Strengthening the National Legal Aid System: Lessons Learned from Principles and Practice. Advice Paper on the Amendment of Vietnam’s National Legal Aid Law.

The duty to provide free legal assistance to persons arrested for criminal offenses "in any case where the interests of justice so require" is included in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 14. The duty to provide appropriate legal assistance to all children taken into custody is included in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Articles 37 and 40. The duty to provide legal aid in appropriate cases of forced evictions is included in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), e.g., Article 11. The "hard law" obligations are complemented by guidance from a range of international "soft law" instruments that relate to the provision of legal aid, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the United Nations (UN) Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems (UN PnGs), the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of Their Liberty (JDL), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Effective legal aid systems include a national "peak" body that is given the legal responsibility for making policy, monitoring and reporting, and supervising the delivery of legal aid services. This national body may establish sub-national offices, and the responsibilities may be shared between those different tiers of legal aid bodies. The peak body will oversee the operation of legal aid service delivery mechanisms, which may be based on the following models: judicaire, public defenders, and mixed models. Judicaire models involve private lawyers or civil society organizations being subcontracted to conduct cases and other legal aid work. Public defenders models involve full-time lawyers and other staff working for the national legal aid system. Mixed models involve judicaire, public defenders, and civil society organizations, as well as university clinics, paralegals, and other providers, all contributing to providing legal aid services. In Vietnam, the National Legal Aid Agency (NLAA) within the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and Provincial Legal Aid Centers (PLACs) operate within the provincial departments of justice in all of Vietnam's 63 provinces. After ten years of implementation of the Law on Legal Aid, the MOJ led the review and drafting of an amended legal aid law, which began being considered by the national Parliament in the last quarter of 2016. The UN Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems emphasize the importance of ensuring that anyone who is detained, arrested, suspected of, or charged with a criminal offense punishable by a term of imprisonment or the death penalty is entitled to legal aid at all stages of the criminal justice process. States should also ensure that effective legal aid is provided promptly at all stages of the criminal justice process, and that partnerships are established with non-State legal aid service providers, including non-governmental organizations and other service providers. The amended legal aid law in Vietnam aims to strengthen the national legal aid system and ensure that it meets international standards and best practices. The law should provide for the establishment of a national legal aid body or authority that is independent of the government and free from undue political or judicial interference. The body should also be responsible for monitoring and reporting on the delivery of legal aid services, and for ensuring that legal aid is provided promptly and effectively to all those who need it.