National Assembly deputies have discussed the Law against Human Trafficking and policies related to the capital city of Hanoi.
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| The new My Dinh residential area in Tu Liem District, Hanoi. NA deputies on Tuesday discussed policies to foster the capital city\'s development. |
In her report, Le Thu Ba, Chairwoman of the Legal Committee yesterday presented some changes in the latest version based on the results of discussions at the previous National Assembly meeting in late November 2010.
Ba said significant changes in the new version related to acts involving human trafficking and related acts, victims\' rights and their safety and some other provisions.
According to Minister of Justice, Ha Hung Cuong, the focus of the law is on human trafficking prevention.
"Yet the law will have provisions on criminal or administrative and disciplinary measures as the nature of the law is very specific. The ultimate objective of the law is to reduce human trafficking activities and then gradually eliminate them," said Cuong.
He said the spirit of the law would not be only confined to the criminal code.
Under the draft law, social protection centres would be established in provinces/cities affiliated to the central government. Victim support centres could be established by individuals or organisations on the basis of self-financing. These centres would only give shelters to victims that do not want to return to their home and they want to stay there.
Nguyen Dang Trung, from HCM City, supported the idea of giving psychological and legal support to victims and financial support or credit if they had difficulties in finding jobs or pursuing a new career.
Earlier on Tuesday, National Assembly deputies discussed the unique policies related to the capital city of Hanoi.
Through the discussion, the participants agreed on the necessity to pass a law on the capital city in order to develop a firm legal foundation to build, manage and develop Hanoi into a beautiful and civilised capital city of the nation.
Nguyen Ngoc Dao, a deputy from Hanoi agreed with the necessity to develop specific policies related to the capital, yet he wondered whether the unique policies would be contrary to the existing laws.
Dao in particular questioned Article 23 of the draft bill, which would allow Hanoi authorities to impose higher fines for administrative violations in the fields of culture, land, environment, construction and transport. "This is the point I think we must have further discussion about," he said.
During their discussion, the deputies asked the drafting committee to include new provisions on security and law and order to enable Hanoi to perform its functional duties as the capital city.
Tran Du Lich, from Ho Chi Minh City, and Dang Nhu Loi, from the southernmost province of Ca Mau, agreed with most the content covered in the draft. Yet they were not happy with arguments supporting the necessity to provide special treatment for Hanoi.
"The arguments they came up were very weak.
For example the seven objectives of building and developing the capital, including the building of Hanoi into a beautiful, civilised, modern and sustainable development city. These objectives were very general. They could be applied to other cities in Vietnam.
If we want to give special treatment to Hanoi, we must pinpoint to the city\'s unique characteristics in terms of politics and its legal status," said Lich.
