AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) has suspended the race, known as ‘Haki Marathon’, which was scheduled to take place in Dar es Salaam on March 6 this year, as part of the Women Day celebration.
In a statement circulated to the media in Dar es Salaam on Thursday and signed by the LHRC Executive Director, Anna Henga, the centre stated it decided to suspend the marathon after receiving a letter from the Police in Kinondoni prohibiting the hosting of the race for what was termed as expressed as security reasons.
“I would like to inform all human rights’ stakeholders that the event has been postponed until further notice,” the statement said.
Anna assured all participants registered for the Haki Marathon they will be refunded their registration fees.
On February 5, this year, LHCR announced to organise the ‘Haki Marathon’, with a view to increasing awareness on the importance of protecting human rights.
She said the marathon had three categories, the first was set to see the participants feature in 21km event, the second category was expected to involve 10km runners and the third was set to bring together 5km participants.
“In order to strengthen unity and solidarity among human rights stakeholders, LHRC through the ‘Haki Marathon’, brings together participants from private, public sector, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and human rights clubs across the country,” Anna disclosed.
”Therefore, it is our hope that event will play a big role of reminding the society on the importance of uniting to have rights and equal community,” she said.
The executive director pointed out that according to the human rights report 2019 released by LHCR last year, women harassment had increased, an issue that needed a solution.
Furthermore, the report revealed that in a period between January and June 2019, a total of 3709 cases related to women and children’s raping were reported in different police stations across the country.
The 2019 human rights report, among others, recommended to the government, through the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, to spearhead the enactment of the law on rights and protection to complement the National Age policy.
It further recommended to the CSOs and Social Welfare departments within local governments to increase awareness on violence against women and children and encourage community members to report the incidents to relevant authorities so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice.
The report further revealed recommendations to the community members to perform their duties of protecting and safeguarding children’s rights and refraining from conducting acts of abuse to children.
