Legal Empowerment for the Poor

The forum aimed to seek new initiatives for justice and legal organisations to contribute to human development, provide direct benefits for disadvantaged people, and enhance the participation of vulnerable groups. 

 

Bakhodir Burkhanov, Acting Country Director of UNDP in Vietnam, said that the UNDP has identified four key fields, including access to justice and law, labour rights, property rights and business rights, which are key factors affecting livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable. Legal empowerment can be used as a shield to protect the poor in doing businesses, he said.

 

Nicholas Booth, UNDP Policy Advisor to Rule of Law and Access to Justice at UNDP Vietnam, said: “In nature, legal empowerment of the poor is a practical concept of empowerment actually used to integrate separate legal statuses to a comprehensive legal system for the benefit of everyone.”

 

UNDP and bilateral donors approve a three-year project that will provide US$1.2 million to support VLA and civil society organisations in promoting legal empowerment for the poor in Vietnam.

 

Through support to the VLA, its associated Legal Consultancy Network and civil society organisations, the project aims to empower poor and disadvantaged groups to claim their rights and support their participation in the legal and judicial reform processes in Vietnam. To this effect, VLA will join forces with civil society organisations to advocate for an enabling legal and institutional environment for civil society organisations to participate in policy discussions and social review in Vietnam.

 

“Middle-income status brings greater challenges for Vietnam’s justice system to protect the legitimate rights of all citizens,” said Mr Bakhodir Burkhanov. “These rights should not be the privilege of a few but everyone. Deepening of rule-of-law and access to justice, and greater legal empowerment of the poor are a prerequisite for accelerating human development and the Millennium Development Goals in Vietnam in the years to come.” He also noted that UNDP is committed to supporting Viet Nam in these important reform initiatives. 

 

The new project will further promote rights-based legal aid and legal empowerment of the poor. It will also help strengthen VLA’s capacity in policy advocacy and lawmaking through its focus on evidence-based advocacy, data collection and research. At the same time, the project is expected to increase the partnership between social organisations and the VLA to address social injustices and to advance legal empowerment of the poor.

 

Since 2007, UNDP has assisted the Vietnam Lawyers’ Association to develop a strategy for the Association toward 2020, and to strengthen the capacity and participation of its members in policy advocacy on access to justice for the poor and building a rule-of-law state.