Thanh Hoa Provincial Bar Association strives to contribute in the era of advancement

Thanh Hoa Provincial Lawyers Association provides legal advice and legal support to prisoners at Thanh Hoa Provincial Police Detention Center. Photo: Contributor

Looking back at history, after the victory of the August Revolution, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was born, opening a new historical era for the Vietnamese people. Responding to the call of President Ho Chi Minh, in addition to political activists assigned to build a new government, a number of lawyers, students of the Indochina Law University and a number of lawyers trained at French universities also actively participated in the cause of building a new government. Right in the first years of nation building, a team of patriotic Vietnamese lawyers was formed in the new government apparatus from the central to the grassroots level.

In December 1946, responding to President Ho Chi Minh's call for national resistance, many Vietnamese lawyers did not hesitate to face hardships and sacrifices and enthusiastically devoted themselves to the long-term resistance against French colonialism. A number of outstanding lawyers were honored to be assigned important positions in the Government by President Ho Chi Minh, such as lawyers Phan Anh, Vu Trong Khanh, Nguyen Van Huong, Tran Cong Tuong, and lawyers Duong Duc Hien and Vu Dinh Hoe. Having been trained during the resistance, the team of revolutionary lawyers gradually matured.

After the victory at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the French colonialists had to sign the Geneva Agreement recognizing the independence and unity of Vietnam. However, the North and the South were still temporarily divided. With the plot to turn the South into a new type of colony, the US imperialists continuously assisted the puppet government in the South to sabotage the Agreement. The task of joining the people of the whole country in the struggle to implement the Geneva Agreement had a strong appeal to patriotic lawyers. With the encouragement of the Party and the State, on March 29, 1955, about 40 lawyers in different fields attended the conference to establish the Vietnam Lawyers Association. The conference approved the Association's Charter and elected lawyer Phan Anh as President of the Association. Immediately after that, on April 4, 1955, the Government recognized the establishment of the Association and its Charter by Decree No. 130/ND-NV. April 4, 1955 has gone down in the glorious history of the association, as the founding day and traditional day of the Vietnam Lawyers Association.

Since its establishment, the Vietnam Lawyers Association has gone through 14 congresses and has continuously developed and matured in all aspects. From 40 members at the beginning, the association now has more than 102,000 members working across the country. Many generations of lawyers have made positive contributions to building legal science, contributing to building a socialist rule-of-law state, of the people, by the people, for the people and protecting the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Fatherland.

In Thanh Hoa, the Provincial Bar Association was established on January 23, 2002 under Decision No. 244/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee Chairman. Along with the development of the Vietnam Bar Association, the associations at all levels and members of the Provincial Bar Association have continuously built, developed, consolidated the organization, gathered and united members. Up to now, the Thanh Hoa Provincial Bar Association has 2,225 members operating in 17 district-level Bar Associations and 13 affiliated Bar Associations. The Bar Associations at all levels in the province have performed well their functions and tasks according to the provisions of law, the Association's Charter and the tasks assigned by the Party Committee and the Government, making an important contribution to the construction and development of the province. In the past 5 years alone, the provincial Bar Associations at all levels have coordinated with functional agencies, units, and local authorities to organize thousands of conferences to propagate, disseminate, and educate the law to cadres, members, civil servants, public employees, and people in the province.

Effectively carry out legal consultancy and legal aid for cadres, members, people, organizations, especially policy beneficiaries, the poor, ethnic minorities, and vulnerable people in society. In the past 5 years alone, the Legal Consultation Center of the Provincial Bar Association has provided legal advice on 560 cases; participated in litigation and protected the rights of litigants at court in 32 cases; and represented outside litigation in 38 cases. The affiliated Bar Associations have provided legal advice and legal aid on 14,250 cases through the implementation of professional work of agencies and units; provided legal advice and answers on mass media and websites of agencies and units. Bar Associations of districts, towns, and cities directly provided legal advice on 23,380 cases; provided legal advice through professional work in 13,760 cases. Through the work of propaganda, dissemination, education, legal consultancy and legal aid, it has helped cadres, members, civil servants, public employees and the people to access, improve their understanding, comply with the law, proactively participate in legal relations and be able to protect their legitimate rights and interests; at the same time, help authorities at all levels to remove difficulties and obstacles in administrative management at the grassroots level.

Participating effectively and qualitatively in the work of formulating and reviewing policies and laws when assigned, many opinions and contributions of the Provincial Bar Association have been recognized and studied by competent authorities. In the period of 2019-2024 alone, the Thanh Hoa Provincial Bar Association has chaired and coordinated with competent agencies to organize for officials, members of the Bar Association and legal experts to contribute opinions to 38 draft legal documents of the Central Government; review and contribute opinions to 25 draft projects, proposals, and legal documents of the Provincial People's Council and People's Committee. Subordinate Bar Associations contributed opinions to 190 draft legal documents and 160 legal documents of the Provincial People's Council and People's Committee; Bar Associations of districts, towns, and cities contributed opinions to 1,980 draft documents of the District People's Council and People's Committee, local conventions, village conventions, and regulations.

In addition, the provincial lawyers' associations at all levels and members actively and responsibly participate in activities to supervise the implementation of laws in the locality; appoint and introduce cadres and members to be jurors and mediators of the People's Court at two levels; participate in resolving complaints, denunciations, recommendations and reflections of the people, strengthening the great national unity bloc; actively participate in building the Party, government and political system in the locality; fight to protect the Party's ideological foundation; set an example in implementing and mobilizing everyone to well implement the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies and laws, and citizens' obligations.

70 years of establishment and development is a very important milestone, an opportunity to review the historical tradition of the establishment and development of the Vietnam Lawyers Association, which is also the pride of lawyers nationwide. Faced with the requirements of the new situation, in the context of the entire political system under the leadership of the Party, together with the high determination of the State and the consensus and support of the People, taking strong and urgent steps to bring the country into a new era of development - the era of national development, in addition to the intertwined opportunities and challenges, requiring each organization, unit and each lawyer member to make continuous efforts to study, improve knowledge and qualifications to correctly understand and properly implement the Party's guidelines, policies, viewpoints, the State's laws and apply them appropriately to the work of the association; continue to innovate the operation methods of the association at all levels; Pay attention to consolidating and perfecting the development of the association organization and members, and in the immediate future, participate with competent authorities in arranging and streamlining mass associations assigned by the Party and State in the province to ensure effective, efficient and effective operations, contributing to the successful implementation of the province's political tasks and the goals, targets and tasks approved by the Resolution of the 5th Congress of Delegates of the Thanh Hoa Provincial Lawyers Association and the Resolution of the 14th Congress of Delegates of the Vietnam Lawyers Association.

Bui Anh Linh

Vice President of Thanh Hoa Provincial Lawyers Association

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/hoi-luat-gia-tinh-thanh-hoa-no-luc-cong-hien-trong-ky-nguyen-vuon-minh-244463.htm