Tanzania hasn't carried out its own Court of Appeal's child-marriage ruling and still lets girls marry under 18, a UN committee found.
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In concluding observations adopted 28 September 2026, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said it was 'deeply concerned' that Tanzania 'continued to fail to harmonize the Law of Marriage Act with the Law of the Child Act,' that legal exceptions permitting child marriage persist, and that child marriage remains prevalent; Tanzania has one of the highest absolute numbers of child marriages in Eastern and Southern Africa. The committee urged the government to amend the 1971 Law of Marriage Act to set 18 as the minimum marriage age without exception and to ensure 'full implementation of the Court of Appeal decision in Attorney General v. Rebeca Gyumi,' the case brought to challenge the Act's provisions allowing girls as young as 14 to marry. It also asked that child-marriage cases be consistently identified, investigated and prosecuted.
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