May 2020

[et_pb_section][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text] Annual Report | June 2019- May 2020 | Click for PDF File Beneficiary Community: Approximately 300,000 Bihari Urdu speaking camp dwellers have been living in 116 camps of 13 regions in urban settings across Bangladesh. Bihari Urdu Speaking community is a political victim of 1971. Almost four decades they passed their life as stateless. However they have ended their statelessness in 2003 and 2008. A group of young generation from Geneva Camp first time filed a writ petition in High Court and claimed as Bangladeshi citizens and after a year high court declared that the Bihari those are living in 116 Camps all over in Bangladesh they are Bangladeshi citizens and Urdu Speaking Bangladeshi. Bihari Urdu Speaking Community living in 116 in inhuman refugee like camps situation without having basic facilities as human being. All the Camps are urban based in Dhaka-Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Adamjee Nagr, Mymensign, Rangpur, Bogra, Saidpur, Khulna, Ishwardi and Chittagon. Project Justification: However, in 2008, the High Court of Bangladesh confirmed that the Ur-du-speaking camp dwellers are Bangladeshi citizens, and this landmark verdict raises a hope among the young Urdu-speakers ending of decades-long struggle with statelessness. Due to lack of mass awareness on the High Court landmark verdict among the general people and government official, the camp dwellers have not only been deprived from their civil and political rights but also from their socioeconomic and cultural rights. The Urdu speaking camp dwellers are yet to enjoy the citizenship rights and have been facing difficulties to get their national identity card, enroll in voter list, passport and access to basic services provided by government and non-government service providers. Considering their deprivation and sufferings to have full access to citizenship rights, since June 2013, in partnership with Namati and Council of Minorities have been working to promote their citizenship rights considering the following objectives: To build an effective model for using legal empowerment approaches, specifically community-based paralegals, to facilitate the acquisition and use of identity documents to gain access to rights and opportunities part of the core content of citizenship; To develop robust evidence on the relationship between identity documentation and statelessness, including current government practice and discrimination that may contribute to an ongoing lack of effective citizenship, despite the possession of identity documents; To encourage use of this evidence for national litigation and national or international advocacy efforts related to gaining access to effective citizenship rights, if necessary. Project overview: To respond to these justice challenges, in 2013 the Council of Minorities and Namati partnered to establish a network of community-based paralegals in Urdu-speaking camps in Dhaka (Mirpur and Mohammadpur), Mymensingh, Khulna, Chittagong, and Syedpur under the project of “Empowering Linguistic Minority to Realize Rights In Bangladesh”. Community-based paralegals can bridge the gap between law and real life. They use knowledge of law and government, and skills like negotiation, community education, organizing, and advocacy to seek concrete solutions to instances of injustice. In addition to serving as a dynamic “frontline” of justice service providers, paralegals focus on empowerment. They not only work alongside clients to resolve a legal issue, but also leave each client in a stronger position to deal with similar problems in the future – critical in the Urdu-speaking community, which has been marginalized through statelessness, discrimination, and poverty. In total 14 paralegals are working in six paralegal centers in Dhaka- Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Saidpur, Mymensign, Khulna and in Chittagong. Paralegals are working three ways thatare i) Assist to the Camp dwellers to achieve civil documents ii) Awareness on legal education and access to justice iii) Capacity building of community Assist to the Camp dwellers to achieve civil documents Paralegals are assisting the camp dwellers to achieve civil documents like Birth and Death Certificates, Councilor certificate, National Identity Card, Passport, Tread License, General Dairy, Opening Bank Account, Health Support, Education Support, Old Age Allowance, Disable Allowance, TIN Certificate and Affidavit. Civil documents achieved in six centers from June 2019 to May 2020   Center     Birth Certificate Councilor Certificate NID Card Passport Trade License Health Support Education Support General Dairy Bank Account Death Certificate Old age allowance Disable Allowance TIN Certificate   Affidavit   Total New Re-New New Re-New New Re-new Ctg 405 128 16 17 0 0 3 0 30 25 1 0 1 0 0 2 – 628 Khulna 58 36 0 0 6 0 0 0 100 0 0 22 0 0 0 – – 222 Mdpur 624 4 70 4 0 0 2 0 47 3 1 6 0 22 2 – – 785 Mirpur 603 26 172 10 34 6 0 0 48 17 24 2 0 0 0 – – 942 Mym 85 62 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 1 2 0 2 0 0 – 3 160 Saidpur 212 9 10 0 4 0 0 0 4 8 15 5 4 0 0 – – 271 Total 1987 265 268 31 44 6 7 1 231 54 43 35 7 22 2 2 3 3008   A story of achieved lost Birth Certificate……………… Mrs. Guriya a 35 years old resident of camp Number 3, Golarhat in Saidpur. She lost her birth certificate e but she needs a birth certificate to open a bank account. She did not know how to get lost birth certificate. One day she attended a community group meeting organized by Rubel a community paralegal of Saidpur. In the group meeting Guria learned about the paralegal activities and support and enlightened about the legal education. Next day Guria visited Rasulpur Paralegal center and asked to the paralegal to recover her lost birth certificate. Paralegal Rubel described her process of how to get lost certificate and then after paralegal Rubel started the process and first step was to file a general dairy to police station regarding the lost of Birth Certificate. After successfully filed the GD application paralegal Rubel accompanied Mrs. Guria went to the municipality office to apply a lost birth certificate of Guria and just after a week she received