Decision No. 13/2003/QD-TTg dated January 17, 2003 of the Prime Minister approving the 2003-2007 program on law dissemination and education

DECISION

APPROVING THE 2003-2007 PROGRAM ON LAW DISSEMINATION AND EDUCATION

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

At the proposal of the Justice Minister,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To approve the 2003-2007 Program on Law Dissemination and Education.

Article 2.- This Decision takes implementation effect 15 days after its publication on the Official Gazette.

The Justice Ministry shall have to guide the implementation of this Decision.

Article 3.- The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government, and the presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to implement this Decision.

THE 2003-2007 PROGRAM ON LAW DISSEMINATION AND EDUCATION
(Issued together with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 13/2003/QD-TTg of January 17, 2003)

A. OBJECTIVES AND REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW DISSEMINATION AND EDUCATION PROGRAM

I. OBJECTIVES:

1. To disseminate in time and fully the contents of legislation related to the life of people of various strata, creating conditions for citizens to use laws as a means and tool to protect the legitimate rights and interests of their own, of the State and the society. To raise the officials’ and people’s sense of conscious and active inquiry into, and observance of, laws.

2. To create new steps of development in the work of law dissemination and education in order to more actively satisfy the demand for law understanding, to raise the legal knowledge level among officials and people, thus contributing to the performance of the task of all-sided development of the Vietnamese, raising the disciplines within the State apparatus and in the society, protecting the national security as well as social order and safety, firmly maintaining the socialist orientation, actively effecting the international economic integration, building a law-governed State of the people, by the people and for the people and serving the cause of national industrialization and modernization.

II. REQUIREMENTS:

1. Inheriting the outcomes, ensuring the continuity and development in the implementation of the contents, forms and measures set forth in the 1998-2002 plan on deployment of the law dissemination and education work, promulgated together with the Prime Minister’s Decision No.03/1998/QD-TTg of January 7, 1998, continuing to implement regularly, continuously and widely the law dissemination and education for various subjects. Selecting legal contents suitable to each kind of subject, geographical area; attaching importance to popularizing specific law provisions to raise the implementation guiding nature.

2. Efficiently using and exploiting forms and methods of law dissemination and education, which are being effective with the renewal of implementation modes, ensuring their conformity and feasibility; combining the en-mass and widespread law dissemination and education with legal consultancy, legal assistance, conciliation, dispute settlement, complaint and denunciation settlement, handling of law violations in each specific case; step by step applying advanced technologies to law dissemination and education suitable to the political, economic and social requirements and tasks in each period, each branch and each locality.

3. Rationally and efficiently incorporating the law dissemination and education into the implementation of socio-economic development programs. More closely linking the work of law dissemination and education with the propagation of the undertakings and policies of the Party and the State; stepping up activities of law making and perfection, organizing the law enforcement, handling law violations, implementing the Regulation on democracy.

B. SUBJECTS, CONTENTS, FORMS AND MEASURES OF LAW DISSEMINATION AND EDUCATION

I. SUBJECTS AND CONTENTS OF LAW DISSEMINATION AND EDUCATION

1. Law dissemination and education for people of various strata

a) General contents for people of all strata: Continuing to popularize extensively and intensively the law provisions directly related to the people’s life, particularly the law provisions on land, complaints, denunciations, traffic safety, drug prevention and combat, social vice prevention and combat, labor, jobs, environmental protection, policies and regimes enjoyed by people, the provisions on implementation of the Regulation on democracy, suitable to the particularities of the rural, mountainous and urban areas; attaching importance to the dissemination of specific rights and obligations to people and the guidance on the implementation thereof according to the law-prescribed order and procedures.

b) Contents for a number of specific subjects:

- For peasants: Concentrating efforts on disseminating and guiding the order and procedures for implementation of rights and obligations of the land users, attaching importance to the rights related to the transfer of the land use rights such as the exchange, transfer, lease, inheritance and mortgage of land use rights; land assignment, land rent, granting of land use right certificates, ground clearance and damage compensation when the State recovers land; handling administrative violations, settling disputes, complaints and denunciations in management and use of land; tax payment obligations, protection of dykes and irrigation works.

- For ethnic minority people: Concentrating efforts on popularizing and guiding the implementation of law provisions on forest protection and development, the order and procedures for forest land assignment, contractual assignment of forests and forestry land, the granting of land use right certificates.

- For women: Concentrating efforts on popularizing and guiding the implementation of law provisions directly related to the women’s rights and obligations in the fields of marriage and family, child protection, care and education; the equality between men and women in political, economic, cultural and social activities as well as in families.

2. Law dissemination and education for officials and public employees

a) General contents for officials and public employees: Popularizing, grasping and studying law provisions on officials and public employees, thrift practice, wastefulness combat, corruption fighting, international economic integration; the implementation of the Regulation on democracy in offices, units; attaching importance to specialized law provisions related to the specialty and profession of each official and public employee.

b) Contents for a number of specific subjects:

- For officials and employees of economic management agencies: They should firmly grasp the specialized law provisions, the legislation on economy, finance, commerce, investment, international economic integration (law provisions related to AFTA, APEC, WTO), international agreements related to professional activities.

- For officials and employees of cultural and social management agencies: They should firmly grasp specialized law provisions, law provisions on prevention and combat of social vices, promotion of traditions, preservation of national cultural identity.

- For officials and employees of law-enforcement agencies: They should firmly grasp the specialized law provisions, particularly the order, procedures and rules for performance of official duties; the law provisions on assurance of democratic freedoms, legitimate rights and interests of citizens; the order and procedures for settlement of complaints and denunciations; the regulation on reception of citizens, information on the situation of law enforcement and observance.

- For officials of grassroots administrations: They should firmly grasp the regulations, orders and procedures directly related to the tasks, powers and responsibility of the grassroots administrations; the law provisions on assurance of democratic freedoms, the legitimate rights and interests of citizens; the order and procedures for settlement of complaints and denunciations; the regulations on reception of citizens; the regulations on grassroots democracy; and legal documents of localities.

3. Law dissemination and education for youth and juniors

Popularizing the law knowledge directly related to their life and study; paying attention to the dissemination and education of the basic rights and duties of children; the legislation on traffic, environmental protection, drug as well as social evil prevention and combat, military obligations.

4. Law dissemination and education for laborers, managers and trade union officials in enterprises

a) For laborers: Disseminating legislation on labor contracts, wages, working time, rest time, labor discipline, material liability when breaking the labor disciplines, labor sanitation and safety, social insurance, procedures for settlement of labor disputes.

b) For managers: Disseminating the regulations, order and procedures necessary for production and/or business activities, establishment and management of enterprises, settlement of business disputes, enterprise bankruptcy, rights and obligations of employers; the legislation on commerce, finance, banking, investment cooperation, export and import, trade union, in combination with the popularization of undertakings and policies on international economic integration.

c) For trade union officials: Disseminating the legislation on rights and obligations of the trade unions, collective labor agreements, labor contracts, labor dispute-settling procedures, law provisions on trade unions and strikes.

5. Law dissemination and education in the people’s armed forces

a) In the Army and defense force:

- For officers, cadets of academies and schools, they should firmly grasp the basic theoretical issues on the State and law; the legal documents on national defense, security, administrative, economic and social management relating to working positions they are holding, to their stationing areas.

- For professional army men, defense workers and employees, they should firmly grasp the legal documents on the specialties they are undertaking, the legislation on economy, finance, labor, officials, public employees...

- For non-commissioned officers and soldiers; militia and self-defense forces, mobilization reserve forces, they should firmly grasp the law provisions on military obligations, militia and self-defense forces, mobilization reserve force; the provisions on relevant defense domains; legislation on traffic, fire prevention and fighting, social evil prevention and combat....

b) In the Police force:

- For traffic police, administrative and social order management police, exit and entry control police, investigating police, they should firmly grasp the law provisions related to their work, particularly specialized legal documents in service of professional work; the orders and procedures for inspection, investigation, handling of administrative violations, settlement of complaints and denunciations, reception of citizens, exit and entry, traffic, social order and safety.

- For commune and ward police, they should firmly grasp the law provisions related to their work, the provisions on order and procedures for inspection, investigation, complaint and denunciation settlement, reception of citizens, household registration, traffic, social order and safety.

II. MAJOR FORMS AND MEASURES OF LAW DISSEMINATION AND EDUCATION FOR ASSORTED SUBJECTS

Depending on the subjects of law dissemination and education, on the concrete conditions of ministries, branches and localities, the law dissemination and education shall be effected in the following major forms and through the following measures:

1. Consolidating and expanding the forces participating in law dissemination and education:

- Raising the efficiency of activities of the contingent of law rapporteurs in the ministries, branches and localities; paying special attention to building up and consolidating the force of law propagators in communes, wards, district towns.

- Consolidating conciliation teams in villages, hamlets, urban population teams, population clusters. Heightening the role of conciliators in participation in law dissemination and education for people.

- Including the contents of law dissemination and law observance mobilization into the activities of youth volunteers and shock youths.

- Promoting the role of trade union officials at enterprises in the popularization of law to laborers.

- Regularly fostering the legal knowledge, law dissemination and education operations, adequately supplying documents necessary for forces participating in law dissemination and education.

2. Developing diversified and convenient forms of information and law dissemination, satisfying the demands of assorted subjects:

- Continuing to mobilize and use the mass media, including newspapers, magazines and specialized reviews for law popularization and information to assorted subjects; increasing the radio and television broadcasting time volumes and newspaper pages on legislation, on good people and good deeds, good models in law observance; enhancing the press’s nature of orientating and guiding public opinions in law dissemination and education. Consolidating and efficiently using the grassroots public-addressing systems for law dissemination and information.

- Completing the building up of law-book cases in 100% of communes, wards and district towns; building up and consolidating the law-book cases in offices, units, enterprises and schools. Increasing the number of books in the law-book cases and work out appropriate mechanism for exploitation and use thereof, thus meeting the officials’ and people’s demands for inquiry into legislation. Diversifying forms of bringing law books to people; combining the form of law-book cases with other forms of book reading in localities such as commune post-culture spots, commune libraries, border guards’ book cases, law-book bags in villages, hamlets, population clusters.

- Compiling and widely distributing legal materials suitable to each type of subjects. Translating and publishing legal documents in ethnic minority languages.

- Organizing training and fostering in, and popularization of, contents of legislation according to specialized subjects, to promulgated documents and/or to demands of subjects.

- Organizing law quizzes and contests, cultural and artistic exchanges and activities with law contents practical and suitable to each type of subjects.

- Incorporating law contents into activities of organizations, mass organizations, clubs, professional associations.

- Efficiently exploiting updated and archived legal documents on wide-range computer networks of the Government, Internet. Building and putting to use electronic law databases. Elaborating and implementing the program on replies to law inquires through telephone networks.

3. Raising the quality of law teaching and learning in schools at various levels and various grades:

- Seriously implementing the formal law education curriculum; increasing extracurricular activities in appropriate forms so that pupils and students can participate in social activities, have access to and inquire into activities of making laws and organizing law enforcement.

- Providing adequate text books, teaching stuffs, reference documents, teaching aids and means in service of law teaching and learning in schools.

4. Broadening and raising the quality of forms of legal consultancy, legal assistance:

- Broadening the scope of subjects eligible for free-of-charge legal assistance; increasing forms of mobile legal assistance suitable to geographical conditions and intellectual levels of people in each geographical area, particularly deep-lying, remote and ethnic minority regions.

- Developing various forms of legal assistance, legal consultancy of socio-political organizations, mass organizations in order to effect the legal assistance, law dissemination and education to their members.

- Forming the legal consultancy networks for enterprises.

- Providing legal information, implementing law dissemination and education through activities of consultancy centers, employment service and recommendation centers, vocational guidance centers for youths.

5. Adopting appropriate forms of organizing and launching drives for intensified law propagation, dissemination and observance mobilization according to specific themes and contents.

C. IMPLEMENTATION ORGANIZATION

1. The ministries, ministerial-level agencies, agencies attached to the Government:

- On the basis of this Program and the practical situation, the ministries and branches shall take initiative in drawing up their annual law dissemination and education plans for implementation in their respective ministries or branches, attaching importance to popularizing, informing and guiding the implementation of, legal documents in the fields under their respective management to their attached agencies, units, enterprises and employees; appoint officials fully qualified in legal matters to monitor and implement the work of law dissemination and education in agencies and units within their whole branches.

- Supplying enough funding from the budget sources for the implementation of law dissemination and education according to the prescribed regimes.

- Each ministry and branch shall biannually and annually examine, preliminarily review, review and assess the situation of implementing the work of law dissemination and education in the ministry and branch; notify the Justice Ministry of the law dissemination and education results for sum-up report to the Government.

2. Apart from the general tasks, the following ministries and branches shall also have the responsibilities:

a) The Justice Ministry:

- To assume the prime responsibility for directing, guiding, urging and monitoring various levels and branches to deploy the work of law dissemination and education; to periodically report to the Prime Minister on the implementation schedule and results of, and propose measures to well implement, the Program.

- To assume the prime responsibility for initiating solutions to the perfection of the contingent of officials performing the work of law dissemination and education at the central and local level. To direct, guide and organize the professional fostering for the contingent of officials performing the work of law dissemination and education.

- To coordinate with ministries and branches in compiling programs for popularization and introduction of legal documents and guiding the implementation thereof to various levels and branches; to compile and guide functional bodies to compile documents on law dissemination and education for supply to the contingent of law rapporteurs and propagators. To direct, guide and inspect the building up, management and exploitation of law-book cases in communes, wards, district towns, offices, enterprises, schools.

- To direct and guide the provincial/municipal Justice Services to advise the provincial-level People’s Committees on elaborating documents on law dissemination and education and organizing the implementation thereof in geographical areas under their respective management, to well perform the role of coordinating bodies in the work of law dissemination and education.

- To draw up the scheme on setting up the Law Dissemination and Education Fund from sources of contributions by organizations and individuals inside and outside the country.

- To effect the regime of commendation and reward or propose the commendation and reward of collectives and individuals with outstanding achievements in the implementation of the law dissemination and education program.

b) The Ministry of Culture and Information:

- To consolidate and develop the contingent of law reporters, editors and collaborators of central and local newspapers, radio and television stations. To coordinate with the Justice Ministry and concerned agencies in periodically fostering law knowledge, updating information on law enforcement and observance for this contingent. To regularly orient the law information and popularization by the press.

- To direct the mass media agencies to increase the time and space volumes for law dissemination and education in Vietnamese and foreign languages, suitable to each type of subjects, their respective principles and objectives.

- To prioritize the price subsidy for books, newspapers and documents on universal legislation in service of people in mountainous, deep-lying , remote and/or ethnic minority regions. To increase the titles of law books in libraries. To invest in and develop the public-addressing systems of district, commune, village or hamlet levels.

- To direct the Culture and Information agencies at all levels to coordinate with justice agencies in organizing the translation of legal documents into a number of ethnic minority languages; to include the legal contents into activities of grassroots culture and information teams, culture and information centers and cultural houses at all levels; to build up the contingent of law propagators in the mobile propagation or film projection teams.

c) The Ministry of Education and Training:

- To direct the work of law teaching and regularly inspect and assess the teaching and studying of the civic education and law subjects at schools.

- To periodically organize training in law knowledge, and law-teaching methods for the contingent of teachers of civic education and law subjects.

d) The Finance Ministry:

To assume the prime responsibility for elaborating documents guiding in detail the management and use of law dissemination and education funding in the ministries, branches and levels.

3. The People’s Committees at all levels:

- On the basis of this Program, the guidance of ministries, branches and the practical situation, the localities shall take initiative in elaborating and organizing the implementation of annual plans on law dissemination and education.

- To heighten the role and create favorable conditions for activities of the law dissemination and education coordinating councils of all levels.

- To consolidate the organizations and apparatuses for performing the task of law dissemination and education in their respective localities; to arrange officials to monitor the implementation of law dissemination and education by agencies and units in their respective localities. To direct functional agencies to build up the contingent of law rapporteurs of the provincial and district levels, the contingent of law propagators of the commune level in a stable manner, operating with efficiency, and regularly organize professional fostering and preferential regimes for these contingents. To enhance and consolidate the grassroots conciliation force.

- To direct the building up and raising the efficiency in the exploitation and use of, law-book cases and grassroots cultural institutions in law propagation and dissemination activities.

- To ensure funding from the State budget for the implementation of law dissemination and education in localities according to the prescribed regime.

- To conduct annual preliminary review, final review and assessment of the situation of performance of the work of law dissemination and education in localities.

4. The law dissemination and education work must be placed under the close and direct leadership of the Party Committees of various levels. In the course of deploying the work of law dissemination and education, the ministries, branches and People’s Committees of all levels shall closely coordinate with the Fatherland Front, the Women’s Union, the Youth Union, the Labor Confederation, the Peasants’ Association, the War Veterans’ Association, the Lawyers’ Association and other agencies as well as organizations; create favorable conditions for such agencies and organizations to bring into full play their roles, actively participating in the work of law dissemination and education and mobilizing people of all strata to abide by law.

Apart from deploying the law dissemination and education for various subjects according to this Program, the following sponsoring agencies shall have to elaborate, promulgate and implement the following schemes:

1. The scheme for raising law knowledge of ethnic minority people and people in border regions.

- The sponsoring agency: The Nationality Committee.

- The implementation- coordinating agencies: The Justice Ministry, the Culture and Information Ministry, the Defense Ministry (the Border Guard Command), the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee.

2. The scheme for dissemination and propagation of land legislation.

- The sponsoring agency: The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

- The implementation- coordinating agencies: The Peasants’ Association, the State Inspectorate, the Justice Ministry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam War Veterans’ Association, the Lawyers’ Association.

3. The scheme on law dissemination to religious followers.

- The sponsoring agency: The Government’s Religions Committee.

- The implementation-coordinating agencies: The Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, the Mass Agitation and Mobilization Commission and the Ideology and Culture Commission of the Party Central Committee, the Justice Ministry.

4. The scheme on directing the pilot building and development of effective forms of law dissemination and education at the present stage.

- The sponsoring agency: The Justice Ministry.

- The implementation-coordinating agencies: The Culture and Information Ministry, the Ideology and Culture Commission of the Party Central Committee.