Author
Prof Dr. Nahid Ferdousi
Organisation/Institution
Bangladesh Open University
Country
BANGLADESH
Panel
Children and Law
Title
Restorative Justice in Bangladesh: An Alternative Approach to Safeguarding Children
Abstract
Ensuring the protection of children's rights and well-being in the formal justice system is a vital part of contemporary society. In most Asian countries, implementing children’s laws that protect children's rights is inadequate. The fundamental children's law in Bangladesh is the Children Act of 2013, designed to safeguard children's best interests. Despite the legal framework, the current juvenile justice system has a number of difficulties, such as the overuse of punitive measures, an inadequate framework for rehabilitation, and a lack of awareness of the need for child delinquents' social and psychological growth. As a result, children's social, psychological, and emotional needs are frequently ignored. Restorative justice presents a special opportunity in the field of juvenile justice by encouraging successful reintegration over stigmatization, healing over sentencing, and prioritizing personal growth over seclusion. When children are involved with the legal system, restorative justice can be used for both minor and serious offences. It offers an alternative to punitive measures that emphasizes repairing harm and rehabilitating offenders through dialogue and reconciliation. This approach is regarded as an alternative to the current juvenile justice system since it radically changes the focus of justice from punishment to recovery and rehabilitation. Juvenile justice's main objectives are to protect children and youth from reoffending, ensure their rehabilitation, and enable their reintegration into society. In this context, child-sensitive restorative justice can be implemented in the juvenile justice system at any point, from the time a child is arrested or apprehended until reintegration and follow-up. The study explores the prospects of restorative justice practices in the juvenile justice system, focusing on rehabilitation and protection of the children in Bangladesh.
Biography
Nahid Ferdousi, PhD, is a professor of law in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Languages at the Bangladesh Open University. She was affiliated as a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Civilizational Dialogue at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She was awarded by the University Grant Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh for her research article. She has published a large number of books and articles both at home and abroad. The areas covered by her publications include gender and law, family law and society, and the human rights of the marginalized groups of the elderly, children, and people with disabilities. Dr. Ferdousi is a member of the Asian Bioethics Society (ABC), the editorial board of the Quarterly Journal of Public Law Knowledge (QJPLK), Iran, and a member of the Research Ethics Review Committee of the Bangladesh Bioethics Society.
