proved in every statute.54 However, given the prodigious number of people lacking necessary means to have recourse to law and legal system, materialization of this right is next to impossible in the absence of a free or state sponsored legal aid to get justice and fair trial. Keeping this in mind, Bangladesh has passed the Legal Aid Services Act in 2000, declared the Legal Aid Services Principles and the Legal Aid Giving Rules in 2001 to ensure access to justice for the poor and the disadvantaged. Bangladesh has a government legal aid fund to provide services to the citizens. According to section 2(a) of the Act, “Legal Aid” means to provide legal aid to people who are unable to get justice due to their financial position or due to different socio economic conditions such as the payment of lawyer’s fees, etc. Thus, section 2 (a) of the Act broadly defines Legal Aid so as to include counselling, payment of lawyers fees and other incidental costs for expenses of litigation.55 5. Analysis of the Gap between International and National Legal Regimes Despite the fact that the national legal architecture of Bangladesh conforms in principle to the international standard regarding civil and political rights as prescribed in the ICCPR, there exist certain gaps between international 55 46 For the purposes of the Legal Aid Act by the term financially incapable or poor means any person whose yearly average income is not more than BDT. 3000.00.