Browsing by Author "Naomi, Sharin Shajahan"

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Human rights lawyering: expanding the role of BRAC panel lawyers in legal empowerment
(BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED), 2010-04) Evans, Chris; Naomi, Sharin Shajahan; Ali, Rumana
Lawyering (lawyer conduct) is now considered essential to the legal empowerment of the poor and marginalized. This study established a set of Human Rights Lawyering indicators for BRAC’s Human Rights and Legal Services (HRLS) programme. It evaluated HRLS panel lawyers’ performance according to these indicators by comparing the experiences of three client groups: 1) BRAC legal aid clients, 2) BRAC panel lawyers’ non-BRAC clients, and 3) non-BRAC lawyers’ non-BRAC clients. The study identified opportunities to improve panel lawyers’ performance. For most indicators, BRAC panel lawyers performed comparably better between their BRAC and non-BRAC cases, and with non-BRAC lawyers. Panel lawyers largely did not appear to neglect or under-perform on their BRAC cases relative to private cases. Nevertheless, there is both need and opportunity for improvement. One cannot expect panel lawyers to practice human rights lawyering without training and monitoring regimes. This calls for the development of new training content and performance metrics. Moreover, as only a minority of panel lawyers reported attending a BRAC human rights training workshop, training programmes must be scaled up, possibly in partnership with stakeholders such as Bar Councils, Non Government Organizations and Government Organizations.
Legal empowerment through human rights and legal education course: observations and recommendations from field visits
(BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED), 2012-07) Naomi, Sharin Shajahan; Samadder, Mrinmoy
This study was conducted in the context of Human Rights and Legal Education (HRLE) training in Rangpur and Gaibandha under a field-testing module. To extract data for understanding the module’s implications in the lives of ain shebikas (community paralegals) and learners, qualitative methods including interviews, group discussions and observations were applied. Data were collected in short-time to meet the programme need for recovering the limitations of a field testing module. The positive findings include ain shebika’s accessibility in rural community, bridging the gap between learners and law through the use of local vernacular and wisdom by the ain shebikas, inclusion of property rights and gender in the new curriculum, and adding field visits after the class, etc. In parallel, the concerning issues of the findings include not adding subjects like ‘fatwa’, eve-teasing, critical analysis of gender, and lack of duty-based approach in HRLE module. The limitations also became grave in respect of deeply rooted cultural and religious practice versus women’s claims for rights, lack of economic empowerment and land ownership leading to disenfranchisement among women learners, and self-centred attitude in implementing the rights. Considering the limitations and risks, a broad range of recommendations are made including ideological issues - introducing duty-based approach to rights, women’s independent identity as citizens, including male members in the class, as well as technical matters like using real life experience in the lessons on state’s obligations, and using more clear pictures.
Revisiting group dynamic and legal rights
(BRAC Research and Evaluation Division, 2010-11) Kundu, Debasish Kumar; Samadder, Mrinmoy; Naomi, Sharin Shajahan
BRAC Human Rights and Legal Services Program (HRLS) was initiated to form the ward-based Legal Rights Implementation Committee (LRIC) comprised of 19 members to ensure justice for the vulnerable women of the community. The study explores the dynamics of the committee formation, the strength and weakness of HRLS and to analyze the nature of performance and sustainability in achieving justice for the women. The study was exploratory in nature, following Tuckman’s four stages group dynamics model to achieve the basic objectives of the group. The study investigated the activities, performances and contribution of seven committees in Khulna, Moulvi Bazar and Jamalpur each over seven months period. The findings show that as the LRIC committee constituted of different professional groups, therefore, it became more effective to protect the interest of most vulnerable groups by providing the legal support to them. A number of collective actions visualized the potential contributions of the members of LRIC. But at the same time the study shows how the LRIC faced the sub-group syndrome among the members because of their hierarchical position in social strata. However, inadequate group cohesion and lack of intra-group bond and interactions constituted a comparatively weaker social space for LRIC group. The women members were seemed to be proactive in their individual and group level performance. Moreover, the community people acknowledged the necessity of LRIC but they had no basic knowledge of its modality and activities. Finally, it can be said that despite some limitations of LRIC, it has proved its capacity to potentially be an effective group for protecting the legal rights of the most disadvantaged.
State of justice in Chittagong Hill Tracts: exploring the formal and informal justice institutions of Indigenous communities
(BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED), 2011-01) Kundu, Debasish Kumar; Samadder, Mrinmoy; Khan, Ashrafuzzaman; Naomi, Sharin Shajahan
The justice system of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is characterized by the existence of a dual justice system - the formal one according to the law of the country and the customary laws of indigenous people. The broad objective of the study is to explore the formal and informal justice system of the ethnic communities in CHT in regards to assist Human Rights and Legal Aid Services (HRLS) programme of BRAC for effective extension in this area. Five ethnic groups with highest representation in the region were included in the study. They are Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Mro and Bangali. Both quantitative and qualitative data were used. For quantitative analysis, 601 samples have been observed. In contrast qualitative tools including 25 in-depth interviews, 25 case studies, 25 informal discussions and observation of four Shalish from 24 villages/paras were used. Most of the cases reconciled by the informal justice system had some advantages in terms of easy accessibility and less time and money required for making decision. Most common disputes were on fighting, stealing, land grabbing, intra- and inter-household disputes including rape and murder cases. Some inhuman punishments were executed by the customary legal system. Most people in the region preferred customary laws for having a short trial procedure, less transportation hassle and availability of witness. A number of people opined for legal aid intervention in this area. At the same time hill people are much more inclined to keep their laws stronger as a part of their identity.
The legal challenges on the way to judicial remedy in rape cases: the role of human rights and legal services programme of BRAC
(BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED), 2009-04) Naomi, Sharin Shajahan
Amongst all the cases of violence against women that BRAC’s Human Rights and Legal Services (HRLS) programme deals with, rape has the lowest conviction rate. BRAC’s HRLS programme aims to bring judicial remedy to rape victims however, it faces several legal challenges in the process. Remedy has been used in this study to denote conviction of the accused in the rape case. Using a qualitative method, data was collected from thirteen rape cases of the HRLS programme and used for case studies in this paper. This bunch of legal challenges includes the absence of strong legal argument skills on the part of panel lawyers, lack of legal skills on the part of the programme organizers, prejudices and attitudes of the judges to the criminal doctrine and various procedures, weak professional interaction between the public prosecutor and panel lawyers for prosecuting the case and corruption on the part of the police. A success story of HRLS programme where the accused is convicted of the rape charges provides the main basis for the formulation of the recommendations and demonstrates the necessary combined efforts of the HRLS staff and the state. After highlighting the various legal challenges and the processes that the HRLS programme currently follows, this paper provides recommendations that may help to deal with the challenges more effectively and assist the judicial process to increase rape conviction rates.