Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable ... · PDF fileBangladesh Development Service Centre ... Village: Raghupur (South of Bakrabad Gas Head Office) Post Office: Rajapara;

2008 Page 1 of 36 Final narrative report EIDHR-2008-155-235

FINAL NARRATIVE REPORT

Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable Groups

Contract number: EIDHR/2008/155-235

Reporting Period February 2009 to January 2011

Lead Organization: Association for Integrated Development-Comilla (AID-COMILLA)

Partners:

Bangladesh Development Service Centre (BDSC)

Jano Sheba Kendro (JSK)

Submitted by:

AID-COMILLA Street Address: Village: Raghupur (South of Bakrabad Gas Head Office)

Post Office: Rajapara; Union: Jagannathpur; Upazila: Comilla Sadar Comilla-3500, Bangladesh

Phone # 0088-081-72003, 0088-081-71287, 0088-081-71288 Fax # 0088-081-62444

Mobile Phone # 0088-01713018973, 0088-01715082180 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],[email protected]

Web site: www.aidcomilla.org

Postal Address: Post Box # 54, Comilla Main Post Office; Comilla-3500, Bangladesh Dhaka Office: House # 21 (1st Floor), Road # 27, Sector # 7, Uttara Model Town, Dhaka-1230, Bangladesh, Phone # 8953763

March 2011

ANNEX VI FINAL NARRATIVE REPORT

1. Description

1.1. Name of beneficiary of grant contract: Association for Integrated Development-Comilla (AID-COMILLA)

1.2. Name and title of the Contact person: Ms. Rokeya Begum Shafali, Executive Director

1.3. Name of partners in the Action: Bangladesh Development Service Centre (BDSC) and Jano Sheba Kendro (JSK)

1.4. Title of the Action: Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable Groups

1.5. Contract number: EIDHR/2008/155-235

1.6. Start date and end date of the reporting period: February 01, 2009 to January 31, 2011

1.7. Target country(ies) or region(s): Bangladesh

1.8. Final beneficiaries &/or target groups1 (if different) (including numbers of women and men):

Target Groups : The target group of the action is the men, women, student, police, advocates, Local Government Elected Bodies (LGEB), Governmental Officer of various level, print and electronic media people, civil society members, school teacher, religious leader, NGO staff, victims of violence, disable etc. Final Beneficiaries: In Bangladesh, a human rights victimized man/woman usually tries to avoid the legal process as he/she becomes more stigmatized by the society. He/she does not file complaints; fearing negligence and harassment in police station, courts and society. Sometimes the poor and disadvantaged people especially women are physically assaulted, threatened, and ransacked; So, they are totally discouraged and silenced and compelled to take decision not to go to the court and seek justice. Thus, they sit to the local influential musclemen and peoples with vested interests. As a result they are deprived of the fair justice. The existing legal process is elaborate, time consuming, expensive and often discourages man/women from taking legal action and enforcing their rights in the court. As a result of the harassment and complexities of the court procedure, survivors are often compelled to accept out of court settlements. The expenses involved in seeking legal redress; lawyers fees, court fees, and other incidental expenses, make it very hard for poor, illiterate, and disadvantaged rural men/women to even consider legal action. Moreover, whilst government legal aid is available, the aid procedure is complicated and the majority of man/women are unaware of this provision. As a result Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and private volunteer organizations, rather than the State, become the main actors in undertaking access to justice awareness campaign.

1.9. Country(ies) in which the activities take place (if different from 1.7): N/A

1 “Target groups” are the groups/entities who will be directly positively affected by the project at the Project

Purpose level, and “final beneficiaries” are those who will benefit from the project in the long term at the level of the society or sector at large.



2. Assessment of implementation of Action activities

Executive summary of the Action

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. This right is, however, only realisable if everyone has access to justice. Human rights norms and standards dictate that all persons, irrespective of any characteristic that may define their location or standing in society, are equal before the law, i.e. all are equal before the courts and tribunals and enjoy certain procedural guarantees in civil and criminal trials. Equality before the courts means, in particular, that all persons must be granted a right of equal access to an independent and impartial court or tribunal for the determination of civil disputes or criminal charges without discrimination. The most important procedural guarantee in both civil and criminal proceedings is the right to a fair hearing. Access to justice refers to people’s ability to use justice services. Equal access means that such ability is not limited or restricted to certain social classes or groups. It becomes an issue when that access is restricted, in particular, for the poor, women, children, indigenous peoples or other marginalised or disadvantaged groups. The development challenge is to ensure equitable access to justice, which is not differentiated by gender, ethnicity, political affiliation, religious belief, social or economic class, age, or physical incapacity or any other marker of identity. Equal access to justice also includes the prompt and impartial response of the justice institutions. The action has tried to combat police torture in custody, keeping in police station for long time without case filing, rape, fatwa, wife beating, sexual harassment, family violence, Dowry, child trafficking, women trafficking, acid throwing, burn and ransom through awareness raising, training, lobbying and by creating environment for access to Justice. Now the people of the project area are very much aware about their rights, as a result – the poor people, especially vulnerable women and girls who mostly blamed their fortune for any sort of torture they faced within or outside their home, now coming to the LAC (Legal Aid Centers) of AID-Comilla and its partner.

2.1. Activities and results

Please list all the activities of the contract implemented during the reporting period as per Annex 1

Launching Ceremony: The project, Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable Groups, was launched through a ceremony on June 11, 2009 at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre at Agargaon, Dhaka. The ceremony was cordially graced by Advocate Sahara Khatun, Honourable Minister, and Ministry of Home. The ceremony was also attended by, among others, Mr. Stefan Frowein– Honourable Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union; Mr. A. K. M. Baha Uddin, Honourable Member of Parliament of Comilla–6; Dr. Steven Belmain of University of Greenwich–UK and many distinguished guests from governmBangladesh.

ent and non-government organizations in

District Workshop at

Activity 1 : Arranging workshop at District, Upazila and Union Level: Results : 10 district level workshops were held in

five different districts namely Comilla, Sunamgonj, Laxmipur, Feni and Kurigram; where 546 participants took part in lively discussion. The focus of discussion in the workshop was on: a) Current situation of violence / torture on

women and children in Bangladesh b) Ways to make justice accessible to the

poor and vulnerable people of the society c) Importance and relevance of the project “Coordinated Effort to Access to

Justice for Vulnerable Groups” undertaken by AID-Comilla and supported by European Commission.

d) A paper on ‘Violence of women & children / Coordinated Effort to access to justice – Bangladesh Context,’ (please refer to Annex – 1) Bangla at the workshop for discussion and then the floor was mall participants for their lively participation and discussions.

e) Existing situation of violence / torture on wom

An overall situation of the violence against womin the presentation paper in tabular form

Status of women torture and court case in the year 2010 in Bangladesh.

was presented in ade open to

en and children in Bangladesh

en & children was incorporated as shown below:

No. of incidents Sl # Types of Torture Reasons / Causes Torture Killing Court Cases

01 Acid Throw 93 0 39 02 Dowry related 395 224 51 03 Rape 626 79 323 04 Women violence in terms

of Shalish & Fatowa 22 4 1

05 Torture of Maids 77 1 27 06 Family torture

Family conflicts, Pressure forDowry, Land disputes,Disagreement to evil affair/marriage proposal, Asking formoney owed, court case againsthusband, Failure of love, Not towithdraw cases, Verbal Talak,unknown reasons. 397 339 132

Total in 2010= 1610 647 573 Source: The Dailies: Prothom Alo, Ittefaq, Sangbad, Vorer Kagaj, Janakantha, Jugantor, Inqilub, Samoka, Naya-Diganta, Daily Star and New Age. ‘Information Conservation Unit,’ Ain-O-Shalish Kendra (ASK).

Comparing the incidences it is evident that women torture, rape case and killing are on increasing rate than that of incidences occurred in the year 2008 in Bangladesh. Unfortunately killing without any legal procedure by different law enforcing agencies have increased significantly during the period January to December of the year 2010. On the other hand number of court cases have decreased due to loss of confidence of the people on the court procedures as well as judicial outputs. Other important causes that attributes to the women violence / torture are:


a) Lack of information, awareness and knowledge to the vulnerable people b) Lack of education c) Poverty d) Lack of Justice Systems at village level e) Lack of good Governance f) Social insecurity / protection g) Male dominated society h) Lack of women involvement / participation in social, political & cultural

activity i) In-equal property distribution j) Dependency on others A cross-section of people from respective districts participated at those district workshops: among others Deputy Commissioner (DC), Superintendent of Police (SP), Civil Surgeon (CS), Additional Deputy Commissioners, District Women Affairs Officer, Deputy Director of District Social Service, Additional Superintendent of Police, Elected Commissioners of Municipality, Advocate from Bar Council, Marriage register, Religious Leader (Imam) district level officers from many departments of Government and Chief Executives of Non-government organizations (NGOs), Journalist from print and electronic media and members of the civil society of respective districts took part in those workshops. On an average 54 to 55 participants participated in each district.

Participants of the district workshops put forward some recommendations

for improving the access of poor people to formal and informal institutions entrusted with the delivery of justice as summarized below: i) Judgement should be conducted publicly and the punishment should be

very identical for remembrance. ii) Imams of Mosques (Muslim worship place) can discuss on to stop dowry

and early marriages during their deliberations on Jumma (Friday) Prayer. iii) Workshops should be organized for the Marriage Registrars (Kazi’s) iv) Organize village level meetings on law and justice for massive awareness

building in presence of the public representatives. v) Discuss issues of justices in the Managing Committees (MCs) of both

Schools and Colleges. vi) Organize Village-wise meetings with both Male and Female members of

the community. vii) Everybody should raise their voices to reject dowry: neither to take nor to

give dowry. viii) Organize workshops with village leaders. ix) Increase opportunities for the women folk by the government.

: Similarly 10 Upazila level workshops were held in five different Upazilas namely Comilla Adarsha Sadar (Comilla) , Sunamgonj Sadar (Sunamgonj) , Raipur (Laxmipur) , Porshuram (Feni) and Nageswari (Kurigram); where 598



participants took part in lively discussion. The focus of discussion was the same as mentioned under district level workshop above. At Upazila level workshop participants were among others :

Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO), Upazila Chairman, Upazila Vice Chairman, elected members of upazila parishad, Inspector of Police of the Upazila, Upazila Land Registration Officer, Woman Affairs Officer, Upazila (both Primary & Secondary) School Education Officer, Agriculture Officer, Livestock Officer, Cooperative Officer, Social Service Officer, Upazila Enginer, Election Officer, Marriage Register, Religious leader (Imam)other government officials of respective Upazilas, NGO representatives, Journalists and members of civil society. The

same paper was presented in the Upazila workshop and then the participants took active part in the open discussion; when their comments/recommendations were summarized as below: i) The Judiciary depart should work independently ii) The judgment announced by the Judge is subject to criticism iii) Dowry, being one important element of women torture / violence, that

should be stopped first iv) Social protection / movement need to be mobilized through respective

Union Parishads (UPs) v) All Human Rights organizations should be united to develop social

movement against women violence / torture vi) Students must be made aware of their mental set-up against women

violence through intensive visits vii) Issues of nepotism / corruption should be included in the syllabus to stop

those viii) News laws should be promulgated in place of old and haggard laws.

202 Nos. Union level workshops were organized in the project area for

awareness building of the common people and all the stakeholders of the community. Total number of 11162 participants attended in those Union level workshops. Those workshops also helped the community people to understand the project objectives and their expected roles and responsibilities in making the project successful.

The issues discussed in those workshops are: a) Incidents of women violence / torture in the society b) Introduction to the project, ‘Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for

Vulnerable Groups’ funded by European Union c) Roles & responsibilities of the community leaders and concerned GO/NGO

officials at Union level d) Nature /types of violence against women


At Union level, a cross-section of community people participated from respective community; among others Union Parishad (UP) Chairmen, elected UP Members, representatives’ formNGOs / GOs, community leaders, members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), Chawkider/Dofader (Village Polices), Community Police, Union Council Secretary and people from grass-root level attended those workshops. A paper on Human Rights situation in relation to Women and Children’s rights and also introducing the aims and objective of the project was presented at workshop after welcome sessions. Then all participants participated in the open discussion and put forward some recommendations as summarized below: i) Awareness building workshops should be organized at school level to

make the students prepare for resisting women violence ii) Intensive Court-yard meetings should be organized for different section of

participants like Male, Female, Youths and Adolescent Girls iii) Organize regular monthly meetings with Kazi (Marriage Register), School

Teachers on the issues of eliminating early-marriage, dowry, eve teasing and other social evils from the society.

iv) Boys and girls working in different industries (like garments, shoe making factory etc.) and street-hawkers should be aware of the laws to ensure

n as well as child rights Drug addicted husbands need to make aware against women and children

nistration should be made corruption free / ADR should be fair and free of muscle power, political influence

Fatwa and divorce related issues should be stopped at village level to reduce n torture and violence.

Being inspired by workshops at District and Upazila level, the concerned local Administration approached AID-Comilla to hold Human Chain on different national and international day-observation, e.g. international Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR) day celebration for creating mass education and awareness on the HR issue. In total 23 nos. of Human Chain were organized (11 at district and 12 Upazila level) during the reporting period when a total of 11,838 participants from different section of people held their hands

at both District (5463 nos.) and Upazila (6375 nos.) level events.

womev)

violence. vi) Police admivii) Shalish

etc. viii)

wome

Activity 2 : Advocacy campaign (Dialogue with College/ school Students): Result : In order to combating violence against women, it is very important to make

aware the future generation on rights of equality for both male and female and also on the law of the country. Based on this concept, the college students were targeted for advocacy campaign; because they will be the bride or bride-groom in near future. In total 32 sittings were organized with 7170 with students from both college students(11th&12th classes) and Schools (9th & 10th classes) in their class-rooms as part of regular advocacy campaign. Out of 7170 students, 4401 students participated in 20 sittings from 7 colleges (1st yr.=2851 &

2nd yr.=1550) of four districts and 2769 students participated 12 sittings from 9 Schools in four districts respectively. Many of those participating college /school students shared their learning’s with their parents as well as their neighbours at their community and thus helped to reduce women violence in the society. Students themselves also took oath to maintain peaceful environment in dealing with partners in their conjugal life and also committed to build up discrimination free society by reducing violence / torture through social movement. There are many instances that, these students (boys and girls) are taking part/active for the prevention of human rights violence, for example 03 case studies are given Annex # 2, 3 & 4.

Activity 3 : Arranging Video show:

Result : 200 nos. Video-shows were arrange enjoyed those shows. All those videos the rural people, where real situations of wom solutions are described in their motherplayed through TV-set; such as – 1) AndhaMayer Golpa (Story of a Girl), 3) AssoKatha (Woman’s tale), 5) Chhi! (Bull-shAnnyo Dristy-tay (Woman torture fromdisseminated through those Video Shows are: a) Resist early marriage, b) Stop dowry and polygamy c) Stop Rape / women violence d) Eliminate Acid throwing, e) Stop eve-teasing f) Stop torture to Maids

The spectators attending such shows

reviewed the messages of those shows at their family level and got good results of those learning’s. Following comments / learning’s are shared by the participants during their Court-yard meeting: a) We have come to know that enough water need to pour on acid burns of the

acid victims to wash out the acids first

d at Union level where 20,918 spectators are produced based on day-to-day life of

en violence and their law-full language. Different sets of Videos are

re Ekla (Alone in the dark), 2)Akty Mili Ak sathe ( Hand in Hand), 4) Narir

eet) on Acid violence, 6) Nari Nirjaton other angle) etc. The main messages



Family Conflicts, Eve-teasing, women violence was very common in my village - Gobindapur before intervention of AID-COMILLA with Folksongs, Jarigan, Video Shows and Courtyard meetings. Now the rateof those incidents is reduced to a great extentin Gobindapur under Comilla Sadar Upazila, Comilla.

Ms. Shamima Sultana Setu, College student, Comilla

: Arranging Folk song:

b) Take the Rape victim to nearby clinic / hospital as early as possible after rape incidents

c) Demand for dowry increases after payment of dowry – so never to pay any dowry

d) Any conflicts between husband and wife must be made clear by themselves through mutual understanding before involvement of third party into the affair

e) Got to understand the bad effects of early marriage on health and mind f) Understood the damaging effects on the children after polygamy has taken

place g) In case of Rape and Acid victim there is no scope of Shalish or Local

mediation. Also learnt that if the victim gets married to the oppressor through Shalish, such types of marriage end up with divorce at an early date.

Activity 4 Result : Folk songs like Jarigan, Bhawaya, Kabigan

(poetic contests & songs), Lokogiti, Panchali, local top favourite songs and Puthipath (type of religious song) etc. were organized for mass awareness, education as well as right based information for vulnerable people, especially women and adolescent girls, of the project area. Folk songs are very effective tools for dissemination of information to the rural people in Bangladesh. Important messages on legal rights, under -aged marriage, illegal divorce, polygamy, marriage registration are well received by the rural people through those Folk- songs. So far 202 events of Folk-songs have been organized in 5 districts of the project area which were attended by more than 110,121 villagers, especially rural women and members of the vulnerable groups. Community people showed keen interest to have more events on Folk songs to reduce root causes of family conflicts.

Similar messages, as mentioned under Video Shows, are disseminated through

Jarigans, Bhawaya, Kabigan (poetic contests & songs), Lokogiti etc. After these


interventions the community people expressed their learning’s’ in the following way: 1) The life is in dark without education , especially for women 2) Now they resolves their family conflicts (husband & wife) through mutual

mediation without any expenses 3) Birth registration is pre-requisite to stop / reduce early marriage 4) Early marriage cause severe damage to the reproductive systems of girls,

even it may push them to dead end of the life 5) Talak (Break of marriage contract) is not acceptable by words of mouth rather

it takes three months time to execute Talak. – this is our learning 6) Victims of Acid and Rape should immediately contact to nearby offices of

Police Station or offices of AID-COMILLA, BDSC and JSK. Activity 5 : Court-yard Meeting: Result : In order to transfer knowledge and skill to the

poor and vulnerable women and adolescents, Court-yard meetings (uthan boithaks)on different topics are organised for the women groups at community level at their door-step. There are about 26 topics covering total legal issues women rights and the perception of law and justice. The most important impact of such activities has been visualized by an increase in the tendency of women to seek justice in response to rights violations. This increase, in turn, is tied to several important village-level changes in the effective demand and institutional supply of justice that can also be attributed to the success of the project. In total about 4985 Court-yard meetings have been arranged where 102,387 participants attended and took part in live discussions. 26 topics on legal aid will be discussed in each court-yard meetings during the project period. Description of topics is as follows:

1) Muslim Marriage, terms of marriage and early marriage; 2) Dowry; 3) Divorce

by husband and re-marriage; 4) Divorce by wife; 5) Polygamy ; 6) Dower / Maintenance cost of wife ; 7) Maintenance cost of children, guardianship/ custodian; 8) Hindu Family Law, Hindu Marriage/ terms of marriage and early marriage; 9) Separate living of wife, maintenance, widow marriage, guardianship of kids (Hindu Law); 10) Constitution , Constitutional Rights, basic rights, human rights, state of emergency and military law; 11) In-human Punishment; 12) Basic principals of Criminal Law, jurisdiction of police; 13) Bail, terms , bail able and non bail able crime; 14) Rape, Acid throw, trafficking ; 15) Legal aid clinic-ADR; 16) Actions/support towards human rights violations within 24 hours; 17) Instant actions after rape, acid throwing, trafficking; 18) Arbitration ; 19) Family conflict , domestic violence; 20) Strategy for conflict resolution; 21) Muslim Hierarchy law; 22) Main religious (Quaranic) law regarding distribution of property ; 23) Minor grand sons property distribution procedure; 24) Unborn children and un-


claimed children’s property rights ; 25) Hindu Property Law and Hierarchy law; 26) Hindu Property Law and Hierarchy law for widow.

Following additional lessons are learnt by the participants in the court-yard

meetings: a) Age limit of marriage for Girls is minimum18 years and that of boys is 21

years b) Five elements are essential to get marry such as: Age, Opinion, Registration,

Denmohor (Payment by bride-groom) and Witness c) Wife will get payment of Denmohor in case of Talak (no matter who

declares and executes the Talak) and even after death of husband d) Reasons for proposing Talak (by any party ) should be clearly spelled in

writing e) There are some instances that the husband has started to deposit money in

the name wife to repay Denmohor after their husbands came to know the real fact from the court-yard meetings ( such incidents happened in village Rakhalia of Raipur Upazila, Comilla sadar of the working area)

f) Came to know about Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) from court-yard meetings; which services are provided by AID-Comilla, JSK and BDSC

g) Learnt about constitutional law and constitution of Bangladesh h) Importance of birth-registration i) Notice is essential before execution of any Talak from either party.

Activity 6 : Staff capacity building training: Result : Smooth and effective implementation

of any project depends on the knowledge and skill of the staff members, employed by the project. To enhance the knowledge and skill of the staff members two training events were organized, 6-days long Foundationtraining and 2-days long Refreshers’ training, where a total of 72 staff participated. Participants gained

instruments for Human Rights (HR), mmonitoring and supervision as well

Activity 7 : Distribution of IEC/BCC material:

knowledge and skill on existing laws of the country, international conventions / anagement tools/ techniques and strategy,

as existing judicial system in the country.

Result : For massive awareness building of

the community people of the project adequate quantities of IEC/BCC materials were produced distributed among the beneficiaries of the project. Huge quantities of Posters


(30,211nos.), Leaflets (105,00nos.), Brochures (26,745 nos.), Note-books, Sticker (26,550 nos.) and 2000 nos. Rickshaw plates with information were printed and distributed among the potential beneficiaries and other stake-holders of the community. Various types of messages were incorporated (both in English and Bengali languages) in those IEC/BCC materials; few of them may be mentioned as below:

a) Early marriage is punishable crime, so ‘Qazi (Marriage Registrar)’ is not bound to register that marriage. [Pictorial message in the Poster]

b) Husband must pay ‘Denmohor (committed money as per Islamic law to be received by wife from her husband during marriage ceremony)’to his wife. [Pictorial message in the Poster]

c) Police can arrest any dowry-receiver without any warrant. [Pictorial message in the Poster]

d) Divorce must be accomplished by a notice before execution. [Pictorial message in the Poster]

e) Birth registration is complementary to Marriage registration. [Rhymed message in the Sticker]

f) Misbehave with wife yields injustice to self actualization. [Rhymed message in the Sticker]

g) Stop dowry and help in building society. [Rhymed message in the Sticker] h) Death penalty is ensured for acid throwers. [Rhymed message in the Stick

Thousands of Posters and Stickers have been fixed in important public places for

dissemination of those messages. Activity 8 : Bill Board Fixation:

Result : Some times messages of Posters and Stickers are not easily visible by busy and on the move people. Therefore big-size ‘Bill-boards’ are fixed in the premises of courts and district judges; where people go to seek justice. The six Bill-boards contain picture of local arbitration (ADR- Alternative Dispute Resolution), address of Legal Aid Clinic and many other important messages with information. There are many cases reported to be motivated by ‘Bill-board’ and visited different ‘Legal Aid Centre’s under different districts in the project Area.

Activity 9 : Arbitration/ Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) : Result : In the patriarchal society in Asian countries women are deprived from their

rights at family level , such as under-age marriage, marriage without consent, lack of marriage-registration, illegal divorce, polygamy, guardianship and custody of children, maintenance of wife, dower, land related matter etc. We are taking initiative for solving those problems through ADR.


Rape Victim gets all out support from AID-Comilla

When the people come to know from neighbours or other promotional tools that

there are ‘Legal AID Clinics (LAC)’ at respective offices of AID-Comilla and its partners; they visit those centre for lodging complaints. The LAC sits once in a week (Saturday) from 09:00 a.m. to 04:00 p.m. to provide services to the clients. Skilled field staff members and respective Advocates of LAC listen very patiently to both parties (Client and the defendant) of the conflict and try to resolve their complains through ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution). There were 1037 nos. of complaints received by the LAC, of which 432 complaints were solved by ADR, 150 resolved by own initiative and 52 were referred to court case and resolved. A sum of Tk.4, 612,070.00 was recovered from 61 parties against dower and maintenance of wife. Similarly Tk. 71,500/= was recovered from 8 parties against Children’s maintenance.

Cases received from field are of following types: Sl. #. Complaints 1st year 2nd year Total 01 Complaints received for ADR 411 509 920 02 Acid throw related 0 1 1 03 For consultation 29 24 53 04 Stopping early Marriage 2 0 2 05 Rape case 5 11 16 06 Victim recover 0 7 7 07 Referred by Social Service department 12 5 17 08 Violation of Human Rights 2 11 13 09 Fatwa 1 1 2 10 Trafficking 0 4 4 11 Newspaper report 1 1 2

Happy family after ADR

Total = 463 574 1037

Especially women are violated for very ridiculous reasons in Bangladesh, they are deprived of their rights in terms of wife- beating, torture / murder for dowry, rape, acid throwing /other chemical burn, trafficking women and children and other forms of violence. AID-Comilla and its partners provide 24-hours support to the victims in terms of Rescue operation, protection, shelter-home, medical support, fact findings and other technical support. People of the project area are made aware that AID-Comilla and its partners provide medical support. Not only have the victims run to the organization but also the organization rush to the victims knowing from the print media or other sources. There are some incidents which are subject to non-bailable. 114 incidents were reported to the LAC, of which 57 victims were given


medical support and other victims were provided with other technical support by LAC. All the miscreants of those 114 incidents had to face court cases, of which 93 cases were non-bailable. Where possible, AID-Comilla and its partners also provide services of sustainable livelihood options (IG activities) including social re-integration.

Activity 10 : Court case: When arbitration fails then court case is filed. Result : The Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable Groups project put

its maximum effort to resolve all sorts of complaints on family and civil matters through ADR. But very few cases become very complicated to resolve through ADR, as a result, the plaintiff (complainant) are compelled to file suit in the court against the opponent. During the reporting period, a total of 1037 complaints on family and civil matters were received by the Legal Aid Clinics (LACs); of which 54 cases are resolved through court cases; other 361 cases are

under process of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Activity 11 : Additional activities: Some activities are being implemented at field level

which are not listed up in the Project Proposal; such as a) Workshop with District Judges and lawyers (exclusive) b) Press Conference c) Net-working and joint programme with GOs and other NGOs

Result : a) Workshop with District Judges and lawyers There was a strong demand from the participants of the District workshop for

organizing orientation workshop with District Judges and lawyers. Because, when the cases are referred to the court, in most of the time the criminals are freed on bail creating a panic among the victims to withdraw the case or otherwise to face further torture or death threat. This demand got very urgent during the workshop at Sunamgonj of BDSC project area. In fact when the district level workshops are held in Comilla, Feni and Kurigram, the judges, magistrates and the lawyers also expressed their need to know more about such programmes running within their district of jurisdiction. In total 85 Judges and Magistrates participated in those workshops . This helped them to understand the sufferings of the poor, especially women and children, from different types of unlawful incidences in the society.

b) Press Conference

It was a felt need by the people of the society to make them aware about the incidences through the media (both print and the electronic) in order to create a social safety-net against the criminals. Press conference also helps to expedite


Press conference at Porshuram

Victim

Human Chain jointly with GO & NGOs

the positive results of ADR in the community. Because the criminals try hide themselves in the disguise of good social worker, but when the mischievous activities of the criminal are opened to public then the criminals get scared to commit further offence in future. One such incident happened in Porshuram Upazilla during the month of February 2009 : One man of an influential family eluded a school girl (Class-IX) to get her married and established sexual relationship with her. At one stage, the girl got pregnant and claimed the man to get married before being publicly disclosed. But the man refused to marry her and tried to force her for abortion. Some how, the girl came to know about the Legal Aid Clinic (LAC) of AID-Comilla and rushed there for seeking legal support. The man managed to escape from LAC of AID-Comilla; even the local

police station (PS) was not accepting the case for General Diary (GD) entry. When AID-Comilla organised the press conference on the issue, the PS took the case into book and the case was filed. As a result the man was bound to get the victim married and now they are living together and proud of having a son.

c) Net-working and joint programme with GOs and other NGOs :

Many organizations in GO, NGO, Media and Civil Society sector who are working in the field of delivering legal-aid services for the poor and deprived people in Bangladesh. The Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable Groups project has established a strong net-working with those organizations and takes part in most of the joint actions like Human Chain, Rally, Workshop and special Day-observations at District and Upazila level. The Human Chain is focused on mass-awareness building and grass-root level advocacy in the justice sector. The net-working with other organizations play vital role in delivering legal aid support services in joint venture both at local as well as at national level. Organizations like BRAC, BLAST, BNWLA, ASF, Dristi, CARE and Social welfare department of GoB refer many cases of wife- beating, torture / murder for dowry, rape, acid throwing /other chemical burn, trafficking women and children and other forms of violence to this project; when the project provide necessary supports to the victims/survivors/clients’ remedy, medical treatment, protection, shelter and other technical support. This project has also been working together with other organizations for similar cases or incidents. This project referred 5 to 10% cases to other organizations, worked

jointly for 5 to 7% cases and extended support to 20 to 30% cases as referred to this project by other organizations for legal aid support.

2.2. What is your assessment of the results of the Action so far? Include observations on the

performance and the achievement of outputs, outcomes and impact in relation to specific and overall objectives, and whether the Action has had any unforeseen positive or negative results (please quantify where possible; refer to Logframe Indicators).

Our assessment of the results of the Action so far: In our assessment the implementation of the EU funded “Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable Groups” project by AID-COMILLA and her partners has implemented very successfully and its results are very remarkable. This project has yielded many unique outputs and will have a long-lasting impact in the society, especially in the life of women and children in the working area. In favour of our assessment, the overall scenario of the project objectives, few events with references / evidences and field experiences are cited in the following paragraphs.

Bangladesh is a democratic country where our constitution protects and ensures fundamental rights for every citizen. But at the same time it is blatantly obvious that most of the powerful people including the concerned law enforcement agencies, especially the police, do not have respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution. Also in a patriarchal society, the women and innocent children are the worst sufferers of the situation; they are deprived from justice in their home, community and at the same time from the state.

Article 27 in our constitution says that 'All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law'. But what happens in reality is that victims are deprived of the opportunities of ever receiving justice.

Article 31 of our constitution provides 'to enjoy the protection of the law, and only in accordance with law, is the inalienable right of every citizen, wherever he may be, and of every other person for the time being within Bangladesh, and in particular no action detriment to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property of any person shall be taken except in accordance with law.'

Article 32 of our constitution tells 'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person'.

In our working area, the situation was no better than in other parts of Bangladesh. The women are tortured by either by her husband or by her in-laws or by both. Few of the women would try to seek justice from the neighbours and local leaders of the community but in vein. They found no other way but to keep silent blaming their fortune.

However, with the implementation of the EU funded “Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable Groups” project by AID-COMILLA and her partners have brought a significant change in the working area, especially the women of the working area are becoming aware of their rights and now they are rushing to the Legal Aid Clinic (LAC) of AID-COMILLA and her partners like BDSC and JSK for seeking justice. They are getting back their confidence in justice instead of blaming their fortune. In a recent evaluation2 of the project, conducted by an external evaluator, it says that “a quick assessment of outcomes from the

2 Mid-term Evaluation of the AID-COMILLA project entitled “Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable Groups”, February 2010, by Dr. Ridwanul Hoque, Assistant Professor, Department of Law University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh, E: [email protected]; Cell: 0172 0531769


project activities and their impacts on the quality of lives of the service recipients would yield in the conclusion that the project has so far been a success story in bringing justice to the vulnerable people, specially women that are deprived, deserted, tortured, and physically or mentally victimized by family members or outside offenders. It becomes clear from the evaluation that the Project activities in the broader arena of ‘access to justice’ have contributed towards increasing the beneficiaries’ ability to use the five stages of accessing justice outlined by Michael Anderson3, a scholar in law. The project activities have helped the vulnerable people to (i) name/ identify their grievances as legally soluble problems. The service recipients have undoubtedly developed a feeling that it is not always right to say and think that ‘nothing can be done’ against injustices they suffer. In the process, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged have been able to (ii) blame/ identify the culprit for their grievances. This can be read from their allegations against the cornered responsible persons such as husbands, torturers, police, or other state agencies, and so on. Thirdly, they have been enabled to (iv) make legal claims for remedying their problems. For example, the victims are claiming through ADR or litigations the restitution of conjugal life, payment of dower and maintenance costs, and custody of children and so on. Also there has become created a positive environment of ‘winning’ in that the society covered by the Project is arguably in a better position to recognize rights and legitimate interests of the vulnerable people. Lastly, the project activities have been successful in (v) enforcing legal outcomes and spreading the benefits of these outcomes and information about them to the potential victims of injustices. Ultimately, the people of the Project areas have become more confident about the availability of legal intuitions at their disposal for the purpose of preventing threats to a just society and achieving remedies for their grievances (Please refer to Article 4 on Evaluation of Outcomes : Impact and contribution on page 18 of the evaluation report already submitted to Ms. Sassi Claudia). Therefore, referring to specific and overall objectives of the project as mentioned in the original LMF, it may be mentioned that the progress of the project is as per expected results (1 to 3) of the LMF. This is also confirmed by the output outlined in the result against each of activities (Activity –1 to Activity – 11) mentioned under Article – 2.2 above. There are evidences in our hand that the Judicial Magistrate has referred such cases (more than twenty two cases) to AID-COMILLA office for grass-root-level verification before declaring his/her verdict. This is because they (the district court) have confidence on AID-COMILLA as well as project including partners rather than the police department regarding the veracity of the investigation. A copy of the referred case is attached in Annexure – 4. Similarly Union Parishad (UP) Chairmen are also referring their cases (regarding torture, divorce, dowry etc.) to AID-COMILLA for resolving those through ADR. Many cases are even referred to our Legal Aid Clinic (LAC) from remote corners of the districts and beyond our working Upazilas. Even after end of the project, AID-Comilla and her partners are running LAC and ADR services with their own and regular staff. But the demand for medical support to the victims have been becoming a burden due to lack of fund – as most victims are very poor and can not afford to the increased cost of medicine.

In conclusion, it may be mentioned here that the demand for informal system of providing justice to the poor and vulnerable people are getting popular, which in future will help to turn the formal judicial system into fair and transparently accessible to the common poor people of the country.

3 Michael Anderson as referenced in a reading material entitled ‘access to justice’ prepared by the Department of Law at SOAS, London, under the subject Law and Governance in the developing world, for the session 2003-4.



2.3. What has been the outcome on both the final beneficiaries &/or target group (if different) and the situation in the target country or target region which the Action addressed?

Not Applicable.

2.4. Please list all publications (and no. of copies) produced during the Action on whatever format, amongst others containing new approaches, innovative ways of communicating ….. ( Please enclose a copy of each item, except if you have already done so in the past)

A huge quantity of booklets(30,000), leaflets (50,000), stickers (30,000), manuals (500), and posters (35,000). 13 kinds of stickers were printed which portray messages or calls for the following purposes: to stop dowry, to educate on the entitlement to dower, equality before law, to caution against child marriage and unlawful/arbitrary divorces, to resist acid violence, to unite and work against domestic violence (wife battering), to educate about the effects of delayed justice (prolonged litigation process), and benefits of alternative modes of dispute resolution and birth-registration. These stickers also contain invitations to the people to AID-COMILLA Centres for legal aid. Few of those are photographed and are shown below:

Also, there are manuals on ways of getting access to justice, and on laws used in the daily affairs of the general public. The principal manual contains simplified and easily accessible description of laws under 6 sectors, divided into 26 lessons.

2.5. Please list all contracts (works, supplies, services) above 5000€ awarded for the implementation of the action during the reporting period, giving for each contract the amount, the award procedure followed and the name of the contractor

No such contracts took place.

2.6. Describe if the Action will continue after the support from the European Community has ended. Are there any follow up activities envisaged ? What will ensure the sustainability of the Action?

Yes, even after end of the project, AID-Comilla and her partners are running LAC and ADR services with their own and regular staff. But the demand for medical support to the victims have been becoming a burden due to lack of fund – as most victims are very poor and can not afford to the increased cost of medicine. Also the cost of court cases (Court fees, collection of copy of the cases etc.) will be a big concern for the poor people. Although follow-up activities will be continued by the existing staff of respective organization, but the intensity of follow-up may not meet the increased demand of the victims; because those staff have their own regular assigned tasks from other programmes / projects.

Regarding sustainability of the action, the social leaders are supporting the organizations with moral support only – therefore the fair justice may be subjected to hindrance caused by the vested

interest of the power structures in the locality. Therefore, the project should have been run for more three years to establish a counter platform by the community people to withstand the power structure of the community. However, AID-Comilla has been continuing its endeavour to source necessary funds for achieving the sustainability of the action.

2.7. Has the Action promoted gender equality, disabilities ….? If yes, please explain.

The action is mainly aimed at establishing human rights and to ensure their easy access to justice. Since most of the victims are women and female children – so the gender equality has been given due attention to achieve the goals and objectives of the project. Also the people of disabilities and ethnic section received equal treatment to get the access to justice.

2.8. How and by whom have the activities been monitored / evaluated? Please summarise the results of the feedback received, including from the beneficiaries.

All the actions have been monitored by the staff and the management people both in participatory way and the FGD methods. One mid-term evaluation was done by an external evaluator from Dhaka university – the copy has already been submitted to the concerned department of the EU in Bangladesh. The feed back received from the field that many of women were deprived of their rights in terms of “cabin-nama (registration)”, “Denmohor ( cash payment of dower money to bride by bridegroom just after marriage)” ; but now they are aware of those rules. So they do not get marry without proper marriage registration. The married women also came to know that divorce is not effective through verbal recitation of the word ‘Talak’ or divorce. Earlier women would have feared to approach to court or law-enforcing authority; but now they can go to those places without any fear or hesitation.

2.9. What has your organization/partner learned from the Action and how has this learning been utilised and disseminated?

It has been one of the important components of the access to justice programme that all stakeholders, from government officials to the victims of torture, are sensitized and educated vis-à-vis the focus functions of the Project. As have been seen, the publicity about the project-activities, which have a pedagogic value, which is done through fixing leaflets, printed slogans and messages of legal warnings, demonstrations of stage-shows, staging ‘jari gans’ (local folk songs specially composed with the theme issues of the Project), holding dialogues with key government and NGO officials, local elites and religious leaders, arranging seminars and talks at school levels, and so on. Notably, maintenance of a continued communication with the government officials, marriage registrars and judges/magistrates, whether in the context of any specific motto or only as a matter of good will and gesture, has helped the Organisation operate its activities more smoothly than it would have been the case. Apart from this, there are some other innovative aspects of the publicity and awareness-building limb of the project such as fixing the posters holding legal messages about second marriage, dower and dowry on the back of rickshaws. Now a note can be made on the contents of booklets, leaflets, stickers, manuals, and posters. 13 kinds of stickers were printed which portray messages or calls for the following purposes: to stop dowry, to educate on the entitlement to dower, equality before law, to caution against child marriage and unlawful/arbitrary divorces, to resist acid violence, to unite and work against domestic violence (wife battering), to educate about the effects of delayed justice (prolonged litigation process), and benefits of alternative modes of dispute resolution and birth-registration. These stickers also contain invitations to the people to AID-COMILLA Centres for legal aid.



Also, there are manuals on ways of getting access to justice, and on laws used in the daily affairs of the general public. The principal manual contains simplified and easily accessible description of laws under 6 sectors, divided into 26 lessons. The six sectors are: Muslim family laws, Hindu family laws, Muslim inheritance laws, Hindu inheritance/succession laws, constitutional laws, and criminal laws. There are some issues included in the manual which are of special mature, and may not thus be easily identified as belonging to any one cluster of these six legal sub-branches. For example, there is a lesson alternative disputes resolution and the techniques of reporting and managing domestic violence. Additionally, there is short handout with abridged description of laws relating to marriage, rule against polygamy, dowry, divorce, and domestic violence. Community people found these publicity and educative means absolutely useful for realizing the goals of the Project.

The legal awareness is basically raised through holding workshops in different areas at Union, Upazilla, and District Levels. Undoubtedly, these workshops with stakeholders coming from a wide range of public life have proved generative of confidence and awareness about the social and legal issues which are within the ambit of the Project. Concerned Field Officers (FOs) of respective organizations organised meetings and sittings with key stakeholders in the concerned project area, and there are 42 sittings in a year.

3. Partners and other Co-operation

3.1. How do you assess the relationship between the formal partners of this Action (i.e. those partners which have signed a partnership statement)? Please provide specific information for each partner organisation.

AID-COMILLA’s initiative, partnership with other organization aims at building good working relationship as well as capacity building with local NGOs, Civil Society Organizations and educational institutions to achieve the greater goal of establishing a poverty-free, environmentally sound and a gender-just society. Neither poverty eradication nor the fight against the forces of under-development is possible by a single organization or authority alone. There are many local NGOs, CBOs, etc. experienced enough and working in the field of development with a strong commitment, but cannot accomplish their objectives due to required support. AID-COMILLA helps these local NGOs, CBOs and educational institutions build their capacity by providing them with technical expertise and financial assistance. The innovativeness of this action is in building networks of these organizations within targeted working area to address crucial issues affecting the development of the concerned areas. Issues such as oppression on women, combating domestic violence, combating acid crime and trafficking, deforestation, environmental protection, and the problem of NGO overlapping and duplication of activities feature prominently in this respect. The activities of the programme are: building networks among local NGOs to

collectively address the local development issues; holding workshops on different development issues for sharing experience; providing financial support in implementing different programmes; providing training for group members and the staff of partner organizations; capacity-building for financial management as well as proper record-keeping; providing financial and technical support for running non-formal primary schools; providing support for running adult literacy centres; capacity-building of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to enable them to meaningfully participate in and contribute to the development process; capacity-building for financial management and record-keeping; providing support in organizing training and cultural fairs; providing support in organizing regional cultural workshops; providing support in strengthening local cultural activities such as people’s theatre, popular songs, etc.

AID-COMILLA’s vision of a successful partnership is a relationship where each side is prepared to give up some self objectives in order to achieve communal/joint objectives; where there is a division of roles and responsibilities, a sharing of risks and a pursuit of joint objectives. Whereas donors work directly with organisations which already have the capacity for project delivery, working in partnership involves the transfer of skills which will build the capacity of one of the partners to eventually implement project activities.

The action partnerships also:

• build the capacity of a wide range of organizations (NGOs to village need-based groups) to effectively deliver extension of the methods after withdrawal of support from AID-COMILLA

• build the capacity of NGOs/CBOs to use participatory approaches in combating domestic violence issue

• build and strengthen NGOs/CBOs capacity to identify and address social and gender issues in field activities

• build the capacity of NGOs/CBOs to advocate for poor victim of human rights

• work with NGOs/CBOs to establish a gender balanced staff from management to field level

• build the capacity of NGOs/CBOs to accurately monitor and evaluate their work

• facilitate networking and skills/information sharing between NGOs/CBOs, the GOB and other stakeholders

• strengthen NGOs/CBOs ability to work with local structures of GOB and apply for funding from donors to implement projects in their own right

• identify partners with whom AID-COMILLA can work in the future

• identify partnership strategies and principles of best practice which can be used by AID-COMILLA and other development agencies in the future

• work with academic institutions and research bodies to investigate topics that farmers identify as being important

Bangladesh Development Service Centre (BDSC) : BDSC is a non-government, non-political and non-profitable right-based organization, working as coalition partner of this project at Sadar Upazila of Sunamgonj district. BDSC conducted baseline surveys, PRAs, awareness raising training, distributed IEC materials and regular monitoring at activity as


well as at output level. Following activities were conducted by BDSC to develop the access to justice for the poor and neglected people of the project area:

District workshop with 56 and Human chain with 200 participants respectively Upazila workshop with 65 and Human chain with 300 participants respectively Union workshop with 1133 participants Folk son for 3561 participants Video show for 1133 participants and Advocacy campaign with 334 college students.

BDSC as coalition partner of the project extends full cooperation to leading partner, AID-Comilla who conducts close monitoring on all activities: both programmatic and financial aspects. Jana Sheba Kendra (JSK): JSK is also a non-government, non-political and non-profitable right-based organization, working as coalition partner of this project in 10 Unions and 1 Pourashava under Raipur Upazila of Laxmipur district. JSK is responsible for conducting baseline surveys, PRAs, awareness raising training, distributed IEC materials and regular monitoring at activity as well as at output level. JSK implemented following activities at field level to develop the access to justice for the poor and neglected people of the project area :

a) District workshop with 53 and Human chain with 600 participants respectively b) Upazila workshop with 46 and Human chain with 400 participants respectively c) 20 nos. Union level workshop with 977 participants d) Organized 20 Folksongs attended by 16,000 viewers e) Organized 20 Video shows when 5,168 viewers observed those shows f) 394 college students attended the advocacy campaign in 3 events.


3.2. Is the partnership to continue? If so, how? If not why?

Yes, the partnership of AID-Comilla and its partners will continue. Because they will be working on the human rights programme in their respective working area of their own. However the partnership may not have the bindings among each other at the level as there will be no fund transaction on this issue. Strong relationship in implementation of similar works will be maintained through sharing and consultation of experiences on legal issues.

3.3. How would you assess the relationship between your organisation and State authorities in the Action countries? How has this relationship affected the Action?

At the beginning of the project implementation, a number of District Workshop, Upazila Workshop, and Inception workshops were organized by respective organizations in the project areas. Through those workshops, working relationships with the state authorities or government machineries have been established. Government officials both in administration as well as in programme implementation got very enthusiastic to help poor people in ensuring access to justice following the workshops. Some important recommendations were also made in the workshops by the state authorities to assist the poor. District and Upazila administration have been referring specific cases to AID-Comilla for ADR, as a result many people got peaceful solutions without any cost and harassment. On the other hand, judicial department accepted complicated cases for FIR as referred by AID-Comilla, BDSC and JSK. District judges are showing interest to install Bill-boards with messages in favour of Human Rights.

3.4. Where applicable, describe your relationship with any other organisations involved in implementing the Action: Not arise

• Associate(s) (if any) • Sub-contractor(s) (if any) • Final Beneficiaries and Target groups • Other third parties involved (including other donors, other government agencies or local

government units, NGOs, etc)

3.5. Where applicable, outline any links and synergies you have developed with other actions.

This project has synergy with another project of AID-Comilla named “Integrated Development Programme” funded by MISEREOR Germany and operated in urban slum areas of Comilla municipality. Most of the activities have similarity in action as well as by purpose except one is implemented in urban areas and another in rural areas. Both the project has common objectives, among others, to ensure access to justice and rights situation of the neglected populations of the project area..

3.6. If your organisation has received previous EC grants in view of strengthening the same target group, in how far has this Action been able to build upon/complement the previous one(s)? (List all previous relevant EC grants). Not Applicable

3.7. How do you evaluate co-operation with the services of the Contracting Authority?

Cooperation with the Contracting Authority was very strong, cordial and transparent.

4. Visibility



How is the visibility of the EU contribution being ensured in the Action? EU contribution is being insured in every action of the project by the logo and name of European Union (written in both English and Bengali) as seen in the banner, posters, leaflets, stickers, Bill-boards, sign-boards, brochures and folders used in every meeting, workshops and seminars. Few pictures given below are proofs of the EU contribution displayed in public places.

The European Commission may wish to publicise the results of Actions. Do you have any objection to this report being published on EuropeAid Co-operation Office website? If so, please state your objections here.

Name of the contact person for the Action: Rokeya Begum Shafali Signature: Location: AID-Comilla , Village – Roghupur, Union – Jagannathpur, Upazila – Sadar, District – Comilla. Date report due: March 2011 Date report sent: March, 2011

Annex # 1

District workshop on Access to Justice

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Shamima and her college friends in discussion with her parents

Annex # 2 Case Study -1

Students can stop eve-teasing, early marriage …. how?

Introduction: AID-COMILLA has been implementing the project “Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable Groups” since February 2009. The main purpose of the project is ensure equal rights and access of the poor vulnerable group to justice by eliminating social discrimination to women like early marriage, rape, fatwa, wife beating, sexual harassment, family violence, dowry, child trafficking, women trafficking, acid throwing, police torture in custody, keeping in police station for long time without case filing etc. through awareness raising, training, lobbying and by creating environment for access to Justice. In the process, Advocacy campaign (Dialogue with College Students) is an important activity implanted by the project. This activity helps the students to get aware of the legal issues, side by side their institutional education; because they will be the future leader / law-maker of the country.

The incident: One student of Comilla Government College, Ms. Shamima Akter of 16 years old, on one fine day after returning home from the college came to know that her father, Mr. Azad Miahn has decided to stop her education and going to arrange her marriage very soon. Shamima didn’t get surprised at her father’s decision as she knew her father’s economic condition. Economic condition of Shamima’s father: Mr. Azad, father of Shamima, lives in village Noorpur under Ward No. 18 of Comilla Adarsha Sadar Upazila. He has one wife with four children and elderly parents totaling 8 members of his family. He has a small shop of motor-spare-parts as main source of earning for running such big family. His earnings are insufficient to run the family expenses and the cost of education of his son and daughters. Even on the occasion of Eid-ceremony, he has to borrow from others to buy new dresses for the kids. Under the circumstance, when Mr. Azad got an offer from a prospective bride-groom’s family to marry his daughter Shamima, he got convinced himself to accept the offer only to get rid of the expense-burden. Shamima’s reaction: Few days ago Shamima attended a Advocacy Campaign session at her college, organized by AID-COMILLA staff, so she decided to discuss the issue to her friends who attended that session. So on the next day, she discussed with her close friends and sought their help to stop the marriage till her college final is over. Her friends discussed the matter with their teacher and decided to visit her parents to convince her parents in continuing her education. After few sessions with Shamima’s parents, they were successful to change the decision of Mr. Azad and Shamiam has been continuing her education. Conclusion: Advocacy campaign with college students helps the community people to get rid of social injustice and women violence.


Annex # 3

Case Study – 2

Students fight against dowry Introduction: AID-COMILLA staff of Access to Justice project organized a debate competition on 26th October 2009 with students of a Girls’ High school (Komolpur Hashmoter Nessa Uchha Balika Bidyaloy) at Village – Komolpur, Roghnathpur Union under Comilla Sadar Adarsha Upazila of Comilla district. Six students (girls) of Class –IX namely: 1) Sanjida Bari 2) Tahmina Sultana, 3) Parvin Sultana, 4) Nasrin, 5) Kulsum and 6) Sadia Binte Hussaina took part in the debate. They raised the real situation of the society in terms of dowry – how the poor women are tortured by their in-laws / husband for dowry. They had a very effective and subjective debate following which teachers and other students (who participated in

m

the session as observer) took instant oath for neither to take dowry nor to give dowry during their own marriage ceremony. After the end of the debate and their oath taking session, they all participated in staging a Human Chain from school gate to Market place and raised slogans against Dowry. From that date and on those six students formed a team and have been attending group

eetings at village level of their own.

Impact in the community: After six months of the occasion, when the AID-COMILLA staff visited the village Komolpur for follow up of the session; they came to know from the villagers (interview with Mr. Abdul Jabbar – son of Late Abdul Majid and MS. Ayseha Akhter daughter late Idris Miahn) that the cases of early marriage and dowry has reduced in their village to a great extent. Only one case of early marriage was going to happen last month which have been stopped by the student’s team lead by Ms. Sadia Binte Hussaina.

Ms. Sadia B

inte

Ms. Sadia Binte Hussain and her team-members mobilized other students and teachers of the girls school to stage the Human-chain at Komolpur.


Annex # 4

Case Study – 3

Students formed watch-dog committee along with their teachers as Advisors

Students fight against eve teasers

Introduction: Bangladesh Development Service Centre (BDSC) has been implementing ‘Access to Justice for Vulnerable People’ project at Sadar Upazila of Sunamginj district under the leadership of AID-Comilla since February 2009. Among other programmes, Advocacy Campaign or Dialogue with College / School students is an effectivprogramme implemented by BDSC in their project area. Students of Astogram Ram Gobinda High school, being motivated from thdialogue programme formed a committee 12 students (01. Ms. Badrun Nessa, 02. Mukta rani Das, 03. Ms. Sujina Begum, 04 . Ms. Josna Begum, 05. Ms Honufa Begum, 06. Ms. Sumi Begum, 07 MsSultana Begum, 08. Md. Moniruzzaman, 09. Md. Habibur Rahman, 10. Md. Abu Sufian, 11. Md. Sadequr Rahman and 12. Md. Hemayet Uddin etc.) to fight against eve-teasing and other social disturbances in their school as well as in surrounding areas of their residence. They also got their teachers support as Advisors whenever they need. Incident: Ms. Jaheda Begum (15 years of age), a student of Class – IX of Astogram Ram Gobinda High school, used to go to school regularly from a distance of 12km. from her home at Gholergaon village under Mohonpur union of Sadar Upazila of Sunamgonj district. One hoolig Sattar of the same village and an unemployed youth, used to disturb / tease her or objectionable words. On one fine morning of 11th October – 2010 at to go school by a Tempoo (three-wheeler auto-mobile) alone, got on to th as per his direction without any question. Monir also threatened Jaheda Fortunately, one jaheda’s girl friend saw the incidence and ran to thher teachers and other members of the student’s committee. Knowing the directischool telephoned (over mobile) to her own brother to stop the Tem her school. Accordingly her brother caught both Monir and Jaheda from tparents and few leaders of the village were also called in to the school and a the problem. Mr. Monir claimed that both of them love each other. The schoolsuggested Jaheda’s parents to get them married very soon. But Jaheda denied the decision of the arbitration and sought help from her school friends to stop their marriage and she uttered her opinion to continue her study. Action: The members of the student committee, visited Jaheda’s house and motivated her mother not agree to the marriage proposal of Monir, rather support Jaheda’s will to go to school. They also approached to the school committee and the local leaders of the society to stop Mr. Monir from such heinous activities and make Jaheda’s route to school free from any hindrance. Result: Now Jaheda can go to school free from disturbance and any sort of hindrances. Jaheda expressed her deep gratitude to her teachers, local leaders and friends for their support to continue her education. Conclusion: All the programmes of “Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable People” are equally important to ensure access to justice for all.

e

e

.

an Mr. Moir (26-yrs old), son of Md. Abulon the way to school by uttering bad

08:30 p.m. Mr. Monir finding Ms. Jaheda e Tempoo and instructed the driver to run

to keep quiet or to face severe torture. e school and brought the matter in to notice of

on of the vehicle, one madam of the poo with a girl wearing the uniform of he Tempoo and took to the school. Jaheda’s

arbitration meeting was held to solve authority and the local arbitrators

Students motivated victim’s mother to send her daughter to school

Annex # 5

Case Study -4 Rabu Begum get back her lost emperor

Rabu Begum, in short Rabu, is the first daughter among five girls and two sons of Abdus Sobhan – a construction labour hails from village Fultoli under Sadar Daxmin Upazila of Comilla district. Rabu was brought up through hardship in a poverty stricken family. She could not get admission at right age due to poverty. Although Rabu started to go to school at her 8-years of age, but his father did not agree to bear her schooling expenditure as he used to earn livelihood-expenditure of the whole big from sale of his labour. On the other hand Rabu was very determined to go to school at any cost. Seeing her determination, one old lady at neighboring

household helped her to continue her study up to Grade / Class-IX. On April 25, of the year 1991 a great disaster came down and swept out Rabu’s determination for education; Rabu had to go with Mr. Ali as a bride. Mr. Ali, son of Mr. Chan Miahn of Ichhapur village under Solonol Union of Burichong Upazila, was a driver in profession. One year after their marriage both Rabu and his husband has spent very good days in peaceful and jovial manner. Their lives were full of love, cheers and happiness. They became parent of a nice and healthy male-baby at the end of one year. Rabu started to dream a bright future of her son. Alas! What man proposes, god disposes. After one year, bondage of their love started to fade away. Now-a-days Ali doesn’t like Rabu, even the bondage of love surrounding their son couldn’t attract Ali towards Rabu. Ali doesn’t return to house timely, doesn’t support the expenses for the family or provide inadequate resources to run the family – even the food-cost of the son. With passing of days, months and even few years, Rabu enters the world of uncertainity in her life. In the mean-time they were blessed with a daughter. Finding no other way Rabu returns to her father’s house, although her father has passed away from this world by that time. Over the time Rabu got to be convinced that she is the second wife of Mr. Ali – who has kids in his first wife’s house. Ali has stopped his visit to Rabu and also do not pay a single penny towards Rabu’s family expenses. Rabu started to earn money working in others house as maid. As the son and daughter grew elder, Rabu got frustrated to meeting the educational expenses of her children in spite of hard working. At this stage, Rabu became desperate to move to her husband’s house with son and daughter on July 03, 2009; but she could not stay there for a moment as Ali along with his first wife – Nurjahan and brother-in-law – Alam forced her, causing injury by beating, to leave the house in the dark of the night. Rabu along with her children sought shelter at neighbor’s house for the night and on next morning returned to her father’s house again. Being deprived of fair justice from the society, injured Rabu spent her awfulness days in silent pain but without any complain. On July 07,2009, she came to know about the legal services provided by ‘Access to Justice’ project of AID-Comilla and she rushed there for the justice. She was given medical support for her injury and the registered her case for action. Through an exhaustive but quick process of ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution), AID-Comilla handed over Rabu to her husband Ali – who received her in cheerful manner. After the ADR, peace of Rabu knew no bounds, there is no deprivation from Ali like previous days. Ali has purchased a piece of land in the name Rabu and has built a tin-roofed-house for residence and has been bearing the cost of Rabu’s family inclusive of educational expenses of their son and daughter on regular basis. At first rabu bought one cow from the money she received from Ali through ADR and now she has goat, hens and ducks. On November 14, 2010 when the staff of AID-Comilla visited Rabu’s house on a follow-up schedule, Rabu burst out in joy and couldn’t speak for some time. She greeted the staff in her deepest heart and said, “Apa, I will remain grateful to you for ever and my college going children will pray to god for his blessing upon you”. Conclusion: Rabu got back her lost emperor (Mr. Ali – her husband) and her source of livelihoods through ADR.



Annex # 6 Case Study -5

Jashim and his family after ADR

Overcoming the Fatowa, Jashim got back his mother’s lap. Jashim, the only son of Ms. Suphia Khatun, lives in village Joypur under Sadar South Upazila of Comilla district. Jashim is a labour by profession and his father Mr. Rawshan Ali is un-employed old-man. Jshim falls in love of Ms. Mahmuda living in neighboring house. Being the affectionate son of the parents, Jashim gets married to Mahmuda with full support and satisfaction of his parents. Jashim and his newly married wife enjoys their conjugal as well as family life with happiness and joy. Jashim becomes father as Mahmuda gives birth to a male-baby. The son boosters their love, affection and respect to one another. Their joy knows no bounds. After four years of their marriage, one day Jashim uttered the word ‘Talak’ meaning divorce for only once when Jashim was tempered by an altercation over a silly family issue. On this, Mahmuda returned to her father’s house. Kashim realizes his fault repents for his own mistakes. After 22 days Jashim with the help of a ‘Hujur” (Muslim priest) apologize to the God and bring back Mahmuda in his house. Alas! the settlement was not accepted by another ‘Hujur’ (Nuru hafez) and some malicious people of the society. They gave the ‘Fatowa’ that Jashim and Mahmuda has committed crime through violation of Islamic rule; so they should be rejected by the society. They gave the verdict that Mahmuda must be given ‘Hilla’ (meaning get marry to another person) before Jashim can marry her second time, otherwise they will be expelled from the area/community. Jashim’s father tried to get the matter resolved by the community but in vain. They expelled Jashim and his wife from the community and detached his parents from the community by confining them in their own house. Jashim struggles for existence and moves around as vagabond. After fours year of their vagrant life, they got the address of AID-Comilla and visited AID-Comilla for lodging the complain on 20th April,2010. Jashim described the disgusting tale of their life in choked voice and burst into tears. He pressed home his request to get his aged father and mother. He also sought assistance from AID-Comilla to go back to their home with their only son to the grand-mother. Based on the above complain, the manager of the “Access to justice” project visited verify the genuineness of the case and served notice for ADR. Accordingly the ‘Fatowa’ givers along with other community leaders sat attended the ADR and confessed their mistakes and thus settled their misunderstanding by accepting Jashim and his family back to the community. Jashim got back his mother’s lap, the ‘Fatowa’ givers requested AID-Comilla to implement the programmes of ‘Access to justice’ project in their village (though outside the working area of the project. Conclusion: Jshim and his wife got back his mother’s lap and started to live in peace along with others. Jashim thanked AID-Comilla for correcting the ‘Fatowa’ givers.

Annexure – 7

COPY OF CASES REFERRED TO AID-COMILLA BY COURT AT COMILLA.




Documents

Coordinated Effort to Access to Justice for Vulnerable ... · PDF fileBangladesh Development Service Centre ... Village: Raghupur (South of Bakrabad Gas Head Office) Post Office: Rajapara;