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The name “Nagorik Uddyog” (“The Citizen’s Initiative”) epitomizes the organization’s
fundamental goal as well as the strategies and activities it utilizes to achieve
this goal. Specifically, since its establishment 1995, Nagorik Uddyog (NU) has worked
to strengthen local government in Bangladesh via the dual imperatives of, on the
one hand, raising awareness among the general masses of people’s basic human rights
and, on the other, building people’s capacity to pursue and realize these rights.
NU recognizes that democratic elections are by themselves insufficient in fulfilling
democracy; that the poor, marginalized and disadvantaged must be given the power
to participate in and contribute to all those decision-making processes that affect
their lives. Accordingly, NU strives to provide an enabling condition for the people
to set up institutions and mobilize themselves.
NU holds special interest in democratizing the historically gender-imbalanced “Shalish”,
Bangladesh’s traditional rural dispute-resolution system. A fair and equitable Shalish
especially entails unprecedented access to justice for rural women – the ‘poorest
of the poor’ in this country – and in turn a new and exciting horizon in Bangladesh’s
development journey.
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GOALS & OBJECTIVES
• Establish accessible justice through mediation and legal aid support;
• Promote popular participation to ensure a fair, open, participatory and accountable
electoral system;
• Raise human and women’s rights consciousness at the grassroots level
• Create an environment conducive to the exercising of democratic rights;
• Support the struggle of women at the grassroots level, ensuring their effective
and broad participation in the electoral process;
• Conduct training programmes on human rights for community leaders, activists,
and NGO workers;
• Establish and consolidate a network of national and international organizations
in the field of human rights; and
• Conduct research on various aspects of Bangladeshi society and the global order
relevant to local human rights situations.
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