English - CEDAW Southeast Asia

CEDAW and the Law:
There are legal provisions to widen access of the poor to legal support. Article 8 of the
Law on Lawyers, No. 65/2006/QH 11 of 29 June 2006 (Law on Lawyers) and Article 10(2) of
the decree guiding its implementation 193 provide that lawyers’ offices, law firms and individually
practicing lawyers be encouraged to give pro bono legal aid or to exempt or reduce fees for
the poor and policy beneficiaries. Further, legal consultancy centres provide free legal consultancy
to the poor and policy beneficiaries who enjoy free legal assistance pursuant to the Law
on Legal Aid. 194
Indicator 12
Is conciliation, mediation, negotiation or other forms of dispute
resolution required by law to settle disputes
Article 3 of the Law on Complaints and Denunciations provides: “The State encourages
the conciliation of disputes among population before they are settled by competent agencies,
organizations and/or individuals in order to restrain complaints arising from the grassroots.”
Even once complaints are instituted, the procedure for complaint settlement appears to favor
a conciliatory approach, where dialogue is done and solutions are proposed. 195 It is also of
importance to note that Article 2(16) of the Law on Complaints and Denunciations clearly
defines legally effective complaint settlement decisions as “first-time complaint settlement
decisions and second-time complaint settlement decisions about which the complainants do
not further appeal or initiate an administrative lawsuit before the court within the time prescribed
by law.”
The Civil Procedure Code also contains explicit provisions on conciliation. Article 180 of
the code provides that the courts must, during the period of preparation for the first-instance
trial of cases, carry out conciliations for the involved parties to reach an agreement for the resolution
of cases. It explicitly states that conciliation must be carried out with “[r]espect for the
voluntary agreement of the involved parties, non-use of force or non-threat to use force to
compel the involved parties to reach agreements against their will.” The article further provides
that contents of agreements as a result of conciliation must not contravene law and social
ethics. When conducting conciliations, the judges must brief the involved parties on relevant
provisions of law relating to their rights and obligations, as well as legal consequences of successful
conciliation, to assist the parties in voluntarily reaching agreements for the resolution
of the cases. 196
98
Under Article 181 and 182 of the Civil Procedure Code, claims for compensation for
damage caused to State assets, and civil cases arising from transactions that are contrary to
law or social ethics, must not be conciliated. Further, cases where the defendants are intentionally
absent though having been duly summoned twice by courts, the involved parties cannot
take part in the conciliation for plausible reasons, or the involved parties being wives or
husbands in divorce cases who have lost their civil act capacity, cannot be conciliated. 197
193
Decree No. 28/2007/ND-CP of February 26, 2007, Detailing and Guiding the Implementation of a Number of Articles of
the Law on Lawyers
194
Decree 65/2003/ND-CP of June 11, 2003 on Legal Consultancy Organization and Activities, Article 9
195
Law on Complaints and Denunciations, Articles 37 and 39
196
Civil Procedure Code, Article 185
197
Ibid., Article 182
Review of key legal documents and compliance with CEDAW