Sustaining the Desk of Human Rights

Funded by

Pact & Freedom House Tanzania

From: 2023-04-01

To: 2023-09-30

The Sustaining the Desk of Human Rights project was a six-month pilot initiative implemented by ZAFAYCO as part of its broader commitment to promote, protect, and document human rights in Zanzibar. Supported by Pact and Freedom House Tanzania through the USAID-funded Data Driven Advocacy (DDA) Program, the project adopted a localized approach to human rights monitoring by deploying 14 trained monitors across 11 districts. These monitors included 11 recognized human rights defenders and 3 journalists, selected for their experience and reach in documenting and reporting rights violations.

Through this structure, the project established a decentralized yet coordinated mechanism for identifying and recording human rights violations. Monitors reported incidents to ZAFAYCO through a secure digital system designed to facilitate case referrals and ensure documentation contributed to national human rights discourse. Over the course of the project, more than 114 cases were documented and flagged for attention by relevant authorities and stakeholders, feeding into annual reporting efforts and informing ongoing advocacy.

To strengthen institutional collaboration, ZAFAYCO organized structured dialogues between the monitors, the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG), and the Zanzibar Police Force. These engagements provided an opportunity to raise specific concerns, discuss systemic gaps, and facilitate case referrals for further action. In addition, ZAFAYCO incorporated insights and data from the project into a separate human rights report, which was disseminated to stakeholders to encourage responsive interventions.

The project demonstrated the importance and viability of a community-based model for rights monitoring and advocacy. With encouraging results from the pilot phase, ZAFAYCO now envisions transforming the Desk of Human Rights into a youth-owned and youth-led mechanism that ensures continued documentation, accountability, and protection of human rights in Zanzibar.