Bhola district itself is an island and is hardly connected to the other part of the country physically. One can go to the capital from any district and can come back within one day, except Bhola! There are hundreds of outreach islands in this jurisdiction far from the civil facilities and services of the country. It is quite difficult for the people of this areas to take any legal steps if they are affected by any kinds of violation of rights. There is a general understanding that legal procedure is expensive to afford for a poor. Universal Declaration for Human Rights is quite aloud on it. Article 7 says, “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law”. Article 8 adds, “Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the national tribunals if the fundamental rights are violated.”
This is a very remote and poverty stricken area and quite far from the law enforcing agency to ensure immediate action for the victims. People regularly suffer from different conflicts and legal rivalry. But, poor have nowhere to go for justice. They don’t know how to file a case and from which point of view they should stand in the court. COAST advise them not only to run the litigation, sometimes COAST financially support them if necessary.
COAST is implementing a project titled ‘Justice for Safety (J4S) is an initiative of ‘Community Legal Services’ funded by UKid. J4S is working to provide justice to the people of outreach islands in the coastal area of Bangladesh and to enable them to access the legal facilities provided by the Government of Bangladesh.
This video documentary is glimpse of the situation of Bhola island and also illustrates the efforts of COAST with J4S project. [A COAST CLS Programme Video Documentary]
