Access the justice through legal aid in bangladesh

"Access to justice through
legal aid : particular example
to Save the children in
Bangladesh "

Definition of law
• Law is the rules and regulations made and
enforced by government that regulate the conduct
of people within a society.
Dr. S K KAPOR
• A body of rules of conduct of binding legal force
and effect, prescribed, recognized, and enforced
by controlling authority.
Legal dictionary
• Law is the system of rules which a particular
country or community recognizes as regulating the
actions of its members and which it may enforce
by the imposition of penalties
Oxford dictionary

Definition of legal aid
• Legal aid means Free or inexpensive advice,
assistance, or representation concerning the law.
Given to those cannot afford it, based on
jurisdictional criteria.
The
LawDictionary
• Legal aid is state-funded legal representation,
advice and assistance, usually carried out by a
solicitor or a barrister . Legal aid is a system by
which those below a certain income can receive
free or subsidized legal representation or advice

Importance of legal aid
• Help people figure out if they have a problem that
might be resolved by using the legal system
• Help people understand and analyze their legal
options
• Help people understand and analyze available
choices, including options that don’t involve using
the police or courts
• Step back to give survivors time to decide which
options to try
• Work with the survivor to implement their choices

Legal aid and justice
MD. MOFEJUL ISLAM

How we can get justice through
legal aid
• Community-level legal and human rights education
• Paralegal and human rights training for community leaders
• Legal aid support to the most disadvantaged groups
• Promotion of Shalish as means toward more fair and
equitable dispute resolution
• Building community institutions such as Shalish committees
and Human Rights Monitoring Groups (HRMG) to build
community activism
• Publication of quarterly newsletter with specific focus on
women’s and children rights
• Monitoring of the local human rights situation and the
fostering of human rights activism at the grassroots level

Continue…
• Ensure timely and speedy disposal of cases instead of
delay disposal.
• To establish one-stop service center at every district.
• To develop monitoring system.
• To ensure certificates for to Union parishads providing
speedy legal aid.
• To implement the existing laws in violence related
cases.
• To inform the grassroots people about govt. legal aid
services.
• For insuring justice by legal aid fund it is essential to
monitor the violence related cases.

Continue….
• Increase the panel lawyers.
• Make more effective the Legal Aid committee at
Upazilla and Union Committee.
• To advertise in media on legal aid support
• Ensuring support of victims for medical test
including DNA test, travelling allowance and case
paper collection cost.
• Coordination must exist among Government and
NGO.
• Access to Justice and Legal Aid through NGO’s
• Access to Justice and Legal Aid and its international
aspect

Application of legal aid in different
sectors
Legal Aid may provide representation in the
types of cases:
• Public benefit
• Housing Problem
• Consumer Cases
• Family Law Issues
• Senior Law Problem
• Juvenile Legal Problems
• Immigration

Legal Aid: Bangladesh
Perspectives
Governmental & Non-
governmental Organizations

Concept of Legal Aid at National
Level
• The concept of legal aid has been found in some of the
legal instruments in our country.
 The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
 The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908
 The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898
 The Legal Aid Act, 2000
 The Legal Aid Rules, 2001

The Constitution of the People’s
Republic of Bangladesh
• In the preamble of the Constitution of the People’s Republic
of Bangladesh it has been pledged that one of the
fundamental aims of the state is to realize a society in
which equality of justice would be secured for all citizens.
• Article 27 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of
Bangladesh, 1972 states the fundamental rights as follows,
‘all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal
protection of law’.
• ‘Equal before law’ implies the absence of any special
privilege to any individual in his or her favor.
• ‘Equal protection of law’ expressed that the citizens and the
residents of Bangladesh have the inalienable right to be
treated in accordance with law and is guaranteed and
speedy and fair trial are ensured.

The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908
• As regards civil matters, Order 33 of this code
deals with the ‘Pauper’ suit.
• A ‘pauper’ is a person who does not own
property worth 5000/- other than his necessary
wearing-apparel.
• He is too poor to bear the expense of prescribed
fee and must be supported at public expense.

The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898
• As regards criminal matters, Section 340 of this code states
that an accused should be defended by a lawyer and he
(the accused) pay the fees.
• This does not extend to a right that the state or the police or
the magistrate can provide the lawyer for the accused.
• It is only a privilege that he can ask for a lawyer and can
engage one or his relations can engage one for him.

The Legal Aid Act, 2000
and
The Legal Aid Rules, 2001
• In 1994, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs
passed a resolution to provide legal aid to poor litigants.
• A particular amount of money was allocated to the District Judge.
• The Legal Aid Act,2000 is the broader and sustainable version of
this resolution.
• This provides for an organization named ‘National Legal Aid
Services Organization’ which will organize and monitor proper
functioning of this act.

• This organization works through two board of committee
name ‘National Legal Aid Board’ and ‘District Legal Aid
Committee’.
• National Legal Aid Board act as policy making authority
and formulate rules.
• The board decide policies to provide legal aid to those
people who are unable to get justice due to financial
crisis and due to different socio economic reasons

• It also provide awareness raising activities through
media (electronic, print, campaign etc.).
• District committee is responsible for providing legal aid at
grass root level.
• It perform the duties that invested by the national board.
• The Legal Aid Rules, 2001 mainly determines the criteria
of getting legal aid, the process of application and the
costs and fees of legal aid.

• According to the statistics published in December 2003 by the
National Legal Aid Services Organization-
 Legal aid has been given in total of 8208 cases.
 Among them there were 1296 civil cases, 5915 criminal cases,
886 family matters, and 111 miscellaneous cases.
• In the fiscal year of 2004-2005, 10million taka were sanctioned for
legal aid.
• During 2005-2006, legal aid has been given in total of 11808 cases,
in 61 districts.

Legal Aid at Non Governmental
Level
• In Bangladesh some leading NGOs have pioneered
the legal aid movement.
• Among them most prominent are-
 Save the Children
 Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)
 Ain o Salish Kendro (ASK)
 Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA)
 Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers’ Association (BNWLA)
 Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF)
 Mohila Parishad
 BRAC

Ngo- Save the children
• Save the Children is
the world's leading
independent
organization for
children. It work’s in
around 120 countries
including Bangladesh.
Also 30 member
organization of
Bangladesh is working
with them.

Vision and Goals
Their vision is to make a world in which every
child attains the
• right to survival,
• protection,
• development and
• participation.
• Their goal is to inspire breakthroughs in the
way the world treats children and to achieve
immediate and lasting change in their lives

Area of giving legal aid
They fight for Children’s rights in legal way
Children have the same access to justice as
adults, they ensure children’s right by forcing
governments to take children’s rights more
seriously. They provide legal aid in the area like
• Child Trafficking
• Violence against Children
• Child marriage
• Child Rape
• Child Prostitution etc…

Major Areas of
concern
( Save the
children)

Major Areas of concern ( Save
the Children)
• Children Education
• Hunger
• Child Poverty
• Child Protection Sector including-
– Child labor
– Child trafficking
– Girl child in sex work
– Child marriage

Child labor
• Child labor refers to the employment
of children at regular and sustained labor.
• Child labor is defined as all economic
activity for children less than 12 years, any
work for those aged 12-14 of sufficient
hours per week to undermine their health
or education, and all “hazardous work”
which could threaten the health of children
under 18.
• The International Labour Organisation
(ILO), reports that approximately 19
percent (%) of school children and 40
percent (%) of street children have been
forced into child labour.(ILO,2009)

Continuing…
• Save the children- provide rescue, repatriation
and psychosocial support services and promote
quality institutional and community-based care.
• They provide learning opportunity for working
children, work with employers for improved
working condition.
• They work together with government,
parliamentary bodies, local administration and
elected bodies, media, community and network
to establish the Child Protection mechanism.

Causes of child labor
• Poverty and family size
• Victims of migration
• Illiteracy & Ignorance
• Child labor law and rights :
-Employment of Children Act, 1938;
-The Children (Pledging of Labor) Act,
1933;
-The Factories Act, 1965;
- The Plantations Labor Ordinance,
1962 -The Shops and
Establishment Act, 1965

Child trafficking
• Thousands of children trafficked from Bangladesh to
other countries go unreported each year.
• “We cannot be certain about the actual number,” Michael
McGrath, country director of Save the Children
Bangladesh, told IRIN. “The only reliable statistics [on
missing children] are those that refer to the number of
children `rescued’ each year, and the number of cases
opened against traffickers or traffickers convicted each
year. Each of these figures is very small.”
• Any person can call 1098, a toll free number, to report a
missing child. With the help of this last year 2012
January to 2013 January they have rescued 132
children from 17 districts of Bangladesh.

Continuing…
• Children can stay at the shelter, where
they also get an education, until the
age of 18. While they are here, they
keep looking for their parents with the
help of law enforcing agencies.
• Bangladeshi children are trafficked
internally for commercial sexual
exploitation, domestic servitude, and
forced and bonded labor, including
forced begging.

Girl child in sex work
• Girls were twice as likely
to have experienced all
forms of violence as boys
(24 percent as against 11
percent).
• About 10% of street girls
are forced in prostitution.

Girl child in sex work
• Save the children work with the mothers and children
living inside the brothels in Daulatdia and Faridpur.
• Safe Space inside the brothel allow children, women
and men to report on any cases of abuse and
violence inside the brothel and prevent girls trafficked
into the brothel getting engaged into sex work.
• Safe Home provides residential support to the
extremely vulnerable daughters of the sex workers.
• Safe Home reintegrates the girls into families/wider
communities by empowering them to be independent
and setting up a new life in a new environment and
as such creating a new place for themselves in
society.

Child marriage
• “Save the children” also work
against child marriage as its
also a cause of maternal and
infant mortality.
• They help the children by
providing safe shelter,
education, funding a child and
also provide legal support to
help girls under 18 to rescue
from their abusive married life
under the Child marriage
restraint act 1929.

2012, Save the children
Category Number
Child labor 243
Child Trafficking( girls) 132
Girl sex workers 18
total 393

Laws to protect children
 ACT FOR CHILDREN IN PENAL CODE – 1860
Section 360,361,362,363,364 A,366 , 366 A, 367,
371, 372, 374(1,2).
 The Children Act of 1974
 NATIONAL CHILDREN POLICY – 1994
 Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act 1933.
 The Bangladesh Shishu Academy Ordinance, 1976
(Ordinance No. LXXIV of 1976)
 Oppression Against Women and Children 2000
 Acts of Violence against Children in 2001

International Conventions
 Bangladesh ratified the Convention on the Rights
of the Child (CRC) in August 1990.
 Bangladesh ratified the Convention for the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) in 1984.
 Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
 UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic
in Persons and of the
 Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949).
 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999

Conclusion
The gains for Save the Children and other education
actors in being part of a co-led cluster include:
1.The opportunity to influence humanitarian policy decisions and strategic
direction, both in the countries implementing education clusters and at a
global level.
2. Increased knowledge and expertise on education in emergency issues
and cluster coordination, both within and beyond the organization.
3. Greater organizational visibility and opportunities to champion
education in emergencies and children’s rights in general.

Continue…
Challenges for Save the Children in implementing our co-lead responsibilities
include:
• An uneven response in terms of our own education in emergency
programming.
• Varying levels of success in mainstreaming cluster lead responsibilities
across countries and Save the Children organizations.
• The need for more pre-emptive planning with UNICEF and other partners to
agree on the working methods of the Education Cluster before crises.
• A shortfall of resources, both in terms of the right people to coordinate the
cluster and the money to deliver on our commitments.

Continue…
Elements of a Preschool Education: Practices for Engaging
Children in the Developmental Domains and Assuring School
Readiness
• Responsive Interaction Style
• Responsive Interactions: Warm, Sensitive, and Contingent on
Children’s Signals
• Responsive Style + Content Plan
• Responsive Style + Content + Planning That Effectively Builds New
Memories
• Implementing Effective Plans + A Balance of Teaching Strategies
• Incorporating Flexible Groupings + Balanced Strategies
• Effective Planning + Content + A Responsive Style

References
• Md. Ansar Ali Khan, Legal System of
Bangladesh, 1st ed. (Dhaka: National Law Book
House, 2007).
• The Constitution of the People’s Republic of
Bangladesh.
• The Legal Aid Act, 2000 (Act VI of 2000).
• The Legal Aid Rules, 2001.
• The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.
• The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898.
• http://www.nlaso.gov.bd/index.php/nlaso-overview

Access the justice through legal aid in bangladesh

Access the justice through legal aid in bangladesh

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Access the justice through legal aid in bangladesh