Phadkule and Knoll-Tudor Attend Conference in Dhaka on Legal Empowerment in South Asia

Pratik Phadkule (MPA ’15) and Director of Professional Development Bernhard Knoll-Tudor participated in a workshop on legal empowerment and development organized by the South Asian Institute of Advanced Legal and Human Rights Studies (SAILS) in Dhaka, Bangladesh on December 14-15, 2014. The workshop brought together organizations working in South Asia on issues of legal empowerment and access to justice. Over the two-day event, participants exchanged ideas on potential legal empowerment training programs to be implemented by various actors including NGOs, community-based organizations, and law students.

“This workshop was a great learning experience,” Phadkule commented. “I found out more about how community-based legal services can empower the poor, illiterate, and semi-literate. I learned a lot from meeting with many people from South Asia from many different cultural, social, and professional backgrounds.” 

During the workshop, participants discussed various components of legal empowerment training programs such as the content of the programs, target participants, participant selection, teacher selection, and evaluation. Workshop attendees included representatives from organizations across South Asia working in countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, and Myanmar as well as representatives from the Open Society Foundations in Hungary and the U.S.

At the end of the workshop, participants concluded that legal empowerment programs in South Asia should focus on issues such as citizenship and legal identity, women’s empowerment and access to justice, human rights, and the use of traditional local justice institutions. An additional area of concern is land rights and disputes, which is the source of many cases involving poor farmers.