Achievements and some limitations
Closely following the Party's viewpoint on legal aid for ethnic minorities, especially the 2017 Law on Legal Aid and its implementing documents, in recent times, Lao Cai province has issued many documents to lead and direct the implementation of legal aid for ethnic minorities, such as: Plan for propaganda, dissemination and education of law for ethnic minorities (under Sub-Project 1, Project 10 of the National Target Program on socio -economic development of ethnic minority and mountainous areas for the period 2021 - 2025); Plan No. 20/KH-UBND, dated January 15, 2024, of the Provincial People's Committee on dissemination and education of law; mediation at the grassroots level; recognition of communes meeting legal access standards in Lao Cai province in 2024; Plan No. 159/KH-UBND, dated March 12, 2024, of the Provincial People's Committee on implementing the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas in 2024 in Lao Cai province...
Propaganda, dissemination of law and legal aid for ethnic minorities contribute to raising awareness and sense of law compliance, while protecting the legitimate rights and interests of the people. In 2024, the Lao Cai Provincial Ethnic Committee organized 27 training and propaganda conferences to raise awareness of law compliance in ethnic minority areas (including 14 training conferences for 1,244 village and hamlet union officials, propagandists, and prestigious people in propaganda, dissemination, legaleducation , consulting, and advocacy skills on preventing and combating child marriage and consanguineous marriage; 13 propaganda conferences for over 1,750 people on the Law on Marriage and Family, the Law on Gender Equality, legal provisions related to child marriage, consanguineous marriage, and new ethnic policies issued by the Central and the province); Organized 3 legal knowledge competitions for 330 village and hamlet officials, prestigious people, propagandists and people (1) .
Lao Cai province pays attention to training, fostering and coaching staff working in legal aid.
In 2024, Lao Cai province organized 4 pilot training courses under the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas on access to legal aid for 233 village elders, village chiefs, and prestigious people in the community in Muong Khuong, Bat Xat, Bao Thang, and Si Ma Cai districts; 1 training conference, fostering knowledge of pilot legal aid under the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction for 126 village officials, community representatives, group leaders, branch officials, unions, and poverty reduction collaborators in 4 districts. The training and knowledge fostering contents include: Law on Legal Aid (2017) and documents guiding its implementation; Circular No. 03/2021/TT-BTP, dated May 25, 2021, of the Ministry of Justice, “Amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 08/2017/TT-BTP, dated November 15, 2017, of the Minister of Justice detailing a number of articles of the Law on Legal Aid and providing guidance on documents in legal aid activities; Circular No. 12/2018/TT-BTP, dated August 28, 2018, of the Minister of Justice providing guidance on a number of legal aid professional activities and quality management of legal aid cases”; practice situational exercises and multiple choice questions on legal aid... Thanks to that, delegates participating in training and education have a better understanding of legal aid policies, do a good job of introducing, informing, and explaining about legal aid, and are a bridge between people and legal aid organizations in the province.
Lao Cai province has organized 88 sessions (176 sessions) of thematic talks, law dissemination, information provision, and direct communication on legal aid in 176 villages and hamlets with 6,763 participants. Legal aid centers in Lao Cai province have directly handled and promptly and effectively supported hundreds of cases, including many complicated cases, such as forest disputes, land use rights violations, victims of fraud and human trafficking; disseminated a number of legal regulations related to criminal, civil, family, land, etc., received and provided legal advice to 530 cases (2) .
The province regularly organizes mobile legal aid programs. Thousands of people in the province's border communes have had access to important legal information. In the period of 2017 - 2023, the Lao Cai Provincial State Legal Aid Center organized 405 communication sessions for poor communes, especially disadvantaged villages and hamlets with more than 14,175 participants. Thereby, helping to propagate and disseminate to ethnic minority people the provisions of the 2017 Law on Legal Aid; about 14 groups of subjects entitled to free legal aid services; about officials participating in the implementation of legal aid; scope and fields of legal aid; provisions of criminal, civil, land laws... Organizing and installing 51 sets of information boards and legal aid bulletin boxes, replacing old bulletin boxes, placed at border posts of border communes, headquarters of agencies conducting proceedings in the province; Provide free legal aid application forms and distribute “flyers” to disseminate the law to the people…
For ethnic minorities, the use of their mother tongue in legal consultations helps them easily access and understand the legal content. Some officials and legal assistants in Lao Cai are fluent in H'Mong, Dao, Tay, Giay, so legal aid programs in local languages have brought about clear results, minimizing language barriers. Legal messages are conveyed in a memorable and easy-to-remember way, suitable for the culture and customs of each ethnic group. The above results not only reflect the efforts of the authorities but also demonstrate the practical significance of the legal aid policy for ethnic minority areas with special difficulties.
However, legal aid for ethnic minorities in the border areas of Lao Cai province still has the following limitations:
Firstly , difficulties and shortages in human resources, material resources and finance. Legal aid centers in Lao Cai province lack professional legal aid staff, especially those who are fluent in ethnic minority languages. Many remote border areas with difficult terrain still lack legal aid services due to lack of staff or funding. Local legal aid teams are limited in experience, qualifications and processing capacity.
Second , coordination between authorities in organizing and implementing legal aid activities is not tight. In some places, dissemination of laws is not regular, leading to interruptions in the process of supporting people. In addition, the mechanism for monitoring and evaluating the quality and effectiveness of legal aid programs is not consistent.
Third , there are some barriers in communication with ethnic minorities. The process of providing legal aid and implementing communication activities on legal aid for ethnic minorities must go through interpreters.
Fourth , most assistance programs focus on solving specific, situational legal problems, not paying much attention to raising sustainable legal awareness in the community, so the legal awareness of some ethnic minorities is not adequate, some people are still hesitant to proactively seek legal aid services, and still resolve disputes in a way that does not comply with the law...
Some tasks to focus on in the coming time
To continue to effectively implement legal aid work for ethnic minorities in border areas, in the coming time, Lao Cai province will focus on the following basic tasks:
Firstly , focus on promoting propaganda, dissemination and legal education for people. The content, form and language of propaganda must be suitable to the cultural level, customs and practices of ethnic minorities. Develop propaganda programs in ethnic languages; use radio stations and loudspeakers in villages and hamlets, create short videos to broadcast on social networking platforms; integrate legal propaganda sessions into festivals, highland markets or community cultural events, etc., to help people easily access and receive information.
Second , gradually improve the quality of the legal aid staff. The legal aid team needs to be trained in depth, not only in professional skills but also in communication skills, local culture and use of ethnic languages. In particular, priority should be given to recruiting and training legal aid staff from local ethnic minorities, contributing to enhancing the effectiveness of propaganda and legal aid work for the people.
Third , regularly organize mobile legal aid activities to villages and hamlets in border areas. This is an important and appropriate solution that needs to be organized periodically, with the participation of lawyers, legal assistants, and local officials to advise and resolve legal issues directly and promptly for the people. At the same time, it is necessary to fully equip means and information technology, such as mobile vehicles, multilingual legal documents, presentation support equipment, etc.
Fourth , build and improve the legal aid network at the grassroots level. Legal organizations and clubs in the community are the "channels" connecting people and law enforcement agencies. In particular, in remote border areas, it is necessary to establish "Hotlines" or online legal advice systems. The State needs to increase the budget for legal aid centers, and at the same time mobilize the participation of businesses and individuals. The application of information technology, digitization of legal documents and the construction of online legal databases are also practical solutions to improve the effectiveness of legal aid.
Fifth , integrate legal dissemination programs into local socio-economic development programs. Integration will help ethnic minorities better understand their rights and obligations when participating in economic and social activities.
Sixth , increase the application of information technology in legal aid work for ethnic minorities. Research and build online platforms to provide basic legal information, guidance on citizens' rights and obligations, legal aid policies, legal regulations related to land, marriage, inheritance, etc., on websites or mobile applications. Organize online legal consultation sessions via video call, hotline or messaging application; legal experts can directly answer questions and advise on specific legal issues, helping people not need to go to the center or state agency when using legal aid services.
Seventh , encourage and motivate people to actively participate in legal dissemination and propaganda programs organized in villages and hamlets to better understand their legal rights and obligations. Encourage and create conditions for people to participate in legal classes and seminars; proactively exchange and work with legal officials to improve their legal knowledge. At the same time, it is necessary to develop a long-term legal education program, especially one for ethnic minority youth and children. Schools need to integrate legal education into their curriculum, helping the younger generation understand and comply with the law from an early age./.
-------------------
(1), (2) Lao Cai Provincial People's Committee: Report No. 561/BC-UBND, dated November 29, 2024, summarizing judicial work in 2024 and directions for tasks in 2025
Source: https://tapchicongsan.org.vn/web/guest/nghien-cu/-/2018/1073202/cong-tac-tro-giup-phap-ly-cho-dong-bao-dan-toc-thieu-so--khu-vuc-bien-gioi-tinh-lao-cai.aspx
![[Photo] Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs a meeting on the implementation of the Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong railway project.](https://vphoto.vietnam.vn/thumb/1200x675/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2025/5/20/0fa4c9864f63456ebc0eb504c09c7e26)
Comment (0)