Supplementing regulations on search and rescue activities to comply with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution.

The Draft Law on Fire Prevention, Fighting (PCCC) and Rescue and Relief (CNCH) is being drafted by the Ministry of Public Security and is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for comments at the 7th Session of the 15th National Assembly. This Draft Law is built on the basis of inheriting the provisions of the Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting and supplementing provisions on rescue and relief activities to comply with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution and to implement the provisions of the 2013 Constitution on ensuring human rights and civil rights.

In practice, the search and rescue activities of the fire prevention and fighting force have a direct impact, limiting human rights and civil rights such as implementing medical measures affecting victims; demolishing houses, structures, vehicles, obstacles to open access, escape routes, arranging vehicles, tools, and search and rescue forces; preventing and eliminating dangerous factors that threaten the safety of vehicles, property, health, and lives of the search and rescue force and implementing other measures during the search and rescue process... and according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 14 of the 2013 Constitution, "human rights and civil rights can only be limited according to the provisions of law". However, currently, only fire prevention and fighting activities are regulated in the Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting, while search and rescue activities for common accidents and incidents occurring in daily life that the fire prevention and fighting force is carrying out have not been specifically regulated in legal documents, which does not ensure consistency and unity of the legal system and is not in accordance with the 2013 Constitution, and does not ensure a legal basis in accordance with regulations for the fire prevention and fighting force to perform its duties.

Fire and Rescue Police officers practice rescuing children in distress at a high-rise building.

In addition, current practice also shows that the Fire Prevention and Rescue Police force is still implementing tasks related to state management of rescue and is the force playing a core and permanent role in daily rescue work, having full conditions and capabilities to perform tasks and practical activities have achieved many important results, recognized by Party committees, authorities and people at all levels, contributing to ensuring security and order, serving the requirements of economic, cultural and social development of the country.

Along with that, through consulting the experiences of many countries in the world such as Japan, Korea, Russia, USA, Germany, France, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia... all assign the task of search and rescue to specialized fire prevention and fighting forces as the core and participate in coordination with other forces at the grassroots level, which has brought high efficiency in search and rescue work when incidents and accidents occur.

Therefore, the addition of regulations on rescue activities in the draft Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting and Search and Rescue is consistent with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution and the implementation of the provisions of the 2013 Constitution on ensuring human rights and civil rights to create conditions for the Fire Prevention and Fighting and Search and Rescue Police force to better perform their assigned tasks.

Hong Giang - Ministry of Public Security Portal

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