Raising awareness and promoting compliance with the law among the people.

(Baonghean)The "Legal Knowledge Contest for Ethnic Minorities," organized by the Committee for Ethnic Minorities in coordination with the People's Committee of Nghe An province, took place on August 17th and 18th in Vinh City. On this occasion, Nghe An Newspaper interviewed Ms. Hoang Phuong Hoa - Director of the Legal Department, Committee for Ethnic Minorities, and Deputy Head of the Organizing Committee of the contest, about the significance and content of this contest...

Reporter: Could you please tell us about the purpose and significance of the "Law Knowledge Contest for Ethnic Minorities"?

Ms. Hoang Phuong Hoa:This competition is being implemented in several provinces and cities with large ethnic minority populations, aiming to raise awareness and promote compliance with the law, gradually applying the law effectively to protect the legitimate rights and interests of each individual, the State, and society; to enhance self-awareness and proactiveness in learning and complying with the law, to be able to organize and resolve conflicts and difficulties among the people, to ensure strengthened solidarity in villages and hamlets, to promote grassroots democracy, to maintain political and social security, and to contribute to preserving the cultural identity of ethnic minorities.



Furthermore, the competition aims to convey legal regulations, ethnic policies, procedures for exercising citizens' rights, obligations, and interests in complying with the law and implementing ethnic policies as prescribed by law in general and related to specialized laws applicable in ethnic minority and border areas. It also aims to promote the role and responsibility in disseminating and educating the public about the law within the system of functional agencies, governments at all levels, and ethnic affairs agencies, in accordance with the characteristics of each region, locality, and ethnic group. This contributes to raising legal awareness, improving the effectiveness of state management through law within the socio-political system; and contributing to the implementation of the State's policy of socializing the dissemination of legal information, bringing the law into daily life...

The purpose of organizing the competition is, on the one hand, to disseminate the Party and State's policies on ethnic minorities to the people, and on the other hand, to understand their awareness and need for legal knowledge, in order to develop forms and content of legal education that are appropriate for each locality.

PV: Could you share some key issues that need to be focused on in legal awareness campaigns for our people today?

Ms. Hoang Phuong Hoa: The current task of focusing on widespread dissemination of information is the Party's guidelines, policies, and principles on ethnic affairs, the State's laws, directives, resolutions, and local policies on socio-economic development and border security; and legal regulations directly related to the lives of ethnic minority people, such as: legal regulations on land, forest protection and development, national borders, complaints and denunciations, gender equality, marriage and family, prevention of domestic violence, trafficking of women and children, environmental protection, food safety and hygiene, and grassroots democracy regulations.

Disseminating information and guiding ethnic minorities in exercising their specific rights and obligations according to the procedures prescribed by law; linking this with mobilizing ethnic minorities to settle down and eradicate hunger and reduce poverty…



The police of Chau Thuan commune (Quy Chau district) disseminated information on policies and laws in Men village.
Photo: Tran Ngoc Lan

PV: We understand that this is the first provincial-level competition held in Nghe An. What are your comments on the preparation work, especially the local government's approach to "stage-making" the competition?

Ms. Hoang Phuong Hoa:On June 18, 2012, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs sent Official Letter No. 483/UBDT-PC to the People's Committee of Nghe An province requesting cooperation in organizing the competition, which received strong support. The provincial leadership issued directives to relevant departments and agencies to coordinate the implementation. Subsequently, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs established an Organizing Committee chaired by Mr. Son Minh Thang, Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Deputy Minister and Vice Chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs; Mr. Le Xuan Dai, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province, served as the Standing Vice Chairman; and representatives from the Department-level leadership of the Committee for Ethnic Minorities Affairs and various departments and agencies of Nghe An province were members. A Judging Panel and Secretariat were also established to organize the competition; the exam questions, answer key, and scoring system were developed; and the competition rules, regulations, and other related matters were established.

To ensure the competition's success, over the past three months, the 10 teams from 10 districts have meticulously practiced and prepared, from content to presentation, including costumes, props, and skits. Preliminary district-level rehearsals showed that the participating teams had made serious preparations, presenting lively, rich, diverse, and engaging content.

Choosing the right form of communication is crucial. Organizing a legal knowledge contest in a theatrical format would be highly effective, attracting participation from all segments of the population and conveying legal information to the people in a lively and easily understandable way.

Interviewer: Thank you, ma'am!

TV-VC (produced)