DIRECTIVE

ON THE INTENSIFICATION OF LAW POPULARIZATION AND EDUCATION IN THE PRESENT PERIOD

Law popularization and education always play an important role in the social life. In the current cause of national renewal, this task has played an ever more important role in many aspects.

The resolution of the VIIIth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam has affirmed: "To actively carry out the law popularization and education; mobilize the social, political and professional organizations and the mass media to participate in the campaigns for maintaining order and discipline and in regular activities for building a law-governed life and working styles in the State agencies and the society at large."

Over the past years many ministries and branches of the central level and the local administration of various levels have made efforts to organize law popularization and education and have achieved good results, thus partly meeting the requirement to enhance the management of the State and society by laws.

Nevertheless, the law popularization and education work has not yet been put on par with the requirement of the management of the society by the rule of law, has not yet been carried out in a regular, continuous comprehensive and full-scale manner without any priorities or key areas . It still lacks mechanisms and plans for a close and comprehensive coordination among the agencies and organizations and among the various levels and branches in mobilizing the strength of the whole political system and the participation of the entire society. Due to these constraints, the people's need of information on laws has not yet been adequately satisfied in the recent past.

In order to renovate and step up the law popularization and education work, raise the people's knowledge and sense of respect of law and ensure the effective law enforcement in the spirit of the above-mentioned Resolution of the Party, the Prime Minister hereby instructs the following:

1. Every State official or employee must be fully aware of his/her duty to study, understand and strictly observe law.. State officials and employees must set examples in upholding the country's laws and discipline and contribute to the law popularization and education among the population.

2. The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall have to give timely direction and regularly supervise the law popularization and education within their respective ministries, branches and localities.

In the immediate future, the ministries, the ministerial-level agencies, the agencies attached to the Government and the People's Committees of the provinces and cities directly under the Central Government shall have to well perform the following tasks:

a/ To strengthen the central and local organizations in charge of law popularization and education, taking the branches' legal departments and the judiciary bodies as the core; to assign cadres qualified in law to oversee and perform the task of law popularization and education in the central and local agencies and organizations.

b/ To attach importance to the verbalization and dissemination of necessary legal documents to each category of subjects, especially the grassroots administration cadres and different strata of the population for implementation thereof.

c/ To involve great numbers of employees and officials of the State agencies, socio-political and mass organizations in this activity.

3. The Ministry of Justice shall be responsible for the coordination among the ministries, socio-political, social and professional organizations and guide the local administration of various levels to make this work a routine task. Importance should be attached to the drawing up of plans and guidance on the dissemination of legal documents to each category of subjects and the professional training for the contingent of law propagandists should be promoted. The Ministry should well coordinate with the Commission on Ethnicities and Mountain Areas and the Vietnam Peasants' Association in organizing the law popularization and education for cadres and people in rural, mountainous, remote and deep-lying areas and areas inhabited by people of ethnic minorities and in implementing the guideline of eradicating illiteracy together with eliminating law ignorance among the population.

4. The Ministry of Culture and Information shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in directing the mass media to devote appropriate volumes of information to the law popularization and education through the legal affairs pages, columns or programs in various suitable forms. Central and local newspapers, radio and television stations should strengthen the contigent of legal affairs reporters, editors and collaborators. The Ministry shall have to promptly rectify any deviations to ensure the right direction and high results of the law popularization and education; to quickly take measures to enhance the management of the publication and printing of legal newspapers and books so as to promptly and fully satisfy the people's need of legal knowledge.

5. The Ministry of Education and Training shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in promoting the law teaching at schools. It should study and finalize soon a law education program with a rational ratio of learning units, compile text books and law-learning materials for pupils and students in the national educational system. The Ministry should conduct training and fostering in legal knowledge and law-teaching methods for law teachers at schools. It must be clearly determined that law subject is included in the official curriculum of any educational level or degree and regular examinations on the subject must be held before the final subject completion. The result of the study on this subject shall be considered one of the important bases for evaluating the moral education of a pupil or student.

6. The Government Commission for Organization and Personnel shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice and the National Administrative Academy in directing the study on the formulation of a law-teaching curriculum and organizing the compilation of law teaching materials in service of the fostering and training of State employees at administrative and political schools and schools for managerial cadres of the branches and mass organizations. It must coordinate with the ministries and branches in incorporating legal contents into the recruitment examinations, promotion examinations, which are suited to each category of examinees. Importance shall be attached to regular law training and fostering courses for officials and employees of the central State management agencies and the local administrations.

7. The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior shall coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in uniformly directing the law popularization and education contents and measures in the people's armed forces.

8. The People's Committees of various levels shall have to regularly direct and organize the supervision of the law popularization and education work in their localities.

9. On the basis of the plan for carrying out the law popularization and education issued together with Decision No. 03/1998/QD-TTg of January 7, 1998 and the guidance of the Ministry of Justice, the ministries, branches and local administration of various levels shall draw up concrete plans on law popularization and education according to their assigned tasks and prepare draft budgets for the implementation of this plan according to the guidance of the Ministry of Finance. For State budget-funded units, the expenses for law popularization and education shall be accounted into their annual draft budgets in accordance with the provisions of the Law on the State Budget and guiding documents on the implementation thereof.

10. The offices of the Party, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union, the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, the Central Committee of the Peasants' Association, the Central Committee of the Lawyers' Association and other members of the Front are requested to closely coordinate with the government agencies in organizing the law popularization and education work.

11. The Ministry of Justice shall oversee and inspect the implementation of this Directive, periodically report its results to the Prime Minister; and apply the commendation and reward regime as prescribed by the State to collectives and individuals that make excellent merits in the law popularization and education work.