Village Courts project to be expanded

Representatives of the European Union (EU) and the UNDP, together with the Local Government Division (LGD) Secretary, visited Rangpur division recently to kick-off the second phase of the Village Courts (VC) project, said a joint press release issued by EU and UNDP.

During the visit, the delegation also observed a VC session and exchanged views with the local community to find out how access to justice in rural communities can be further improved.

The delegation met key stakeholders, including divisional and district administration officials, police, media and civil society representatives in Haridebpur and Chandanpat Unions of Rangpur.

The delegation team was comprised of  Abdul Malek, Secretary, and Md Sirajul Islam,

Additional Secretary, of the LGD; Mario Ronconi, Head of Cooperation, and Anna Lixi, Governance Team Leader of the EU delegation to Bangladesh; and Pauline Tamesis, Country Director, UNDP Bangladesh.

"The current government wants to bring public services to people's doorsteps and VC is a service that can bring peace to the community," said Abdul Malek.

"By scaling up its commitment to the activation of VCs, the EU wants to ensure that more people, especially rural women and children, can access, and that social justice is strengthened in Bangladesh," said Mario Ronconi.

"This visit shows again the high-level of commitment of the government of Bangladesh to improve access to justice for all people," said Pauline Tamesis.

The success of the pilot phase, targeting 351 unions in 6 divisions (Dhaka, Rangpur, Khulna,

Barisal, Chittagong and Sylhet), has led the government and the EU to scale-up to 1,000 unions with the second phase of the project that the UNDP will be implementing. The EU finances the programme almost in its entirety, and has contributes around €40 million to the two phases of the project.