Strenghtening evidence based Case Management in Bangladesh courts

Description of project Formal state justice in Bangladesh is difficult to access for the poorer part of the population: Bangladesh is ranked 129th out of 139 countries in terms of access to justice in civil disputes. The starting point is the poor state of the judiciary in Bangladesh, which is characterized by considerable overload and, as a result, excessively long proceedings. According to a report commissioned by the government and carried out by the module "Judicial and prison reform to promote political human rights and the fight against corruption" supported extensive survey on the justice sector (Justice Audit), the percentage of cases that are already pending and not yet completed in relation to the new cases received has increased continuously in all instances for years. This case backlog was, for example, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court is forecast to have 72% pending, uncompleted cases in 2022 compared to the total number of all cases. At the same time, the rate of cases concluded in the courts with a conviction is very low, in some courts even less than 1% of the total cases. This shows that a large proportion of cases could have been dismissed at an earlier stage or referred to other, out-of-court dispute resolution mechanisms. This overall situation leads to that, according to the Justice Audit, the parties to the dispute must expect long proceedings in the state courts. This prevents poorer sections of the population in particular from even resorting to state courts in disputes. This is highly relevant for Bangladesh, as 40.7% of the population (of approximately 168 million people) is considered poor according to the multidimensional poverty index. The widespread lack of dispute resolution mechanisms that contribute to the early resolution of minor disputes often has the potential for minor cases to escalate into serious conflicts that fall under the jurisdiction of the criminal courts. This leads to an unnecessary accumulation of cases in the police, courts and prisons and a corresponding backlog of cases (around 4.0 million cases by 2022). The Bangladeshi justice system is also considered to be patriarchally dominated. Dispute resolution procedures led by conservative village elders are usually male-dominated and are not fully gender-sensitive. According to Justice Audit, 41% of women stated that they do not know whom to approach for legal support. Therefore, access to justice is more difficult for disadvantaged parts of the population, especially for women. Access to justice for women project, co-funded by the European Union is a flagship initiative aimed at enhancing access to justice for women in Bangladesh. The project is vital for addressing disparities in access to justice and ensuring that vulnerable groups, especially women have equal opportunities to seek justice and protection. The project builds on years of successful partnership between GIZ and Bangladesh Government in the field of rule of law. The overarching objective is to enhance access to justice for the poor and vulnerable persons, especially women. To achieve the project objective and indicators, the project works along three approaches (outputs) 1. The support focuses on strengthening the provision of legal assistance, especially for poor and vulnerable persons, with a focus on women within partnerships involving state legal aid organizations and NGOs. 2. This field of actions aims at strengthening the legal and policy framework on gender-sensitive dispute resolution and mediation, particularly for poor and vulnerable persons, especially women. This involves supporting the development of relevant policy documents for further approval of relevant institutions. 3. The support focuses on strengthening evidence-based case management in courts, particularly with regard to data use within courts and within legal aid partnerships.