Dar es Salaam – With Tanzania due before the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review on November 5, the United Kingdom’s Human Rights Ambassador, Eleanor Sanders, has set out a vision of the bilateral relationship that reaches beyond official diplomacy while retaining human rights, accountability and the rule of law as central subjects of dialogue.
In an interview with The Chanzo, Sanders said Britain wanted a relationship built on long-standing cooperation and practical mutual interests, rather than one confined to contacts between the two governments.
“We want the UK and Tanzania to continue the strong partnership we have had for many years, to continue talking about the challenges we all face and to act in ways that support each other’s prosperity,” she said.
Sanders, who has been the UK’s Ambassador for Human Rights and Deputy Permanent Representative in Geneva since August 2024, said the relationship should also connect organisations and people outside government.
“Our civil societies, our media sectors and many other parts of society should be able to work together, learn from each other and continue to strengthen that strong relationship,” she said.
The review ahead
Her visit came shortly before Tanzania’s fourth-cycle UPR, scheduled for November 5 from 2:30 pm to 6 pm in Geneva.
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The process is a peer review of every UN member state’s human-rights record, held about every four and a half years, through which governments report on progress and receive public recommendations from other states.
Sanders said the review was not an automatic trigger for a change in bilateral ties. Instead, she described it as “an important framework and basis for dialogue” that Britain hoped to use, alongside processes under way in the country, “to engage with and support the Government of Tanzania in addressing a period which has been very difficult in its recent history.”
That period, of course, includes the violence surrounding the October 29, 2025 general election. Speaking at the Human Rights Council in March, Sanders said there was “evidence of extra-judicial killings and concealment of dead bodies” and called for an “independent, transparent and inclusive investigation” to secure accountability and protect constitutional freedoms.
During the interview, she said Britain had “certainly some concerns” about the deaths and that it was important to await the findings of the investigative processes.
The first of those processes, the fact-finding commission chaired by retired Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman, submitted its report to President Samia Suluhu Hassan on April 23 after 153 days.
The Chande commission, among other things, reported that about 518 people had been killed, did not name individual suspects and recommended a separate criminal inquiry.
That subsequent body, chaired by retired Court of Appeal Justice Shaban Ali Lila, is mandated to identify alleged perpetrators and examine planning, financing, deaths, missing persons, property destruction and allegations of excessive or unlawful force.
The Lila commission was given 150 days to gather evidence and report to President Samia. At its August briefing, Lila said it would receive testimony and documents before giving anyone implicated an opportunity to respond.
Sanders described accountability and reconciliation as central to a durable partnership. “They are important for the ability of societies to heal, recover, move forward, thrive and succeed,” she said.
Prosperity and the rule of law
The ambassador’s formulation places rights concerns alongside an economic relationship that already includes trade, investment and development programmes.
UK official statistics put total goods-and-services trade between the two countries at £580 million in the year to the end of March 2026, including £325 million in UK exports and £255 million in imports.
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A 2026 FCDO evaluation examined British engagement in strategic planning, tax reform, infrastructure, investment promotion and financial leverage. It drew on more than 60 Tanzanian public- and private-sector interviews, although its fieldwork ended before the 2025 election.
Sanders said rights and legal protections are part of the environment in which companies make decisions, while acknowledging that governments do not directly decide where firms invest.
“Businesses in the UK will always take account of human rights and the rule of law in a country, because it is not only about doing the right thing; it is also good business sense,” she said.
“If you have a strong rule of law, you know that the contract you enter into will be upheld,” she emphasised.
That approach broadly matches the UK’s existing development-partnership framework, which combines growth and climate action with education, health, governance, anti-corruption work and inclusion.
Its stated plans include supporting links between government and civil society, including media engagement on public accountability.
A broader diplomatic test
Sanders did not set out a list of conditions that Tanzania must meet to preserve the relationship, nor did she say that the country had crossed a British “red line.”
She said her purpose during her visit was to listen, learn and understand the current human-rights picture through conversations with a range of Tanzanian counterparts.
Her comments also echo the UK government’s recent Africa-partnership approach, which describes relations based on listening, respect and equality, with priorities developed alongside African governments and other stakeholders rather than imposed from outside.
For Sanders, a mature relationship means the two countries can address difficult questions while widening the relationship’s economic and social base.
“We want to be able to tackle some of those challenges together,” she said, “and to have a relationship that goes beyond government-to-government connections.”
