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Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)

Dhaka, Bangladesh
Joined April 2012
Presence in: Bangladesh
Focus: Community / Customary Land Rights, Criminal Justice, Family, Gender-based violence, Generalist Legal Services, Labor & Employment, Livelihoods, Right to Information, Traditional / Customary Justice, Women's Rights

BLAST is one of the leading legal services organizations in Bangladesh, and the only one that provides access to legal aid across the spectrum, from the frontlines of the formal justice system to the apex court. It prioritises support to women, men and children living in poverty or facing disadvantage or discrimination. It also provides legal aid, advice and representation across a range of areas, including civil, criminal, family, labour and land law, as well as on constitutional rights and remedies, providing access to judicial remedies alongside alternative dispute resolution wherever appropriate. Alongside individual legal aid, BLAST undertakes strategic litigation, or public interest litigation, as a key part of its advocacy for law and policy reforms to ensure effective legal protection of rights.

Currently operating in 19 districts across the country, BLAST works through its staff lawyers (and paralegals and researchers) at headquarters and in each district unit, in collaboration with its enlisted panel of about 2300 lawyers across the country who provide legal redress to clients on a pro bono basis, with a nominal honorarium. A panel of lawyers practicing in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh also undertakes litigation and advocacy on law and policy reform.

People Associated With This Organization

Abdullah Titir

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined April 2021
Interests: Gender-based violence, Policy Advocacy, Women's Rights
I am a non-practising Barrister, currently working as a researcher in Bangladesh, specialising in the field of gender and sexuality, and working to coordinate, support and catalyse advocacy initiatives and public interest litigation around the reform of discriminatory laws addressing sexual and gender-based violence, and the inclusive legal recognition of protection of the rights of gender and sexual diverse communities in Bangladesh. I am currently employed as a Research Specialist at the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), the largest non-governmental legal services organisation in Bangladesh providing free legal advice, mediation and litigation support to individuals in poor and marginalised communities. It also undertakes research, advocacy and public interest litigation to ensure effective legal protection of rights, and implements a number of core programmes to legally empower people and communities across the country. As part of my work at BLAST, I focus particularly on building dialogue with young people in universities on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and am involved closely in initiatives to build the capacity of gender diverse community members through legal empowerment and education, research and advocacy on issues of equality, gender and diversity, and sexual and gender-based violence, and addressing discrimination through advocating for reforms in legislation and policies. In joining the network, I hope to connect with other human rights advocates and human rights defenders working with communities all over the globe, to exchange experiences and build resources, and to learn from challenges and best practices in building movements and taking forward community-based activism.

Esrat Jahan Siddiki

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined November 2022
Interests: Criminal Justice, Gender-based violence, Legal Aid & Public Interest Law, Peace-building & Transitional Justice, Policy Advocacy, Women's Rights
I am working as a rights activist (development researcher) in a pioneer legal aid service providing organisation- BLAST. My work involves research, designing programmes and framing legal reform advocacy policies around different socio-legal issues. I look forward to get involved with different activities of NAMATI and get to know it's works from a broader perspective.

MAHBUBA AKHTER

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined July 2019
Interests: Gender-based violence
Mahbuba Akhter, working as a Deputy Director, Advocacy and Communication, BLAST, which is one of the largest legal services organizations in Bangladesh, operating in over twenty five districts.
BLAST is working to establish a society based on the rule of law by enabling access to justice for poor people, particularly the marginalised and vulnerable. As a Deputy Director (Advocacy and Communication) of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), I am supervising and directing the implementation of Advocacy activities; maintain liaison with the government, partners and with the civil society organizations. Also I maintain a close network with government and Media.

Mahbubur Rahman

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined November 2022
Egalitarian activist. Active in the social movement for education rights, labour rights movement, and women's rights movement. M&E professional with specialization in qualitative research. Currently working as Monitoring and Reporting Coordinator in BLAST.

Maksudur Rahman Bhuiyan

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined February 2016
Interests: Community / Customary Land Rights, Criminal Justice, Environmental Justice, Generalist Legal Services, Labor & Employment, Right to Information, Traditional / Customary Justice
I'am a librarian of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust in Bangladesh.
BLAST is one of the leading legal services organizations in Bangladesh, and the only one that provides access to legal aid across the spectrum, from the frontlines of the formal justice system to the apex cour.

Manisha Biswas

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined December 2022
I am working as Case Coordination Officer at Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST).

Md. Akiful Islam

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust... (Unverified)
Joined November 2022
Interests: Environmental Justice, Labor & Employment, Legal Aid & Public Interest Law
I am working as a Labour Rights Fellow at Bangladesh Legal and Services Trust (BLAST).

Md. Tajul Islam

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined October 2012
Interests: Citizenship & Identification, Criminal Justice, Gender-based violence, Right to Information, Women's Rights
Md. Tajul Islam completed his Masters in Laws with Honors’ from Rajshahi University of Bangladesh. He has also an advanced Masters with research in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Dhaka University in collaboration with Virginia State University, USA. His research thesis is focused on Gender and Crime. Currently he is working with Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) as Adviser (Advocacy and Capacity Building). Mr. Islam has seventeen years of experience with BRAC, Nagorik Uddyog, BNWLA, CIDA, UNDP and DFID on access to justice, community justice, gender justice, legal empowerment and human rights. He has developed a good number of module and curriculum for various levels of learners on Gender Relation Analysis (GRA), Domestic Violence, Child Rights, Human Rights in General, Paralegal, Community Mediation, Human Rights Project Management. In addition, he has extensive experience in research on vulnerability, exclusion and discrimination as well as access to justice and legal empowerment.

Mobinul Hoque Joshed

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined May 2022
Interests: Community Organizing, Community Paralegals, Criminal Justice, Gender-based violence, Legal Aid & Public Interest Law, Protection & Safety, Refugees & Migrant Rights
I am mobinul hoque joshed, completed LL.B. (Hons) and LL.M. and enrolled as an Advocate.I've working in the Refugee camp in Bangladesh for almost 3.5 years in Legal Protection Sector. I want to enrich my knowledge and get new experience.

Mostofa Md. Mostofa Zamil

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined September 2016
Deputy Director (Programme) of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)

Sadia Afrin kona

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined November 2022
Interests: Community Organizing, Gender-based violence, Labor & Employment, Women's Rights
This is Sadia Afrin Kona, I have completed my Bachelor of Laws and Masters of Laws form the Department of Law from East West University. I have experience working at Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) as a National Fellow under a project called Legal Empowerment of Gender Diverse Community (LEGD), where my main responsibilities were to research about the community members, analyzing their challenges, co-organizing advocacy meetings and training seminars, assisting program team and preparing documents for monitoring and evaluation. I also helped preparing the quarterly reports and power point presentation for program team, maintained case files of the project and assisted my supervisor during meetings with donors and beneficiaries as well. For the research, I also did field visit in different division and through interviews and proper communications I gathered data about gender diverse community members.
Now I am working as a Labor Rights Fellow at BLAST under a Project called Empowering workers for Justice (EWJ). My responsibilities are to assisting BLAST in organizing the online symposium, preparing concept notes, communicating with national and international experts, preparing content, participating in the mentorship program established by BLAST. I also analyzing workers' rights situation in the construction and tannery and prepare recommendations on the progress of current issues and future trends. In addition, I am working on the legal reform proposal, making input into the advocacy strategy, assisting in ongoing workers' rights advocacy, interviewing workers, and relevant stakeholders for situation analysis, collecting evidence and conducting fieldwork for the research to be conducted.
I believe, this opportunity would enhance my analytical ability and intellectual integrity to a great extent and would make me more enthusiastic to pursue my career in legal empowerment development sector.

Salwa Jahan Nabila

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined March 2019
I work as a Research and Grants Development Officer at BLAST

Sara Hossain

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined April 2012

Taqbir Huda

Bangladesh  
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust...
Joined April 2021
Interests: Gender-based violence, Health, Labor & Employment, Policy Advocacy
I am a Research Specialist at Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), where my research aims to activate accountability for human rights violations by bridging the gap between academia and activism, with a particular focus on gender based violence and labour exploitation. I have used my research to build evidence for human rights advocacy, support public interest litigation and draft legislative reform proposals. By joining the network, I hope to learn sustainable justice strategies from other grassroots human rights defenders and be part of a global campaign for justice.

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