Tanzania has one of the highest rates of adolescent pregnancies and child marriage in the world.
Girls there, as in many other countries, have been subjected to mandatory expulsions from school if they become pregnant or married, and have not been allowed to re-enter to complete their studies. CFJ has been working with women’s rights advocates in Africa to challenge such discriminatory practices.
In 2021, the Clooney Foundation for Justice filed a submission alongside our partners, Equality Now and the Tanzania Women Lawyers’ Association, to challenge Tanzania’s policy of banning married and pregnant girls from school in a landmark case before the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights. Since the case was filed, the Tanzanian Government has already u-turned, announcing a reversal of this discriminatory policy that impacts more than 1 in 4 girls of high school age in the country.
