Background situation
Access to formal justice institutions remains limited in Bangladesh, especially for the poor parts of the population. Bangladesh ranks 129th out of 139 countries in terms of access to justice in civil disputes (World Justice Project). The justice system is overburdened and is characterized by lengthy proceedings. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the rate of cases closed with a conviction in the courts is very low, in some courts it is even less than 1% of the total cases. This shows that a large proportion of cases could have been dismissed at an earlier stage or referred to other, out-of-court dispute resolution mechanisms. This situation leads to the fact that parties to the dispute have to reckon with lengthy proceedings. This especially prevents the poor parts of the population from turning to the courts in the event of disputes. The absence of dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve minor disputes at an early stage often leads to their escalation into more serious disputes that fall under the jurisdiction of the criminal courts. This unnecessarily accumulates cases in the police, courts and prisons and creates excessive backlog of cases (approximately 3.7 million cases in 2020). This data and the learning experiences from the TC module on judicial and prison reform (PN 2016.2072.3) make it clear that investment of resources to building capacities of state judicial system will not provide a sustainable solution. Additional measures are required to proactively prevent the escalation and accumulation of cases.
The situation is particularly challenging for women and girls: The human rights situation for women, especially in rural communities, is determined by the traditionally patriarchal socio-economic structures. The judicial system of Bangladesh is also considered to be dominated by patriarchy. Arbitration procedures by conservative village elders are usually male-dominated and often disadvantage women and their needs in communities. Therefore, access to justice is more difficult for disadvantaged sections parts of the population and women, not least because of corruption.
Objective
Poor and vulnerable people, especially women, have better access to justice.
Approaches
The TC module is aligned to the BMZ Country Strategy for Bangladesh (2016) in its priority area "Good governance, rule of law and human rights": It promotes improved access to justice, especially for the female part of the population. It will do so by increasing the capacities of dispute resolvers to implement gender-sensitive, non-governmental dispute resolution mechanisms at the local level. It further aims at improving legal and policy framework to promote gender-sensitive non-governmental dispute resolution through advising the Law Ministry (main political partner) and the state (formal) legal aid offices in the supported districts. Support will be provided in addressing excessive backlog of cases through improved case management in courts, which will further lower the barriers to accessing justice and law.
