Guidelines for duplicating and photographing of state secret containers in Vietnam

Guidelines for duplicating and photographing of state secret containers in Vietnam

- The duplication of state secret containers, the Law on State Secrets Protection and guiding documents do not prescribe the necessity of a submission form or proposal for duplicating state secret containers.

Organizations and institutions, when duplicating state secret containers, must imprint the seal “COPY OF STATE SECRET” first, fill in all information on the form of duplicating, date, month, year of duplicating, recipient, and then submit it to the competent leader for approval and signing of the copy.

- In the case of multiple copies, replication can be done from the state secret document already signed by the authorized person of the issuing organization, with the seals “COPY NUMBER” and “COPY OF STATE SECRET” as regulated in Circular 24/2020/TT-BCA of the Minister of Public Security, issued on March 10, 2020, regarding forms used in the protection of state secrets, detailing the form of duplicating, time of duplicating, quantity, recipient, and submission to the competent leader for signing the copies.

Subsequently, the required number of copies must be photocopied after they have been approved and signed by the leader; affix the organization’s red circular seal on the copies (in this case, the copy number seal and the state secret copy seal are black photocopied seals, but the red circular seal with the national emblem must be a red seal; no additional confidential red seal mark is required on the copies).

For organizations without their own seal, the authorized person must sign directly at the “COPY OF STATE SECRET” seal.

- For draft documents containing state secrets but not yet signed by the authorized person of the organization: there is no need to follow the duplicating procedure prescribed in Article 3 of Decree 26/2020/ND-CP.

- Signing copies of state secret containers in the form of by-command or by-delegation: the duplication of documents and materials containing state secrets must comply with regulations in Article 11 of the Law on State Secrets Protection, Article 3 of Decree 26/2020/ND-CP, and clauses 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 19 Article 2 of Circular 24/2020/TT-BCA.

Authorization to copy and reproduce documents and materials containing state secrets is explicitly regulated in the above documents and cannot be further delegated; thus, signing copies of state secret containers in the form of by-command or by-delegation is non-compliant with the laws on the protection of state secrets.

Declassification of State Secrets of Vietnam

1. For documents without state secret content but sealed as confidential by the authorities: the misidentified state secret and confidentiality must be rectified or recalled by the issuing authority, without following the declassification procedure prescribed in Article 22 of the Law on State Secrets Protection.

2. State secrets can be wholly or partially declassified to meet practical needs for protecting national interests, socio-economic development, and international integration and cooperation.

The process and procedures for whole or partial declassification must follow the provisions in clause 4, Article 22 of the Law on State Secrets Protection, which include:

- For the complete declassification of state secrets: after declassification, it must be sealed with a declassification mark or a document affirming the declassification. No later than 15 days from the declassification decision, the declassifying authority must inform concerned organizations and individuals in writing to affix the declassification seal or document.

- For partial declassification: the content of the partial declassification must be included in the declassification decision of the authority. No later than 15 days from the decision, the declassifying authority must inform concerned organizations and individuals in writing to implement the partial declassification mark or document.

Chau Thanh

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