Community mediation to raise rural people's access to justice

Community-based mediation can increase rural people's access to justice as it can solve local disputes in a faster and cheaper way than the court, speakers told a conference yesterday.

They urged the government and donor organisations to give more emphasis on the mediation process and sought its legal recognition so that the people can keep faith on it.

The remarks were made at the conference jointly organised by WAVE Foundation, Nagorik Uddyog and Madaripur Legal Aid Association (MLAA) at a hotel in the capital. The organisations work with UKaid-funded project Community Legal Services (CLS).

Speaking as the chief guest, M Enayetur Rahim, justice of High Court division of the Supreme Court, said the people do not want to rely on the court for its delay in justice delivery, and a huge backlog of cases.

So, they prefer mediation to solve their problems instead of visiting the court, he said, which saves both their time and money.

Mostafizur Rahman, director (in-charge) of National Legal Aid Services Organisation, said, “Around 80 percent of local disputes are solved locally through arbitration and the rest enrols at the court. If we cannot solve the disputes this way, the courts' case backlog would become higher.”

Although there is a lack of transparency on "traditional arbitration" in some cases, but it can be solved by following community-based mediation process where different representatives of the community will be involved, he said.

The non-government organisations (NGOs) are playing important role in making the arbitration fairer, and reaching the grassroots, he added.

Quoting a recent UNDP study, WAVE Foundation Executive Director Mohsin Ali said around 31 lakh cases remained pending with courts for disposal until December 2016, and the number is expected to hit around 50 lakhs in 2020.

The government needs to give more emphasis on community-based mediation to solve the local disputes, which will help decrease the case backlogs, he said on the keynote presentation.

Khan Mohammad Shahid of MLAA, Barrister Sara Hossain of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Sharmeen Murshid of Brotee, Fawzia Karim Firoze  of Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association, Zakir Hossain of Nagorik Uddyog, and Jerome Sayre of CLS project, also spoke.