I. CONTEXT
The border is an important “entrance” which experiences frequent exchange of culture, economy, politics and lifestyle between ethnicities and countries, especially those sharing the same border. The Kingdom of Cambodia and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam are two neighboring countries with the in-land border mostly running north-south and northeast – southwest through 10 Vietnamese provinces (Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dac Nong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang). Most the communes along the border of those 10 provinces are the targets of hunger eradication, poverty reduction and social security programs as well as policies to support ethnic minorities.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) and the Kingdom of Cambodia (Cambodia) share common land and sea borders which are 1270 km long in total. The 1137 km land border runs from the northernmost point at the Vietnam – Laos - Cambodia triple border junction point (located in Kon Tum Province, Vietnam) to the southernmost point situated in the Gulf of Thailand at Xa Xia Gate, Ha Tien town, Kien Giang Province, Vietnam
[1]. The sea border has not yet been specified, however, it has been defined by the historic waters between the two countries which is treated under internal waters regime, located in the Gulf of Thailand (in the future, the Vietnam – Cambodia sea border must be situated within the above-mentioned historic waters)
[2]. The Vietnam – Cambodia land border mainly runs north-south and north-east to south-west, acrossing 9 Cambodian provinces (namely Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Kratié, Tbong Khmum, Svay Rieng, Prey Veng, Kandal, Takéo and Kampot) with 80 border communes
[3] and 10 Vietnamese provinces (Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dac Nong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang) including 101 border communes
[4]. From 2006 to 2015, Viet Nam and Cambodia completed the demarcation for 920 km land border, defining 260 (in practice) of 314 (under the Agreement) boundary markers (accounting for 84.1%); constructing 305 (in practice) of 371 (under the Agreement) ones (accounting for 82.2%)
The Viet Nam – Cambodia border regions have several characteristics as follows:
First, the regions are affected by tropical climate, monsoon defined by high humidity, two distinct rainy and dry seasons and the average annual temperature of 26-27ºC, resulting in the favorable conditions for growing industrial and agricultural crops as well as seefood aquaculture;
Second, the terrain is relatively flat and less dangerous; the land, river and sea transport systems connecting the two countries have been developed favorably, constituting the boder-crossing roads, national and provincial highways; the border crossing system is invested and facilitated by the people of the two countries, who have been doing business, economic cooperation and trade transactions but these also cause difficulties for the travel management and Border region control and border area anti-smuggling.
Third, the population of the regions is unevenly distributed, some areas are very sparse or even have almost no resident. The crowded residential areas are mostly located along the banks of major rivers or at high and fertile regions; the percentage of poor and near-poor households is high, with a low average level of education; the regions have diversified ethnic groups (King, Cham, Khmer, Hoa) and religions (mostly Buddhist, Christian and Hoa Hao). The differences in the composition of population, religion and ethnic groups constitute notable difficulties for the state management in general and the implementation of legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation in particular.
Forth, the economic conditions of the localities in the border areas are very struggling as they still can not balance their operating budgets; the situation of law violations, gambling, drugs, prostitution, hardship, bankruptcy, human trafficking, deforestation, smuggling, tax evasion are complicated.
Fifth, along the entire land border, there still remains some matters that the two countries have not reached agreement on resolution. With regard to the seven border sections, the two sides agreed to strengthen coordination between localities and their respective competent authorities in resolving matters arising at the border areas. If any incident occurring in the border areas, the two countries must timely exchange and cooperate to solve the problem, preventing any consequence affecting Viet Nam – Cambodia friendly and neighboring relationship; strengthen the coordination in preserving the border security order; propagandizing and educating people in border areas to voluntarily observe the regulations related to border management under agreements; educate the two countries’s citizens to refrain from cultivation, invasion and cooperate to maintain security and border order
[5].
According to Vietnamese law, legal aid means the provision of legal services to legal aid beneficiaries in order to help them to protect their legitimate rights and interests in case of legal disputes or conflicts. Legal aid is considered as one of the public services of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam subject to the strict quality control by the State in order to ensure law observance as well as the equity in access to law and access to justice of the poor, people with meritorious services to the revolution, ethnic minorities living in areas with extreme economic – social difficulties and other marginalized groups in case of legal conflicts and disputes. Founded by the Decision no.734/TTg dated September 6th, 1997 of the Prime Minister, the legal aid system has been fully established from the Central to the local level. According to the 2006 Law on Legal aid and other implementation guiding documents, the legal aid system includes the Bureau of Legal aid directly under the Ministry of Justice which assists the Minister of Justice to perform the state management on legal aid nationwide and State’s legal aid centers in 63 centrally-run cities and province. Among those are legal aid centers and legal aid-providing organizations in provinces sharing the border with Cambodia which provide legal aid services to beneficiaries according to provisions of law.
II. Situation of law dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation for local people in the Vietnam-Cambodia border areas
The legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation for local people in the Vietnam-Cambodia border areas have important roles in raising the awareness of the law, educating the sense of respect, observance and compliance of law for local people in the border areas so that they will not break but know how to apply the law when participating in social relations, protecting their legitimate rights and interests, timely solving problem, settling disputes and conflicts in the residential community. Recognizing these importances, over the past years, the Party, State, local committees, authorities and organizations in the border areas of the two countries have paid more attention to these works, specifically as follows:
First, on institutions and policies, the Law on legal dissemination and education stipulates that importance shall be attached to the law dissemination and education for people in ethnic minority areas, deep-lying, remote, border and coastal regions and island regions. The State adopts policies on training and retraining of and support for the law dissemination and education activities in border areas and the Provincial people’s committees are responsible for the implemenation of these activities (Article 17). The Prime Minister signed Decision No. 409/QD-TTg dated 9 April 2012 promulgating the Action Plan of the implementation of Conclusion No. 04-KL/TW dated 19 April 2011 of the 11
th Central Secretariat of the Party, Decsion No. 1133/QD-TTg dated 15 July 2013 approving and organizing the implementation of the Schemes stipulated on Decision No. 409/QĐ-TTg, including the Scheme on “Enhancing legal dissemination and education for officials and people in border and island regions for the period of 2013 – 2016” (presided over implementation by the Ministry of Defense) and the Scheme on “Legal dissemination and education for people in rural and ethnic minority areas” (presided over implementation by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development). Decision No. 705/QD-TTg dated 25 May 2017 of the Prime Minister promulgating the Program on legal dissemination and education for the period of 2017-2021 defines one of the specific goals is
“Strive for achieving the percentage of 70% and 90% of specific objects to be disseminated and educated in specialized laws according to the provisions of law” and assign the Ministry of Defense to be in charge of implementing the Scheme on “Enhancing legal dissemination and education for officials and people in border and island regions for the period of 2013 – 2016” towards 2021. The Schemes concentrate on the sources for implementing the legal dissemination and education for officials and people in border areas
[6]. Annually, the provincial People’s Committes promulgate schemes, plans on implementation or guiding documents issued via Coordination Council on legal dissemination and education for people in border and island regions. The Law on grassroots conciliation, Decree No.15/2014/ND-CP dated 27 February 2014 of the Government detailing a number of articles and measures for implementation of the Law, Joint Decree No. 01/2014/NQLT-CP-UBMTTQVN dated 18 November 2014 on coordination in state management and implementation of grassroots conciliation also draw importance in enhancing grassroots conciliation in the border and island regions. Several provincial People’s Committees have issued coordination program on implementing legal dissemination and education and grassroots conciliation between competent authorites of the two countries in this field.
[7]
Second, in practice, a good deal of legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation activities have been implemented actively by different levels and branches in diversified forms and contents, considering specific characteristics of the target groups and areas, initially brings about practical effects. Law enforcement of officials and people in the next year is better than previous year and the situation of rural security in sea border communes remains stable; the people actively participate in protecting sovereignty, border security and sovereignty of the sea and islands. Legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation for people in the border areas have made important contributions to raise the awareness and understanding of law, the sense of respect and self-discipline in law observance and make positive changes in the compliance of law of officials and people in the border areas, contribute to promoting the socio-economic and cultural development, strengthening national defense and security, building strong border areas in all aspects. The number of violations of border regulations has been decreasing, the backward customs and habits have gradually been eliminated, such as consanguineous marriage; the hunger and poverty rate go down; the self-managed movements of the local people are consolidated and developed
[8].
Third, the contents of legal dissemination and education in the Vietnam – Cambodia border region are very abudent and varied, including the contents applied throughout the countries and specialized ones that closely follows the political tasks and needs of the people in the border areas, associated with the characteristices of these particular areas, namely:
Firstly, implement the propaganda and dissemination on international agreements between the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the People's Republic of (the Kingdom of) Cambodia relating to boundary issues, including: International treaties relating to the demarcation of the border between Vietnam and Cambodia, namely: Treaty on the principles of resolution of border issues signed on July 20, 1983; Treaty of National Border Planning dated December 27, 1985; Agreement on the Border Regulation of July 20, 1983; Treaty supplementing the 1985 National Border Planning Treaty on October 10, 2005; Agreement on Historic Waters on July 7, 1982; ii) The international treaties and agreements signed between the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Royal Government of Cambodia relating to economic, cultural and social cooperation, including: The Agreement on Road transport signed on June 1, 1998; Agreement on Water transport on 17 Decemeber 2009; Agreement on border medical quarantine on 06 March 2006; Agreement on the Cooperation for the sustainable development of the Mekong River Basin on 5 April 1995; Agreement on trade, exchange of goods and commercial services in the border area on 26 November 2001; Agreement on transit of goods dated 07 September 2000 (replaced by the Agreement signed on 04 November 2008)
Secondly, in the sea border area, focus on the propaganda and dissemination of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982; Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC); Code of Conduct for Parties in the South China Sea (COC); Maritime boundary zone regulation; Regulations on fishing and marine products on the sea…; The principles and agreements related to the sea and islands signed between Vietnam and other countries in the East Sea; regulations on marine fishing and marine activities, especially means of off-shore fishing not violating the territorial waters of the countries in the region and promptly inform functional sectors of the situation on the sea in order to timely handle and support fishermen; Continue disseminating the State’s legal documents on the sea, islands and international maritime law, legal foundations of Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa, Truong Sa archipelago and the sea areas of Vietnam.
Thirdly, propagate and disseminate the provisions of Vietnamese laws on sovereignty, border security, economics, trade, services, tourism and other activities related to the border areas such as: the Law on National border, the Law on National security, the Law of the sea of Vietnam, the Law of Customs, the Law of Entry, exit, transit and residence of foreigners in Vietnam; the Vietnam Maritime Code; Decree No. 112/2014/ND-CP dated 21 November 2014 regulating the management of land border gates; Decree No. 71/2015/ND-CP dated 03 September 2015 on the management of activities of people and means in the sea border area of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; Decision No. 254/2006/QD-TTg dated 7 November 2006 of the Prime Minister on the management of border trade with countries sharing borders and Decision No.139/2009/QD-TTg dated 23 December 2009 amending and supplementing Decision No.254/2006/QD-TTg; Decree No. 196/2013/NĐ-CP regulating the sanctioning of administrative violations in the field of management and protection of national borders, Directive 01/CT-TTg on the organization of the movement of the entire people to participate in protection of territorial sovereignty and national border security in the new situation.
Forthly, propagate and disseminate measures for crime prevention and combat, law violations and social evils in the border regions, especially against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeiting; provide information on the situation of law implementation combining with the acknowledgement of public opinion, the people advocacy on the law observance, thereby actively obtain information, analyze and sum up the situation; timely adjust approaches and address sensitive issues on demarcation, marker planting in border areas and border security; promote the propaganda of the significance and importance of building a border of peace, friendship, cooperation and development; propagate and consolidate the belief, solidarity and consensus of the religious dignitaries and the local prestige people for the management and protection of the border and marker posts in accordance with the law; firmly grasp the situation in the areas to disseminate against distorting allegations, public opinion on border issues, territorial sovereignty and conspiracy to take advantage of border and territorial issues in order to provoke and destroy the stability of the Vietnam-Cambodia border.
Forth, the forms of legal dissemination and education are diverse and abundant, associating to the State and people's external affairs and the activities of the functional agencies and social organizations in the management of border areas, protection of sovereignty and territorial security. Seveal forms are focused, such as as oral dissemination, legal dissemination and education conferences, dissemination via the loudspeaker system and visual media; building law bookcases at border posts; organizing legal examination competition; Organizing the compilation of brief materials such as handouts and in the local areas; law dissemination and education in schools, conducting legal counselling and providing mobile legal aid; publish the legal documents on the Portal / Website; via specialized pages, columns in mass media, press agencies; via the mobilization of officials and people to comply with the law. Many localities have organized face-to-face dialogues to solve problems in the masses; conducting mobile trial over several typical cases in border communes. In particular, international treaties, international agreements, legal provisions on sovereignty, border security, economic, trade, service, culture and society related to the border areas are posted publicly and widely for easy access and use on the Portal / Website of the Border Defences (
http://bienphongvietnam.vn); Viet Nam's sovereign boundaries (
www.biengioilanhtho.gov.vn); sharing-border provinces; legal documents databases (Government, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,...). Some localities focus on the development of the legal dissemination teams of ethnic minorities, people who have prestige among ethnic minority community (Kien Giang, Tay Ninh) and conduct dissemination by the language of ethnic minorities.
Fifth, the network of grassroots conciliation teams and conciliators is strengthened to ensure standards and quality; the professional and skill trainings of grassroots conciliation teams are focused; the quality and efficiency of grassroots conciliation activities are raised with high rate of successful conciliation (80%), especially after the promulgation of the Law on grassroots conciliation. The Department of Justice of some provinces have compiled and printed practical dissemination materials such as the Handbook on Grassroots conciliation; handouts on civil matters, marriage and family, land, complaints and denunciations, increased specialized sections and topics related to conciliation on the judicial news, radio and website of the Department. These activities contribute to timely deliver new policies and legal documents to conciliators, further provide knowledge and skills to conciliators to meet the legal needs of mediation services. The mediator contest is a form of interest organized by the Department, contributing to encouraging and motivating conciliators. On the basis of the legal knowledge and profession of conciliation, with a high sense of responsibility to the community, by virtue of its prestige combined with the flexible application of conciliation methods, in recent years, the conciliators in the border communes have conducted many practical works, contributing to the settlement of thousands of disputes and conflicts arising in community.
2. Shortcomings
Firstly, the coordination between the Vietnamese competent authorities and Cambodian border provinces in legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation has not been very effective, most of activities are not unpractical and lack of coordination mechanism. The implementation plans of some localities have not been developed or not identified specific activities of legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation in these areas resulting in the lack of consistency and failing to meet the requirements.
Secondly, Vietnam and Cambodia share wide border areas, including many provinces whereas the scope of dissemination is still limited to people live in Vietnamese districts, towns and villages. In practice, there are a large number of Vietnamese or Vietnamese Cambodian people who are doing business and living in Cambodian border areas but have not yet enjoyed legal dissemination. The propaganda and dissemination contents in the form of leaflets, legal handbooks, booklets have not been translated into Cambodian, therefore failed to meet the requirements of conveying the content of Vietnamese law to the Khmer ethnic minority in the border areas. The coordination of dissemination of Cambodian law to Vietnamese citizens and Vietnamese law to Cambodian citizens has not been paid abundant attention.
Thirdly, there still remain some limitations in role of judicial agencies at all levels in advising and actively implementing legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation as well as paying careful attention to the people in the border ares, therefore the legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation activities in these areas have not come close to the people.
Forthly, The staffs conducting legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation in these areas are limited in professional and skill capacity and the conciliators have not been trained in depth. The percentage of conciliators who are trained in legal knowledge and professional skills in mediation is low (under 50% in Dak Lak province, Kon Tum province). The provision of materials for mediator and conciliation teams is inadequate, fails to meet the demand, especially materials in ethnic minority languages. As a result, the quality and effectiveness of these works in the border communes have been affected. In some districts and communes in the border areas, the reporters, law communicators, conciliators are mainly based on their own experiences, do not know ethnic languages, affecting the effectiveness of legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation in these areas. In addition, border area residents (including Cambodians living on Vietnamese territory) mainly resolve conflicts arising in their lives under their own customs and practices instead of Vietnamese law.
Fifthly, fundings for legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation in general and for these activities in border area communes are still limited, fail to meeet de requirement and demand in practice.
3. Causes
- Due to the characteristics of the shared-border provinces of Vietnam and Cambodia as discussed above, the identification of the scopes, forms and contents of legal dissemination and education to be appropriate to each group of subject faces many challenges, affecting significantly the quality and effectiveness of legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation in these areas.
- Backward customs still exists in many places, people are less likely to use or adjust their behaviors according to the law when participating in social relations; therefore it is very difficult to persuade people to settle disputes by mediation in accordance with the law.
- The perception of positions, roles and significance of legal dissemination and education and grassroots conciliation of committees, authorities in some border communes remain limited; The cooperation between the two countries, particularly between governments of shared-border localities in legal dissemination and education and grassroots conciliation have not been paid abundant attention.
- The demarcation of land and sea border markers has not been completed, affecting the determination of sovereignty of each country.
4. Suggestions and recommendations
- Establish the cooperation and coordination between Vietnam and Cambodia in the implementation of legal dissemination and education and grassroots conciliation for citizens of the two countries living in border areas so that each citizen will fully acknowledge and understand international treaties and agreement signed between the two countries related to the border areas; To fully understand the laws and regulations on sovereignty, border security, border-gate regulations, entry and exit and the relevant provisions of law of each country for self-compliance with the law; know how to apply the law to participate in social relations and protect the legitimate rights and interests.
- Continue to improve institutions and policies on legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation for people in border and island areas; attact importance to deploy legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation activities in this area; Continuing to renovate the contents and forms of legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation for people in border and island areas to be appropriate to specific characteristics of the target’s population and geographical areas; closely connect the requirements of political tasks with the needs of the people; focus on professional and skill training on legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation suitable with local practical conditions, especially skills of legal dissemination and education for specific groups such as Khmer people, ethnic minority people in the Central Highland regions.
- Establish mechanisms and plans to concretize the cooperation in legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation among the legal and judicial agencies of the shared-border provinces of Vietnam and Cambodia, focusing on sharing, exchanging experiences, professional and skill traning for legal dissemination and education staffs and conciliators; the authorities at all levels should raise awareness and pay close attention to legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation activities in these areas because of the important role of these tasks in maintaining security, Social order and safety, socio-economic development in the locality;
- Continue to study and guide localities to pay attention to the implementation of legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation activities to be suitable for Vietnamese citizens living and working in border provinces of Cambodia and Cambodian citizens; Compile bilingual legal dissemination and education materials for people in these areas; Timely and accurately provide information to the target groups, especially on complicated and sensitive issues and unexpected situations.
- Competent authorities periodically review, evaluate and draw experiences on the implementation of legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation in association with the review of annual judicial work and evaluation of programs and coordinating plans between the localities of the two countries; Continue to research, develop and expand good models and practices in these areas;
- Continue to pay attention in allocating funds to implement legal dissemination and education, grassroots conciliation for people to meet the requirements of people in these areas.
III. CURRENT SITUATION OF LEGAL AID FOR PEOPLE IN PROVINCES ALONG THE BORDER OF CAMBODIA
1. Legal aid providing organizations and legal aid providing persons
According to the statistics of 2016 and the first 6 months of 2017 (January 1
st – May 31
st, 2017) of 10 legal aid centers in 10 provinces sharing the border with Cambodia:
+ The current personnel is 170/190, among which are 78 legal aid providing persons (63 legal aid providing persons working at the Centers, 15 legal aid providing persons working at the branches), 68 officials, 10 accountants and 14 other officials.
+ There are 58 lawyer-practicing organizations and legal consultancy centers which registered to provide legal aid (There are no registered legal aid providing organizations in An Giang, Dak Nong, Long An and Tay Ninh), 1,266 legal aid collaborators including 174 lawyers, 63 legal consultants and other collaborators.
2. Legal aid for Vietnamese people listed as legal aid beneficiaries
On carrying out legal aid cases, from January 1
st, 2016 to May 31
st, 2017, legal aid providing organizations in 10 provinces sharing the border with Cambodia handled 19,476 legal aid cases (closing 18,486 cases, among which are 2,196 criminal cases with 1,255 defense cases and 1,596 proceeding cases; 5,057 civil and marriage and family cases; 2,599 administrative cases and 8,634 cases in other fields such as preferential policies to people with meritorious services to the Revolution and other policies related to hunger eradication and poverty reduction) for 19,476 legal aid beneficiaries (1,968 poor people; 5,359 people of ethnic minorities; 1,417 poor people of ethnic minorities; 1,053 people with meritorious services to the Revolutionary; 107 elderly homeless people; 129 handicapped people; 1,503 children; 39 victims of human trafficking; 04 HIV patients and 7,897 people of other groups). From January 1
st – October 31
st, 2016, those 10 centers organized 354 legal aid sessions outside their headquarters and field trips to the communes along the border to carry out 4,320 legal consultations and answering questions relating to legal conflicts of local people. In general, the local people often have trouble in a number of legal fields including family and marriage, labour, land, civil status, family registration, preferential policies to people living in areas with extreme economic and social difficulties, etc. Violations normally happen in exploitation of forests or hunting of wild animals.
The legal aid centers in 10 provinces along the Cambodian border also carry out legal aid dissemination through compiling and publishing of leaflets, putting up bulletin boards and enquiry boxes at the headquarters of the communal people’s committees or proceeding agencies as well as through legal aid sessions outside of their headquarters.
3. Legal aid for Cambodians listed as legal aid beneficiaries
According to Article 3 of the Mutual legal assistance Treaty in civil area between the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the Kingdom of Cambodia (the Treaty) signed in Ha Noi on January 21
st, 2013 and effective since October 9
th, 2014 on Exemption and reduction of court fees and legal aid:
“1. Citizens of each Side shall reserve the right to the exemption and reduction of court fees and the right to free legal aid in the land of the other Side with the same conditions and degrees as citizens of the other Side.
2. The exemption and reduction of court fees or free legal aid shall be decided based on income or/and property status of applicants. Certificates of income or/and property status of applicants shall be issued by competent agencies of the country where applicants permanently or temporarily reside.
3. Citizens of one Side can apply for the exemption or reduction of court fees or free legal aid in accordance with Clause 1 of this Article at competent agencies in the country where applicants permanently or temporarily reside. These agencies shall transfer application forms together with the certificates of income or/and property status in accordance with Clause 2 of this Article to competent agencies of the other Side through the Central agencies.
4. Competent agencies with the authority to decide on the exemption or reduction of court fees and free legal aid can request additional information for applicants.”
According to the Treaty and Clause 2, Article 1 of the Decree no.07/2007/ND-CP dated January 12
th, 2007 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of clauses of the Law on legal aid amended by the Decree no.14/2013/ND-CP dated February 5
th, 2013 of the Government, Cambodian citizens reserve the right to legal aid with the same conditions and degrees as Vietnamese citizens. For example, to receive legal aid in Viet Nam, Cambodian citizens need confirmation or certificates from Cambodian competent agencies to prove that they are the poor, the handicapped, the homeless elderly or children, etc. Legal aid cases in Viet Nam shall be related to legitimate rights and interests of Cambodian legal aid beneficiaries and shall not fall into business or commercial fields.
Current annual reports from localities including 10 Vietnamese provinces sharing the border with Cambodia do not have statistics on these beneficiaries. There has not yet been any legal aid provision to Cambodians recorded so far.
4. Advantages and disadvantages
4.1. Advantages
- Legal aid in the communes along the border always receive attention from the provincial Justice Department, professional guidance from the Ministry of Justice (Legal Aid Bureau) and close coordination of local authorities, especially the coordination of the Communal People’s Committees and the welcoming of the people.
- According to the Project on the renovation of legal aid for the period 2015 – 2025 issued with the Decision no.749/QD-TTg dated June 1
st, 2015 of the Prime Minister, legal aid nationwide in general and in provinces along the Cambodian border in particular has focused their resources on the main goals of handling cases, especially proceeding ones. According to the 2015 and 2016 reports of the border provinces, the proportions of legal aid cases where legal aid beneficiaries’ rights are defended and protected through the participation in proceedings increased significantly in 2016 compared to in 2015. For example this figure in Dak Nong increased by 107%, Dak Lak by 54.8%, Long An by 50% and An Giang by 30%.
- Legal aid providing persons, especially legal aid professionals and legal aid collaborators are people with professional competence who constantly improve their skills to meet the requirements of the practice. Legal aid cases are received and handled promptly and smoothly to protect the legitimate rights and interests of legal aid beneficiaries. There are currently no complaints and denunciations.
4.2. Disadvantages
- Although the Treaty took legal effect since October 9
th, 2014, there have not been any particular implementation guidances about the confirmation of competent authorities on income or/and property status of legal aid applicants as well as the procedures to forward the applications through Central authorities.
- The communes along the Cambodian border are located in mountainous areas with tremendous difficulties to transportation which negatively affects people’s access to legal aid and the progress of handling legal aid cases.
- Conflicts arising from small civil transactions (buying and selling rice, garments and other necessities) between Vietnamese legal aid beneficiaries and Cambodian citizens are difficult to be resolved. The people often suffer from complicated procedures through too many competent agencies of both countries. There are also plenty of cases of Cambodian and Vietnamese couples in the border provinces living together without registration of marriage or nationalities; therefore, their children do not have nationalities.
- Awareness about legal aid of a number of Vietnamese beneficiaries living in mountainous areas and people of ethnic minorities is quite limited. As they normally encounter tremendous difficulty communicating in Vietnamese, their access to legal aid is also limited. Besides, as most people from ethnic minorities still apply outdated customs in resolving conflicts and disputes, it is difficult to explain to them about law and the observance of law.
- The number of legal aid professionals and collaborating lawyers – the main legal aid personnel is still quite small; therefore, the provision of legal aid still encounters plenty of difficulties.
III. WAYS TO IMPROVE QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF LEGAL AID FOR PEOPLE LIVING ALONG THE VIETNAM/CAMBODIA BORDER
- On administrative procedures: coordinating with the Ministry of Justice of Cambodia to provide specific implementation guidance for the Article 3 of the Treaty (on legal aid beneficiaries of each country and the procedures to transfer requests for legal aid); simplifying procedures in the handling of small civil disputes and regulations on nationality and civil status of people living along the Viet Nam/ Cambodia border who have not had their nationalities or other identity papers.
- The implementation of the Treaty within the context of implementing the Law on legal aid no.11/2017/QH14 recently passed by the National Assembly of Viet Nam with more groups of legal aid beneficiaries added requires the careful preparation of necessary conditions, human resources and finance to improve the awareness of the people, agencies and competent agencies as well as to ensure the feasibility of the law in practice. Therefore, legal aid providing agencies shall be equipped sufficiently for legal aid, and legal aid providing persons shall improve their skills and ethics to provide quality services. The Departments of Justice shall prepare their human resources to sign contracts to provide legal aid with lawyer practicing and legal consulting organizations as stipulated by the Law.
+ The Central authorities of both countries and the local authorities along the border, especially legal aid centers shall promote the dissemination of legal aid with catching contents to improve the awareness of the people of both countries about the right to legal aid, legal aid providing organizations according to the Treaty in particular and law on legal aid in particular, especially in the amended Law on legal aid.
+ Close coordination between legal dissemination and education and legal aid to promptly identify and satisfy the demand for legal aid of the people.
+ Raising the awareness of competent agencies and individuals of both countries to make them understand more about the purposes, meanings and contents of legal aid, especially the innovative points of the amended Law on legal aid and participate more actively in legal dissemination and recommending legal aid beneficiaries to legal aid providing organizations when they are in need.
+ Improving the capacities of legal aid providing persons in providing legal aid through training sessions, workshops and conferences to share experiences between both countries. Teaching ethnic languages to legal aid professionals or hiring collaborators who have ethnic language skills to effectively provide legal aid to people living along the Vietnam/Cambodia border.
+ Adding more statistic criteria or samples of statistic reports in accordance with the Treaty./.