Circular No. 01/2003/TT-BTP guiding the implementation of Decision No. 13/2003/QĐ-TTg dated January 17, 2003 of the Prime Minister approving the Program on Popularizing and Promoting Legal Education from 2003 to 2007.

CIRCULAR

Guidelines for implementing Decision No. 13/2003/QĐ-TTg dated January 17, 2003 of the Prime Minister approving the Program

 on popularizing and educating laws from 2003 to 2007

_______________

Pursuant to Article 2 of Decision No. 13/2003/QĐ-TTg dated January 17, 2003 of the Prime Minister approving the Program on popularizing and educating laws from 2003 to 2007, the Ministry of Justice guides certain specific issues as follows:

I. GENERAL ISSUES

1. The Program on popularizing and educating laws from 2003 to 2007 (hereinafter referred to as the Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws) inherits and develops the Implementation Plan for the Work of Popularizing and Educating Laws from 1998 to 2002 (annexed to Decision No. 03/1998/QĐ-TTg dated January 7, 1998 of the Prime Minister). The Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws not only provides guidance but also clearly identifies the target groups, contents, and suggests some forms and measures for popularizing and educating laws that need to be focused on. The Program does not specify the progress or time frame for implementation. Therefore, Ministries, sectors, localities, and each agency should independently choose the target groups, contents, forms, measures, and progress that are suitable with their respective conditions, characteristics, requirements, and tasks.

2. In order to enhance the role of Ministries and sectors in drafting and enforcing laws, Decree No. 86/2002/NĐ-CP dated November 5, 2002 of the Government stipulates the tasks and powers of Ministries and Ministers to "Direct and organize the implementation of work on propaganda, education, and popularization of legal normative documents within the scope of their administrative management" (Clause 4, Article 4). Ministries and sectors develop plans to guide the entire sector in implementing this task.

The Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws has assigned specific responsibilities at Point 2, Section C of the Program to some Ministries with general functions in the work of popularizing and educating laws, namely the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ministry of Finance. These agencies have the responsibility to direct the implementation of specific tasks assigned by the Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws.

3. At Section C (Implementation Organization) of the Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws, the Government has assigned the responsibility for implementing the Program not only to Ministries and agencies equivalent to Ministries but also to agencies under the Government. Therefore, agencies under the Government also have the responsibility to implement the Program.

4. The Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws has assigned tasks to the National Committee, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Government's Religious Committee, and the Ministry of Justice to cooperate with relevant agencies and organizations in building, promulgating, and implementing specific national projects aimed at achieving significant changes and practical, concrete results in the work of popularizing and educating laws. Ministries and sectors assigned these responsibilities should actively work with coordinating agencies, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and the Ministry of Finance to promptly promulgate and implement projects assigned by the Prime Minister.

5. Ministries, sectors, Provincial People's Committees shall provide regular and timely information and report the results of the work of popularizing and educating laws to the Ministry of Justice, creating favorable conditions for the Ministry of Justice to effectively fulfill its responsibilities of directing, guiding, urging, monitoring, and summarizing and reporting to the Prime Minister the progress and results of implementing the Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws.

II. REGARDING THE PLAN FOR POPULARIZING AND EDUCATING LAWS OF MINISTRIES, SECTORS, AND LOCALITIES

1. According to Points 1 and 3 of Section C of the Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws, every year, Ministries, agencies equivalent to Ministries, agencies under the Government, and People's Committees at all levels shall build Plans for Popularizing and Educating Laws to implement in their respective Ministries, sectors, and localities. Due to the nature of the work of popularizing and educating laws which requires continuous and regular implementation, issuing and implementing new Plans according to the Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws will not interrupt the ongoing work of popularizing and educating laws being carried out according to previous Plans of Ministries, sectors, and localities.

The Plan for Popularizing and Educating Laws of Ministries and Sectors is built based on the Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws, in accordance with the requirements, tasks, and actual situation of Ministries and Sectors, with a focus on popularizing, providing information, and guiding the implementation of legal normative documents within their fields of management to agencies, units, enterprises, and citizens.

The Plan for Popularizing and Educating Laws of Provincial People's Committees needs to closely follow the Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws, guidelines from the Steering Committee for Popularizing and Educating Laws of the Government, and guidelines from Ministries and Sectors regarding the implementation of the work of popularizing and educating laws in areas managed by Ministries and Sectors, in accordance with the requirements, tasks, and actual situation of the locality.

The Plan for Popularizing and Educating Laws of District and Commune People's Committees is built based on the Plan and guidance from higher-level People's Committees.

The Plans for Popularizing and Educating Laws of Ministries, Sectors, and Localities need to concretize the Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws, propose comprehensive, specific, and appropriate solutions to enhance understanding of laws and compliance with laws among cadres and people, paying special attention to forms and measures for propagating, popularizing, and educating legal awareness at the grassroots level, down to those directly organizing the enforcement and implementation of laws.

In 2003, the Plans for Popularizing and Educating Laws of Ministries, Sectors, and Localities need to be issued in the first quarter of the year. Following the orientation of the Government's Program on Popularizing and Educating Laws and inheriting the Plans of the previous year, Plans for Popularizing and Educating Laws from 2004 onwards need to be issued early in the year to ensure timely implementation.

2. Regarding the content of the Plan:

a) Target groups needing to be popularized and educated about laws: The Government's legal awareness and education program still maintains five groups of subjects as specified in the Implementation Plan for Legal Awareness and Education from 1998 to 2002, specifically: the general public; officials and civil servants; young people; workers, managers, and trade union officers in enterprises; armed forces, with specific subjects clearly identified within each group.

The legal awareness and education plans of each Ministry, sector, and People's Committees at all levels focus on the subjects determined by the Government's Program. Depending on the characteristics and needs for legal awareness and education in each Ministry, sector, and locality, the legal awareness and education plan must outline contents, forms, and methods to educate legal consciousness for narrower and more specific subjects within those broad categories.

b) Contents of legal awareness and education are selected appropriately based on the subject and area, following the guidance on content provided by the Government's legal awareness and education program; emphasizing the dissemination of specific legal regulations and instructions on implementing legal procedures; linking legal dissemination with propaganda on Party and State policies, mass movements initiated by the Fatherland Front and social organizations. It should be noted that the legal content disseminated does not only concentrate on newly issued documents during each period but also includes existing legal provisions that need to be promoted and disseminated according to political requirements, preventive measures against law violations, and guidance on law enforcement at Ministries, sectors, and localities.

c) Regarding forms and methods of legal awareness and education: The Government's legal awareness and education program proposes five types of forms and methods to implement legal awareness and education activities, namely:

- Consolidating and expanding the force participating in legal awareness and education;

- Developing diverse and convenient information dissemination forms for legal education to meet the needs of different subjects;

- Enhancing the quality of teaching and learning law in schools at various educational levels;

- Expanding and improving the quality of various legal counseling and legal aid forms;

- Organizing and launching concentrated campaigns to promote and disseminate law and mobilize compliance with law according to specific themes and contents.

Among the specific forms and methods, there are those that need to be applied universally across Ministries, sectors, and localities for all subjects, and others that need to be applied depending on the specific subjects and conditions. In the plans of Ministries, sectors, and localities, attention should be paid to the following forms and methods:

- Paying attention to the consolidation and expansion of the force participating in legal awareness and education, including the legal lecturers, propagandists, mediators, counselors, and legal aid officers. Actively mobilizing and utilizing the voluntary youth force and the vanguard youth in promoting laws to the public; trade union officers in promoting laws to workers.

- Continuing to use effective forms of legal awareness and education, such as through mass media, legal bookshelves, compiling legal materials (paying attention to translating and publishing legal materials in ethnic minority languages), organizing contests and competitions on legal knowledge, incorporating legal content into the activities of organizations, clubs, and professional associations. Actively exploiting the effectiveness of legal awareness and education through legal aid and counseling activities.

- Organizing concentrated campaigns to promote, disseminate, and mobilize compliance with law according to specific themes and contents.

Besides the aforementioned forms and methods, Ministries, sectors, and localities propose and implement appropriate forms and methods in accordance with their specific conditions, characteristics, and requirements for legal awareness and education work.

d) Along with the legal awareness and education plan, localities need to develop and implement specific documents to concretize the Government's legal awareness and education program,

specifically: - Developing and implementing pilot projects to implement legal awareness and education according to subjects, forms, methods, areas, and units to achieve concrete results in enhancing legal awareness and preventing and reducing law violations. The scope of the pilot project should not be extensive but should select some areas, units, and subjects for focused guidance, from which lessons can be learned, exemplary models can be built, and then implemented widely.

- Developing inter-sectoral coordination plans between state agencies; between state agencies and political-social organizations, social-professional organizations; between political-social organizations and social-professional organizations to disseminate and educate law to specific subjects with specific contents, forms, and methods.

đ) Funding for legal awareness and education activities:

According to Point 1 and Point 3 of Section C of the Government's legal awareness and education program, Ministries, agencies equivalent to Ministries, government agencies, and People's Committees at all levels must ensure funding for legal awareness and education activities from the state budget annually. Ministries, sectors, and People's Committees need to direct the Legal Departments and local judicial organs to coordinate with financial departments to prepare budget estimates according to the approved annual legal awareness and education plans.

All expenditures from the state budget for legal awareness and education activities are carried out under Subitem 11 and 12 of Item 111 in the state budget classification system.

All expenditures from the State budget for popularizing and educating about laws shall be implemented according to Subitem 11, 12 of Item 111 in the State Budget Item System.

The Government's legal awareness and education program has assigned the Ministry of Justice to develop a proposal for establishing a Legal Awareness and Education Fund from contributions of organizations and individuals both within and outside the country. This Fund will operate nationwide. The Ministry of Justice will provide specific guidance for ministries, sectors, and localities to implement the proposal once it is approved by the Government based on the Ministry of Justice’s recommendation and those of relevant ministries and sectors.

3. The advisory body responsible for drafting and organizing the implementation of the Legal Awareness and Education Plan is the Legal Affairs organization under ministries and sectors; and the local judicial authority.

4. Based on the issued Plan, ministries, sectors, People's Committees shall direct the Legal Affairs organizations and local judicial authorities to coordinate with relevant units to regularly urge, inspect, guide, and evaluate the implementation of the Plan; on this basis, propose more effective forms and measures for legal awareness and education; promptly supplement and adjust the Plan to be consistent with actual conditions, requirements, and tasks of ministries, sectors, and localities; and meet the requirement of enhancing legal awareness among target groups.

Ministries, sectors, and People's Committees need to promptly encourage and reward collectives and individuals with outstanding achievements in legal awareness and education work; recommend the Ministry of Justice to submit to competent authorities for high-level commendation for agencies, units, organizations, and individuals with particularly outstanding achievements in legal awareness and education work.

III. REGARDING THE COORDINATION BOARD FOR LEGAL AWARENESS AND EDUCATION WORK

The provincial Coordination Board for Legal Awareness and Education Work was established pursuant to Decision No. 03/1998/QĐ-TTg dated January 7, 1998, by the Prime Minister. The Coordination Board for Legal Awareness and Education Work at the ministry and sector levels continues to be strengthened and improved in quality of operation.

The People's Committee directs the maintenance and enhancement of the role and creation of favorable conditions for the activities of the provincial, district, and commune-level Coordination Boards for Legal Awareness and Education Work.

The Government's Coordination Board for Legal Awareness and Education Work will provide specific guidelines on the organization and operation of the Board to align with the requirements of legal awareness and education work in the current phase.

This Circular shall take effect fifteen days from the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

During the process of implementing organizational arrangements, any difficulties should be promptly reported to the Ministry of Justice for research and guidance./.