A two-day regional conference, titled ‘South Asia Regional Conference on Gender, Rights and Choices: Access to Justice in a Megacity’ began on Monday at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban at the University of Dhaka. The conference is being jointly organised by the SHOKHI project (led by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, with Marie Stopes Bangladesh, Bangladesh Women’s Health Coalition, and the We Can Alliance to End Violence against Women) and the University of Dhaka, Faculty of Law, with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Dhaka.

Conference aims to share experiences about systems and processes for ensuring access to justice in megacities, particularly on gender-based violence, and to understand how multi-sectoral interventions on healthcare, social security, community solidarity building, livelihood and shelter can increase access to justice.

The conference will also help build cross-regional learning, on technological innovations to strengthen access to justice and health, and successes in challenging or changing gender-discriminatory laws and practices.

Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Professor Dr Srikrishna Rao, vice chancellor of National Law University of India, Dr Shahanaz Huda, professor of law department of DU, Dr Naima Huq, chairman of law department of DU, Dr Nasreen Ahmed, pro-vice chancellor of DU were present at the concluding day of the two-day long conference.