About ASCEND
ASCEND studies how law works in Bangladesh and across Asia, reading statutes and judgments alongside fieldwork among the people the law reaches.
আইনের পাঠ আর মাঠের অভিজ্ঞতা, এই দুইয়ের মিলনেই আমাদের কাজ।
How we work
Doctrinal
We read constitutions, statutes and court decisions closely, as lawyers do, to establish what the law requires.
Empirical
We go to the field, interviewing and observing, to find out what actually happens to the people that law is meant to protect.
In public
We put findings where they can be used: roundtables, open access research and books in plain Bangla.
Leadership
Board of Trustees
Professor Dr KM Zahidul Islam
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Professor, Institute of Business Administration, Jahangirnagar University; former Director, IBA-JU (2021 to 2024); PhD, University of Helsinki
Professor Dr Rehena Parvin
Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees
Professor of Law, Islamic University, Kushtia
Directorate
KM Rakibul Islam
Executive Director
Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh; Doctoral Fellow, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra
Professor Dr Parvez Ahmed
Director, Law and Society
Dean, Canadian University of Bangladesh
Md Rezaul Karim Shohag
Director, Social Sciences
Assistant Professor and Chairman, Department of Criminology, University of Dhaka
Abdullah Hil Gani
Director, Finance
Ramisa Binte Alam
Director, Media and Communication
LLB (Hons) and LLM, Eastern University; European Intellectual Property Law, Stockholm University
Founding members
KM Zahidul Islam, Parvez Ahmed, Rehena Parvin, Md Rezaul Karim Shohag, Abdullah Hil Gani, KM Rakibul Islam and Ramisa Binte Alam.
Governance and principles
ASCEND is a public charitable trust registered in Dhaka and governed by its Deed of Trust. The Board of Trustees oversees the trust; the Directorate runs its research and public work.
- Every study involving people goes through formal ethics review before fieldwork begins.
- Research is designed and published independently of funders.
- Findings are published open access, in English and in Bangla where we can.
Documents
The Deed of Trust and our research ethics policy are available on request from ascendtrust2026@gmail.com.
Contact
232 Green Road, Dhaka, Bangladesh
+880 1914 160150
ascendtrust2026@gmail.com