Background

Judiciary is a key governance and rule of law institution in a country which upholds the rule of law by resolving society’s disputes in a fair, timely and equitable manner. The constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Article 35 explicitly recognizes the right “to a speedy and public trial by an independent and impartial court or tribunal for every person.”

The United Nations General Assembly has also repeatedly underscored that an independent judiciary, among other things, is essential to the full and non-discriminatory realization of human rights and indispensable to democratization processes and sustainable development.

Delay in case disposal is the biggest impediment in the judicial system of Bangladesh delaying the process of justice to the people which is a fundamental human right. Bangladesh currently have huge cases backlogged in different courts leaving millions of people unable to access legal redress to their complaints and also accessing to the judgement of the cases for the aggrieved parties are becoming time consuming and difficult since the judgement passed by the judges from Subordinate Courts and Higher Court are very lengthy and complex in nature comprising legal analysis and opinion of judges complied with the analysis on the law and the fact of cases. The existing procedural laws of Bangladesh generally have provided sufficient guidelines for writing judgement. There is a wide discretion left with the judges to choose their style of writing, language, manner of statement of facts, discussion of evidence and reasons for the decision. A legal judgement written by a judge us a public act of communicating his opinion on the issues brought before him and after the trial by observing fair procedure, hence the piece of judgement should be brought to the parties concisely, timely and through a speedy accessible manner particularly for the court system where huge number of cases are backlogging every day from lower hierarchy court up to the highest court of law and appeal. Diversity of opinion in judgment writing is the strength of the common law judicial tradition and the constantly changing style of judgement writing over the world is creating the scope of easy understanding and quick accessibility for the justice seekers and legal professionals. A court judgement is considered as case law or precedent as the judges interpret and apply their conscience opinion, common law and finally decide disputes, subject to resolve disputes for and between parties. Quality court judgement provide guidance to the society at large on what is expected in certain circumstances. From the wider perspectives lawyer, facilitators, mediators help citizens to resolve their disputes beyond the formal court procedure so that these judgements as case laws can also assist arbitrators when making binding awards. Development of jurisprudence and constructive legal arguments through a quality judgement is always reflecting on the strong judiciary of the country.

UNDP in partnership with the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has implemented Judicial Strengthening (JUST) Project which worked from 2012 - 2015 towards ensuring access to justice by addressing delays and backlogs of cases and also strengthening the Supreme Court Administration by establishing the well-equipped Registrar’s Officer. UNDP supported the high court judges through strengthening judicial leadership previously and until now UNDP Bangladesh through many periodic reform initiatives has been maintaining a successful working relationship.  However, in this course, UNDP Bangladesh in collaboration with the Supreme Court’s Judicial Reform Committee will focus on the standard for judgement writing for regular civil and criminal cases, cases on appeal and in tribunals by considering the existing judgement writing style has been followed by the judges. It will also be into consideration within this assignment to explore the suitable, contemporary and cost-effective ways to publish and record the judgement for the legal professionals and use for the state.

Description of the Assignment

Specific technical expertise on intriducing a logical and coherent guideline on drafting judgemnt, developing the contemporary and cost effective means to record and publish the judgement passed by court and strengthening judicial leadership on the art of draftng precise judgment of Judges is particularly sought within the scope of this assignment.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work:

The scope of work would be focused on reviewing/ analyzing the process and the standard of practice in judgement writing in Bangladesh, conducting consultation sessions with judges towards adopting contemporary style of drafting judgements and techniques of recording judgment accessible by all, developing the judgement drafting outline and options to publish judgements including outlining the prospective ways of online record keeping options owned by Supreme Court of Bangladesh within the scope of existing procedural laws and practices been followed by the judges..

Specific objectives:

• Providing technical support on the excellence of judgement drafting for the judges (in Subordinate Courts/ High Court) within the set of Rules and Procedure applicabble in the context of Bangladesh.

Deliverables:

 The consultant should produce all deliverables by the dates. Supreme Court in collaboration with UNDP will take 2-3 working days to review the draft documents, action plans and share feedback with the consultant.

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The Consultant will closely work with Supreme Court of Bangladesh and provide support to organize consultation workshop with facilities. UNDP will also provide necessary logistic supports if required.

The Consultant will report to the Chief Technical Advisor, Human Rights Programme, UNDP Bangladesh.

Timeframe and Deadline:

The duration of contract will be 12 working days over a period of 01 month. Starts from August 2019.

Tentative payment schedule:

 Duty Station

Dhaka, Bangladesh. Workstation would be will be based at Supreme Court of Bangladesh and in UNDP Country Office, Bangladesh

Competencies

Professional Competencies

• Strong background in promotion of Rule of law and human rights, demonstrated knowledge on judicial reform mechanisms in developing countries;
• Excellent writing, IT and communication skills.

Behavioral Competencies

• Good interpersonal skills;
• Ability to take initiative and promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office;
• Ability to establish and maintain good working relationships to facilitate work goals;
• Demonstrable capacity to build knowledge through using various sources;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work, effective problem solving, self-improvement, analysis and synthesis;
• Openness to change and ability to responds positively to feedback and differing points of view and integrates & updates accordingly; adaptability, creativity;
• Excellent presentation and facilitation skills;
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Exhibit strong teamwork skills in a complex environment.
• Confident in demonstration of work;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

Master’s Degree in Law/ International Law or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of working experience as a Judge in Higher and/or Appellate Courts.
• Miimum 8 years of experience particularly in court judgement writing, guideline on quality court judgement, Judicial administration reform activities are preffered.
• Prior experiences of working with UN agencies or other international development agencies will be an added advantage.
• Minimum 5 of years of experience working with High Court or Supreme Court Judges and its court administration system.
• Working knowledge on usage of computer and office software package

Language:

Fluency in written and spoken English and ability to writing report and court judgement is required.

Lump sum contracts:

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

In-country travel (if required) will be met by UNDP and DSA will be paid as per UNDP policy. If unforeseen travel outside the Duty Station not required by the Terms of Reference, is requested by UNDP, and upon prior written agreement, such travel be at the UNDP’s expense and the Individual Contractor shall receive a per diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s).

Evaluation of the Candidates:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation;

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 marks in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (Total 70 marks):

• Educational Qualification – 15 marks;
• Minimum 8 of  Years of experience particularly in court judgement writing, guideline on quality court judgement, Judicial administration reform activities are preffered - 25 marks
• Minimum 5 of years of working experience as a Judge in Higher and/or Appellate Courts- 20 marks;
• Prior working experiences with UN agencies or other international development agencies - 10 marks

Financial Evaluation (Total 30 marks)

All technical qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below.

The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals received points according to the following formula:

p = y (µ/z)

Where:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Proposers who shall not submit below mentioned documents will not be considered for further evaluation.

• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references; P11 can be downloaded from the link below: http://www.bd.undp.org/content/bangladesh/en/home/operations/jobs/
• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment . A brief description of the assignment, detail break-down of the Work Plan and Methodology to carry out and complete the assignment.
• Financial Proposal: Financial Proposal has to be submitted through a standard interest and availability template which can be downloaded from the link below:

http://www.bd.undp.org/content/dam/bangladesh/docs/Jobs/Interest%20and%20Submission%20of%20Financial%20Proposal-Template%20for%20Confirmation.docx

Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.