At A Glance

MLAA – At a Glance

Since 1978 Madaripur Legal Aid Association (MLAA) has developed sustainable programs that address the greatest challenges with formal and informal justice system in Bangladesh.

Vision  A just society where rule of law and human rights are upheld.

Mission MLAA strives to ensure access to justice and human rights for all people irrespective of sex, cast, creed, religion, race through informal justice process and formal justice system. Goal: Access to justice increased for empowerment of disadvantaged people, particularly women & children.

Objective Access to Justice increased empowerment of disadvantaged people, particularly women & Children. Since 1978 Madaripur Legal Aid Association (MLAA) has developed sustainable programs that address the greatest challenges with formal and informal justice system in Bangladesh.

Established: March 1978
Legal Status: Registered NGO AB no-055, Dated: 22.04.81
Beneficiaries:
Primary Beneficiaries: Disadvantage & poor people, particularly of the rural area and especially of female and children stratum are the primary beneficiaries.
Secondary Beneficiaries: UP representatives, students, teachers, village elites, women leaders, rural civil society members, journalists, lawters, judicial officials, law enforcing agencies and NGO activists.
Vision:  A just society where rule of law and human rights are upheld.
Mission: MLAA strives to ensure access to justice and human rights for all people irrespective of sex, cast, creed, religion, race through informal justice process and formal justice system.
Goal: Access to justice increased for empowerment of disadvantaged people, particularly women & children.

Objectives: Increase access to justice to empower disadvantaged people, particularly women:

  • Widening access to formal judiciary
  • Promoting effective judicial system of local government
  • Contributing to establish of the rule of law and human rights culture in Bangladesh
  • Raising awareness among NGO workers, students, teachers as well general citizens on human rights.
  • Ensuring institutionalization of alternative dispute resolution through dissemination and replication of Madaripur Mediation Mode
  • Ensuring access to justice and human rights for the poor people through policy advocacy
  • Through advocating for reforms of law, legal system to make it more systematic, dynamic and acceptable and by providing support to the vulnerable people in case of natural and climate related disasters with an aim to fulfill Human Rights obligation to uphold right to life.

Strategies
MLAA’s strategic plan is to develop the capacity of the different local stakeholders by linking micro issues with the macro level. Strategic emphasis will be given in creating easy access to justice for the disadvantaged through strengthening local justice by promoting grass-root level advocacy for law and policy reform. MLAA also seeks to fulfill human rights obligation to uphold right to life in case of natural and climate related disasters.

MLAA seeks to promote and protect legal & human rights through 3 district offices, 12 Thana units, 100 Union Parishads and replicating its activities into other parts of the country through Partner NGOs. MLAA offer legal aid for litigation, mediation to resolve  disputes and facilitate Union Parishad to activate Village Court & Arbitration Council, investigate human rights violations,  conduct study & research on local justice system, advocate for law and policy reform to make justice easy accessible for the poor and disadvantages.

Staff:
At present MLAA has a total 608 fulltime (Male 326 & Female 282) paid staff, most of whom are expert legal service providers.

Working Area

Core Projects
Districts        : 16 (Madaripur, Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Faridpur, Rajbari, Jessor, Sirajgongj, Thankurgaon, Panchagar, Gazipur, Mymensing, Jamalpur, Netrokona, Barisal, Pirujpur & Munshigonj)

Other Projects :

Promoting Access to Justice through Enhanced Responsiveness and Accountability of Communities and Public Institutions
Districts       : 7 (Rajbari, Magura, Jessore, Meherpur, Shirajgonj, Thakurgaon and Panchgar)
Upazilas       :15 (all upazilas of 3 districts)

Activating Village Court in Bangladesh (AVCB)
Districts       : 4 (Rajbari, Faridpur, Gopalganj and Koshoreganj)
Upazilas       :22 Upazilas of 4 districts and 136 Union.

Access to Justice through Community Legal Service (CLS)
Districts       : (3)
Upazilas       : (10)

Improvement of the Real Situation of Overcrowding in Prisons in Bangladesh (IRSOP)
Districts       : (3)

Partner NGO :-
Previous Partners     68
Existing Partners     07

Work Force
Panel of Lawyers     85
Permanent Staff  243
Trainers     14
Volunteers     300
Women Animators
UP Representatives     1400
CBO Members     1500

International Affiliation

  • Asian Forum For Human Rights & Development- FORUM ASIA, Bangkok
  • Penal Reform International-PRI,UK

Governance:
MLAA run by a General Committee consists of 53 members drawn from the civil society. The General Committee elects 15 members Executive Committee of the organization. The secretary acts as the chief executive. There are also a number of sub-committees consisting of both from General and the Executive Committee.  Governance is the system by which the board provides guidance to management on the strategic direction of the organization by monitoring and overseeing management action in utilization of organization resources to achieve its Mission and Vision.
Resources:
a) Training and Resource Centre (TARC):
  MLAA has a large training centre (two storied academic building, two storied male dormitory and three storied female dormitory), which provides all facilities related to training.  MLAA has also a large training Centre-Cum-Office in Shariatpur, which provides all facilities related to training. Read More…

b) Training Materials and Module: MLAA developed several resource materials on legal aid, mediation and human rights, which are using as training materials and also using to disseminate and transmission of knowledge. MLAA’s training module are using as a resources to conduct different training session.

c) Trainers: To conduct different types of training MLAA has a panel of 14 trainers with knowledge and skill in specific field.

d) Library: The beginning of the library, MLAA belongs to, synchronizes the emergence of the organization itself. The preference mainly goes all out to the collection pertaining to law, reference book of law, research works and so. However, the library also encompasses other categories like Social Science, History, Biography, research works and novels of prominent writers of home and abroad. In addition to that, the organization, MLAA, has its own publication and research works on informal justice system which has widened the scope for acquiring significant knowledge in this niche.