Today, October 23, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh, the National Assembly discussed in the hall a number of controversial contents of the draft Law on Juvenile Justice.
Delegate Hoang Duc Thang speaks at the National Assembly on October 23, 2024 - Photo: NTL
Speaking at the discussion session, Deputy Head of the Quang Tri Provincial National Assembly Delegation Hoang Duc Thang, basically appreciated the quality of the draft law and agreed with the report on the acceptance of the National Assembly Standing Committee. However, he requested further clarification of a number of issues as follows:
Regarding the phrase "best interests of minors", delegates suggested that the drafting agency should clarify this phrase, list in detail the groups of rights and best interests that need to be included in Article 4 to explain the concept of "best interests" in these regulations.
Regarding the right to full and timely information in Article 9, it is recommended that the drafting agency consider adding the following content: "For minors who are ethnic minorities, in cases where it is deemed necessary to use Vietnamese and the ethnic language of the minor participating in the proceedings in parallel" to protect the rights of minors who are ethnic minorities and cannot read or write fluently, and to provide more favorable legal support for this group.
Regarding the regulation on travel time restrictions in Article 46, delegate Hoang Duc Thang said that restricting the travel time of minors who commit crimes from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day is inappropriate, and will cause difficulties and obstacles in their going to school and vocational training. Therefore, the drafting committee is requested to consider and regulate the "restricted" time frame flexibly and appropriately, such as moving it back from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day, or leaving this regulation to sub-law documents.
Regarding the fines in Article 113, although the Standing Committee of the National Assembly has explained, delegate Hoang Duc Thang is concerned about the content and legality of this provision, suggesting that the National Assembly should consider regulating fines for minors from 14 to under 16 years old because the Penal Code 2015, amended and supplemented in 2017, does not stipulate fines for this group of subjects. Specifically, Article 91 (principles for handling minors who commit crimes) and Article 98 (penalties applied to persons under 18 years of age who commit crimes) include: warning; non-custodial reform; and fixed-term imprisonment.
Therefore, the inclusion of fines in the regulations for this age group is not consistent with the current Penal Code. Accordingly, in reality, most minors are dependent and do not have their own property. On the other hand, verifying that they have income and private property gives rise to administrative procedures. In specific cases, this verification is not simple and difficult to implement, causing unreasonableness and not ensuring the principles of fairness and equality before the law; some people are fined, others are not.
Therefore, the delegate proposed that the National Assembly should not prescribe this penalty or, if it does, should not prescribe it arbitrarily.
On the other hand, the draft law also states that if the family and relatives of minors with assets voluntarily pay the fine, this is not a mandatory sanction and is not the right target for the penalty, which will create a mentality of dependence for the minors to pay the fine after violating the law, which does not have the meaning of deterrence and education. Delegate Hoang Duc Thang commented that this provision "does more harm than good", and needs to be studied, reviewed and weighed.
Nguyen Ly - Thanh Tuan
Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/dai-bieu-quoc-hoi-hoang-duc-thang-gop-y-du-thao-luat-tu-phap-nguoi-chua-thanh-nien-189190.htm
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