1. The document is an application by Jhuma Halder for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program. It includes a concept note on activating village courts in Bangladesh to provide local justice to rural communities. 2. The concept note discusses the history and process of village courts according to the Village Court Ordinance of 1976. It provides a case study example and identifies 10 challenges to activating village courts as a formal justice system at the local level. 3. The document concludes with proposed interventions to address these challenges, such as developing monitoring guidelines, distributing educational materials, and enhancing leadership to promote and protect peoples' rights.

1. APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION TO THE HUBERT H. HUMPHREY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Name of applicant: Jhuma Halder Page 1
Concept note on activating village court
Title of the concept: Activatingvillage courtandHumanRightsissuesunderlocal governmentin
Bangladesh
Abstract:
Consideringthe increasingloadof pendingcasesvillage courtisthe bestalternative where rural people
wouldgetjustice inverynominal grievancesexpensesandina cordial and informal environment. Apart
from that the long standing vengeances are also mitigated whilst the dispute is resolved in their
presence withouttoomuchlegal jargonsto play part of during the process. Many grievances which are
never accessed to formal justice system due to its formalities and for the cause of expense can be
resolved through village courts and that would contribute substantially in establishing rule of law.
Historical Background:
The village court has been established under the village court ordinance 1976 with a view to
adjudicating petty civil and criminal matters in the rural areas. The village court cannot pass an
imprisonment order or impose fine. No one party can appoint a lawyer to plead their case before the
village court.
The village court may refuge to summon a witness or to enforce a summons already issued against a
witness when in the opinion of the court the attendance of the witness cannot be produced without
such delay, expense or inconvenience as in the circumstances would be unreasonable.
The village courtshall notrequire anypersonlivingbeyonditsjurisdictiontogive evidenceorto produce
or cause the production of a document unless such sum of money is deposited for payment to him as
the court would think sufficient for meeting his travelling and other expense.
The village court shall not require any person to produce any secret document or unpublished official
record relatingtoanyaffairsof the State,or permit any person to give any evidence derived from such
secretdocumentorunpublishedofficial recordexceptwiththe permission of the officer at the head of
the department concerned.
If any personto whoma village courthasissuedsummonstoappearandgive evidence or to production
of any document before it willfully disobeys such summons, the court may take cognizance of such
disobedience, and after giving such person as opportunity to explain, sentence him to a fine not
exceeding taka one thousand (BDT -1000/-)
The representativesof the partiesfollow the role of UnionParishad to functionalize the village court to
satisfythe parties.Itrequiresgainingsufficientknowledge and information on rural justice system and
village courtandunderstandsthe role of laws, judicial norms, values, reporting system which includes
the law and order of standing committee of the Union Parishad.

2. APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION TO THE HUBERT H. HUMPHREY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Name of applicant: Jhuma Halder Page 2
Case study: 1 (Ground reality – collected from PRADG Project, Concern Universal - Bangladesh)
Helena(35) is a ladylive inDadashpattyvillage atJalapurUnion,Shahjadpur,Sirajgonj. She loved Alam,
son of AzamKhan,local elite person.Theygotmarried and spent 10 years together. After 10 ten years
Alam claimed money to Helena. Since Helena did not work, so she had no money. Alam often
misbehavedwithHelenaandwithoutHelena’s consent Alam sold his house and land property and left
theirhabitual place. Helenaalsowentwiththemandstartedto stay altogether in Rajshahi. But Helena
was treatedasbondedmaid.She protested.Asaresultshe informedthatAlammarried with other lady
and Alamwill staywithhisnewlymarriedwife.Atfirstshe triedtoresolve the problem through Shalish
and thenshe filedacomplaintbefore court.Helenahas four children. They altogether ousted form the
home and came back to theirvillage.HelenahasinvolvedwithUltraPoorGroups andstartedto get new
hope for better life.
Challenges for activating village court as formal justice at local level:
There are many challenges before the village court as an active formal justice at rural level. The key
challenges are as follows:
1. There is free legal aid services in every district which has scheme to provide services for the
indigent litigants which influence the litigant receiving better service
2. Whenthe indigentlitigantsfailedtomeetfundsasneedforthe legal aidscheme, village courts
take it as complicated matter and then village courts do not allow the mater as machinery
enforcement of the impartial judiciary
3. Low education and lack of knowledge of consisted committee/ juri board about activating
procedure of village courts is a hindrance of easy access in to judicial system
4. If accused or opposite party absent in hearing of the session the appellant gets delay
5. There is no functional monitoring of the village court activity
6. Misuse of political power of Union Parishad members deprive the indigent litigant
7. Justice deny at the time of inactivating village court process for the indigent litigant
8. At the time of counseling session the respondent / accused does not accept the complaints
which remains the impossible circumstances for the decisions favoring the aggrieved party
9. Lack of logistic support and consciousness of the disputed party the decision cannot execute
made in judgment
10. The jury boardin village court does not have formal or informal training resolving the dispute.
Impact of unequal application of laws in Bangladesh:
Basic International Humanitarianlaw considerthe international law whichisinspired by a feeling of
humanity and its protection of the time of occurrence relatively concern about humanitarian
grounds as a part of public law. International law or the law of the nations is the binding body of
rules and principles governs to State’s relation with other States or international organization.
Our concern to impact of unequal application of law upon vulnerable and marginalized groups
primarilyendeavorspermanentsecuritywithinthe territoryandhumanitarianassistance inthe time

3. APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION TO THE HUBERT H. HUMPHREY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Name of applicant: Jhuma Halder Page 3
of occurrence of repression and violation of fundamental human rights. When persons
contemplatingleavingtheirhome must reflect on the risk of flight behind their relatives and close
friends. We observed that the persecuted persons are able to leave the country instead of
displacementfrom their habitual resident. Therefore, we need to ensure the protection activities
with systematically and with accountability. It is important to come forward gender and age
(women,men,girl,boysof anyage),encourage community development, and ensure rights based
approach to perform the activities actively.
Interventions(Actionto be taken for activation):
1. Developguidelineformonitoringonformal justice (Basedonlawsonvillage courtandother
legal instruments)
2. Distributionof materials(Poster,leaflet,stickers,evidence basedlearningdocument,research
documents)
3. Participationanddiscussionaboutrole andresponsibilityof the UPStandingcommittee and
functional groups
4. Buildnetworkamongthe selectedgroups(formationof networkinggroupswhowill transform
the knowledge onviolenceandtake advance actionforrecovery)
5. Take part indecisionathome andworkplace (strengtheningthe capacityof targetgroupsbased
on awarenessonviolationof rights)
6. Enhance leadership quality and adapted institutional force
7. Promotion and protection of rights of people of the Republic
Name: Jhuma Halder
Signature:
Date: 11/20/2015