Rights and Equity: Human Rights and Legal Services

Since its inception in 1986, BRAC’s Human Rights and Legal Services (HRLS) programme has been dedicated to protecting and promoting human rights through legal aid, legal representation and empowerment. The programme puts emphasis on ensuring the rights of the poor and marginalised, particularly vulnerable women.

The HRLS programme activities are centred on two core areas:

• Active & Responsive Legal System
• Social Mobilisation, Grassroots and Policy Advocacy

Operating in 61 districts across Bangladesh, BRAC is the largest NGO-led legal aid programme in the world.

Active & Responsive Legal System

The Legal Aid Programme and support services were first introduced in 1998 to ensure the access of rural people, especially women, to the formal legal system.  This programme aims to make government courts more accessible to poor communities. All legal aid services are provided free of cost.

Currently, the HRLS is operating through 539 Legal Aid Clinics in 61 districts of Bangladesh. Through these clinics, lawyers assist individuals to prepare their cases before taking them to court. Further support is provided by a group of selected panel lawyers. 

A cadre of women paralegal volunteers, known as shebikas, has also been developed. The shebikas provide legal support to women across several villages. Above the shebikas are the 'upgraded shebikas', consisting of assertive women shebikas and male community leaders.

Furthermore, the HRLS programme assists victims/survivors of human rights violation cases such as acid throwing and rape by referring them to other agencies for shelter, healthcare, and counselling, free of cost.


Legal Aid Clinics

Our Legal Aid Clinic service helps poor community members to resolve conflicts through either Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) or the formal legal system.

The service provides the poor with legal advice and assistance in dealing with issues such as dowry, dower and maintenance, polygamy, divorce, hilla marriage (temporary interim marriage), physical torture, family issues, land/money related disputes, rape, acid throwing, kidnapping, trafficking and fraud.

The clinics are set up once a week at the local BRAC office during which field staff members (recruited lawyers) record complaints on civil matters and process the complaints for ADR. If arbitration fails, the complaints are forwarded to selected panel lawyers to take necessary actions for filing a regular case at the local court.

Panel Lawyers

BRAC has enrolled a number of lawyers to serve as legal representatives for the poor. These panel lawyers provide their services for free and review cases brought to the legal aid programme, decide on the best course of action for each case and handle all legal proceedings.

Technical training is provided to the lawyers to build up their capacity and involve them in all consultation meetings. 

BRAC has a large network of over 500 lawyers, involved in research, litigation and ensuring transparency in the formal legal sector. Furthermore, the lawyers monitor case results to ensure that disadvantaged clients obtain due protection under the law and have access to a fair trial, without unnecessary delays. 

Shebikas

Shebikas are women paralegal volunteers. They provide legal support to rural women across a number of villages. The shebikas are trained to conduct legal literacy courses. Through the social networks in the community, they are capable of providing quick and effective support to victims.

These shebikas are critical access points within the community, and are frontline social justice actors who make legal aid supportive services sustainable. They address instances of human rights violations within and outside our operational areas and in regions where there is no existing support from the government or other NGOs.

Upgraded Shebikas

Above the shebikas is a tier of "upgraded" shebikas. This tier of shebikas consists of assertive women community leaders as well as male community leaders (sheboks). This tier works on a broader scale to make justice more accessible to the poor.

Since the majority of local disputes involves disagreements over land, upgraded sheboks/shebikas are given training on land measurement and surveying. This helps them acquire an income generating skill in addition to helping the poor people in land related conflicts.

Human Rights Violation Cases

We provide support to victims/survivors of rape and attempted rape, acid throwing or other chemical burns, trafficking, murder, repression for dowry and other forms of violence.

The services provided for the survivors include:

• Victim rescue operations
• Medical tests and report collection
• Filing of police reports
• Protection for the survivor, family members and witnesses through providing shelter
• Social, legal and psychological counselling
• Fact-finding/investigating and forwarding cases to the panel lawyers

To strengthen the response mechanism, BRAC has developed a strong partnership with aligned organisations.

Social Mobilisation, Grassroots and Policy Advocacy

At the grassroots level, the HRLS focuses on building rural women’s awareness of existing laws and their rights through Human Rights and Legal Education. Afterwards, three women from each course form a Law Implementation Committee.

We organise workshops for advocacy with local elites and community leaders. The participants of the workshops form the Human Rights Implementation Committees (HRIC). These committees monitor the implementation of laws in their own localities.

At the national level, BRAC is engaged in advocacy with government policy makers for a draft Domestic Violence Legislation, Guidelines for Sexual Harassment for the University Grants Commission and the National Women’s Development Policy.

We have developed collaboration with aligned organisations on drafting national legislation for protecting and promoting the rights of migrant workers and their families.

Human Rights and Legal Education (HRLE)

We initiated the Human Rights and Legal Education programme with the understanding that increasing legal awareness helps community members protect themselves from illegal, unfair or discriminatory practices.

The programme places emphasis on empowering the rural poor though education on human rights and laws. This also involves improving their understanding of how the judicial system works and how best to secure help.

Since its inception, the programme has provided human rights and legal education to nearly 3.5 million women in Bangladesh.


Law Implementation Committee

After completion of the Human Rights and Legal Education course, the top three participants are selected to form a Law Implementation Committee. The selection is carried out based on their willingness to work for the community, level of capacity building, and communication and facilitation skills.

Law Implementation Committees work as community watchdogs, often acting as arbitrators in minor conflicts, while referring major issues to the relevant authorities. They monitor the community, mediate in situations of conflict, advise people on how to access legal resources and act as channels for raising awareness continuously.

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