Presiding over the Conference were Mr. Cao Xuan Thao - Vice President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front; Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong - Member of the Presidium, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Democracy and Law of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front.
At the conference, representatives of the Ministry of Justice said that the promulgation of the Law on Mediation at the Grassroots Level (amended) aims to further institutionalize the Party and State's guidelines and policies on encouraging and developing dispute resolution institutions outside the Court, strengthening the application of information technology, digital transformation; promptly removing obstacles and inadequacies in the provisions of the Law on Mediation at the Grassroots Level in 2013, promoting decentralization and delegation of powers, creating a complete, comprehensive and unified legal basis to improve the quality and effectiveness of mediation activities at the grassroots level, state management of mediation at the grassroots level, linking mediation work at the grassroots level with dissemination and legal education to prevent disputes, strengthen consensus in the community, raise people's awareness and legal awareness, and make practical contributions to economic, cultural, and social development, building and perfecting the socialist rule-of-law State of Vietnam.
Accordingly, the draft Law is structured with 05 chapters, 35 articles (an increase of 02 articles compared to the Law on Grassroots Mediation in 2013). The draft Law inherits a number of still relevant provisions of the Law on Grassroots Mediation in 2013, including: scope of grassroots mediation, standards for mediators, termination of mediators, mediation groups, rights and obligations of heads of mediation groups, mediation between parties in different villages and residential groups, successful mediation, unsuccessful mediation, termination of mediation, responsibilities of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committees at all levels and member organizations of the Front...; at the same time, amend, supplement, and complete many regulations related to the formation and selection of the team of mediators, rights and obligations of mediators, people invited to participate in grassroots mediation, application of information technology, digital transformation in grassroots mediation work and responsibilities of agencies and organizations in grassroots mediation work.
Agreeing with the need to amend the Law on Mediation at the Grassroots level, Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong, Chairman of the Advisory Council on Democracy and Law of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front affirmed: The amendment of the law is not only because of the limitations in practice over the past 13 years, but also to fully institutionalize the new viewpoints and policies of the Party on building a socialist rule-of-law state, promoting democracy at the grassroots level, strengthening the participation of the people in social management and resolving conflicts right from the grassroots level. Based on the current viewpoints and guidelines of the Party, the amendment and supplementation of the Law on Grassroots Mediation needs to strongly shift to thinking of promoting the subjective role of the people, considering grassroots mediation as a social democratic mechanism, a method for the people to directly participate in social management and build a rule-of-law state from the grassroots level.
Contributing opinions to Article 4, Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong said that the draft Law has set out 8 principles for organizing mediation activities at the grassroots level - these are technical principles, not yet reflecting the deeply political and legal principle that our Party has set out: "The people are the center, the subject of the renovation process". Therefore, it is necessary to add to Article 4 the first political and legal principle: Mediation at the grassroots level is a form for the people to directly participate in social management, implement democracy at the grassroots level, prevent disputes and build the great national unity bloc. In addition, expressing the viewpoint of the Party that social management in the digital age must become increasingly professional, effective, and substantive, Article 7 of the draft Law stipulates that the standards of mediators need to be improved. In which the criteria to be put first are legal knowledge; and at the same time add some new criteria to suit the digital age, such as: knowing how to apply digital technology in mediation work; having dialogue skills...
Also according to Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Duong, the current Law on Grassroots Mediation has almost not mentioned digital transformation; while the draft amended Law only mentions this content in a disjointed way in many different chapters and articles. Implementing Resolution 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation and national digital transformation, there needs to be a separate article/item/chapter on digital transformation in mediation work, such as: mediation database, electronic mediation book, online training on grassroots mediation...
From the comments of experts and scientists at the Conference, Vice Chairman Cao Xuan Thao requested the drafting agency to seriously and responsibly receive feedback from the Conference to competent agencies, contributing to completing the draft Law on Grassroots Mediation (amended).
