Joint Resolution No. 01/1999/NQLT-TP-VHTT-NNPTNT-DTMN-ND on coordinating the dissemination and education of laws for cadres and people in rural areas, mountainous regions, remote areas, and ethnic minority regions.

JOINT RESOLUTION

On the coordination in disseminating and educating laws to cadres and people in rural areas, remote regions, and ethnic minority areas

Directive No. 02/1998/CT-TTg dated January 7, 1998, of the Government Chairman emphasized that: "The Ministry of Justice needs to effectively coordinate with the Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas and the Vietnam Farmers' Association to organize the dissemination and education of laws to the people in rural areas, highlands, remote regions, and ethnic minority areas, implementing the principle of combining literacy eradication with legal literacy among the people."

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Decision No. 03/1998/QD-TTg dated January 7, 1998 on the issuance of the Plan to implement legal dissemination and education work from 1998 to 2002 and the establishment of the Coordination Council for Legal Dissemination and Education also clearly stated the tasks of relevant agencies and organizations.

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Implementing the tasks assigned by the Government Chairman, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas, and the Vietnam Farmers' Association (hereinafter referred to collectively as the Parties signing the Joint Resolution) have jointly issued this Joint Resolution on coordinating the dissemination and education of laws to cadres and people in rural areas, highlands, remote regions, and ethnic minority areas.

I. OBJECTIVES AND REQUIREMENTS:

1. Purpose:

- To equip knowledge and enhance understanding of laws related to daily life, economic, cultural, and social activities of cadres and people;

- To build a stable team of local speakers and propagandists, paying particular attention to the cadre forces of mass organizations, village schools, village headmen, and teachers at local schools;

- Gradually form a pattern of information dissemination, propaganda, and legal study as a regular activity at the grassroots level;

- Establish and maintain a stable mechanism for coordination between agencies and organizations, which are the Parties signing the Joint Resolution, from central to grassroots levels in legal dissemination and education work in rural areas, highlands, remote regions, and ethnic minority areas.

- Mobilize the comprehensive strength of all levels and sectors in disseminating and educating laws down to every hamlet in remote regions and ethnic minority areas.

2. The remaining 60% shall be used to supplement the operating funds of units directly responsible for public debt management at the Ministry of Finance (outside the regular state budget allocation for ongoing operations as currently provided) for the purposes specified in Article 4 of this Decision.

- Focus on implementing some immediate tasks while emphasizing long-term solutions.

- Develop implementation plans with specific contents, while maintaining regular forms of legal dissemination and education in rural and mountainous areas nationwide.

- Serve the enforcement of laws and political tasks by closely integrating legal dissemination and education forms with economic and social activities at each locality.

II. CONTENTS OF LEGAL DISSEMINATION AND EDUCATION:

From now until 2002, focus on implementing the contents and measures stipulated in Section III, Part B of Decision No. 03/1998/QD-TTg, particularly disseminating legal documents directly related to management authority and the lives of cadres and people in rural and mountainous areas. Emphasize the dissemination and education on basic rights and obligations of citizens, especially the right to vote and run for election, the obligation to defend the country, the obligation to protect national property, the obligation to pay taxes, public service labor; marriage and family, protection, care, and education of children, household registration, civil law, land, forest protection and development, water resources, environmental protection, settlement policy, new economic development policy, land allocation, forest allocation, drug prevention; building cultural villages, establishing and implementing village covenants; eliminating backward customs; handling administrative violations in land, forest protection and development, public order and security fields.

III. FORMS OF LEGAL DISSEMINATION AND EDUCATION:

The Departments of Justice, Culture, Sports and Tourism, Agriculture and Rural Development, Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas, and the Vietnam Farmers' Association at all levels shall coordinate to maintain and promote the following forms of legal dissemination and education:

1. Training legal content for key cadres at the commune level, village chiefs, village headmen, village elders, cultural and information officers, and mass organization cadres at the commune level;

2. Propagating laws through mass media, primarily through specialized newspapers and magazines of the agencies and organizations that are the Parties signing the Joint Resolution;

3. Disseminating laws through the grassroots radio network. Strengthening and developing the radio broadcasting system, incorporating legal propaganda content into the broadcasting program to ensure that all documents related to rural and mountainous areas are broadcasted over the radio network;

4. Propagating laws through information and visual publicity methods, supporting the activities of cultural and information teams, developing information stations and bulletin boards in community clusters;

5. Producing pamphlets and calendars for legal propaganda distribution to villages and hamlets;

6. Propagating laws through traditional cultural activities;

7. Building and utilizing legal libraries to improve the effectiveness of grassroots-level management and enhance the legal knowledge of the people;

8. Widely distributing the Judicial Bulletin, including special issues dedicated to rural and mountainous areas;

9. Increasing free legal counseling activities in mobile forms; adopting appropriate methods to collect people's questions about laws to promptly answer them;

10. Organizing legal knowledge contests within each region, sector, level, agency, and unit.

IV. SOME IMMEDIATE TASKS:

To draw lessons and create momentum for the continuous implementation of legal dissemination and education activities as stipulated in Article III of this Joint Resolution, the Parties signing the Joint Resolution will initially coordinate to implement the following tasks:

1. Direct pilot programs in some communes on legal propaganda through traditional cultural activities with the following contents:

- Training in laws, selecting and embedding legal content into various forms of traditional culture;

- Enhancing cooperation between judicial officials and cultural and information officials;

- Elevating the role of village chiefs, village headmen, village elders, and mediation teams.

Leading agency: Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

2. Direct the implementation of the Law on Forest Protection and Development and the Land Law with the following contents:

- Surveying the level of understanding of laws related to forest protection, land management and use, water resources, and environmental protection;

- Surveying the implementation of the above laws, violation situations, and causes of violations;

- Selecting and implementing appropriate forms of propaganda, including organizing a competition to understand laws on land and forest protection, and issuing publications to disseminate laws on these two areas;

- Enhancing supervisory capacity for the implementation of the Land Law and the Law on Forest Protection and Development;

- Evaluating the effectiveness of directing the implementation of legal education and dissemination activities regarding land and forest protection.

Leading agency: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam Farmers' Union, Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas.

3. Launch a competition for creating promotional programs to implement laws for cultural information teams (specific rules for the competition will be established separately).

Leading agency: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Justice.

V. MEASURES TO ENSURE IMPLEMENTATION:

To ensure the effective implementation of the legal education and dissemination activities stipulated in this Joint Resolution, the signatories of the Joint Resolution agree to implement the following measures:

1. The signatories of the Joint Resolution shall issue guidance documents for agencies and organizations under their jurisdiction to implement the Resolution;

2. The signatories of the Joint Resolution shall designate focal points to monitor the implementation of this Resolution and maintain contact with each other during the organization and implementation process;

Establish a joint legal education and dissemination working group consisting of leaders from the Department level and specialists from the signatories of the Joint Resolution and relevant agencies, with the Department leader of the Ministry of Justice serving as the Group Leader to maintain regular coordination among the parties;

3. The signatories of the Joint Resolution shall incorporate the implementation of this Resolution into their own reporting and inspection systems;

4. Hold leadership meetings every six months to review the work situation in the past period and plan coordination for the upcoming period;

5. The signatories of the Joint Resolution shall regularly coordinate inspections of the direction and implementation of this Resolution at all levels, especially at the grassroots level;

6. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for the funding for joint activities. Each sector and organization is responsible for the funding for their own activities./.