Vietnam, Judicial Development and Grassroots Engagement (JUDGE): January 2006–July 2011
Sector: Legal and Judicial Reform
Region: South East Asia and Pacific
Funded by:
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Total Value: C$12,500,000 (Canada’s contribution: C$12 million, Vietnam’s contribution: C$500,000)
Partners and Counterparts:
In Canada: Agriteam, the Government of Alberta, University of Alberta and others
In Vietnam: Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
Purpose
To support the capacity development of legal training institutions and associated legal structures so that legal rights of Vietnamese citizens can be respected, promoted and protected in a more efficient, effective and equitable manner.
Challenge
Although Vietnam’s doi moi reforms have been broadly successful in fostering economic growth and social liberalization, the justice sector has not kept pace with these changes. If Vietnam is to successfully transition to a stable market economy and rule-of-law-based state, then the justice sector—in particular the court system—will need to significantly increase its effectiveness and efficiency. A key part of this challenge is strengthening the judicial training system, which is currently not preparing judges adequately for the increasingly important role they are being asked to play.
Approach
Agriteam adopted a collaborative and participatory approach to working with its partners within the government and select civil society organizations (CSOs) to build their capacity to identify goals and achieve them. Wherever possible, JUDGE employs local expert consultants in planning and implementing its activities. Vietnam is a challenging environment for development projects and JUDGE recognizes that effective engagement and relationship building with local partners over the long term is key to success.
Project Description
The project has the following three mutually supporting components, all of which are grounded in a capacity-building approach:
Judicial Professional Training: This component focuses on the challenges facing the judiciary by building capacity within the Judicial Academy under the MoJ and the Judicial Training School under the SPC to:
- undertake strategic planning exercises
- develop appropriate curricula and teaching materials that integrate international legal standards and principles Vietnam has agreed to, with an emphasis on social context and gender considerations
- use enhanced pedagogical techniques
Court Administration and Procedural Reform: This component is intended to build capacity within the SPC to undertake strategic planning processes—as part of the implementation of the Judicial Reform Strategy—for court administrative and procedural reform and implement these reforms in selected pilot courts, preferably in provinces/districts where CIDA has existing rural programming. Areas of administrative reform include but are not limited to:
- file management and access
- case management
- judge remuneration and appointment
- court access to legal information and prior decisions of the SPC
Sensitivity to gender issues informs all activities related to this component. This directly supports the first component of the project, as higher quality judicial personnel require improved court procedures and management to reinforce a movement toward greater judicial independence and transparency.
Civil Society Engagement and Community-Level Access: This component identifies up to three Vietnamese CSOs and supports activities that enhance their abilities to:
- deliver sustainable and appropriate dispute resolution services and capacity-building programs for local mediators
- disseminate legal information
- undertake research
These activities build the CSOs’ awareness of the community-level legal context and prepare the CSOs to constructively engage in policy discussions related to legal-judicial training and judicial reform with the Government of Vietnam. Supported activities target women, ethnic minorities and the poor in areas where CIDA’s rural development projects are already active. They focus on issues related to legal access, gender-based violence and land-use rights.
Results
JUDGE is still in the early stages. Results achieved to date include:
- The identification of judicial training needs at the Judicial Academy and start of a dialogue with the Academy on how best to introduce international best practices into judicial training
- The initiation of work on developing training materials to be used by Judicial Academy lecturers
- The beginning of a dialogue with the SPC to assess the current status of court administration
- The selection of a consultant to conduct a survey on grassroots conciliation
- The coordination of two regional consultative workshops to review the practice of Legal Consultancy Centres, and to gather inputs and comments on the revised regulations for such centres.
Project Director
Karen Gainer
kgainer@agriteam.ca
