalf of Magoti who at the time of his arrest, worked as a Program Officer for Mass Education at LHRC.

Read the UNWGAD decision here.

Read ABA CHR's preliminary report in the case of Tito Magoti and Theodory Giyani here.