1. Background:

There is a very limited understanding of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Bangladesh, reinforced by inadequate access to information and the absence of services on SRHR targeting its young population. There is a lack of dialogue on SRHR among young people, who do not have an informed understanding of concepts such as diverse gender identities and sexual orientations, consent and choice in personal and sexual relationships, right to bodily integrity, decision-making within a marriage with respect to sex and child-bearing, agency in the family, and decisions imposed on young people by third parties that can adversely impact their sexual and reproductive health and mental health.

Gender equality education in Bangladesh is normally geared towards women and adolescent girls, excluding men and boys and individuals with diverse gender identities, and sexuality education is very limited in scope, often conflated with reproductive health education, which is also not sufficiently and comprehensively covered in the school curricula. This lack of understanding, which stems from the absence of information, prevents young people from exercising their SRHR, and having the realization that violations of SRHR equal violations of their fundamental human rights. Young women and adolescent girls in particular are unable to fully exercise these rights due to the prevalence of patriarchal institutions, social norms and discriminatory laws and practices, despite policies, programmes and political commitments to address gender discrimination.
Many of the rights guaranteed to Bangladeshi citizen are derived from personal and civil laws. In particular, laws, based on religion, govern rights within the family, regarding the decision to enter into marriage, rights within marriage and on its dissolution. These laws and the practices deriving from them are often discriminatory and act as barriers barrier towards women securing the right to choice regarding marriage, and right to participate in decision-making within a marital relationship, which, when coupled with lack of economic security (particularly in rural areas and for women and girls in marginalized communities), leaves many unable to seek remedies for violations. Laws prohibiting child marriage contain dangerous loopholes that allow forced marriages to take place, and impact the rights of adolescent girls to consent and choice and bodily integrity. Laws on sexual violence are limited in scope and do not offer adequate protection to complainants.

Young men and boys, on the contrary, are left out of the narrative when depicting SRHR violations and excluded when designing SRH response. Young people with diverse gender identities or sexual orientations are also excluded completely, invisible to policy makers as discriminatory laws, practices and delivery of services impede their access to SRHR and many other fundamental rights.

In this context, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) is implementing a project titled ‘Promoting Rights through Inclusion and Empowerment’ (PRiTIE) supported by RFSU (The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education), which aims to build a more inclusive environment through respecting and protecting the SRHR of individuals irrespective of their gender identity or sexual orientation, addressing discriminatory laws and practices around SRHR for reform, enhancing the knowledge of duty bearers and service providers to ensure adequate and necessary SRHR support for young people, and creating safe spaces, platforms and opportunities for young people and strengthening their knowledge and understanding to lead the SRHR dialogue and directly participating in advocating for the protection and promotion of their SRHR.

2. Project Objectives:

• To address discriminatory laws, policies and practices related to marriage and sexual violence in the context of Bangladesh and international human rights standards
• To create platforms for University students and young professionals in the project area to express their views and experiences on their freedom to express, choose and consent to matters related to their own lives, and strengthen their knowledge and understanding and increase their participation in ensuring their rights
• To enhance the capacity of service providers on sexual and reproductive health and rights

3. Purpose of this research

The purpose of this research is to review existing discriminatory laws and policies in Bangladesh, in particular religious personal laws governing marriages and laws regulating remedies in relation to sexual violence against women and girls, and identify the gaps in these laws which impede their exercise of SRHR. This will further include setting out possibilities for reform to address these gaps.

4. Key Objectives

To review the following laws / legal provisions / guidelines:

• Nari O ShishuNirjatan Daman Ain 2000 (Women and Children Repression Prevention Act) (esp. in relation to the offences of rape (s.9) and sexual assault (s.10)
• The Penal Code 1869 (in relation to the offence of rape – sections 375-376; in relation to ‘insulting the modesty of a woman’ – section 509)
• Evidence Act 1872 (in relation to admissibility of character evidence of complainants in rape trials – section 155(4))
• Supreme Court Guidelines on Sexual Harassment provided in 2009 in BNWLA v Bangladesh [add reference]
• Supreme Court directions on victim and witness protection provided in BNWLA v Bangladesh [WP 5916 of 2008]
• Draft Victim and Witness Protection Act
• Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017
• Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act 2010
• Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937
• Muslim Family Law Ordinance 1961
• Muslim Marriages and Divorces (Registration) Act 1974, and Rules 1947
• Hindu Marriage Registration Act 2012
• Hindu Married Women’s Right to Separate Residence and Maintenance Act 1946
• Hindu Marriage Disabilities Removal Act 1946
• Hindu Widow’s Remarriage Act 1856
• Christian Marriage Act 1872
• Special Marriage Act 1872
• Divorce Act 1869

To analyse the impact of the above on women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health rights, including their rights to consent and choice in marriage and personal-decision-making, and their right to be free from sexual violence;

To recommend reforms in laws, policies and practices to

5. Scope of Work

1. Review project related documents and any other background documents as necessary; 
2. Develop proposal and inception note for the mapping. This will include a timeline, methodology, data collection approaches and work plan;
3. Discuss and agree on the methodology, including data collection approaches, with BLAST PRiTIE Team;
4. Share the data collection tools with the Team for finalisation;
5. Participate in consultation meetings on the assignment with the Team;
6. Collect and analyse information and prepare a draft research report;
7. Ensure authenticity of the research and adhere to guidelines against plagiarism;
8. Prepare a first draft of the report (in English) with key findings, and recommendations;
9. Present the first draft before the Team for review;
10. Prepare the final draft based on comments and recommendations from BLAST, and prepare an executive summary in both English and Bangla;
11. Generate a final research report (after incorporating feedback from Team) against the research objectives. 

6. Deliverables:

• Inception report, including the method and data collection approaches
• Implementation plan agreed with the Platform team;
• Draft report including PowerPoint presentation 
• Final report incorporating feedback, provided as an electronic copy.

7. Time frame duration

From 1, February, 2021 to 30, April, 2021.

8. Required Qualification and Experience of Consultant

• Must have degree in L.L.M from any renowned university.
• Must have at least 10 years of experience in legal research.
• Having experience on Discriminatory Law related academic research or practice would get preference.

8. Application Procedure

• Interested Individual Consultant are requested to submit a proposal by email or post  only with the subject line ‘Proposal for Review of existing discriminatory laws, including religious personal laws governing marriages and laws regulating remedies in relation to sexual violence against women and girls’ to  purchase@blast.org.bd or BLAST Head Office, 3rd Floor, YMCA Development Center, 1/1 Pioneer Road, Kakrail, Dhaka 1000
• Soft copy should be sending in the form of single PDF file and Hard copy should be submitted in a sealed envelope.

• Interested applicants must include the following copies of documents to their proposal:
  1) Conceptual Framework
  2) Methodology,
  2) Work plan,
  3) CV
  4) Copy of TIN Certificate
  6) Copy of VAT Registration Certificate
  5) Copy of NID
  6) Financial Proposal

• Deadline to submit the application: before/by/within 3:00 PM, 21th January, 2021.

10. Terms and Condition

• Evaluation will be made by following BLAST Procurement Guideline
• Proposal may not be accepted after this cutoff time
• Financial proposal must be submitted including Tax and VAT.
• Individuals are not allowed to submit more than one proposal. If found more than one proposal is submitted by same consultant under above condition both proposals will be termed as disqualified.
• BLAST reserves the right to accept or deny any application without justifying reason.