Gender and Development

Bangladesh

Gender and Social Justice

Background to the project

As in many countries in the world, legal procedure in Bangladesh is slow and expensive. For most people, the legal system is out of their reach. To avoid costly and lengthy court proceedings, traditional alternative dispute resolution mechanism, popularly known as shalish is commonly used. Marital disputes, desertion, divorce, child custody, maintenance, land and sometimes, even criminal offenses such as rape, adultery, dowry related violence, are commonly dealt with in shalish sessions in Bangladesh.

These sessions are generally conducted by local government representatives, particularly the Union Chairperson and social leaders such as religious leaders and teachers. For judgment, many of these sessions rely on customary practices and Islamic Shahriah laws, often issuing verdicts that not only discriminate against women but contradict existing legal rights.

To correct discriminatory and illegal verdicts, a national women's NGO Ain O Shalish Kendro (ASK) runs a Gender and Social Justice Program with the objective of reforming of traditional shalish interpretations and the attitude of shalishkers or mediators. Essentially, the program focuses on legal literacy, advocacy, legal aid and monitoring. A major strategy is to develop community awareness and draw on community participation, particularly of women's, to persuade local representatives and community leaders to base their shalish decisions on existing laws.

The ADB is supporting part of ASK's program in six unions - covering 54 wards. ASK was established in 1986 by a small groups of lawyers, social scientists and development workers, to provide support to women in the areas of legal counseling, mediation and litigation through its legal aid, advocacy and research activities.

Project Components

The overall objective of the Gender and Social Justice program is to reduce unlawful shalish judgments and to correct discrimination against women inherent in many shalish practices. The mechanism to achieve this is the development of Ain Shohayota Committees (ASCs). The role of these ASCs is to monitor arbitration practices as well as to provide a source of arbitration at the Ward level. To achieve this, ASK undertakes a number of community consultations and training programs with the aim of establishing strong, socially aware ASCs with sufficient training on legal matters, women's rights and shalish processes to enable them to effect changes in the attitudes and judgments of arbitrators.

The objectives of the project are to:

• Make local elected representatives and law enforcement agencies sensitive to the principles of gender justice and equality as guaranteed in the Constitution.
• Enable poor women to participate in shalish and other decision making processes to equality of justice.
• Strengthen the capacity of local groups to monitor enforcement mechanisms and advocate alternatives within a democratic system.
• Monitor local shalish by ASC to ensure that it is participatory and gender and socially just.
• Prevent fatwa and unlawful shalish.
• Develop human rights activists at the community level.

Develop the capacity of partner NGOs to conduct and sustain the program.

To achieve these goals, ASK works in collaboration with sympathetic partner NGOs in the local area who are responsible for establishing the ASCs. The primary roles of the local-level partner NGOs are to:

• Select the community organizers who are to mobilize the community
• Provide support for the development of ASCs and ensure their sustainability
• Attend all ASC-related meetings and workshops.
• Developing a good relationship with members of elected bodies.
• Advise on difficult/complex cases, or referring such cases to ASK for legal aid.
• Arrange follow-up training for ASC members.

The focal point of the project is the development of effective ASCs. These committees consist of five members, including at least two women. The ASCs operate at the ward-level, with a total of 45 ASC members in each Union (there are nine wards per union). They are recruited during Union-level workshops organized by ASK. While this process is conducted with the cooperation of the local elected bodies, ASC members are not themselves local elected representatives. It is important that the ASCs maintain an independence so that they can be seen as an impartial monitoring and consultation unit.

Following selection, ASC members receive training and participate in workshops designed by ASK to develop their legal awareness and mediation skills. Recruits receive an initial 3-day training, where they are provide with easy to read materials on how to mediate disputes, training in common legal issues, and strategies on how to prevent unlawful shalish. Common legal topics covered in the training include legal rights of children, bride price, dower, shalish, marriage registration, divorce, Muslim and Christian Family Law, Muslim inheritance law, Family Law Ordinance (1988), guardianship, etc.

The role of the ASCs are to:

• Monitor the progress of cases referred to legal aid for court action, including those that cannot be dealt with by shalish (such as rape and murder).
• Monitor Shalish proceedings and judgements
• Provide support to victims, e.g. by accompanying them to other districts to pursue their case.
• Provide counseling and advice especially in family matters
• Mediate and arbitrate some disputes