BRAC runs a legal aid programme with Ain O Shalish Kendra (ASK) and Bangladesh National Women’s Lawyers Association (BNWLA), called the BRAC/ASK and BRAC/BNWLA Joint Legal Aid Programme respectively. ASK and BNWLA work as BRAC’s partner NGOs.

The legal aid clinics are designed to help BRAC members as well as poor community members resolve their conflicts either through local arbitration or through the formal legal system by providing them with legal advice and assistance. The legal aid programme deals with issues like dowry, dower and maintenance, polygamy, divorce, hila marriage, physical torture, land related matters, money related matters, rape, acid throwing, kidnapping, trafficking and fraud.

Through this legal intervention, BRAC has begun changing the traditional system of arbitration that discriminates against the poor and particularly against women. Instead of having decisions imposed upon them by traditional elites (mostly men) through the system of shalish (informal village courts), women can now participate in a process of arbitration facilitated by BRAC, which tries to enforce laws established to protect the rights of women. Although BRAC has no formal power to enforce the decisions taken during the process of arbitration, the people against whom complaints are made always know that a formal case could be brought against them if they do not comply with the informal arbitration. When arbitration fails, BRAC forwards the complaints to ASK selected panel lawyers and they in turn take necessary action to file a regular case in the local court.