The Role of Alternative Dispute Resolution to Ensure Access to Justice in Bangladesh: A Practical Approach

Social conflict is inevitable, and everyone has the right to state justice. For the rule of law to be established in a society, one of the essential prerequisites is effective access to justice. There is a distinction between “access to justice” and “justice.” It is sometimes claimed that “access to justice” is the route to “justice,” which is the end in itself. In a narrow sense, the access to justice means access to litigation. Article 27 of our Constitution provides for a fundamental right that all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law [1]. When an impoverished person finds themselves in police or jail custody and is unable to defend themselves by paying for a counsel, the Constitution’s guarantees of equality before the law and equal access to the law become almost meaningless. Due to their inability to pay for transportation, our impoverished litigants are deprived of their rights. Alternative Dispute Resolution is known as ADR. Through this method, a mediator or an arbitrator is an impartial third party assists the disputing parties in reaching a consensus. The most popular ADR methods are negotiation, arbitration, mediation, and so forth. To ensure access to justice we need a proper use of ADR machanism.