They said the poor, especially in the developing world, live in fear of forced eviction and become victims of corruption and violence for not having property rights and access to justice.

The UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP) in collaboration with the School of Law, Brac University, organised the meeting on thematic issues at Brac Inn Centre in the city.

It should be ascertained how the existing legal structure and malfunctioning of laws deprive the poor of their rights, said eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain who chaired the meeting.

Properly identifying the impediments will help lift the poor out of poverty, he noted.

The people are at the centre of development and all should have equal access to amenities, employment and resources to reach the goal, he added.

"We must look at how laws can support the poor," Dr Kamal said.

The lawmakers who promised to change the fate of the poor before the elections have simply forgot their promises, he said, mentioning that hawkers and slum dwellers are now being evicted as they do not have legal documents although they are entitled to housing and employment facilities for their survival.

"We hope that the MPs who will sit in the next parliament will formulate laws for the poor and those in the informal sector," he said.

Co-chairing another session, renowned economist Prof Rehman Sobhan said the fate of the poor would remain the same unless they are legally empowered both in democratic and economic spheres of life.

Conditions must be created where the poor are entitled to equal opportunities and equal rights to property, resources and democratic process, he said.

Brac founder and Chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed said the poor everywhere are out of legal framework. As a result, they do not have access to banking and housing facilities and even fail to get identity cards or passports, he added.

Abed, also member of CLEP, said the commission is working to simplify the registration process of businesses in the informal sector so that the authorities cannot arbitrarily drive the poor away, depriving them of their right to survive.

Both Fazle Hasan and Dr Kamal Hossain think that the government should take the human rights issue into account during the eviction drive against hawkers and slum dwellers.

Law Adviser Barrister Mainul Hosein said the poor should be brought under legal framework to establish their rights.

The government is also taking steps to rehabilitate hawkers and slum dwellers, he said, adding that determining who are the genuine evicted people, however, is a practical problem. "We are working to solve it."

According to a mission statement of CLEP, the majority of the world's three billion poor live their lives outside the rule of law, without the basic legal protection.

"Without enforceable labour laws, they suffer from unsafe and abusive work conditions. If they own an informal business, they cannot access the legal business protections that entrepreneurs in the developed world take for granted," the statement said.

Thus, they are locked out of economic opportunity in their own countries and in the global services, said CLEP Executive Director Naresh Singh.

As the poor have no access to basic public services and justice, the ability of the poor to create wealth is frustrated, he said, adding that their dignity is violated due to lack of access to justice.

Barrister Amir-Ul Islam, Supreme Court Advocates Sharif Bhuiyan and Shahdeen Malik and development experts Shamsul Bari and Khushi Kabir also spoke.