Abstract:
This study assesses the realisation of older persons’ right to healthcare in light of
international human rights standards on older persons’ right to healthcare.
Specifically, it examines Tanzania’s international human rights obligations towards
realising older persons’ right to healthcare; assesses the adequacy of the legal, policy,
and other measures taken to realise older persons’ right to healthcare; and explores
international human rights avenues for enhancing the realisation of older persons’
rights. Data was collected through documentary review and field research.
Documentary review involved examination of relevant human rights instruments and
published scholarly materials on the right to healthcare while field research was aimed
at collecting information on the other measures taken to realise older persons’ right to
healthcare. In terms of policy measures, the findings of the study show that
government policies, including the National Ageing Policy of 2003 and the National
Health Policy of 2007, commit the government to ensuring access to healthcare
services by all needy older persons. The main efforts taken to implement the policies
include the provision of free health insurance to indigent older persons, supporting
older persons in designated government and private residences, promoting preferential
treatment for older persons and increasing healthcare facilities across the country. The
legal framework on older persons’ right to healthcare is inadequate in part because the
right to healthcare is not justiciable under the Constitution of the United Republic of
Tanzania and the absence of specific legislation on older persons. Based on these
findings, the study concludes that Tanzania has not taken adequate legal, policy and
other measures to realise older persons’ right to healthcare. To address the situation,
there is a need to: review the National Ageing Policy of 2003; enact specific
legislation on older persons; protect the rights of older persons in the Constitution, and
make the right to healthcare constitutionally justiciable. Moreover, international
human rights monitoring mechanisms, particularly state reporting, should be used to
enhance the realisation of older persons’ rights in the country. The Government is also
advised to fully implement African and global human rights treaties which guarantee
the right to healthcare and ratify and domesticate key African Union treaties on older
persons’ rights namely; the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’
Rights on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa and the Protocol to the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in
Africa.