Need to expand the subjects eligible for legal aid

(Baonghean.vn) - Article 7 of the Law on Legal Aid (amended) needs to expand the subjects receiving legal aid, so that people can enjoy and have more access to the law.

This is the main content at the Conference to collect comments on the draft Law on Legal Aid (amended) organized by the Provincial National Assembly Delegation on the morning of April 13 under the chairmanship of comrade Tran Van Mao - Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation.

The Law on Legal Aid (amended) consists of 8 chapters and 50 articles regulating persons receiving legal aid, organizations implementing legal aid, persons implementing legal aid; legal aid activities, and responsibilities of agencies and organizations in legal aid activities.

The conference recorded 12 comments on the Law on Legal Aid (amended). Photo: My Nga

At the conference, delegates all agreed that this is one of the very important laws of the Vietnamese legal system. If not done carefully, correctly and appropriately, it will greatly affect dozens of other laws. Therefore, the amendment of the law must be done carefully to avoid the situation where after the amendment and supplement, there are still errors, inadequacies and inapplicability in practice.

Delegates contributed additional comments to the provisions of the Draft Law. Of which, Article 7, which regulates people receiving legal aid, received the most attention from delegates.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Huong, representative of the People’s Court of Nghe An province, said that, in principle, those who receive legal aid are the vulnerable in society and need assistance. However, Clause 5, Article 7 with the provision that “the person receiving legal aid is the accused from a near-poor household” is still unreasonable.

“For example, in a criminal trial, the defendant and the victim are both near-poor households. But according to the law, only the accused are entitled to legal aid. This can easily lead to unfairness,” said a representative of the Provincial People’s Court.

Therefore, according to delegate Nguyen Thi Huong, the scope of legal aid should be expanded. Accordingly, all near-poor households have the right to receive legal aid.

Lawyers advise people at the Nghe An Newspaper Free Legal Aid Office. Photo courtesy

According to the viewpoint of delegate Nguyen Hai Khiem, representative of Nghe An Provincial Police, in section 6, article 7, people such as children, the elderly, the disabled, the elderly, people infected with toxic chemicals, etc. are vulnerable or suffer many disadvantages in society. Therefore, these are the subjects who are naturally entitled to legal aid, without having to have the condition of "financial difficulties". This opinion was approved by the majority of delegates.

This representative also added that the regulation that “people with meritorious services to the revolution are people who are entitled to legal aid” is not specific. It is necessary to strictly supplement “people with meritorious services to the revolution” according to the provisions of the law on people with meritorious services.

Delegate Nguyen Duy Viet, Provincial People's Procuracy proposed to add to the draft a number of subjects that need legal aid such as: groups of people affected by cognitive impairment. Because their legal capacity such as using rights and obligations, legal understanding is limited. This is the subject that needs the most protection.

Legal aid activities of Nghe An Bar Association in Hung Nguyen district. Photo archive

Regarding the expansion of legal aid beneficiaries, some other delegates also proposed adding some more beneficiaries such as: social security beneficiaries, people with no civil capacity; people newly released from prison...

Some other issues that delegates are interested in include: standards for legal aid workers, legal aid collaborators, State legal aid centers; fields and forms of legal aid, principles of legal aid activities; rights of people receiving legal aid; obligations of people providing legal aid...

At the end of the conference, on behalf of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Comrade Tran Van Mao acknowledged and highly appreciated the delegates' comments. At the same time, these comments will be compiled by the Provincial National Assembly Delegation and submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee in the coming time./

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