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The Ministry of Justice, together with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of National Defense, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuracy, has recently announced a draft joint circular amending a number of articles of Joint Circular 10/2018/TTLT-BTP-BCA-BQP-BTC-TANDTC-VKSNDTC (Joint Circular 10) on coordination in the provision of legal aid in proceedings.
The revision is made to meet requirements for the renewal of lawmaking and law enforcement activities, contributing to national development in the new period.
One of the salient points of the draft circular is the addition of groups of persons entitled to receive legal aid-related explanations and notifications. These include persons subject to offense denunciation or criminal case initiation proposals, persons held in cases of emergency, witnesses, persons subject to diversionary measures, and prisoners. This is aimed at ensuring consistency with the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code, the 2024 Law on Justice for Minors, and newly issued regulations of the Ministry of Public Security.
At the same time, it is hoped to improve the mechanisms for providing legal aid-related explanations and notifications, ensuring that persons provided with legal aid-related explanations are able to access legal aid services at the earliest stages.
Specifically, after an agency or person competent to conduct proceedings, a detention facility, a prison, or the competent person of the detention facility or prison gives legal aid-related explanations, if the explanation recipient is entitled to legal aid or declares himself as entitled to legal aid, such agency/facility/person would notify such to the legal aid center or its branch. The latter would then approach and provide legal aid-related explanations once more, verify whether the explanation recipient is entitled to legal aid, and carry out necessary procedures to provide legal aid services.
These new provisions are expected to guarantee early access to legal aid for people, thereby better protecting the lawful rights and interests of citizens in general and persons entitled to legal aid in particular.
Furthermore, the draft introduces a new requirement for making a written record when a person refuses legal aid. The record must be made in the witness of three parties: (i) the person provided with legal aid-related explanations; (ii) the agency or person competent to conduct proceedings, a warden of the detention facility or prison, or the head of the custody house; and (iii) the legal aid provider. This is intended to promote transparency, objectivity, and respect for personal autonomy in deciding whether or not to receive free legal aid services.
The draft circular also requires that explanations of legal aid rights are provided at all stages of proceedings, unless a legal aid provider is already present to protect the lawful rights and interests of eligible persons. This helps avoid overlooking legal aid needs of the accused, involved parties or victims in proceedings.- (VLLF)
