corruption human rights DR TA THI MINH LY

corruption & human rights DR. TA THI MINH LY CHAIRWOMEN OF VIJUSAP MANILA, 11 -12/NOVEMBER/ 2014

VIJUSAP &ALAC • VIJUSAP was officially founded by Decision No. 1012 of the Minister of Home Affairs, dated on 06 May 2011 and its Charter was approved by the Minister of Home Affairs in the Decision No. 1764 dated on 06 October 2011. • VIJUSAP is created as a civil professional association by the Regulations on Association. • ALAC was established under Decision No. 01/QD-BTTP of the Vietnam Judicial Association for the Poor (VUJUSAP) and granted a registration of operation No. 21/TP/DKHD-TT by Department of Justice of Hanoi on 04 February 2015. • The operation of ALAC is governed by Legal Aid Law and Law on against corruption

Always with you

HUMAN RIGHTS AND CORRUPTION • Corruption affects the right to equality of quality public services, especially poor, such as that related to land use right certification procedures (50. 26% of respondents across the country said that there was bribery), figures related to construction permit procedures are 48. 81%, to district health services are 53. 48%, education is 40. 86 and recruitment to the State sector is 59. 67% • Mechanisms, policies and even laws to encourage and protect people fighting against corruption are still limited. There are no specific programs in place to protect whistleblowers and witnesses against corruption. Those who give bribes, whether coerced or later cooperated in denouncing acts of corruption, are still considered criminals. • The oversight of civil society organizations is also limited because they themselves have not been recognized politically or legally. The press's independence from the state power is low so it is not able to independently monitor corruption in the public sector.

ALAC belong VIJUSAP • ALAC registers to participate in free providing legal advice for victims and witnesses of corruption, in order to equip legal knowledge for people to prevent abuse of powers and prevent corruption; • This is one of the activities that the VIJUSAP has practically participated in the implementation of the Law on Anti-corruption (promulgated by the National Assembly on November 29, 2005); implementing the Party Central's guidance in Resolution No. 04 -NQ / TW of August 21, 2006, of the Third Plenum of the Party Central Committee, Session X, on strengthening the Party's leadership over prevention, fighting against corruption and wastefulness; and implementing the National Strategy on Anti-Corruption till 2020 under the Government's Resolution No. 21/2009 / NQ-CP of May 12, 2009.

ALAC’s FUNCTION • The ALAC has the function of providing legal advice in specific cases when people have a need of legal knowledge to behave according to law; • To help victims to pursue the case at the right agency to solve and save time; • To help victims protecting the legal rights and interests, increasing people's confidence in the state and the law, • and at the same time, reducing the load of unnecessary lawsuits, supporting state agencies to review behavior of official in law enforcement in legal compliance.

To empower victims and witnesses to address their grievances • Awareness Raising and Outreach • Advertising, producing leaflets, community activities, media, combining with data collection on awareness • Providing free legal advice and support • Running the legal advice service (hotline and office) • Receiving complaints and providing advice • Mobile clinics in communities; legal talks • Persuading people on opening the case • Engaging authorities in the resolution of complaints • How far can we go for cases? • Representation to the court • Used file of the case for advocacy • Advocacy on policy changing • Roundtable on topic in difference level

Why people do not denounce corruption? • The Gov. Inspectorate findings with 42. 4% of respondents stating they were not likely to report corruption. When asked why they would not report corruption, 65. 1% agree or strongly agree that the competent person(s) (within the agency) is related to the corrupt person(s); 63. 9% agree or strongly agree that they have no trust in the competent persons; 62% agree or strongly agree that they are afraid of retaliation; 60. 5% agree or strongly agree that they are afraid of conflict with acquaintances. Only 20. 4% agree or strongly agree that they do not denounce corruption because of the lack of legal knowledge and time. But more than 75% do not know about law on against corruption and their rights. • The competent agency handling a complaint is the same as the administrative agency to which the complaint relates. There is no separation between the administrative function and the complaints function. • The duration for handling complaints invariably exceeds that stipulated by law, which is generally no more than two months. In reality, the time taken to resolve a complaint is 16 -27 months even sending around agencies and stuck somewhere

why • According to the 2017 Global Corruption Barometer: Vietnam, 97% of surveyed people in Vietnam who experienced corruption but did not report it to any government official or appropriate authority. Of the people surveyed, 24% are afraid of the consequences of reporting, 36% said that reporting would not make a difference and 21% said that they did not know where to report. • The reason given for not reporting corruption reveals why the current corruption complaints service does not work. • Anti-corruption efforts are widely perceived as ineffective, and do not engage citizens or civil society. • Therefore, they remain silent and passive in the face of the corruption epidemic; • Democratic dialogues continue to be hindered by limited engagement of civil society.

Main problems i) lack of awareness and knowledge of the anti-corruption legislation of local government officials, members of local organizations and citizens; ii) lack of synergy among local social organizations in the fight against corruption; iii) lack of effective government measures to promote public participation in anticorruption. Gender: Many forms of corruption affect both women and men, but given the unequal gender relations in society women are in many settings more exposed to corruption and its consequences. Especially, corruption disproportionately affects women those living in poverty and those who are poor illiterate and unaware of their rights and entitlements. If women are not aware of their rights to be equally appeared in the land certificate as men, they might lose the opportunity to land ownership; or if women are not provided with knowledge of procedure for complaint and denunciations, they might be given difficulties by public officials (e. g. requesting bribe) when accessing to public services.

HOW TO ACT • Legal advice and counseling: answer with explanation on legal questions of victims of corruption, guide them on how to draft applications, collect evidence or documents concerning their rights and duties, advise them on how to follow necessary procedures, inviting witnesses as well as refer them to relevant bodies for the settlement of their cases etc. • Legal representation: may hire or appoint collaborating lawyers (or legal aid experts in some mountainous areas) to represent for victims in legal proceedings or before other agencies and organisations when requested by victims. • Making petitions to relevant bodies: through the case study find that a decision of a state agency is not in accordance with the law, or its may serves corruption they will make a petition to that agency and require them to solve the case by dialogue or writing.

HOW TO ACT • Mediation: mediate between the parties to a dispute to avoid filing cases to the courts or competent agencies avoid corruption. • Legal dissemination: dissemination to people through specific legal cases, legal leaflets, and legal talks to the community, Legal aid club meeting, TV and radio programs, etc. so that victims of corruption and other beneficiaries and related people improve their legal awareness and capacity to use the law. • Making recommendations to supplement and amend the policy and law: Through practical experience in dealing with specific cases, legal aid organizations discover loopholes and contradictory provisions of the law and make recommendations to competent bodies to supplement and amend the law. By making such recommendations, legal aid organisations can protect rights from corruption of not only individuals but also groups of citizens who have the same legal problems, contributing to improving legal institutions.

Legal talks in Hanoi suburbs • Promote citizen’s voice against corruption by raising their awareness and social responsibility, and empower civil organizations and their members in participation and networking to advocate for political measures to facilitate public involvement in the fight against violence on Gender based, especially in land use management. • i) Leaflet and citizens’ handbook on “Speak out against Corruption” distributed; • ii) Members of women’s unions, youth unions and other mass organizations participate in legal walks organized by volunteer law students; • iii) Local citizens engage in “Voicing out against corruption” communication activities organized by local mass organizations. • Members of women’s unions, youth unions and other civil organizations in selected communes of the sub-urban areas of Hanoi haven increased capacity and network in fighting corruption. • Democratic participation haven been promoted via dialog meetings with local authorities and policy discussions on anti-corruption topics with relevant government agencies.

PROFFECTIONAL TRAINING i) Lawyers and legal collaborators of the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) under VIJUSAP trained members of women’s unions, youth unions on laws related to transparency and anti-corruption, especially in land use management and reporting corruption; ii) Action plans or initiatives from local mass organizations developed to facilitate reporting corruption; iii) Local citizens engaged in dialogue with local authorities on anti-corruption related issues; iv) Best practices in engaging people in anti-corruption initiatives documented and shared. • The anti-corruption network which connects selected communes of the suburban areas of Hanoi created and expanded and involved more civil organizations and engaged more citizens’ participation.

TRAINING

ROUNDTABLE MEETING

To promote systemic change in policy and practice • Systematic collection of data on people’s complaints and authorities’ response level • Develop initial report and organise review workshop(s) with relevant agencies (assessing effectiveness) • (Reaching/ out training external stakeholders) • Recommendation on amending the Anti-Corruption Law and the Criminal Code in a way that does not convince people who are forced to bribe, or report after giving bribes, as criminals; • Recommendation on specialized agencies on anticorruption are given the necessary independence. . . to be able to carry out their duties effectively and without being subject to any unlawful influence"

CASE STUDY • The Center's staff will study specific cases, draw lessons, the causes and conditions for arising legal problems, corrupt acts, and factors that hinder people. • protecting legal rights and interests, as well as finding the right approach in law access and advice for people. • Because each case has its contents, intimate relationships with the performance of public duties, with a sense of compliance with the law, with knowledge and awareness of the law of the people and with the provisions of the law. • The case study to find out the shortcomings of the policy and the loopholes of the law to propose, amend, supplement is also an important function of the Center to practically implement the Constitution 2013.

Results • After 5 years of implementation, 3 cases in representation among more than 650, 000 people have received consultation services in which the poor (35%), the preferential groups (15%) minority groups (20%), children (2. 5%). Women represent in about 42% of legal aid cases. • 12 kinds of legal leaflets with 800, 000 copies have distributed to clients. • 21 legal talks in communities. • 11 training courses • 27 roundtable meetings • 11 recommendations on changing policy

LEAFLET