Name:Dr. Elifuraha Laltaika

Position/Status

  • Senior Law Lecturer

Profile

Dr. Elifuraha Laltaika is a Senior Law Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Tumaini University Makumira, and a former Harvard Law School Visiting Researcher. While at Harvard, Dr. Laltaika examined the intersection of extractive industry (mining, oil and gas extraction) and community rights under international and comparative law.

 

A Fulbright Scholar, he holds a Doctorate in Law (S.J.D) from the University of Arizona, master’s Degrees (LL.M) from the Universities of Oregon and KwaZulu Natal, and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from the University of Dar-Es-Salaam. Using theoretical, comparative, and interdisciplinary approaches and materials, Dr. Laltaika teaches, researches, and writes on the following areas of law, among others: Public International Law, Human Rights Law, Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law, Natural Resources Law, Mining, Oil and Gas Law, Indigenous Peoples Rights, and Advanced Legal Research and Writing. He recently served as the founding Global South Visiting Scholar at the University of British Columbia, and as a visiting scholar at the University of Bayreuth (Germany) and the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies in South Africa. Additionally, he has guest-lectured/presented papers in several universities across Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, connected to collaborative research projects with other scholars.

 

Between 2017 and 2019, Dr. Laltaika served as an expert member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, following appointment by the President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. Recognizing his “impact in the law while working to support local communities,” Elifuraha is the 2022 recipient of the Svetlana Kravchenko Environmental Rights Award (Oregon, USA). An Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania since admission to the Bar in 2010, the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights acknowledged Dr. Laltaika’s expert contribution in the landmark case involving the Ogiek Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Kenya. He currently chairs the Community of Practice (CoP), a think tank of practitioners and scholars from Eastern and the Horn of Africa interested in the security of customary land tenure and the traditional livelihoods it protects.

 

In addition to teaching law, Dr. Laltaika consults widely on Indigenous Peoples and Environmental and Social Standards, notably the application of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standard 7, and the World Bank’s Environmental and Social Standard 7, among others, for investment projects in Africa. His work has contributed to the signing of several Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) agreements and the adoption of Indigenous peoples Planning Frameworks (IPPF) across Africa.

 

He is the chief editor of the Tanzania Privacy Professionals Association (TPPA) Journal and Associate Editor of TUMA Law Review and TUMA Journal of International and Comparative Law. He has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals, co-authored UN Reports, and authored book chapters published by Edward Elgar Publishing, Elsevier, Duke University Press, and others. Below is a list of selected publications.

 

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Book Chapters:

  1. Laltaika, Elifuraha. “Indigeneity, national unity, modernity and public policy in Africa.” Handbook of Indigenous Public Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 35-52.
  2. LALTAIKA, ELIFURAHA. “Traditional Knowledge of Weather Forecasting among Maasai Pastoralists in Northern Tanzania: Navigating Climate Change and its Impacts.” Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge and the Sciences: 67.
  3. Laltaika, Elifuraha “Disconnected Clans in Fragmented Rangelands: Aligning the East African Community Integration Process with The United Nations Declaration on The Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In Lightfoot, Sheryl, and Elsa Stamatopoulou, eds. Indigenous peoples and borders. Duke University Press, 2023.
  4. Laltaika, Elifuraha. “Indigenous peoples’ participation and the management of wetlands in Africa: a review of the Ramsar Convention.” Fundamentals of Tropical Freshwater Wetlands(2022): 711-726.
  5. Laltaika, Elifuraha I., and Kelly M. Askew. “Modes of dispossession of indigenous lands and territories in Africa.” Lands of the future: Anthropological perspectives on pastoralism, land deals and tropes of modernity in Eastern Africa. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, 2021 pp. 99-121.
  6. Laltaika, Elifuraha, Centrality of International Cooperation and the human rights-based approach in slowing down the extinction of indigenous languages. In UNESCO State of the art of indigenous languages in research: A collection of selected research papers6 (2022): 253.
  7. Laltaika, Elifuraha. “Climate Finance and Energy Transition: Examining Impacts on Africa’s Indigenous Pastoralists and hunter-gatherers.” In Kannowski et al (eds.), Multiple Approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility, (Collective) Human and Environmental Rights in Africa.(Forthcoming, BRILL 2026)
  8. Elifuraha Laltaika, “Exploring Normative Foundations of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and its Applicability in Africa.” In Kannowski et al (eds.), Multiple Approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility, (Collective) Human and Environmental Rights in Africa.(Forthcoming, BRILL 2026
  9. Elifuraha Laltaika, Business and Human Rights in Tanzania: Indigenous Peoples’ Experiences with Access to Remedy. In Cathal M. Doyle, editor, Business and Human Rights: Indigenous Peoples’ Experiences with Access to Remedy. Case studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.Chiang Mai, Madrid, Copenhagen: AIPP, Alm. ciga, IWGIA, 2015, pp. 211-231.
  10. Elifuraha Laltaika, Dr. Mvungi Death is Immense Tragedy. In: Elinaza Sendoro, Helen Kijo-Bisimba and Chris Maina Peter, editors, Sengondo Mvungi Breathing the Constitution, Dar-Es-Salaam: LHRC, 2014, pp. 30-31.
  11. Laltaika, Elifuraha, Coping with Drought: Climate Change and Maasai Pastoralists in Tanzania. In: Tamayo, A. N and Wilfredo A. Alangui, editors, Knowledge, Innovation and Resilience: Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Measures, Baguio, Tebtebba Foundation,2012, pp. 253-292.

 

 

 

Journal/Law Review Articles

  1. Laltaika, Elifuraha. “.Foregrounding Human Dignity: A Framework for Enhancing Protection of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Africa’s Protected Areas ” Arizona Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 14 (2024): 28.
    1. Laltaika, Elifuraha. “Constitutional Protection of Natural Resources in Tanzania: Examining Principles, Paucity and Conundrums.” Tuma L. Rev.7 (2021): 1.
    2. Laltaika, Elifuraha. “Natural Resource Extraction and Implementation of International Human Rights Obligations.” Tuma L. Rev.6 (2020): 20.
    3. Laltaika, Elifuraha and Cecillia Ngaiza, “Indivisibility and Interdependence of Human Rights: A Framework for the Protection of Indigenous Languages of Africa’s Hunter-Gatherers.” Eastern Africa Law Review (Forthcoming 2026).
  2. Laltaika, Elifuraha. “Protection of Pastoralists’ Collective Land Rights in Tanzania: A Review of Institutional Hurdles.” Nomadic Journal (Forthcoming 2026)
    1. Laltaika, E (2019). An Appraisal of Procedural Environmental Rights in Tanzania’sExtractive  African Nazarene University Law Journal, 46-63.

 

  1. Laltaika, E. (2018). International Cooperation in Wildlife Conservation: A Review ofMultilateral Agreements Relating to Establishment and Management of Protected Areas. Tuma Law Review, 5, 21-40.

 

 

  1. Laltaika, (2018). Reforming the Reformer? Juxtaposing the Law Reform Commission’s Role with the Institution’s Inbuilt Limitations. Journal of Tanganyika Law Society 1, 2018.

 

  1. Laltaika, E (2017).Legal Protection of the Environment from Negative Impacts of Extractive Operations in  African Nazarene University Law Journal, 38-57.

 

 

  1. Laltaika, E (2016). Implementation of Local Content Requirements in Tanzania’sExtractive Sector: A Review of Laws, Policies, Regulations and Model  Zanzibar Yearbook of Law, 6,129-147.

 

  1. Laltaika,E (2013). Pastoralists’ Right to Land and Natural Resources in  Oregon Review of International Law, 15, 43-61.

 

 

  1. Laltaika,E (2012). Climate Change, REDD+ Implementation and the Right to Information in Tanzania. Journal of Tanganyika Law Society 

 

  1. Laltaika, E. (2012). Indigenous Peoples Rights in Tanzania and International HumanRights Law. Tuma Law Review, 1, 142-165.

 

 

  1. Laltaika, E (2010). ‘A Review of the Tanzania Investment Act in light of Pastoralistslivelihood systems’ Journal of Tanganyika Law 

 

  1. Laltaika, E. (2009). ‘Public Participation and Establishment of Protected Areas: TheTanzania ’ Journal of Tanganyika Law Society 1, 2009.

 

 

Global and Regional Reports

 

  1. Galloway McLean, K., Johnston, S., Ole Riamit, K., Twala, E., Kinyua, E., Dabbagh, L., Birtwhistle Sawyer, L., Laltaika, E., Retter, G-B., Balawag, G., Magata, H., Egereva, D., Mairena, E., Reed, G., & No’amasahu, B. (2025). Guardians of the Climate: Indigenous Peoples’ Leadership in Climate Action.ELATIA Consortium, Indigenous Livelihoods Enhancement Partners (ILEPA), the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, and the Climate High-Level Champions Team.

 

  1. Elifuraha Laltaika & Neva Collings, Update of the Technical Review of Key Intellectual Property-Related Issues of the WIPO Draft Instruments on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions Within the Framework of Indigenous Human Rights, WORLD INTELL.PROP. ORG. [WIPO] Annex 4, WIPO/GRTKF/IC/47/INF/8, (Mar. 21, 2023)

 

  1. Brian Keane and Elifuraha Laltaika (2018), Study to examine conservation and indigenous peoples’ human rights, E/C.19/2018/9, United Nations, New York