Work together to protect rights of poor

Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday urged the judges, lawyers and officers concerned to work together and strengthen legal aid services to protect and uphold the rights of poor people.

He was speaking as chief guest at a national conference on “Access to Justice: The Role of Community Mediation” jointly organised by the National Legal Aid Services Organisation (NLASO) under the law ministry and the Community Legal Services (CLS) Program funded by UK Aid at Hotel Sonargaon in Dhaka.

The law minister said they want to work with all the national and international organisations on the basis of partnership. Anisul Huq said the courts are over-burdened with lawsuits. “For making the judiciary free from such deadlock there is no alternative but adoption of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) system,” he said.

He said initiatives have been taken to enable the district legal aid office to provide ADR services to divert disputes from the court system.

Fazlul Huq, secretary of the Madaripur Legal Aid Organisation, said mediation, which is a procedure to resolve disputes outside the court though discussions and compromises among parties, should not be formalised through formulating any rule.

He informed that his orgnaistion has resolved 1.7 lakh disputes and recovered around Tk 272 crore for the victims through mediation in peaceful manner in last 30 years.

Nobody is punished in mediation, Fazlul Huq added.

Sara Hossain, director of Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust, said mediation can play a significant role in establishing peace in the society.

Fawzia Karim Firoze, National Human Rights Commission member; Jerome Sayre, team leader of Community Legal Service; and Sarder M Asaduzzaman, project coordinator of Activating Village Courts in Bangladesh under United Nations Development Programme, among others, spoke at the function where 17 senior assistant judges, who are working as legal aid officials, were present.