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WORKINGIN

HARD TO REACH AREAS

COMMUNITY LEGAL SERVICES (CLS) PROGRAMME GOOD PRACTICE REPORT

Good Practice Report Series:

1. Delivering responsive client services

a. Delivering responsive client services through mediation and litigation

b. Delivering responsive client services through referral

2. Developing human resources for service delivery

3. Partnering with local justice providers and other stakeholders

4. Managing partnerships with other NGOs in consortium

5. Influencing national policy change

6. Campaigning and local level advocacy

7. Working with indigenous communities

a. Working with indigenous communities in Chittagong Hill Tracts

b. Working with indigenous communities in plain land

8. Working in hard to reach areas

9. Mobilising communities for access to justice

10. Innovating in service delivery

11. Creating a learning organisation

Credits

Published by : COMMUNITY LEGAL SERVICES (CLS) PROGRAMME House No. 23 / B, Road No. 112, Gulshan - 2 Dhaka - 1212, Bangladesh. Phone: +880-2-9840327, +880-2-9891256 Fax: +880-2-9887968 E-mail: info@communitylegalservice.org Website: www.communitylegalservice.org

Published : March 2017

Report prepared by : Sanaiyya Faheem Ansari, Consultant

Report edited by : Christine Forrester, Capacity Building Lead, CLS

Coordinated by : Capacity Building and Communications Team, CLS

Photo Courtesy : ASD and COAST Trust

Design and Printing : Printjet 31, Purana Paltan, Dhaka-1000.

WORKINGIN

HARD TO REACH AREAS

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COMMUNITY LEGAL SERVICES (CLS) PROGRAMME GOOD PRACTICE REPORT

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

Forward

The Community Legal Services Programme ends in July 2017. In the preceding five years, we have expanded access to legal services to an estimated 13.9 million Bangladeshis in an additional 16% of the country covering 1232 rural unions and urban wards. Most of our beneficiaries, over 74%, have been women and girls and survey research indicates significant increases in awareness of key legal rights and satisfaction with dispute resolution services in the communities in which we work. Our work has also improved use of legal aid assistance to the poor provided by the Government of Bangladesh. All this was possible through partnering with our NGO partners, drawing on their established expertise and building their capacities and skills to pursue high quality standards for legal service provision. Their remarkable improvements have yielded many examples of good practice that the team wishes to acknowledge and share with the broader community of stakeholders working on improving access to justice in Bangladesh and globally. This series of Good Practice reports is our attempt to do so.

Sincerely,

Jerome Sayre

Team Leader

CLS Programme

3

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

4

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

5

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

6

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

7

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

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8

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

9

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

10

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

11

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

12

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

13

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

14

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

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15

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

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16

PreambleCommunity Legal Services (CLS) is a five year programme funded by UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID). CLS is implemented by a consortium consisting of Maxwell Stamp PLC, as principal contractor, with the British Council and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (UK), as partners.

The programme aims to provide greater access to justice for poor, marginalised and socially excluded communities in Bangladesh, with a specific focus on women and girls. Its overall objectives are to improve the quality and coverage of CLS in Bangladesh, build sustainability into the CLS Programme interventions of potential grant partners, and encourage and create an enabling environment for legal services NGOs and community based organisations to coordinate their activities for improved delivery of CLS to target beneficiaries.

CLS provides grants to local and national NGO partners to deliver programme activities. NGO grantees include both specialised legal services organisations as well as development-focused organisations that are being funded to extend the reach and access of legal services for the poor.

During the course of the programme, the CLS team has recognised partners’ strengths in providing different CLS modalities with a series of BEACONS awards for ‘shining lights of good practice’. The awards process set a number of performance categories for good practice and research has been carried out to document each of these. This publication is one of 13 that demonstrate how good practice can be developed and results achieved that improve the quality of community legal service delivery.

Background As part of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Programme, ASD and COAST Trust were provided with grant funding to undertake projects in the hard to reach areas of Bhola and Sunamganj districts. These areas had been identified by the two organisations as distant, isolated areas with difficult communications. The majority of the population of these areas are poor, uneducated and unaware of legal services, mainly because they have been distant from any information about such services.

Remote from mainstream social development processes, the local societies in both of these areas are dominated by extreme patriarchal attitudes, which are linked to religious traditions. Male-dominated partisan political power dynamics and traditional attitudes towards girls and women have discouraged the victims of injustice to seek justice. This extreme conservatism, both social and religious, also means that woman and girls have little opportunity to participate in decision-making processes even in the family, let alone in broader contexts. Other conflicts, which are common in these areas, are related to land grabbing and disputed ownership of land, where the absence of legal services means that these conflicts continue without resolution and the poor and the powerless are deprived of their land and their legal rights.

Traditional mediators are still dominant in society. The Village Court, at the lowest tier of local government, remains inactive and people in these remote locations have never had information about District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC) or Government Legal Aid Fund (GLAF). Even where some information about the District level court or Upazila level legal services is known by local community, economic vulnerability and lack of confidence precludes the journey across the rivers to reach the appropriate service centres. Even where public services exist in these areas, they are seen to of a low quality, with offices opening late and closing early.

These identified hard to reach areas therefore offer many challenges in relation to extending and ensuring appropriate access to community legal services.

MethodologyThis report has been prepared on the basis of field visits to identify good practice and effectiveness in working in hard to reach areas, and to identify further areas of improvement. Two hard to reach areas in the districts of Bhola and Sunamganj, were covered respectively by Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services implemented by COAST Trust and Empowering for Justice and Legal Aid Services implemented by ASD. The processes that the implementing organisations followed and how far these accorded to the core principles and standards developed by CLS were explored for this report.

Research for this report included document study, observation and consultations with staff, beneficiaries, stakeholders including government service providers. The consultant team studied project documents, visited intervention locations for close observation and conducted Focus Group Discussions (FGDs,) meetings, and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), along with telephone interviews to capture good practices. The consultant team also examined the processes followed by the implementing organisations enable change at both organisational and beneficiaries’ levels. The learning of the communities and the stakeholders were also considered, to identify areas requiring improvement.

The Good Practices CapturedProject staff for both the projects were recruited from the locations in which the projects are working. This was specifically done to ensure that communications between the project, service providers, and the communities and target beneficiaries themselves could be easy and effective. For some of the staff of Coast, especially those from Dhal Char, Char Kukrimukri and Monpura, engagement in the project provided the first opportunity to visit a Police Station or any other government office at Upazila level. In both COAST Trust and ASD, staff during the project period have achieved sufficient capacity to become popular CLS agents among the communities and community leaders.

There is evidence that community knowledge and information levels about the law, procedures and legal practices have increased as a result of the CLS Programme in these areas. As a result, there are decreasing trends in relation to land disputes, gender-based violence, domestic conflicts, child marriage, injustice and local crimes etc. There is however still room for improvement at service providers’ level. Additionally, some amelioration of the extreme economic poverty in the community is needed, so that community members can afford travel and other relevant costs to access appropriate legal services.

Justice for Safety: An initiative for community Legal Services, COAST Trust

The Staff Reflection The project recruited the staff its intervention areas with the objective of empowering them to work as social change agents, a role it envisaged they would continue beyond the end of the project. They identified the issues to be addressed, based on their experiences as members of the targeted communities. The staff team was also involved in the community needs assessment – from this, the need for counselling support, medical assistance and travel support to access to legal services were identified.

As a result, they recommended coordination between government agencies and CLS. A further recommendation was for the orientation of political leaders, particularly on the recent Child Marriage Restraint Act, to enhance CLS at this community level.

Community Reflection “I went to Village Court four years ago. Chairman or the Secretary did not pay heed to me. They always told me to go the next date again. I was bored, irritated and feeling hopeless. Finally I stopped going there and thought that being poor I would never get justice. But the situation changed. This project made the Union Parishad people understand their duty. Now the chairman often calls for us to join discussions and listen to our problems. We get solution from Village Court. But I think COAST Trust should continue CLS Programme for at least a few more years to promote the function of Village Court. Today’s practice then will transform into a culture of local government. And more people will be encouraged enough to go to Union Parishad or Social Welfare or Women and Child Affairs office.”

- Komola Begum, a trained Birth Attendant, Char Fassion, Bhola.

People’s Organisation and MediatorsConsultation with the members of the People’s Organisation and the mediators revealed that the changes that have occurred through the activities of the CLS Programme are significant. The poor communities of this hard to reach area lack education and awareness, and they were quite ignorant about the legal services of the Village Court or any other agencies working at Upazila and District level. They hardly even visited other villages across the big rivers surrounding their own island village. But now they have come to know about the government legal services as well as the procedures to be followed for accessing the services. They identified some of the areas that the project should address for the improvement of community legal services:

The process of mediation is sometime influenced by political, economic or social power dynamics that the project can address for improvement of service delivery.

People are too poor to bear the travel cost necessary for the access to legal services, so continuation of travel cost support is required.

It is really helpful that COAST Trust has included ‘travel cost’ in their organisational budget for 2017 for the community to access legal services.

Individual ReflectionAdvocate Md. Liton is a panel lawyer, working with COAST Trust from 2015. He advises the community every Saturday. When he finds a case that could be referred to the DLAC, he recommends this course of action to the CLS Programme. One key issue he has found is that the CLS Programme has led to the activation of the legal aid fund, which had previously not been used at all or underutilised. He thinks that there should be an improvement in the monitoring of cases referred to the DLAC, to enhance the effectiveness of links between the DLAC and the community. He said, “If there is no panel lawyer for the community, the community legal services may shrink again.”

Enamul Haque, Officer-in-Charge, Char Fassion Thana, stated that the poor communities of his Thana area are influenced by political power, religious conservatism and patriarchal culture.

Stakeholders and beneficiaries were engaged in the project through launch event, home visits, dissemination of and exposure to promotional materials, tea-stall meetings and person to person interaction.

At the inception of the project, it was clear that some of the more traditional men did not want women to know the law. Through a range of motivational activities, discussions on legal documents and guidance, their understanding of the importance of women learning about legal issues was increased.

Training and orientation sessions, courtyard meetings, information dissemination, referrals, the people’s organisations and school events all increased awareness of access to the legal system, the function of the Village Court and Referral System. Legal education was given to teachers, Imams, Kazi (Marriage Registrar), mediators, and members of people’s organisations to create a supportive social environment for the community legal service.

The project promoted legal awareness and linked communities with relevant service providers such as the Village Court, Women and Children Affairs Office, Police Station, Public Helpline and District Legal Aid Committee (DLAC), through referral processes that were set up in line with organisational referral guidelines. Any decisions in relation to referrals took account of both the needs to ensure confidentiality and also what the client themselves wanted. Improved record keeping developed as a result of the project, with the responsible persons of the local government maintaining trial documents, including case filing papers, bills, statements of the witnesses and others, as well as the judgments.

Stakeholders identified a range of challenges facing the project and the area in which is was operating. These included: lack of GO-NGO Coordination; inactive Upazila Legal Aid committee; corruption in local institutions and indifference of government officials; lack of monitoring or reporting system at the Village Court; lack of accountability of DLAC; reluctance of lawyers in taking free cases to assist the poor; geographical isolation; and religious stigma.

Committee were not active enough to take part in the decision making process. The statements were not received either the plaintiff or the defendant. The EJLAS project succeeded in enabling the Village Court to function in line with legal provisions. The UP representatives as well as the communities were informed about the consequences of child marriage and polygamy. The women in the Mediation Committee started raising their voice, and contributing to the decision making process.

Due to the CLS Programme, the UP people of the hard to reach Unions of Dorgapasha, Purbo Pagla and Poshchim Pagla had for the first time an opportunity to learn about legal rights and of being connected to other legal service providers. Prior to this project, mediations undertaken at the local level were commonly influenced by power politics. Right from the time of the base line survey conducted by ASD, the UP chairs and members have felt engaged in the project. As a result, they have enthusiastically participated in project activities such as Quarterly Meetings, Courtyard Meetings, actions against Early Marriage, Mediation Sessions, Investigations, Mitigation of Domestic Conflicts, Awareness Sessions etc. and through these activities they have enhanced their legal knowledge and confidence. Women are particularly happy that the EJLAS trainings have provided them with knowledge and increased their confidence to be engaged outside their households, to raise their voices in the community context.

As a result of the project, the communities are seeing less domestic conflicts, and a decrease in violence against women across their Unions. Community acceptance of the members of the Rights and Entitlements (R&E) Committee has led to some of them being elected as UP members.

Poor girls are married before 18. Most of the crimes he deals are about land grabbing and women and girls are often falsely used to file criminal cases, for instance charges of harassment or rape against the opponents in these land cases. The police department has benefitted from the activities of the CLS Programme – crime and conflicts in his coverage area have decreased. He thinks that legal education coverage and support should be expanded.

Firoza is married to Billal, a rickshaw puller. Her in-laws were too poor to provide a separate hut for Billal and his wife. So, they started living in the same hut with her (Firoza’s) father-in-law and mother-in-law. It is a matter of regret that Billal was a bit idle and did not want to work hard to earn enough for the living of at least his wife and himself. On this issue Firoza’s mother-in-law started torturing Firoza by scolding her on lame excuses. Her father-in-law wanted to get them out of home. However, on Firoza’s application, there was a mediation to mitigate Firoza’s domestic conflict. In her complaint, Firoza mentioned that that Billal’s father received BDT 35,000/- from Firoza’s father as dowry, so her father-in-law would give them space to make their separate hut at another side of the homestead. Listening to the statements of the both sides, the mediators assisted the parties to reach the decision to allow Firoza and Billal to make a separate hut at another corner of the homestead and Firoza and Billal would cook their food separately. Now, Firoza is fine with her husband.

A Duty Bearer over PhoneHemayet, Upazila Women and Child Affairs Officer, Char Fassion, commented that the DLAC helped the community to visit his office for legal assistance from him. He thinks that there should be a Shadow Committee of DLAC at Upazila level and the district legal aid fund should outreach to the hard to reach river basin char areas like Char Fassion. He recognises the CLS Programme as a contributory initiative to government legal service. He said, “The CLS Programme helps poor illiterate people by providing application forms and assisting in necessary paper work. They take the vulnerable community members to government offices for legal services. This type of assistance can be expanded.”

A Union Facilitator from Monpura“I am Saiful Islam. I feel proud of being part of the CLS Programme. I myself was not aware of legal services. The trainings from the project were a great source of my learning. I gradually acquired skills by facilitating courtyard meetings, tea-stall meetings, school sessions, people’s organisation and day observation events etc. Every Thursday I go to the office for a review meeting - community members also go there. I feel good when I think of my success in restraining child marriage, polygamy etc. To me, the best activity of my project is the Mediation. So many people, especially women, have benefitted. Sometimes I took community members to the Upazila and even District Court. I faced a big challenge of political influence in every occurrence in my working area. I think if the people’s organisation becomes more knowledgeable and confident, they will be able to challenge such influence.”

-Saiful Islam, Union Facilitator, Monpura, Bhola.

Empower for Justice and Legal Aid Services (EJLAS); Assistance for Slum Dwellers (ASD)

Reflection of Local Government representatives Before the EJLAS intervened, Union Parishad people conducted the Village Court without any knowledge of legal guidelines. Additionally, female members of the Union Mediation

of their legal rights. They tend to believe that poor people are destined to be deprived of justice. They are too poor to afford to travel to Upazila or District level places where they could get access to legal services. In general, they have little idea about the processes that would enable their access to legal service.

The staff conducted a Baseline Survey before implementing EJLAS, which enabled the community to be introduced to the project. Information about legal rights and services were disseminated through the activities of courtyard meetings, street theatre, posters, mass gathering awareness meetings etc. The project provides support for case referrals, mediation and litigation. One of the key successes of the project has been the work that has been carried out on the mediation process. Mediation is seen by the project staff as the most effective route whereby the poorer members of the community can get access to justice and a resolution of a problem within the shortest possible time. Project staff ensured that proper documentation of the process was provided. Their approach also challenged the power politics that had been implicit in traditional mediation at the village level. Case referral has also been successfully used, with full discussions with the client about the procedures, providing them with full information and support and ensuring appropriate follow up. Cases are also discussed at the quarterly meetings of the DLAC.

ASD staff have provided a significant amount of capacity building to R&E Committee members and Mediators. All of the volunteers can explain the context of any case referral, and local government representatives can receive necessary legal advice and assistance. Women have started participating in the Mediation process and every step of Mediation is well documented for record keeping. This is seen as one of the successes of the project.

The staff feel proud that they have been the driving force of the project - they have become popularly known as the Legal Aid Actors across the communities and they are invited as legal information experts to attend any social meeting. There are still areas where further improvements could be achieved, such as strengthening further the R&E Committees, particularly in documentation and record keeping and in giving enough time for meetings.

Community ReflectionSeeking justice had been difficult for victims of conflict in relation to land disputes or domestic violence, due to their powerlessness and financial poverty. But EJLAS showed how justice could be achieved through Mediation and the Village Court or, if necessary, by seeking the assistance of DLAC for litigation. Two important issues were the bias in traditional mediation and that people did not know where to go for justice. One of the beneficiaries, Fulesa from the village of Jiva Dara said, “I am 65. My only piece of land was grabbed by a culprit. I went to many places to get help to get my land back. But not even the chairman or any other local leader stood beside me to help to get back my land. Nobody paid heed to my request. I found the local government people quite inactive to ensure justice for me. After trying for a few years, I was quite hopeless and thought that I would never be able to get my land back. Finally, I came to know about EJLAS from a courtyard meeting. I heard that they support poor people to get legal services. My daughter-in-law took me to one of the staff of the EJLAS. EJLAS staff referred my case to the Forum (R&E Committee). The Forum including the EJLAS staff organised Mediation where the land grabber was present. In the mediation, the mediators discussed the law and the punishment related to land grabbing, and this influenced the land grabber to give me the crop he produced on my land. And the land grabber gave me the crop. In this ensuing dry season, I will get my land back.” Fulesa smiled and concluded, “EJLAS helped me get back my faith in justice.” By providing legal awareness and linking poor people to the Village Court as well as the DLAC, the EJLAS implemented R&E Committee has achieved the trust of the ordinary people. People commonly identify this committee as ‘Forum’.

Staff ReflectionThe ASD staff identified their project coverage area as hard to reach because the Upazila of South Sunamganj and Derai are in the mid of Haor which are completely isolated from the main land; most of the population is illiterate or less educated and as a result they are unaware

People’s Organisation and MediatorsEJLAS helped members of the R&E Committee adapt the legal procedure of Mediation and the required documentation. Its members now work together for justice for the poor. They enable people to get legal assistance and they guide them. Mr. Mihir, an R&E Committee member, said, “Our people were used to thinking within a narrow boundary, but EJLAS opened up their faculty of thinking widely.” Roksana Begum, another R&E Committee member said, “If EJLAS stops, we will use our knowledge and skill that we have acquired from EJLAS and continue working for community legal service.”

Beneficiaries over Phone1. Shahina Begum, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Shahina was a victim of domestic violence and she sought justice from local mediators. But she got no solution. She came to know about EJLAS from the UP member of their area and she also got relevant information by attending a courtyard meeting under the project. After that, she went to the mediators involved with the EJLAS project. The mediators having necessary legal information under EJLAS, took on the case. Hearing from Shahina and her accused husband Humayun, the mediators agreed that they could decide for divorce. A Kazi (Marriage Registrar) wrote their Divorce Paper on condition that Humayun would pay BDT 70,000/- to Shahina as dower money, in addition to maintenance cost. Shahina felt satisfied at this mediation. She bought a piece of land by her own name, at the cost of BDT 50,000/- and bought two cows at BDT 20,000/-. Shahina said, “I am really happy that I am now owner of a piece of land. I also have two cows. My assets are my security.”

2. Archana Rani, Beneficiary of Legal Service, Derai, Sunamganj

Archana Rani gave BDT 50,000/- to Jagadis Roy for the purpose of sending her son to a foreign country for work. But, even after six months had passed, Jagadis took no initiative to send her son overseas. She complained against Jagadis to the Upazila Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Choudhury. The Chairman in the presence of some influential people of the Upazila held an informal mediation, where Jagadis confessed to taking money from Archana. The mediation prepared a paper writing that Jagadis would return the amount of BDT 50,000/- to Archana immediately. But Jagadis practically did not return the money, and so the case was referred to the Village Court through CLS – EJLAS project. According to the decision of the Village Court, Jagadis returned BDT 35,000/-. However, Archana felt happy that at least she became able to repay her loan with the money she got back.

Overall CommentsFor both of the areas covered by COAST Trust and ASD, the change among the field staff in regard to their understanding, capacity and networking skill will be a driving force for the community to continue to have access to legal services beyond the life of the project. Confidence has increased in the communities – people are accessing legal services and their disputes and issues are being resolved. Linkages have been made between the different agencies – Village Courts and Mediation Processes, Women and Child Affairs Office as well as the DLAC. Women in particular have been empowered to learn and to raise their voices about issues and men have been encouraged (with perhaps some success) to consider the challenge to their strong patriarchal attitudes. There is still much to do, as these are not easy areas within which to work. But through some innovative practice, a start is being made on increasing access to justice in these communities.

More volunteers are also needed to cover each ward and consequently more trainings are needed. Further activities to strengthen the Village Court are also needed.

Individual ReflectionMd. Hafizur Rahman, Upazila Chairman, Derai, Sunamganj

Despite the Village Court being inactive, victims of conflict are getting assistance through EJLAS activities. “EJLAS inspired me to organise the Mediation sessions at Upazila Office every Wednesday”, he mentioned. The most of the complaints are about violence against women. Before the inception of the project people were ignorant about the process to follow and which institutions to go to for legal services. They hardly went to court for litigation. The EJLAS project has informed people and made them aware of legal services. The development of neutral trials has led to the incidence of violence against women decreasing. A reduction in the number of land disputes has also been seen, despite the difficulties of solving clashes on land issues. Useful linkages between the DLAC and the communities have been established. The project has also contributed to improving safe migration. Joint initiatives by the government and project are changing the power dynamics – previously the powerful always oppressed the powerless. Prior to the project, there was some activity from BRAC, but people had very little idea about the Government Legal Aid Fund. EJLAS conducted a big drive to improve the utilisation of GLAF. The quarterly meeting on legal issues is really effective for information dissemination. Whilst, if EJLAS closes, the community will be frustrated, they have already acquired the culture of using public services. They know what to do and where to go. In his view, EJLAS has paved the way for ordinary people to get justice. He said, “I think the activities of EJLAS should continue.”

Conclusion The CLS Programme has set noteworthy examples of Good Practices to improve access to legal services and to build the base for legal service delivery on communities’ needs and priorities. The implementing partners operate across the hard to reach areas where poor communities had little information and less idea about legal services and legal service providers. They were solely dependent on traditional mediators, who were influenced by local power and patriarchal culture with religious conservatism. The project’s interventions, by successfully disseminating relevant information among the mass audience, created an environment of changing trends that has decreased domestic violence, child marriage, social crimes (especially on land disputes) and most importantly impacted on women empowerment. The women who followed the norms of remaining silent in the face of violence and discrimination against them have been empowered enough to break the silence and have stated removing the invisible suppressing walls encircling them. The project has contributed to developing the effectiveness and efficiency of DLAC and GLAF. Activating Village Courts has been marked as one of the good practices. Legal orientation provided by the project challenged the traditional Salish that were held without any reference to the law and shifted the communities from power-influenced Salish to institutional mediation based on law and policies. A strong advocacy initiative may be undertaken to mainstream the process of the CLS.

Organisation’s Initiatives

COAST Trust, in their organisational budget for 2017, included provision of providing Travel Costs for the poor community from hard to reach areas, which will contribute to access of the poor to legal services.

ASD successfully influenced the Chair of Derai Upazila Parishad to provide space and technical assistance to hold Mediation sessions at the Upazila Parishad office. As a result of this change, even in the absence of EJLAS, the process of ensuring justice for the poor will go on.

The targeted communities of the ASD intervention areas showed strong confidence in their functional knowledge about legal aid services and respective service providers. The knowledge and capacity that they have gained from the project will enable them to continue to access government legal services even beyond the life of the project. Good practices that enables the achievement of good outcomes.

The capacity and strength of R&E Committees facilitated by ASD has created an outstanding enabling environment for Community Legal Services. The trust built by the R&E Committee members has led to the election of some members as Local Government representatives. This progress will be contributory to continuing to activate Village Courts. The newly elected representatives will also be able to assist the communities in their easy access to DLAC.

Specific CommentsGood Practice to Cover Hard to Reach Areas

Front-line staff recruited from the hard to reach areas are important in building trust and connections with the community. Trained by the projects, these personnel, who did not previously know about legal services and had never had opportunity to visit public service providers such as a Police Station or Upazila Offices or Court, have learned information and the processes of legal aid services and have worked as links between the communities and service providers. This practice has promoted the workers to become ‘Community Agents’, to ensure community legal services. These union-based legal service workers have become confident enough to continue their role.

Both COAST Trust and ASD have included poor women in their project activities – in the People’s Organisation and R&E Committees respectively. These women live in very isolated remote areas – riverine islands and haor villages – where people normally have restricted mobility and it is very hard for women to have access to information. Trainings and Regular events like Courtyard Meetings, Tea Stall Sessions etc. has made these previously oppressed women informed about the minimum detail of the legal services and the procedures to be followed to access locally available institutional supports, and has thereby increased their access to public services.

The District, Upazila and Union level legal services for the poor communities of remote locations have improved. Since people are aware of how and where to seek government legal aid services, the respective local offices as well as the Police Department and Local Government have become more responsive to the needs of the poor communities from hard to reach areas.

ASD’s facilitation of R&E Committee members empowered them to the extent that they have gained popular trust and participated in the last Local Government election. Many of them are now elected members and even the Chairs of their respective Union Parishads. From this, there is a significant possibility of the sustainability of R&E Committee activities.

Tackling Challenges of Working in Hard to Reach Areas

Across both COAST Trust and ASD areas, ensuring women’s voice and their participation in social activities were big challenges because of extreme patriarchy and religious conservatism. Intensive interaction with the communities and stakeholders, as well as information dissemination through the project interventions, developed the understanding of the mediators about women’s rights. Motivational activities, frequent discussions on legal documents and gender education created a supportive environment for women to come forward to establish their right to access to legal services.

Extremely vulnerable economic conditions have been a very big challenge to the poor reaching service providers. The small travel allowance provided from the projects greatly assisted the communities in travelling from isolated Chars or Haor locations to the Union Parishad or Upazila or District offices for legal services.

CLS PROGRAMME

A programme funded by the UK Government and implemented by Maxwell Stamp PLC, British Council

and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR)

House No. 23 / B, Road No. 112, Gulshan - 2, Dhaka - 1212, Bangladesh.Phone: +880-2-9840327, +880-2-9891256, Fax: +880-2-9887968

E-mailinfo@communitylegalservice.orgWebswww.communitylegalservice.org

*The views expressed in this document are not necessarily those of UKaid or Department for International Development (DFID).