Tanzania

Tanzania's mainland framework is the Persons with Disabilities Act 2010 (Act No. 9 of 2010), enforced through the Prime Minister's Office. It is a comprehensive framework statute covering non-discrimination, health, education, employment, rehabilitation and accessibility of the built environment. Because Zanzibar is semi-autonomous within the United Republic, it maintains its own parallel statute — the Zanzibar Persons with Disabilities (Rights and Privileges) Act 2006 — which operates alongside, not under, the mainland law.

The mainland Act

The Persons with Disabilities Act 2010 is the principal mainland instrument. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and sets out rights and duties across the major domains — health and rehabilitation, education, vocational training, employment, and accessibility of buildings, transport and services. It establishes a structure of national and local disability councils to coordinate and monitor implementation, and it places reasonable-accommodation and accessibility obligations on public bodies and, to a degree, on private actors. Enforcement and coordination are led from the Prime Minister's Office (responsible for labour, youth, employment and persons with disability).

The Zanzibar parallel statute

Zanzibar's semi-autonomous constitutional status means it legislates separately on many domestic matters, disability among them. The Zanzibar Persons with Disabilities (Rights and Privileges) Act 2006 is the operative statute for Zanzibar, predating the mainland 2010 Act and administered by the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar. Anyone assessing disability rights in Tanzania must therefore check which jurisdiction applies — mainland or Zanzibar — because the governing statute and administering body differ.

Penalties and enforcement

The 2010 Act prohibits discrimination and provides for offences, fines and remedies, with the national and local disability councils providing oversight. Enforcement is coordination-led from the Prime Minister's Office rather than driven by a single penalty-issuing regulator, and specific accessibility-fine case law is limited. Zanzibar enforces its 2006 statute through its own structures. There is no national web-accessibility statute, and digital-accessibility obligations are emergent rather than codified.