The Ordinance on organization and activities of conciliation at grassroots level, which came into force in 1998, was aimed at promoting Vietnamese people’s tradition of solidarity and mutual assistance and love and raising the effectiveness of settlement of minor lawbreaking acts and disputes among people to help maintain social order and safety and reduce cases to be brought to courts.
Grassroots-level conciliation involves activities of guiding and assisting parties in reaching agreement and settling minor lawbreaking acts or disputes on their own to prevent and limit violations of law and maintain solidarity in the community. Grassroots-level conciliation is conducted by conciliation groups which are set up in villages or street residential clusters to conciliate quarrels and disputes between individuals, disputes over rights and interests arising from civil, marriage and family relationships and other lawbreaking acts which are not subject to criminal or administrative measures under law.
Ten years’ results
The 10-year enforcement of the Ordinance has brought about encouraging results. According to Justice Ministry statistics, the country had by June 2008 had 120,462 conciliation groups with 623,157 conciliators who handled over 3.89 million cases from 1999 to 2008. Over 80% of these cases were successfully conciliated.
The contingent of conciliators had grown quantitatively and qualitatively. The number of conciliators and conciliation groups had risen by 1.5 times since the promulgation of the Ordinance. Nearly 20% of conciliators possessed professional secondary school or higher degrees and most of them annually received training in conciliation skills and state policies and laws.
Conciliation groups had also developed in various forms, the most popular of which was conciliation groups in villages or street residential units. Each village or street residential unit might form one or several conciliation groups. In some localities, conciliation groups were set up at village and commune levels. A commune-level conciliation group is headed by the president or vice president of the commune-level People’s Committee and comprises judicial officers, land administrators, policemen and members of the Fatherland Front and its member organizations. It is tasked to handle conflicts and disputes for which conciliation by a village-level conciliation group has failed. The commune-level conciliation group may also join a village-level conciliation group in conciliating complicated conflicts or disputes related to many legal issues, especially land-related disputes.
The establishment of commune-level conciliation groups with members being cadres having certain knowledge of law proved to be an effective way of conciliating conflicts and disputes in the community.
A system of state management agencies in charge of conciliation had also been formed from central to local levels to support the organization, operation and development of conciliation groups.
A number of documents were promulgated to facilitate the implementation of the Ordinance, including Government Decree No. 160/1999/ND-CP of October 1999, detailing a number of articles of this Ordinance, and Finance Ministry Circular No. 63/2005/TT-BTC of August 2005, providing details on funds for grassroots-level conciliation activities.
The Ministry of Justice, as the key state management agency for conciliation, had also issued documents guiding the consolidation and operation of conciliation groups and sets of forms for the organization and operation of conciliation activities to monitor statistics and reporting on conciliation at grassroots level.
To support the operation of conciliators, training materials were compiled and distributed to them. They included conciliator handbooks which provided necessary legal knowledge related to conciliation and conciliation skills and experience through case study; and training documents on management of grassroots-level conciliation activities which introduced management and training skills and methods of conciliation.
Provincial-level judicial agencies attached importance to supplying documents and providing training for conciliators on an annual basis. According to the Ministry of Justice, all provinces and cities had compiled and distributed legal and professional documents on conciliation-related issues for conciliation groups and conciliators. Annually, conciliators were trained in legal knowledge and conciliation skills by district-level justice sections.
The Ministry of Justice had also opened many training courses for provincial-level judicial officers to create a source of conciliation trainers for localities.
Conciliator contests were organized at provincial and national levels. In addition, many localities found creative ways to raise conciliators’ capacity, such as organizing competitions, talks and meetings for conciliators to give them opportunities to exchange experience and skills.
Conciliation organizations and individuals gaining outstanding achievements were commended at annual national conferences to review legal and conciliation work, reflecting the State’s recognition of conciliators’ contributions to the society.
Due to its social significance, conciliation at grassroots level received international supports. Since 2005, a project funded by the United Nations Development Program, Swedish International Development Agency and Danish International Development Agency to support the development strategy for Vietnam’s legal system, had assisted the Ministry of Justice in building capacity for conciliators. Under the project, a survey on the management capacity of provincial-level judicial officers was conducted to provide a basis for renewing training in management and organization of conciliation activities for judicial officers. The project also assisted the Ministry of Justice in compiling a uniform set of training documents on grassroots-level conciliation for judicial officers and conciliators and providing training for source trainers.
The Ministry of Justice also implemented a Canadian-funded project to conduct an overall survey on the situation of grassroots-level conciliation in preparation for the formulation of a law on conciliation at grassroots levels.
Limitations and solutions
Despite these achievements, the enforcement of the Ordinance over the past ten years had revealed limitations. In a number of localities, conciliation remained either formalistic or became an administrative measure to be imposed on parties rather than in their wish.
There was still a lack of conciliators, especially in remote and deep-lying areas, while their legal knowledge remained limited, largely affecting their work quality. In many cases, conciliators even handled cases subject to administrative sanctioning or penal liability examination.
Meanwhile, funds for conciliation activities were still limited despite the promulgation of Circular No. 63/2005/TT-BTC. Most conciliation groups did not have funds to cover their regular activities such as meetings and stationery supplies. Some 50 provinces and cities nationwide had failed to pay allowances for conciliators due to lack of funds.
The absence of policies and entitlements for conciliators had also discouraged conciliators, many of whom suffered even injuries during conciliation.
To improve conciliation quality at grassroots level, the Ministry of Justice has proposed a host of measures, one of which is to improve the quality of conciliators by providing them with annual training in conciliation skills and Party and State policies; renewing training methods which should focus on conciliation skills, psychological methods and case study; increasing experience exchange between conciliators; and sufficiently providing practical documents and materials for conciliators.
The Ministry also recommended to increase funds for grassroots-level conciliation activities at least to ensure funds for conciliation groups’ regular operation and provide allowances for conciliators on a case-by-case basis. Circular No. 63/2005/TT-BTC should also be amended to specify funds, levels and mode of payment for grassroots-level conciliation activities.
To create a better legal framework for conciliation activities, the Ministry proposed the adoption of a law on conciliation as well as incentive policies and benefits for conciliators. It also suggested to increase payroll of district- and commune-level judicial officers to support the operation of conciliation groups.
Public access to legal bookcases
In fact, grassroots-level conciliation activities were supported by a project to build and manage legal bookcases in communes, wards and townships under a Prime Minister Decision of November 1998. The project, which aimed to improve people’s legal knowledge and increase legislation at grassroots level, was helpful for grassroots-level conciliation activities.
In the past ten years, commune-level legal bookcases were built in all provinces and cities nationwide, basically supplying legal documents for grassroots cadres and public employees and people, including judicial officers and conciliators.
The country now has 11,263 commune-level legal bookcases in 10,999 communes nationwide. Fifty-one out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide have built commune-level legal bookcases in all of their communes, including such mountainous provinces as Dak Nong, Bac Kan, Ha Giang and Son La.
Most commune-level legal bookcases contain four types of documents: legal documents, including official gazettes and legal documents issued by local administrations; popular law guides (questions and answers, comments and explanation of law concerning citizen rights and obligations, leaflets on law-related matters); professional guides for local administrators and judicial officers; and central and local law newspapers.
These bookcases are mostly placed at the offices of commune-level People’s Committee or presidents or vice presidents of commune-level People’s Committee and have become a major source of reference for grassroots conciliators and judicial officers. (VLLF).-