UN calls on Tanzania to investigate election violence
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Mwananchi
Illustrative image · Mathias Reding · Pexels · Licence PexelsCountries have called on Tanzania to swiftly investigate allegations of killings, abductions, disappearances and human rights violations linked to the October 2025 general election. The calls were made on 5 November 2026 during Tanzania’s universal periodic review in Geneva, according to Mwananchi.
The United Kingdom on Thursday 5 November called on Tanzania to conduct an independent judicial investigation into the deaths of civilians and other human rights violations reported during the October 2025 general election, Mwananchi reports.
London also called for prosecutions against officials involved in acts of violence, a reduction in prolonged pre-trial detention and a review of provisions allowing detention without bail when they are used against political opponents, according to Mwananchi. The United Kingdom also called for changes to laws restricting press freedom.
Germany, Ireland and Lithuania supported these calls and raised disappearances, arbitrary arrests and pressure against journalists and civil society organisations, Mwananchi reports. Austria, for its part, called on Tanzania to end reported acts of harassment.
These calls were made in Geneva during Tanzania’s Universal Periodic Review, the United Nations mechanism that assesses the human rights record of its 193 member states. Tanzanian Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs Abdallah Ulega presented his country’s fourth national human rights report, saying that internal investigations into violence linked to the 2025 election were under way, according to Mwananchi.
