Mobile Legal Aid: Bringing the Law Closer to the People
(Baonghean) - Mobile legal aid (TGPL) for people, especially ethnic minorities, remote areas, and areas with special difficulties, has been promoted by all levels, sectors and localities. Thereby, contributing to improving legal knowledge, ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of the people. However, in reality, this work still faces many difficulties and has not met practical needs...
Bringing the law to the people
The session to disseminate legal policies and legal aid organized by judicial officers at the community cultural house of Ang village (Thong Thu commune, Que Phong district) attracted a large number of people to participate. They came not only to listen to the introduction and dissemination of the law but also to ask officers to answer questions that they were still wondering about.
Mr. Luong Van Hai - Head of Ang village said: “Our village is a resettlement village for Hua Na Hydropower Plant, so people have many questions related to support policies, especially the issue of land for production. Thanks to these consultation sessions, questions are answered. It is very necessary for officials to directly come to the people to propagate the law and provide legal advice. Because people do not understand the law, sometimes when they have questions, they do not know where to go to ask…”.
With the motto of "going to the grassroots", in recent years, mobile legal aid activities have been regularly carried out by the Legal Aid Center, Legal Aid Branches and collaborators to help people at the grassroots level access and receive free legal services in a timely manner. In 2014, the whole province organized 104 mobile legal aid sessions to villages, hamlets and hamlets in poor districts and especially difficult villages and hamlets in the province; propagating the law to 11,233 people and providing individual legal aid to 1,091 cases.
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| People of Ang village (Thong Thu commune, Que Phong district) listen to legal aid at the community cultural house. |
Mr. Le Van Ly - Head of Department 1, Provincial Legal Aid Center shared: Only by going to the grassroots level can we know that legal aid work, especially in remote areas, is extremely necessary because the awareness and understanding of the law of ethnic minorities is still limited. Before each time providing legal aid, the Center surveys the needs of local people, on that basis, develops programs and implementation plans. The form of assistance is carried out flexibly, suitable to the characteristics of each region and target group with rich and concise content so that people can easily understand, remember and receive it.
At the mobile legal aid sessions, in addition to answering directly on the loudspeakers of communes, wards and towns and directly consulting the people, the legal aid teams also provide leaflets, legal brochures and introduce new legal documents; propagate and disseminate laws to participants with main contents related to policies for people with meritorious services to the revolution; granting of land use right certificates; compensation and resettlement when the State reclaims land; inheritance of land use rights;...
Establishing 33 legal aid clubs, installing 190 information boards and 195 legal aid information boxes in poor communes and especially disadvantaged villages and hamlets in the province. Expanding branches in areas with a large number of legal aid beneficiaries in Tuong Duong, Dien Chau and Thai Hoa town has contributed to resolving problems and disputes right at the grassroots level, contributing to reducing petitions and complaints that go beyond the level and drag on.
In order to bring the law into life, contributing to raising legal awareness for the people, recently, the network of collaborators, especially the team of lawyers, has also increased participation in legal aid activities for the poor and policy beneficiaries in complex areas, difficult regions and areas. In 2014, Nghe An Bar Association conducted legal aid activities in Thanh Khai commune (Thanh Chuong), Cua Nam ward (Vinh city) and Nghi Thiet (Nghi Loc) ... Each session attracted from 150 - 200 participants.
It can be said that through legal aid activities, lawyers have provided people with useful legal information, answered questions, helped people better understand the necessary administrative procedures and processes when handling work, and avoided having to travel many times, which leads to wasting people's time, money and effort.
In some cases, with their legal assistance, the team of consultants also helps the government resolve legal problems, resolve problems between the government and the people and between the people in daily life in the locality, such as assisting with overdue birth registration; procedures related to justice - civil status; resolving conflicts and disputes... maintaining solidarity in the community, reducing complaints beyond the level, contributing to creating people's trust in the government, making people always "Live and work according to the Constitution and the law".
There are still many difficulties.
Mr. Phan The Ky, Head of Professional Department 2 - Provincial Legal Aid Center said: Due to the large area of mountainous districts, difficult roads, there are villages and hamlets that take half a day to reach on foot, while the human resources for legal aid work are still limited, so despite efforts, they still cannot meet the demand. In addition, due to the characteristics of people's lives, they have to work in the fields far away during the day, sometimes deep in the forest, so they often have to organize activities in the evening, with a limited number of participants.
Language barriers are also a factor that makes legal aid difficult. On the other hand, "Funding for legal aid activities often coincides with the rainy and cold season, so organizing mobile legal aid in mountainous districts is difficult. Moreover, free legal aid activities for people in the province are only concentrated in 3 poor districts with 3 operational goals focusing on training, mobile legal aid, and supporting club activities. Therefore, the number of mobile legal aid sessions organized is uneven among districts, not meeting the legal aid needs of the people" - Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam - Deputy Director of the Provincial Legal Aid Center said.
Currently, the team of collaborators of the legal aid center is 414 people, including 29 lawyers. However, the collaborators are not interested in mobile legal aid work. The team of legal aid collaborators at the grassroots level, especially at the village level - the place closest to the people, is still limited in capacity and qualifications (only about 30% of commune-level collaborators have a law university degree), so the effectiveness of consultation is still limited. Therefore, some consultation cases are still just listing legal regulations, not comparing with the specific case of the subject, so it does not help the person receiving legal aid understand the nature of the problem to choose the appropriate way of behaving in accordance with the provisions of the law.
In addition, the effectiveness of the TGPL Club model at the grassroots level is not high. Many clubs were established but did not organize activities or held activities irregularly. The content was boring, lacking in appeal, the legal situations discussed were general and unrealistic, and the staff were mainly part-time so their roles could not be fully promoted.
Based on the above reality, to improve the effectiveness of legal aid activities, it is necessary to first focus on developing human resources with good expertise and passion for the profession; expand the team of collaborators, especially those who are knowledgeable about the law and have worked in the law for many years and have retired, such as judges, prosecutors, lawyers, etc.; regularly organize training for collaborators at the grassroots level to improve their skills, expertise, and legal aid consulting skills; strengthen innovation in the content of mobile legal aid propaganda to suit people's need to learn about the law; avoid confusion between the effectiveness of mobile legal aid and propaganda and dissemination of the law, etc.
Expand the operation of the TGPL branch network as well as improve the operational efficiency of TGPL clubs at the grassroots level, in order to promptly detect and have appropriate forms of TGPL as soon as a case arises. At the same time, strengthen coordination with sectors and localities to promote propaganda work through mobile legal aid campaigns, so that people can quickly access the system of legal aid organizations, legal aid providers and proactively make requests and legal problems to receive free legal services.
Gia Huy