Decision No. 59/2012/QD-TTg on legal aid policies for poor people and ethnic minority groups in poor communes during the period from 2013 to 2020

Pursuant to …;

Von policies for legal aid to poor people,

ethnic minority groups in poor communes during the period from 2013 to 2020

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Căn cứ Luật T, amended and supplemented by Decree No. 109/2025/NĐ-CP and Decree No. 193/2025/NĐ-CP dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the Legal Aid Law on June 29, 2006;

To implement Resolution No.No. 80/NQ-CP dated May 19, 2011 of the Government on guidelines for sustainable poverty reduction during the period from 2011 to 2020;

At the proposal of the Minister of Justice;

The Prime Minister promulgates policies for legal aid to poor people and ethnic minority groups in poor communes during the period from 2013 to 2020.

Article 1.perioda) Clause 1 Article 15 regarding accountability;

This Decision stipulates policies for legal aid to poor people and ethnic minority groups in poor communes during the period from 2013 to 2020 in accordance with Resolution No. 80/NQ-CP dated May 19, 2011 of the Government on guidelines for sustainable poverty reduction during the period from 2011 to 2020.

3. Amend Clause 3 Article 2 as follows:iArticle 2. Objectives and Areas of Application

1. Beneficiaries of the policy: poor people, ethnic minority groups, and other individuals eligible for legal aid under the law.

2. Areas of application of the policy:

a) Poor communes not belonging to poor districts according to Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP dated December 27, 2008 of the Government on the Program for Rapid and Sustainable Poverty Reduction in 61 Poor Districts, including:

- Particularly difficult communes in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities and mountainous regions;

- Particularly difficult communes in coastal and island areas;

- Border communes and safe area communes.

b) Particularly difficult hamlets and villages in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities and mountainous regions that do not belong to the poor communes specified in Point a Clause 2 of this Article (hereinafter referred to as particularly difficult hamlets and villages).

Article 3. Activities to Implement Legal Aid Policies

1. Providing free legal services to beneficiaries of the policy through the following forms of legal aid:

a) Legal counseling;

b) Participation in litigation;

c) Representation outside litigation;

d) Other forms as prescribed by laws on legal aid.

2. Organizing mobile legal aid campaigns in poor communes and particularly difficult hamlets and villages.

3. Establishing, consolidating, and organizing activities of Legal Aid Clubs.

4. Informing, disseminating, and popularizing legal regimes, policies, regulations, and programs and policies for sustainable poverty reduction to poor people, ethnic minority groups, including:

a) Compiling, printing, and distributing free legal pamphlets, legal handbooks, and other legal materials; recording and duplicating video tapes, CDs in Vietnamese and ethnic minority languages;

b) Setting up Information Boards and Information Boxes about legal aid at the offices of People's Committees, Post Centers, community activity centers, cultural houses, Border Guard Posts located in poor communes and particularly difficult hamlets and villages; The People's Committees and Legal Aid Clubs in poor communes.

c) Providing the Vietnam Law Newspaper to The People's Committees and Legal Aid Clubs in poor communes.

5. Enhancing the capacity of organizations implementing legal aid, legal aid providers, and members of Legal Aid Club Steering Committees, including:

a) Organizing training and professional development courses on legal aid to update legal knowledge and improve legal aid skills for legal aid providers and members of Legal Aid Club Steering Committees;

b) Supporting tuition fees for civil servants of Provincial State Legal Aid Centers participating in lawyer training programs to appoint Legal Aid Officers;

c) Supporting tuition fees for language training in ethnic minority languages for legal aid providers of State Legal Aid Centers directly providing legal aid in poor communes.

Article 4. Financial standards for supporting activities to implement legal aid policies

1. Organizing mobile legal aid sessions in poor communes; extremely difficult hamlets and villages: 8,000,000 VND/per commune/year; 3,000,000 VND/per hamlet/village/year.

2. Establishing, consolidating, and organizing legal aid club activities in poor communes; extremely difficult hamlets and villages: 6,000,000 VND/per commune/year (500,000 VND/per commune/session/month); 2,000,000 VND/per hamlet/village/year.organize credit institutions, foreign bank branches are responsible for organizing the implementation of this Circular. Compiling, printing, and distributing free legal leaflets, legal handbooks, and other legal materials; collecting and duplicating cassette tapes, CDs in Vietnamese and ethnic minority languages: 2,000,000 VND/per commune/year; 500,000 VND/per hamlet/village/year.

3. Providing financial support for local people's committees, post offices, community activity houses, cultural houses, border guard posts located in poor communes, extremely difficult hamlets and villages: 3,000,000 VND/per commune/time (2 times/8 years); 1,000,000 VND/per hamlet/village/time (2 times/8 years).

4. Setting up Information Boards and Information Boxes about legal aid at the offices of People's Committees, Post Centers, community activity centers, cultural houses, Border Guard Posts located in poor communes and particularly difficult hamlets and villages; DECREES:Providing financial support for local people's committees and legal aid clubs in poor communes: According to the issue price of the Vietnam Law Newspaper.

5. Providing the Vietnam Law Newspaper to DECREES:Organizing training and professional development classes on legal aid to update legal knowledge and improve legal aid skills for legal aid providers, members of the Legal Aid Club Management Board: 5,000,000 VND/per commune/year.

6. Supporting tuition fees for civil servants of state legal aid centers in provinces with poor communes participating in lawyer training programs to appoint legal aid officers: according to the current regulations on tuition fees of the Judicial Academy (number of supported individuals: 03 persons/center/year).

7. Supporting tuition fees for ethnic minority language training for legal aid providers of state legal aid centers directly providing legal aid in poor communes: according to the current regulations on tuition fees for each ethnic language training course (number of supported individuals: 02 persons/center/year).

8. Article 5. Mechanism to ensure human resources and funding for implementing legal aid policies

Human Resources:

1. Prioritizing the selection of individuals participating in capacity-building activities stipulated in Clause 5, Article 3 of this Decision as ethnic minorities, residents of poor communes, extremely difficult hamlets and villages, those who know ethnic minority languages, women, and those with experience in legal aid activities. Attracting respected individuals from ethnic minority communities to participate as legal aid volunteers.

Funding Sources:

2. The funding for implementing legal aid policies under this Decision shall be allocated from the central budget, local budgets, international cooperation projects, and contributions from organizations and individuals both domestically and internationally (if any);

a) The central budget will provide support to provinces that cannot balance their budgets independently to carry out activities specified in Clauses 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Article 3 of this Decision;

b) For provinces that can balance their budgets independently, local budgets must ensure the implementation of legal aid policies according to the financial standards set forth in Article 4 of this Decision;

c) Local budgets of provinces that can balance their budgets independently and those that cannot must ensure funding for regular operations, management activities, professional activities, and free legal service provision activities as stipulated in Clause 1, Article 3 of this Decision.

d) Local budgets of provinces that have achieved self-balancing and those that have not yet achieved self-balancing shall ensure funds for regular expenditures, management activities, specialized professional activities, and free legal service provision activities as stipulated in Clause 1, Article 3 of this Decision.

Article 6. Responsibilities of Ministries, sectors, and localities in organizing the implementation of legal aid policies

1. The Ministry of Justice:

a) To take the lead and coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to inspect the management and use of funds for purchasing and transporting, distributing rice to localities.nationalp with relevant ministries and sectors to direct and guide localities in implementing the legal aid policy according to this Decision;

b) Guide the registration of activities for sports clubs, grassroots physical education and sports facilities, and cheerleading clubs.nationalp with the Ministry of Finance to guide the preparation, management, utilization, and settlement of funds to ensure the implementation of the legal aid policy according to this Decision;

c) Generalnationalp the state budget estimate to ensure the implementation of the legal aid policy according to this Decision, supported by the central budget for provinces that have not yet achieved financial self-balancing, to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance for consolidation;nationalp submit for approval by the competent authority;

d) Organize inspections, supervision, and evaluation of the results of implementing the legal aid policy according to this Decision; conduct mid-year reviews and annual summaries of the results, and report the outcomes to the Prime Minister;June 2024;p with the Ministry of Finance to guide the preparation, management, utilization, and settlement of funds to ensure the implementation of the legal aid policy according to this Decision;nationalp with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to submit to the competent authority for allocation of funds from the central budget to ensure the implementation of the legal aid policy for provinces that have not yet achieved financial self-balancing according to this Decision;

2. The Ministry of Finance:

a) To take the lead and coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to inspect the management and use of funds for purchasing and transporting, distributing rice to localities.nationalCoordinate with the Ministry of Justice and related ministries and sectors to inspect, supervise, and evaluate the implementation of the legal aid policy according to this Decision;

b) Take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to submit to the competent authority for allocation of funds from the central budget to ensure the implementation of the legal aid policy for provinces that have not yet achieved financial self-balancing according to this Decision;policies Coordinate with the Ministry of Justice and related ministries and sectors to inspect, supervise, and evaluate the implementation of the legal aid policy according to this Decision;

c) Take the lead and coordinate with related ministries and sectors to develop measures to mobilize official development assistance (ODA) sources to implement this Decision;

3. The Ministry of Planning and Investment:

a) Coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to balance the state budget to ensure the implementation of the legal aid policy according to this Decision;

b) Coordinate with the Ministry of Justice and related ministries and sectors to inspect, supervise, and evaluate the implementation of the legal aid policy according to this Decision;

c) The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs:

4. Within its functions, tasks, and authorities, the Ethnic Minority Department coordinates with the Ministry of Justice to inspect, supervise, and evaluate the results of implementing the legal aid policy according to this Decision; The Related ministries and sectors within their functions, tasks, and authorities support and create conditions for localities to effectively implement the legal aid policy according to this Decision;

5. Provincial People's Committees and municipal people's committees directly under the Central Government with poor communes, extremely difficult villages, and hamlets:development Direct and guide the implementation of the legal aid policy according to this Decision at the locality level;

Ensure funding from the local budget for activities specified in point d, Clause 2, Article 5 of this Decision; For provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government that have achieved financial self-balancing, they are responsible for ensuring funding to implement the legal aid policy according to the financial standards set out in Article 4 of this Decision;

a) For provinces that have not yet achieved financial self-balancing, they are responsible for directing the Department of Justice to cooperate with relevant departments to prepare the budget for funding to implement the legal aid policy according to this Decision, to be submitted to the Ministry of Justice for consolidation and submission to the competent authority for approval;

b) g) Inspect, supervise, evaluate, conduct mid-year reviews, annual summaries, and report the results of implementing the legal aid policy at the local level to the Ministry of Justice for consolidation and reporting to the Prime Minister;

c) This Decision takes effect from February 15, 2013;

d) The Minister of Justice shall take the lead and coordinate with related ministries and sectors to guide the implementation of this Decision;

Provincial People's Committees and municipal people's committees directly under the Central Government are responsible for enforcing this Decision./.

Article 7. Implementation Provisions

1. This Decision takes effect from February 15, 2013.

2. The Minister of Justice shall take the lead in coordinating with relevant ministries and sectors to guide the implementation of this Decision.

3. Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Heads of government agencies, Chairmen DECREES:Provincial People's Committees and municipal people's committees directly under the central government are responsible for implementing this Decision./.