[{"bbox": [82, 105, 1147, 225], "category": "Text", "text": "government unit) and four nominated Panel members. Two-panel members (one of whom must be members of the UP) are nominated by each party to the dispute. If a case includes a woman or a child, at least one of the members of the Village Court has to be a woman. No lawyer is allowed in the Village Courts and an appeal of the Village Courts' decision can only be made if the verdict was passed with a 3 to 2 majority."}, {"bbox": [81, 234, 1147, 583], "category": "Text", "text": "The Village Courts are already delivering tangible results improving access to justice to the vulnerable population. For example, from July 2017 to January 2021, the Village Courts has processed 227,236 cases across the 1.080 UPs. Out of this amount, 83% of the cases were resolved and 94% enforced. In addition, the Village Courts have recovered USD 22 MLN as compensation provided to the applicants. Activated Village Courts take an average of 23 days to resolve a dispute, and court users spent only 161 takas (US $ 2) on average as court fee, conveyance and food cost to get services from Village Courts¹³. Project supported Village Courts have recovered BDT 1,897.20 million (USD 22.45 million) as compensation from the respondents between July 2017 to March 2021. The applicants used this money for multiple purposes such as treatment, meeting family expenses, doing small business, land recovery, etc. About 96% of the Village Court users that participated in the recent independent survey were satisfied with village court services and a quick remedy¹⁴. These factors are the main indicators that measure the effectiveness and efficiency of any justice system."}, {"bbox": [82, 619, 1147, 738], "category": "Text", "text": "Building on lessons learned, the proposed Action aims at improving access to justice, particularly for disadvantaged and marginalised groups living in vulnerable situations, by strengthening and scaling up Village Courts countrywide at the semi-formal level as well as by reducing the formal justice system case backlog through improved case management and coordination at global level."}, {"bbox": [82, 763, 1147, 940], "category": "Text", "text": "This area offers a good entry point – and currently the best one – to contribute to the achievement of SDG 16 and the EU, in close cooperation with Germany, can lead a better-coordinated effort in the sector with well-defined objectives and results. Indeed, strengthening the justice system is an acknowledged priority for Bangladesh, as outlined in its new Five Year Plan (8th FYP), based on the recognition that effectiveness of the formal judicial institution, semi-formal judicial institution and access to justice is crucial for improving the state of rule of law in Bangladesh."}, {"bbox": [82, 949, 1147, 1358], "category": "Text", "text": "The Government's focus is to reduce the inflow of cases into the criminal justice system and help ordinary people access justice. On its basis, the Government intends to carry out targeted reforms to reduce the huge case backlog by 2025. As regards the formal justice system, the Government plans to continue increasing the ratio of judges per capita; increase resources for those District Courts which are particularly overburdened; reduce pressure on district courts by filtering simple minor or vexatious cases which would allow the Courts to focus on important cases; review pending cases through Cases Coordination Committees; focusing on barriers to justice for women and children in particular to understand the reasons of the growth of pending cases in the Nari O Shishu courts and reduce it. As regards the informal and semi-formal justice system, the Government plans to scale up Village Courts and ensure their 100% coverage of all Unions under the 8th FYP. The Government recognises that this will require greater mobilisation of resources in order to enhance their capacities. It also stresses that the design of Village Courts needs to avoid limited duplication of judicial services with UPs. The Government is also committed to increase the awareness about Village Courts amongst citizens in rural communities, also in order to alleviate the problem of case backlogs in the formal judiciary."}, {"bbox": [82, 1367, 1147, 1543], "category": "Text", "text": "Therefore, the Action could build on the Government's strong commitment in this area. To do so, the proposed Action will have **two intertwined components** targeting both the formal as well as the semi-formal justice system, while building institutional linkages between both systems. On the one hand, it will continue to support the establishment and completion of the semi-formal dispute resolution mechanism in the form of Village Courts (component 1). On the other hand, it will continue the work already carried out in the area by GIZ by tackling the delay in the disposal of cases and the case backlog (component 2) through"}, {"bbox": [72, 1589, 587, 1616], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹³ Village Courts Users Survey, conducted in November 2020"}, {"bbox": [71, 1615, 1157, 1664], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁴ See: M. Shanawez Hossain. Benefits and Costs of Operationalizing Village Courts in Bangladesh. BRAC Institute of Governance and Development."}, {"bbox": [1050, 1662, 1158, 1688], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 27"}]