9th Session, 15th National Assembly: Piloting the People's Procuracy to initiate civil lawsuits to protect public interests and vulnerable groups

On the morning of June 24, with 407/423 delegates participating in the vote in favor (accounting for 85.15% of the total number of National Assembly delegates), the National Assembly passed a Resolution on piloting the People's Procuracy in initiating civil lawsuits to protect the civil rights of vulnerable groups or to protect public interests.

The National Assembly voted to pass a Resolution of the National Assembly on piloting the People's Procuracy in initiating civil lawsuits to protect the civil rights of vulnerable groups or to protect public interests. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

The summary report on the reception, explanation and revision of the draft Resolution of the Supreme People's Procuracy clearly stated that, regarding the principles of implementation and cases in which the Procuracy initiates lawsuits, according to the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code (Article 187), the protection of public interests and civil rights of vulnerable subjects through initiating civil lawsuits is the responsibility of agencies, organizations and individuals.

However, in practice, agencies, organizations and individuals have not implemented it effectively, leading to the fact that the interests of the State, public interests, and the legitimate rights and interests of vulnerable groups have not been protected; there are very few lawsuits that these agencies have conducted. Therefore, the People's Procuracy has reported and been permitted by the competent authority to pilot the mechanism: The People's Procuracy initiates a civil lawsuit in cases of violations causing damage to the civil rights of subjects in vulnerable groups or public interests. The applicable principle is: The People's Procuracy only initiates a lawsuit when it has notified and recommended that agencies, organizations and individuals exercise their rights and responsibilities to initiate a lawsuit according to the provisions of law but there is no one to initiate a lawsuit (Article 2 of the Draft Resolution). The People's Procuracy initiates a public interest civil lawsuit to protect the civil rights of subjects in vulnerable groups when the person whose civil rights have been violated or their legal representative cannot initiate a lawsuit on their own and requests the People's Procuracy to initiate a lawsuit; In case there is a basis to determine that their failure to make a request is due to deception, threats, coercion or mistake, the Procuracy shall consider and decide to file a lawsuit (Article 14 of the draft Resolution)...

Regarding the position, role, tasks and powers of the People's Procuracy, this is a content that has been thoroughly discussed during the process of developing the Project and has been decided by the competent authority. Accordingly, the People's Procuracy participates in civil and public interest cases as a representative of the State to carry out its responsibility to initiate a lawsuit to protect the civil rights of vulnerable groups or public interests when no agency, organization or individual initiates a lawsuit, and also participates as a judicial inspection agency with the functions, tasks and roles of a prosecution agency according to the provisions of the current civil procedure law.

The participation of the People's Procuracy in two roles still ensures the appropriateness of the State's responsibility to protect public interests, protect civil rights of vulnerable subjects and the People's Procuracy's responsibility to supervise compliance with the law in resolving this type of case by the People's Court and litigants; ensuring that the case is resolved objectively, correctly and effectively.

Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy Nguyen Huy Tien presented a report explaining, accepting and revising the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on piloting the People's Procuracy in initiating civil lawsuits to protect the civil rights of vulnerable groups or to protect public interests. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

Regarding inspection and verification measures, in current civil proceedings, the responsibility for collecting evidence belongs to the parties. However, in public interest civil cases, the People's Procuracy must be responsible for collecting documents and evidence to protect the public interest and civil rights of vulnerable subjects to initiate a lawsuit.

At the same time, the Procuracy's collection of evidence does not exclude the Court's authority to collect evidence during the trial of a public interest civil case. According to the provisions of the Law on Organization of People's Courts 2024, the parties must collect, provide and submit evidence to the Court themselves. The Court only guides, supports or requests agencies, organizations and individuals to provide and submit evidence when the parties have taken necessary measures but have not been able to collect it.

In addition, regarding the measure of "inspecting and evaluating the scene", this is a very necessary measure that the Procuracy must take to discover the objective truth, determine the authenticity of the incident, such as the case of discharging waste that pollutes water sources, causing negative impacts on the living environment and health of households over a large area, the People's Procuracy needs to go directly to the scene, inspect, collect water samples, request appraisals... to determine the consequences, from which the Procuracy has grounds to file a lawsuit.

Hien Hanh (Vietnam News Agency)

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/thoi-su/ky-hop-thu-9-quoc-hoi-khoa-xv-thi-diemvien-kiem-sat-nhan-dan-khoi-kien-vu-an-dan-su-de-bao-ve-loi-ich-cong-va-nhom-de-bi-ton-thuong-20250624092224634.htm