THE PRIME MINISTER OF GOVERNMENT
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SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM
Independence - Freedom - Happiness
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No: 15/2000/CT-TTg
Hanoi, August 09, 2000
 
DIRECTIVE
ON ENFORCEMENT OF THE 2000 MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LAW
The 2000 Marriage and Family Law was passed by the Xth National Assembly at its 7th session on June 9, 2000 and shall take effect as from January 1st, 2001.
In order to implement in time the Marriage and Family Law as well as the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 35/2000/QH10 of June 9, 2000 on the implementation of the 2000 Marriage and Family Law, the Prime Minister hereby instructs:
I. TO ORGANIZE THE REVISION OF EXISTING LEGAL DOCUMENTS IN ORDER TO AMEND, SUPPLEMENT THEM OR TO ISSUE NEW DOCUMENTS GUIDING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LAW
1. From now to the end of 2000, the Ministry of Justice shall assume the prime responsibility for the completion of the revision of existing legal documents on marriage and family so as to propose to the Government or other competent agencies amendments, supplements to or annulments of those which are no longer compatible to the new Marriage and Family Law.
2. The Ministry of Justice shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with concerned agencies and organizations in preparing sub-law documents for submission to the Government or the National Assembly Standing Committee for promulgation, in order to guide the implementation of the Law’s provisions, especially those on the right to use cultivation land, residential land and dwelling houses relating to marriage and family relations; the marriage registration, child adoption registration in deep-lying and remote areas, household registration regarding marriage and family involving foreign elements, including those in border areas with neighboring countries; the sanction of administrative violations in the field of marriage and family. All the above-mentioned tasks must be completed by the second quarter of 2001.
3. The Committee for Ethnicities and Mountainous Areas shall assume the prime responsibility for preparing and submitting to the Government for promulgation in the first quarter of 2001 a decree stipulating the application of the Marriage and Family Law to ethnic minority groups, measures to handle the de facto child adoption in areas inhabited by ethnic minority people, together with a list of backward customs and practices regarding marriage and family which are not allowed to be applied, and a list of fine customs and practices which should be promoted.
II. DISSEMINATION, PROPAGATION AND EDUCATION OF THE MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LAW
1. The dissemination and propagation of the Marriage and Family Law must be carried out regularly and thoroughly among public servants, men of people’s armed forces and people, especially in communes, wards, townships, population quarters, agencies, organizations, enterprises, schools and families.
The dissemination and propagation of the Law should be targeted to make people clearly understand the basic principles and contents of the Law, especially those which have recently been amended or supplemented, as well as the National Assembly’s Resolution on handling de facto marriages, so that they shall consciously and actively abide by the Law, at the same time raise each person’s sense, awareness of his/her responsibility for building families, making every family a real cosy home for every individual, making the Vietnamese society a big family for all Vietnamese, who are working together to build an independent, free, prosperous and happy country.
Right in the third quarter of 2000, the ministries, the ministerial-level agencies, the agencies attached to the Government and the People’s Committees at various levels should draw up and organize the implementation of the plan on dissemination, propagation and education of the Marriage and Family Law in their respective agencies, units or localities, consider it the key task of the law dissemination, propagation and education work in the second half of 2000 and in 2001, and at the same time, renew forms and methods for the dissemination and education of marriage and family legislation, in order to carry out these activities in an intensive manner, avoid formalism in law dissemination and education which shall not yield high efficiency.
2. The Ministry of Justice shall have to coordinate with the Vietnam Fatherland Front’s Central Committee, the Vietnam Women’s Union’s Central Committee, the Vietnam Labor Confederation, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth’s Union’s Central Committee, the Vietnam Peasants’ Association, the Vietnam War Veterans’ Association, the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Vietnam Committee for Child Protection and Care, the Committee for Population and Family Planning, the Vietnam Lawyers’ Association, the press, radio and television agencies at central and local levels in organizing the widespread dissemination and propagation of the Marriage and Family Law and the National Assembly’s Resolution on the implementation of this Law; directing and guiding the intensification of legal consultancy activities regarding marriage and family; encouraging the establishment of family clubs in various forms, where people can take part in the activities according to their sex, age, profession or hobby in order to exchange and learn from each other necessary experiences in being husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, so that they can avoid surprises and mistakes at the initial stage of family life.