David Bergman
The rule of law in Bangladesh has come under stinging criticism in a new report produced by the Washington-based World Justice Project which ranks 66 countries on indicators involving the extent to which they adhere to ‘the rule of law, not in theory, but in practice.’
The report, launched in Washington in June, describes Bangladesh’s administrative agencies and courts as ‘extremely inefficient and corrupt,’ ranking Bangladesh fifth from bottom in relation to access to civil justice because of the ‘lengthy duration of cases and corruptive practices in lower level courts.’
The index, however, gave Bangladesh a good score on safety from crime, ranking the country as high as 13th out of the 66 countries.
The index tends to support the recent findings of the Transparency International Bangladesh’s household survey report, published in December 2010, which found that the judiciary was considered the most corrupt service sector in the country with 88 per cent of the households, which had sought a service from the courts, reporting that they had experienced corruption.
The TIB report was at the time strongly criticised by the then chief justice ABM Khairul Haque and other Supreme Court judges.
In June, the chief justice Muzammel Hossain told a conference in London that the judiciary in Bangladesh had been playing a significant role in ensuring the rule of law in the country.
Senior lawyer Yusuf Hossain Humayun, also a presidium member of the Awami League, told New Age that he thought that the report’s allegations of
widespread corruption
were ‘extraordinary and motivated.’
He said that whilst there may be a few cases of corruption in lower courts, overall they ‘are not corrupt’ and that recent criticism by the opposition Bangladesh National Party about the lower judiciary was simply due to the criminal cases lodged against the two sons of the BNP’s chairperson, Khaleda Zia.
‘There are allegations by the opposition that the judiciary is being pressed but these are mere allegations. They have no documentary evidence.’
The new Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project gathered data in Bangladesh by polling 1,000 people in Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna as well as through questioning experts.
This is the fourth year that the index has been published although the first time that Bangladesh has been assessed.
The report considers eight key indicators, including the extent to which the people who govern are subject to the rule of law; the presence of corruption in the judiciary and in other state bodies; how well society assures security of person and protects fundamental rights; the extent to which the enactment and enforcement of laws is fair and efficient, and the effectiveness of the civil and criminal justice systems.
The index found that the best scores that Bangladesh received amongst the eight key indicators concerned the provision of an ‘effective criminal justice’ where it was ranked 40th out of the 66 countries surveyed and in providing ‘order and security’ where it was ranked 44th.
The report says, ‘Human rights violations and police abuses are also a significant problem; however, unlike other countries in the region, Bangladesh is perceived as relatively safe from crime… although mob justice is a persistent problem.’
The report stated that the index is helpful in taking the ‘temperature’ of the rule of law in the countries under study but admits that it does ‘not provide a full diagnosis or dictate concrete priorities for action.’
Courtesy of New Age
