Contribution of Good Governance in Protecting Human Rights in Tanzania; A Case Study of Selected Public Higher Learning institutions

Protection of human rights in public higher learning institutions is still a challenge in Tanzania. However many public higher learning institutions have adopted good governance reforms in order to strengthen their works in the society and to reduce violation of human rights. The purpose of the study was to assess the contribution of good governance in protecting human rights in public higher learning institutions in Tanzania. The study adopted a case study research design on sample of 74 respondents drawn from a target population of 332; both administrators and academic staff. The primary data were collected using self-administered questionnaires and key interviews. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics including percentages, mean, correlation to help in determining and explaining variable relationships. The study revealed existence of violation of human rights in public higher learning institutions where 2 % rated the level of human rights violation at very high, 3 % rated it at high, and 21 % rated it at somehow high. Respondents agreed that good governance promotes accountability among stakeholders, enhance peace and unity, eliminate gender disparity and ensure equity, increasing the quality of education services and improve decision making process in academic activities. Further, the study revealed that the influence of good governance in protecting human rights was at high. There was also a positive and moderate relationship between transparency and protecting human rights with a correlation coefficient of 0.385**; and moderate and positive relationship between accountability and protecting human rights at coefficient value of 0.289*; also participation and protecting human rights had positive and moderate relationship at coefficient value of 0.290*. The study recommends that public higher learning institutions should put in place adequate measures to achieve zero violation of human rights and public authorities responsible for governance and human rights protection should actively monitor daily activities in higher learning institutions to ensure no violations.