Quarterly Performance Management Report: Protecting Human Rights Program

The program aims to reduce domestic violence and related human rights abuse incidents in Bangladesh. To achieve this goal, PHR works in partnership with the Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), and has contracted 15 local partners through sub-recipient grants to carry out specific tasks at the district, upazila, and union levels. The program is designed around four Intermediate Results (IRs) relevant to USAID: IR 1, IR 2, IR 3, and IR 4. IR 1 focuses on enforcing key domestic violence and human rights legislation and policies, while IR 2 aims to increase the use of formal and informal justice systems by human rights survivors. IR 3 focuses on increasing support services to human rights abuse survivors, and IR 4 seeks to improve public awareness on human rights issues. PHR has five major program components: advocating for legislative reform and enforcement to reduce domestic violence, capacity building for key stakeholders involved with the protection and promotion of human rights, increasing access to justice for survivors and vulnerable individuals, providing survivor services for the survival of victims of domestic violence and human rights abuses, and building mass awareness and implementing educational campaigns on domestic violence and other human rights abuses. During the third quarter of Year Three, from October 1 to December 31, 2013, PHR held a total of 21 advocacy meetings at the union level, reaching 579 participants. A National Human Rights Advocacy Forum meeting was held on December 10, 2013, attended by 21 members, and an Executive Committee meeting of the NHRAF was held on December 26, 2013. At the upazila level, eight Human Rights Advocacy Forum meetings were held, attended by 175 individuals. PHR also organized one judges' orientation session in Dhaka on the DV Act and Rules and its implementation, attended by 32 judges from different districts. The local level Human Rights champion selection process for PY4 was started during this quarter, with a total of 301 applications received by the deadline on November 28, 2013. The program's success in its mission is dependent on forming partnerships, alliances, and collaborative efforts that foster preventive, protective, and legal human rights measures, and developing linkages between and among local and national government representatives, non-governmental organizations, civil society, and community leaders.