Description

In Bangladesh disputes over custody and guardianship involving Muslim parties are principally governed by Muslim personal law. There remains a consistent dilemma in the judicial decisions in custody and guardianship matters, as to what should be the paramount consideration in awarding child custody to a party – traditional Muslim personal law rules or the welfare of the child?

The presentation is a reflection of my independent study the findings of which indicate that there is a steady but inconsistent trend towards child welfare considerations. However, it cannot conclusively be said that welfare of the child is now the most dominant or the only consideration for the courts. Focusing on this shift towards a welfare approach, the presentation will focus on some of the leading reported judgements of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on the issue.

About The Speaker

Taslima Yasmin is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the University of Dhaka and is a PhD candidate in Brunel University, London. She completed her LLB and LLM from the University of Dhaka and a consecutive LLM from the University College London (UCL), UK under the Chevening scholarship program. Her current research area focuses on Muslim child custody laws in Bangladesh. She has significant number of publications in both international and national journals on topics ranging from access to justice, labor safety standards and illegal land grabbing in the context of Bangladesh. Her research area as independent consultant also includes issues like implementation of domestic violence laws, the legal scenario of acid violence, vagrancy laws and child rights. Since the early years of her career, Ms. Yasmin also had been actively engaged with a number of human rights based NGOs in Bangladesh and she is currently volunteering as a visiting fellow at the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST).