The Effectiveness of Restorative Justice Practice in Bangladesh: An Analysis

Restorative justice is an innovative movement in the field of victimology and criminology. The formal judicial system of Bangladesh is very expensive and follows a lengthy procedure for the lack of financial resources and outdated legislation pose. Majority of middle class people therefore prefer or rather have no choice but to use the traditional justice mechanisms like restorative justice. This study was an effort to find out how restorative justice could be an effective method for dispute resolution to reduce the backlog and future case loads in Bangladesh. Besides, the core challenges of successful Restorative Justice and some prevention policies to recover drawbacks of the restorative justice in Bangladesh were also studied. As the nature of the research is qualitative in nature, data and information had collected from secondary sources. This study found that, the most important challenge of restorative justice in Bangladesh is the huge backlog of cases, relative ignorance and lack of confidence and legal awareness of the service seekers and providers, lack of monitoring and supervision of the court activities, negative attitudes and perceptions towards legal institutes and absence of legal aid and support. Though the Village Courts have limitations and drawbacks but still it is playing an important role in the settlements disputes and maintaining social peace and tranquility in the rural area. This study argues for the necessary amendments of the village court act, proper monitoring and supervision of the government, resources and preparedness as well as the responsiveness of all stakeholders that can ensure effective restorative justice in Bangladesh.