UMIHRSACL, Bangladesh, report of activities

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News Dhaka, Bangladesh - 3rd November 2011

UNESCO Madanjeet Institute on Human Rights and South Asian Common Law (UMIHRSACL )was involved in various outreach activities including hosting a group of 27 law students from Kathmandu School of Law in October 2010.

A day-long workshop on Teaching Law was organized on 20 December 2010, which was attended by 26 faculty members from various law schools.

The Institute undertook various activities during the audit period. These include the following:

Certificate Courses on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Clinical Legal Education (CLE): Two one-month long residential certificate courses on ADR and CLE were held from 29 May 2010 to 29 June 2010 at Rajendrapur, Gazipur. Judges and legal practitioners attended the ADR course and law teachers attended the CLE course. The courses were attended by two participants from Bhutan, three participants from India, seven participants from Maldives, four participants from Nepal, one participant from Sri Lanka and nineteen participants from Banagladesh who were selected on a competitive basis by an expert committee. The faculty for the courses included Prof N.R.Madhava Menon, Dr. Aman Hingorani (from India) Prof Yubaraj Sangroula (from Nepal), Prof Dave Holness (from South Africa) and resource persons from Bangladesh.

A study for combating gender injustices (CGI) was undertaken, which involved review of Hindu and Christian personal laws and Muslim Law on adoption. The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Dhaka funded this project.

In collaboration with the Law Commission of Bangladesh, a study of the laws relating to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) was done in September 2010, which provided a set of recommendations to the government.

Prof Philippe Sands, QC, a renowned international lawyer presented a lecture on War Crimes, Impunity and Accountability: International Legal Perspectives in March 2010. It was jointly organized by the Department of Law, University of Dhaka and SAILSIUMIHRSACL. Dr. John Braithwaite, Professor at the Australian National University gave a lecture on Restorative Justice, Crime and Peace Building on 2 December 2010. Professor Dr. Yubaraj Sangroula, Executive Director of Kathmandu School of Law delivered a lecture on Human Rights and Development on 27 December 2010.

I am attaching a document describing various activities undertaken by UMIHRSACL (doc file, 100Kb) from January 2011 till date, which period had not been covered in the last audit report.

Dr Kamal Hossain
Chairman South Asia Foundation, Bangladesh Chapter