BLAST is one of the largest legal services organizations in Bangladesh, operating in over nineteen districts. BLAST has certain unique features as a legal services organization. First, it assists both women and men. Second, it undertakes extensive criminal defense work and has a considerable specialization in labour law, in addition to expertise in family and land law. BLAST is the only NGO able to provide access to legal aid across the spectrum from the frontlines of the formal justice system to the apex court.

BLAST is governed by a Board of Trustees comprised of eminent jurists, lawyers, and human rights advocates. Besides its own core staff lawyers at headquarters and at each district unit, BLAST has an enlisted panel of about 2300 lawyers across the country who provide legal redress to clients on a pro bono basis, with a nominal honorarium. It is also well represented by lawyers pursuing its cases in the High Court Division and Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.

MISSION

BLAST’s mission is to make the legal system accessible to the poor and the marginalized.

VISION

BLAST envisions a society based on the rule of law in which every individual, including the poor, marginalized, and excluded, in particular women, children, peoples with disabilities, adivasis, and dalits, have access to justice and in which their human rights are respected and protected.

OBJECTIVES

In view of the above vision and mission statement, BLAST's specific objectives are:

• - To provide free legal aid and to undertake public interest litigation and advocacy activities to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any person for any reason;
• - To administer a trust fund for establishing and maintaining legal aid and services units supported by the grants from the Trust;
• - To establish legal aid/assistance and human rights protection units in the bar associations and in different localities of the country, including rural areas;
• - To conduct special training programmes through which relevant skills and expertise can be imparted to lawyers, activists, and others;
• - To coordinate the activities of the units with other organizations, including NGOs working in related fields;
• - To publish original research articles and reports about matters useful to lawyers;
• - To promote improved legal education, including awareness of responsibility for providing legal aid to disadvantaged persons, and to promote, establish and maintain national institutions for legal education;
• - To organize seminars, symposiums, and extension lectures on various law subjects for advocates, teachers, law students, and to promote participation in international conferences, workshops, and training and educational programmes.