Between law and reality: Women with disabilities and the crisis of representation in organisations of persons with disabilities in Tanzania

Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) exist to secure the self-representation of persons with disabilities, yet often replicate within their own leadership structures the gender inequalities they contest externally. This article examines the legal and institutional factors shaping the representation of women with disabilities in OPD leadership in Tanzania. Combining doctrinal legal analysis with key informant interviews and a leadership-mapping exercise covering SHIVYAWATA and its twelve member organisations as at 10 March 2025, it identifies a dual governance gap. The first deficit is normative. International law is not silent on affirmative measures, but the applicable parity standards are authoritative treaty-body interpretations rather than express treaty obligations, and neither the treaty texts nor Tanzanian legislation translates them into enforceable, institutionally scoped requirements governing OPD leadership. The second deficit is institutional: even where an OPD constitution adopts an express gender rule, its effectiveness depends on implementation, monitoring and accountability. SHIVYAWATA’s reserved-seat arrangement coincided with an increase in women’s Board representation from 15.8% in 2021 to parity among occupied seats, whereas TASODEB’s constitutional gender-alternation requirement did not correspond with its recorded leadership composition. While numerical measures are important, they are not self-executing: they require clear standards, monitoring, verification and remedies.