Raising legal awareness for people in mountainous areas: Slow and steady wins the race

(Baonghean) - In reality, in some remote villages, due to the limited legal knowledge of some people, there are some illegal acts and actions. Therefore, with the motto "slow and steady wins the race" in recent years, the work of propagating, disseminating and educating the law for ethnic minorities has received great attention from Party committees, authorities, departments and branches at all levels...

Judicial officers of Xieng My commune (Tuong Duong) guide people in making documents related to justice and civil status.

Some ethnic minorities in the highlands, especially the Mong people, have the custom of changing their names at least 3 times in their lives (when they are born, when they become adults, when they become household heads, when they are old...), causing difficulties for judicial and civil status work. According to Ms. Lang Phuong Thao - a judicial officer of Que Phong district, "Not only the Mong people have the custom of changing their names, but also the Thai people in Quang Phong, Cam Muon (Que Phong), when a girl lives with her parents, she takes her name, when she goes to her husband's house, she takes her husband's name, so there are cases where when a child is born, they go to make a birth certificate and declare the parents' names the same, for example, the husband is Lang Van Thu and the wife's name is Lang Thi Thu..., the judicial officer has to take the time to review and carefully study the records to make corrections...".

Mountainous districts and border areas are often places where people violate the law such as: delay in registering births for children, not registering deaths for the dead, early marriage, illegal migration, deforestation for farming, illegal drug trafficking and transportation... In that situation, in addition to Directive 13 on "Strengthening the leadership of Party committees in the work of propaganda, dissemination and education of law in the current period" of the Provincial Party Committee; The Provincial People's Committee issued the Project "Strengthening the work of disseminating and educating the law for cadres, ethnic minorities and mountainous areas in Nghe An province in the period of 2005 - 2010", followed by the period of 2011 - 2015 with the content of adding 6 more plain districts with mountainous communes. To implement this project, the Provincial Council for Coordination of Legal Dissemination and Education (PBGDPL) has assigned responsibilities to relevant sectors, and the lower-level councils have developed specific plans and methods. Based on the team of legal reporters from the province to the grassroots, the law clubs, and the network of propagandists and mediators, the PBGDPL councils at all levels have promptly disseminated all issues related to the legal policies of the Party and the State. The forms of propaganda are quite diverse, from holding training conferences, distributing leaflets, brochures, and legal handbooks to hamlets and villages; legal research competitions, grassroots mediator competitions in the form of dramatization; introducing and updating legal documents through the grassroots radio system, organizing delegations and working groups to propagate and disseminate the law to hamlets and villages.

One of the "core" forces in the work of propagating and disseminating the law to ethnic minorities are soldiers in green uniforms. Following the soldiers of the border post through the winding, bumpy, uphill and downhill journey to reach the Mong people in Pa Khom village - one of the eight Mong border villages in Tri Le (Que Phong), we came to understand the hardships and difficulties of the soldiers in green uniforms in their efforts to bring legal knowledge to the people. In addition to propagating and disseminating legal policies, mobilizing people in the villages to sign a commitment not to migrate illegally, not to violate social evils, and encouraging people to boldly denounce crimes, the Post also focuses on training core personnel to serve the propaganda work. Up to now, 18 core personnel have been trained, who are village elders, clan leaders, and prestigious people in the villages. Since 2006, the Provincial Border Guard Command has coordinated with the Department of Education and Training to sign a program to disseminate and educate the law to 9th grade students and secondary schools in border and coastal communes. Every year, thousands of students in the area are disseminated and educated about the law. Tri Le Border Guard Station has also actively coordinated with local authorities to bring drug addicts in Na Lit, Muong Long, and Huoi Xai I villages to be criticized before the people. Subject Tho Nhia Po - Huoi Xai 1 village expressed, “Before I was not addicted, my family was well off, good health. Since I became addicted until now, the economy has been exhausted, I spend all the money I have to buy drugs, my health has declined and I am dependent on drugs. I hope people will stay away from drugs, focus on business and production, do not participate in or assist in drug-related criminal activities. Before the people, I promise, from now on I will stay away from drugs, I hope my superiors will create conditions to help me go to drug rehabilitation in time…”.

Many sectors and localities have also had ways to do things that are suitable to the actual situation in the work of propagating and disseminating the law. For example, in Tuong Duong district, currently 15/18 communes have local radio stations. Many communes maintain two morning and afternoon broadcasts, build specialized pages, columns, and specialized pages on learning and answering legal questions regularly every month, promptly convey legal information with the criteria of "brief, easy to listen, easy to remember, easy to understand" in the language of the people to explain concerns and problems related to the Land Law, Civil Law, Marriage and Family Law, policies, household registration work, etc. Meanwhile, Que Phong district focuses on opening first-instance criminal courts and mobile trials at the grassroots level, contributing to deterring and minimizing violations. On average, each year, Que Phong Court has brought from 12 to 16 mobile trials. Each mobile trial is coordinated with the district radio and television station to report and widely broadcast for everyone to follow. Many organizations and unions have also had forms of propaganda suitable for each of their members through club, team and group models, typically the Youth Volunteer Club - keeping the border peaceful in Na Loi - Ky Son. This is a commune with 8 km of border adjacent to Laos to the West, so drug trafficking and illegal border crossings occur, people living along the border of the two countries "freely" go back and forth without understanding anything about the Border Law. The Youth Volunteer Club - keeping the border peaceful was established to propagate and popularize border laws to people of the two countries; the masses help the government in announcing information; support the implementation of propaganda and patrols to reduce law violations in the area". This is a model that is assessed by the locality as quite effective, because it has the participation of "core" local forces such as the commune youth union secretary, border guard station representative, commune People's Committee vice chairman, police chief, commune team leader...

To contribute to preventing the increasingly complicated situation of human trafficking in the province, especially in mountainous districts, the Provincial Women's Union has directed the construction of a model of "Supporting the community to prevent and combat human trafficking" at hot spots such as Don Phuc commune, Con Cuong district, Yen Hoa commune - Tuong Duong district, Hanh Dich commune - Que Phong district and Chau Binh commune - Quy Chau district. After nearly 3 years of operation, the model of "Supporting the community to prevent and combat human trafficking" has provided a lot of knowledge and skills to prevent and combat human trafficking for women of all classes and contributed to preventing and limiting the situation of human trafficking in the area. Ms. Quynh Hoa - Vice President of the Provincial Women's Union said: We determined that propaganda work must be persistent and persistent. In addition to propaganda activities, the Women's Union mobilizes people to support, help, and not discriminate against victims of trafficking to reintegrate into the community; Guide women and children who were bought and sold to return to their localities to complete procedures to receive support policies on psychological and legal counseling, support for cultural and vocational education, initial hardship allowances and support for loans to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty. Many women have initially found jobs and have stable incomes. A typical case is Ng. Th.U, Don Phuc commune, Con Cuong district, a victim who was tricked and sold to China and rescued and returned to Vietnam via Tan Thanh border gate, Lang Son on May 1, 2012. On the day she returned, the Women's Union of Don Phuc commune, Con Cuong district promptly visited, encouraged and supported her. Now, her spirit has stabilized and she is determined to learn a trade to stabilize her life... With practical methods, the organization has contributed to helping victims of buying and selling return to stabilize and reintegrate into the community.

In general, the implementation of the Project "Strengthening the dissemination of legal education for cadres and ethnic minorities and mountainous areas in the province" has contributed to a profound change in the awareness of legal understanding of cadres and people. The Party's policies and the State's laws have been disseminated in a timely manner, making people confident and secure in building their lives. In many places, people have proactively come to ask questions and rely on the law to get legal advice and assistance to protect their rights, gradually pushing back illegal migration, burning forests for slash-and-burn farming, growing opium poppies, and eliminating many backward customs. However, the path to bringing legal knowledge closer and more regularly to ethnic minorities in remote and isolated areas still faces many difficulties...

(To be continued)

Article and photos:Khanh Ly - My Ha