Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust - BLAST
BLAST is a national legal services and rights organization, which has been working across the country for over 25 years. It is the only NGO legal services organization able to provide access to legal aid across the spectrum from informal system – through its own advice lines and alternative dispute resolution processes – to the frontlines of the formal justice system – the village courts and magistrates’ court – right up to the apex court. BLAST operates with its specialized staff of around 600+persons including paralegals, lawyers, mediators, researchers and advocacy experts, alongside a network of 2600 plus pro- bono lawyers across the country with full-fledged offices in 25 districts. Its particular strengths lie in its integration with the legal profession, and judiciary and legal profession, with elected members of each Association across the country serving on its district management committees, and the board including distinguished lawyers and jurists involved in national and international protection of rights and justice. BLAST also supports two university law clinics at leading public universities – and also conducts regular sessions on human rights education at both public and private universities. It also engages in research and advocacy, as well as strategic litigation, aimed to addressing barriers to justice and ensuring access to justice, community empowerment and legal protection of rights.
BLAST works closely with partner organizations in formal and informal networks and coalitions, and also to provide technical legal support, and to make referrals for health, emergency shelter and livelihood support. It also has built close partnerships with organizations working with and for marginalized communities including those focused on the rights of people with disabilities, and addressing exclusion and discrimination based on caste, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and other status. It provides services to particularly hard to reach communities living in informal settlements in Dhaka city, and in remote districts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, as well as the Rohingya community in the camps in Cox’s Bazar. While the majority of its clients are women, facing violence or denial of rights in the family, BLAST also works with children, workers, and prisoners.
In view of the above vision and mission statement, BLAST’s specific objectives are:
- To provide free legal aid and to undertake public interest litigation and advocacy activities to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any person for any reason;
- To administer a trust fund for establishing and maintaining legal aid and services units supported by the grants from the Trust;
- To establish legal aid/assistance and human rights protection units in the bar associations and in different localities of the country, including rural areas;
- To conduct special training programmes through which relevant skills and expertise can be imparted to lawyers, activists and others;
- To coordinate the activities of the units with other organizations, including NGOs working in related fields;
- To publish original research articles and reports about matters useful to lawyers;
- To promote improved legal education, including awareness of responsibility for providing legal aid to disadvantaged persons, and to promote, establish and maintain national institutions for legal education;
- To organize seminars, symposiums and extension lectures on various law subjects for advocates, teachers, law students, and to promote participation in international conferences, workshops, and training and educational programmes.
MISSION
BLAST’s mission is to make the legal system accessible to the poor and the marginalized.
VISION
BLAST envisions a society based on the rule of law in which every individual, including the poor, marginalized and excluded, in particular women, children, peoples with disabilities, adivasis, and dalits, have access to justice and in which their human rights are respected and protected.
