4 Principles for Developing and Implementing Community Conventions and Agreements According to Decree 61/2023/ND-CP: What Principles Are Included?
What are the four principles of formulating and implementing conventions and agreements in residential communities?
On August 16, 2023, the Government of Vietnam issued Decree 61/2023/ND-CP on the formulation and implementation of conventions and agreements in residential communities.
Article 4 of Decree 61/2023/ND-CP stipulates four principles for formulating and implementing conventions and agreements, which include:
- Complying with the guidelines and policies of the Communist Party, policies, and laws of the State; not re-stipulating contents that have already been regulated in legal documents.
- Originating from the self-management needs of the people, based on voluntariness, consensus, transparency, and openness within the residential community; fully promoting the people's mastery rights and their responsibility toward the community.
- Respecting the autonomy, cultural diversity, and freedom of belief and religion of the residential community.
- Conforming to social ethics, good customs, and traditions; preserving, protecting, and promoting traditional cultural values; building new cultural values and civilized behavior norms suited to the specific characteristics of the residential community.
Four principles of formulating and implementing conventions and agreements in residential communities (Image from Internet)
What is the purpose of formulating and implementing conventions and agreements?
Article 3 of Decree 61/2023/ND-CP stipulates the purposes of formulating and implementing conventions and agreements as follows:
- Promoting the self-management role of residential communities in maintaining social order and safety, protecting natural resources, the environment, and implementing grassroots democracy, which actively supports state management by law.
- Protecting, preserving, and promoting traditional cultural values, good customs, and traditions; limiting and gradually eliminating backward customs and traditions; building a civilized lifestyle in residential communities.
What are the scope, content, and form of conventions and agreements stipulated?
The scope of the content of conventions and agreements is stipulated in Article 5 of Decree 61/2023/ND-CP.
Depending on the self-management requirements, socioeconomic conditions, customs, and traditions of each locality, ensuring the selective inheritance of appropriate contents from existing conventions and agreements and purposes and principles stipulated in Articles 3 and 4 of Decree 61/2023/ND-CP, the residential community selects one or more of the following contents to be included in the scope of conventions and agreements:
- Appropriate measures and methods to help people in the local area participate in state and community management, ensuring and promoting the freedom and democratic rights of the residential community; motivating and facilitating the community in fulfilling their civic rights and duties.
- Good customs and traditions and measures to limit and eventually eliminate backward customs and superstitions; preserving and promoting the values of national cultural heritage; implementing a civilized lifestyle in behavior, communication, living, travel, weddings, funerals, and festivals; preventing domestic violence, building family happiness; developing healthy cultural activities.
- Measures contributing to protecting state, community, and citizen property; protecting the ecological environment; ensuring security, order, and preventing social evils in the area; building and promoting neighborly relations, solidarity, mutual assistance within the residential community; eradicating poverty, developing the economy, improving living standards; encouraging learning and talent, promoting lifelong learning movements; boosting vocational guidance, vocational training, industrial, and agricultural encouragement in the locality.
- Suitable reward and punishment measures to ensure the implementation of conventions and agreements, but not substituting the legal processing measures.
- Other necessary contents decided by the residential community.
The form of conventions and agreements is stipulated in Article 6 of Decree 61/2023/ND-CP as follows:
- Conventions and agreements are documented and signed by the Village Head (Head of the residential group), the Head of the Front-working committee in the residential community, and two (2) representatives of households in the residential community; the representatives are encouraged to be village elders, hamlet chiefs, or reputable persons within the community. Once approved, conventions and agreements bear the overlapping seal of the Commune People's Committee.
- The community decides and agrees on naming it "Convention" or "Agreement".
- Conventions and agreements can be divided into preamble, chapters, sections, articles, clauses, points, or other suitable structures corresponding to the contents; presented concisely, clearly, specifically, understandably, and easily executable.
- The language used in conventions and agreements is Vietnamese.
- In cases where the residential community includes multiple Vietnamese ethnic groups using different languages, translating conventions and agreements from Vietnamese into one or several languages of those ethnic groups is decided by the community when drafting, seeking opinions, and approving according to the stipulations in Articles 8, 9, and 10 of Decree 61/2023/ND-CP.
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