Vice Minister of Justice, Nguyen Khanh Ngoc;

Excellency Bruno Angelet;

Representatives from line Ministries and justice agencies;

Colleagues from the United Nations, development partners, and socio-political organisations;

I am very pleased to speak at this Legal Forum on “law implementation on the protection of the poor and vulnerable groups in judicial areas”, co-hosted by the Ministry of Justice, the United Nations and the EU Delegation in Viet Nam.

Just a few days ago, we celebrated the 70^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December. The important text marked the starting point of the global human rights movement. Together with the UN Charter, it is also one of the founding documents of the United Nations, which guides the work of the UN in Vietnam. It has been translated into more than 500 languages, including Vietnamese.

Back in 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, the drafters already included in the Declaration the fundamental guarantee that everyone should have the right to a fair and public trial by an independent and impartial tribunal. The Declaration also referred to the principle of presumption of innocence which remains to this day one of the cornerstones of any criminal justice system.

Around the world, as in Vietnam, most of the people who can’t enjoy these fundamental rights and guarantees often belong to the poorest and most vulnerable groups, which include victims of gender-based violence, children[1], persons with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, LGBTI persons, and so on. For these people, equality before the law can be a distant dream.

This is often due to the fact that they have limited access to legal information in the first place and are therefore not aware or have limited understanding of their rights. Legal information may not be available in a language they understand or in a format that is accessible to them.

In addition, the poor and vulnerable groups often face great challenges in terms of access to legal assistance. Many of them cannot afford the services of a lawyer. Their only option is to find a legal aid lawyer. Because of limited resources, not all those who need it can benefit from legal aid services. The quality of legal aid lawyers also varies.

We are fortunate that in Vietnam, the Law on Legal Aid was amended last year and has expanded the list of groups of persons who are now eligible for legal aid.  

It is equally important that the justice system can address the needs of vulnerable groups. Lawyers, law enforcement officers, judges and prosecutors should receive focused trainings on how to address these needs. For instance, access to justice for minors requires all justice personnel to be adequately trained to provide greater protection to minors as victims, witnesses and offenders.

In many cases, NGOs who already work with vulnerable groups and are very familiar with their specific needs can make an important contribution in terms to increasing their access to justice. It would be important and useful to build and increase the synergies between their work and that of the justice agencies.

The issue of access to justice for the poor and vulnerable groups is not just a human rights issue, it is also closely related to the implementation of the SDGs. Just several months ago, on 16 July, Viet Nam presented its Voluntary National Review on SDG implementation to the UN’s High Level Political Forum in New York. The key SDG 16 on peace, justice and stronger institutions aims to strengthen the rule of law. One dimension of the rule of law is to ensure equal access to justice for all. Together, we need to ensure that, when it comes to access to justice, no one is left behind. As you know, this is a central principle of the UN’s global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

To this end, the UN and the Government of Vietnam, with generous financial support from the European Union, are implementing a new Programme on justice and legal empowerment called EU JULE. As you will hear later this morning, the overall objective of the Programme is to strengthen the rule of law through a more reliable, trusted and better accessed justice system. Through an ambitious set of interventions, we will seek to increase access to justice for women, children and vulnerable groups, including ethnic minorities and poor people to ensure that no one is left behind. This programme will help Viet Nam implement SDG16.

The EU JULE Programme was launched in October and activities have started around the country. The first workshop took place in Can Tho last week, co-chaired by Vice-Minister Ngoc and addressing the issue of civil registration for vulnerable groups. There are many more activities, involving not just the Ministry of Justice, but also the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuracy. We look forward to working with many more Vietnamese agencies in the coming months.

Two UN agencies, namely UNDP and UNICEF, are drawing on their respective expertise to implement the programme together with the Government and other partners. Both UNDP and UNICEF have a long history of engagement with the Government and people of Viet Nam in the area of justice. Building on this long standing trusted partnership with Viet Nam, we are confident that we can support the Government in delivering top level results in order to increase access to justice for the poor and vulnerable groups.

Thank you! Xin cảm ơn!