8/14/2019 EFFECTIVE WAYS OF DEALING WITH LAND CONFLICTS AND SUPPORTING EMGs

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EFFECTIVE WAYS

OF DEALING WITHLAND CONFLICTS

AND SUPPORTING

EMGs

National Legal Aid Agency of

Vietnam support by NOVIB

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POLICIES AND LAWS ON LAND IN VIETNAM

Land Law 2003 affirms that lands belong to theownership of the whole people represented by the State;

Different landholders: agencies, organizations,individuals, enterprises, communities, etc;

Land users are granted land-use certificates (LUCs);

Both names of husband and wife are put in LUCs;

Provincial Peoples Committees have the authority to grantland-use rights to organizations and Vietnamese residingoverseas; District Peoples Committees grant lands toindividuals and households;

These Committees also have the authority to take back the

lands; The land disputes can be resolved by the court (if

parties have LUCs) or the peoples committees (withoutLUCs).

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The land users have 8 rights

Right to use lands;

Right to inherit the land use right;

Right to transfer the land;

Right to exchange lands;

Right to sell the land use right;

Right to collerate the land use right; Right present the land use right;

Right to use land as an investment

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The main forms of land conflicts

Conflicts between landholders (who had left

their lands for a long time) and the newlandholders (who were allowed to take over

these lands by the State).

Conflicts among land-holders on thetransactions or boundaries of their lands.

Conflicts over inadequate compensation for

for developing infrastructure. Conflicts between landholders and local

authorities over administrative decisions on

settling land conflicts.

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Causes of land conflicts

There have been a lot of changes of legislature and

land users in the past 30 years: Population growth, urbanization and migration Land privatization and a large numbers of land

speculators;

Old landholders (who left their homelands) claimedback their land which have been taken back by theState and allocated to other users.

Indigenous (normadic) groups claim theircustomary land rights. They do not have anycertificates for the right to use their reclaimedlands.

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Causes of land conflicts

Legal documents on land have been changed many

times (6 times from 1998 to 2009); there have beenmany vague and inconsistent provisions

Legitimate interests of land users were not paid enoughattention when the legal documents were developed.

In the withdrawing of lands, the relationship between theownership of lands of the State and the rights of landusers has not been properly dealt with. The interests ofthe society, investors and land users have not beenadequately balanced. In addition, sometimes, the legalprocedures for withdrawing the land have not beenstrictly followed by state agencies and investors.

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Causes of land conflicts The capacity of local authorities in managing lands is

still weak. Good systems of keeping files of lands and

monitoring the use of lands have not been in place.Monitoring of the use of lands after the investors are

given lands has not been effective.

Mechanisms and structures of dealing with complaintson lands have not met practical demands. In some

provinces, the complainers have not been properly

received and guided by competent agencies, even

with corruption in these field The legal awareness of people on land users is quite

low. People do not understand much about the land

law, their land rights and legal procedures to deal with

land conflicts.

Eff t f th G t i d i d l i

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Efforts of the Gov.t in reducing and resolving

land conflicts Has recently issued a large number of legal

documents of implementation of Land Law Categorized land conflicts into groups to develop

suitable solutions Shorten time for issuing land users certificate

Draft new law on resolving major problems (e.g. anti-corruption, accountability, one-stop shot) in thesystem of legal documents on land administration

Improve the capacity of agencies responsible for landadministration nationwide so that land conflicts can bebetter studied and resolved (e.g. setting up LandRegistration Center).

Develop programs to provide legal aids, infrastructuredevelopment, livelihoods support, forest plantation

targeting ethnic minority groups

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Legal aid forms:

The NLAA as one agency in charge of collecting

recommendations and claims on lands regulations fromPLACs; Legal advice provided by legal aid staffs or collaborators.

Collaborators are lawyers, paralegals, social workers or gov.staffs...

Legal representation in legal proceedings can be provided by

legal aid staff or collaborating lawyers; Lawyers are paid on acase by case basis from gov.funds; representation out side courts;

Legal aid organizations also make petitions to competentagencies to ask the setflement of the case following the law; toask take admendment laws or review the behaviour of gov. staff

The Legal aid organizations has the right to makerecommendations on resolving loopholes of the law for lawreform or amendment discovered while dealing or through cases,.

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Legal Aid System

Clients can come directly or throught

their relatives or throught the publiccomunication forms; Juveniles or who are kept in custody,

their representatives or relatives canapply for legal aid on behalf of them;

63/63 Provincial Legal Aid Centers(PLACs) and their 132 branches, >3000legal aid clubs with 300 staff and over1,000 collaborators have received over

1.4 million cases/10 years- legal aidclients and 516,514 have land conflicts(210,498/10 years -Ethnic minorityclients);

Ethnic minority

Poor

Children

Domestic violence

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Legal aids cases

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

2005 2006 2007 2008

civil

criminal

labor

land

Administrative

other

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LACs: approaches to land conflicts

Giving legal advices to the poor on how to deal withtheir land conflicts;

Making petitions to local authorities to request thesettlement of the cases for protection the rights andinterests of clients;

Raising conflict cases in Wiseman's meetings, media,newspapers;

Representing clients in court proceedings if the land

conflicts are taken by the courts; Mediating parties in land conflicts;

Organizing legal-aid mobile clinics to areas wherethere are many land conflicts;

Coordinating with mass org. Women & Farmer Union

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LACs: approaches to land conflicts

Organizing legal talks and dialogues with people in

communities to inform them about their legal land

rights and legal procedures to deal with land conflicts;

Meetings with other partners on compensations,

Organizing meetings with legal aid clubs in communes

with representative of the local Peoples Committee todiscuss their legal problems, including land conflicts.

Circulating leaflets to inform people about important

provisions of land law. Compiling legal aid casebooks demonstrating typical

cases on land conflicts.

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LACs: approaches to land conflicts

Using both national laws and customary laws in

explaining and assisting ethnic minority peoplein dealing with their land conflicts.( In manycases, customary are consistent with national lawsand therefore legal aid providers can use the rules of

customary laws to deal with the cases. For example,customary laws of Bana say that the settlement ofland disputes must be based on the principles ofnegotiation and mediation. The parties can use

Wiseman as arbitrators if they cannot discuss. Insome cases, the customary laws are contradictory tonational law when say that, lands reclaimed orinherited by Bana people will belong to their privateownership).

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LACs: Approaches to support EMGs

Recruiting experts from relevant departments such

as the department for land administration to belegal aid collaborators of the PLACs to deal with

land conflicts and provide training to the staff of the

PLACs on how to deal with land conflicts Recruiting ethnic minority people to be staff,

especially using Wiseman or village heads in

communities of ethnic minority people as

collaborators of the PLACs for ethnic minoritypeople.

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Challenges Language barrier; Small numbers of LACs staff know

and can use EM languages (need interpreter whenthat person do not have legal backgrounds);

Land law recognized a community as a legal entity onland users while Civil code has not;

Land law and procedure keep changing andsometimes contradictory; however conflict cases mustbe resolved based on the law applicable during theperiod of that conflict occurred.

Customary laws are not documented in written formthey have not been recognized fully by the State whendeveloping new law;

Ethnicity minorities groups (12% of the population)have very low access to resources, including legal

support.

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Achievements Awareness of poor and ethnic minority people about

land rights has been raised, though not as high as weexpected; Awareness of state officers in general and officers of

land administration officers in particular about legal aidservices and their obligations in protecting legitimate

interests of ethnic minority and other disadvantagedgroups have been significantly improved through theirinvolvement in legal aid activities;

Procedures to deal with land conflicts and issuing

LUCs, especially at the grassroots level has beenpublicized and shorten; The NLAA and the PLACs have made a number of

recommendations to the competent agencies toimprove the system of legal documents on land.

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Achievements

Over the past 12 years, the legal aid

system has dealt with more 500,000 landcases, around 50% of them aresuccessfully solved.

Many long-pending cases of land conflicthave been resolved when the clients cameto the PLACs.

A number of PLACs minority staff inmountainous areas have acquiredknowledge on land law.

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Many Thanks