Practical Implementation of Basic Civil Rights of PWDs in Vietnam

The reality of the subject. And the implementation of social protection needs to balance the actual needs of the disabled and the ability to meet the economic conditions of society.

Chapter VIII of the 2010 Law on PWDs and Decree 136/2013/ND-CP dated October 21, 2013 regulating social assistance policies for social protection beneficiaries define forms of social protection including the following forms:

First: Social assistance, monthly care cost support.

The social allowance regime and monthly care cost support are the basic allowance regimes of social protection for the disabled. This level of support is specifically regulated for each subject in Decree 28-2012/ND-CP detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on the Disabled. According to the Law on the Disabled, to receive this allowance, the subject must be identified as a severely disabled person or a particularly severely disabled person. One point to note is that according to the provisions of Decree 67/2007/ND-CP and Decree 13/2010/ND-CP, subjects with chronic mental illness are not classified with the group of disabled subjects receiving social allowances, although from a scientific perspective, many views identify this as a group of subjects with mental disabilities in addition to the group of subjects with physical disabilities. In addition, current laws also stipulate the rights of relatives, families and adoptive parents of disabled persons through the monthly care cost support regime. The subjects receiving financial support for raising people with disabilities include: Families with people with severe disabilities who are directly raising and caring for them; People who adopt and care for people with severe disabilities; Subjects receiving monthly social allowances who are pregnant or raising children under 36 months old. To receive monthly allowances and support, subjects must ensure procedures with regulations on records, order of application for allowances and support, and the allowance level will be prescribed by the Government based on the general relationship with the allowance level of other policy subjects, in accordance with the state budget capacity and actual conditions.

Second: The regime of caring for people with disabilities in social protection facilities.

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This is a humane and especially meaningful regime for PWDs, demonstrating the state's responsibility for the lives of PWDs. PWDs admitted to social protection facilities are limited to "those with extremely severe disabilities, without a place to rely on, unable to take care of themselves" [19, Article 45, Clause 1]. The social protection regime for PWDs living in protection facilities is guaranteed by funding for PWDs' care, including:

Monthly support allowance; expenses for purchasing personal belongings and daily necessities; expenses for purchasing health insurance cards; expenses for purchasing common medicines; expenses for purchasing tools and means to support rehabilitation; funeral expenses when the subject dies; monthly expenses for personal hygiene for female disabled people [19, Article 45, Clause 2].

Through this, we see that the legal regulations on social protection for PWDs basically fully demonstrate the contents of the social protection regime through regulations on monthly social allowances, financial support for care and nurturing of individuals with disabilities in social protection facilities... contributing to stabilizing the lives of PWDs as well as their families in circumstances where they cannot take care of themselves.

2.2. PRACTICE OF IMPLEMENTING BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN VIETNAM

Currently, we see that the legal regulations in Vietnam regarding the civil rights of PWDs are relatively complete in all aspects of PWDs' lives, ensuring basic rights for PWDs to participate and integrate into the community. However, besides those legal regulations, we also see that the gap between the regulations and the implementation of those legal regulations

In fact, it is not good yet, not fully meeting the essential needs of the disabled.

2.2.1. On the right to health care, medical care and orthopedic rehabilitation

Through the provisions of the law, it can be seen that the guarantee of these rights is relatively complete. However, in reality, there are still many limitations for PWDs to access and use these rights. The network of medical care and orthopedic rehabilitation for PWDs is mainly concentrated in large cities with developed economic conditions, while PWDs living in remote areas have very little opportunity to access these services.

In economically disadvantaged areas and complex areas, community health care support for PWDs is still weak in terms of both facilities and the qualifications of the health care team. Therefore, in these localities, in order to fully implement this right of PWDs in practice, the State needs to have more specific policies in building facilities and training staff to serve the health care and medical care for PWDs.

2.2.2. Implementation of the right to legal aid for people with disabilities

The provisions of the law clearly stipulate free legal aid for people with disabilities, but in reality, the implementation of this right for people with disabilities is not good. Legal aid work aims to educate and propagate for people with disabilities to clearly understand the rights and legal policies of the State for people with disabilities, and to clearly understand their regimes and rights. The good implementation of legal aid work is an important educational measure to improve the learning ability and understanding of people with disabilities.

However, to implement this right in practice in Vietnam today also faces many difficulties due to propaganda work to help people with disabilities understand clearly.

The legal regulations on free legal aid for people with disabilities are not deep, broad and not suitable for each group of people with disabilities, so the number of people with disabilities who know about this legal aid work is still not much.

The legal aid team in Vietnam is currently not large, not highly qualified, and mainly concentrated in big cities, and has not expanded its network to remote, isolated, and disadvantaged areas of the country, so legal aid for people with disabilities is not really effective. Legal aid workers themselves have not yet deeply understood the work of people with disabilities, so in the process of legal aid, they have not really met the practical needs of people with disabilities, especially for those with disabilities that require special approaches such as language and symbols.

2.2.3. In accessing public facilities and information technology for people with disabilities

Vietnamese law has many specific and detailed regulations on

building public works, means of transport and information technology to help people with disabilities access and use them in life. But in reality, in Vietnamese society today, there are still many shortcomings for people with disabilities to exercise these rights.

The number of public works and means of transport that PWD can use is still limited, because the awareness and concern of society for PWD is not really adequate, so the State's investment in building apartment buildings, offices, hospitals, schools, etc. that PWD can use is not much, not meeting the needs of PWD. The State also does not have any sanctions for violating the rights of PWD by organizations and individuals. The State has specific regulations for the use of means of transport for PWD, but in reality, PWD with different types of disabilities do not have specific means of transport specifically for PWD to use.

2.2.4. On marriage and family issues

This is a big problem and very difficult for people with disabilities, because these people themselves, due to their disabilities, always consider themselves a burden to society, they always have to rely on others to take care of them, so getting married and having their own family is a big difficulty for them.

Many people with disabilities cannot work to support themselves, so they always feel inferior to those around them. They cannot take care of themselves, so they often do not dare to think about starting a family and supporting their family. Among them, there are also many people with disabilities whose health problems affect their lives and mobility, so they do not think about being able to start a family. Therefore, the number of people with disabilities who have families and live happily is quite small. Thus, the protection of these rights of people with disabilities is not really good. They are only provisions in legal documents, but there are still many difficulties in implementing them in practice. Most of these difficulties are related to the awareness and concept of society about life and their views on people with disabilities have not really changed to create conditions for people with disabilities to be in control of their own lives.

2.2.5. On social security issues

Looking at the provisions of Vietnamese law, it seems that the life of PWDs has been guaranteed in the best way, the law has many progressive provisions to ensure the best maintenance of PWDs' lives, ensuring the living standards of PWDs. But in reality, looking at the lives of PWDs themselves, these provisions have not really met the requirements in the lives of PWDs. The State has had financial support policies such as monthly allowances, subsidy levels, but implementation is still difficult. Because the financial resources for PWDs mainly rely on the state budget, the subsidy level is not high, and cannot be

meet the living standards of PWDs, these are only initial supports that only meet the minimum living conditions for PWDs. Social protection work has not yet reached all PWDs, especially PWDs in difficult, remote and isolated areas.

There are not many facilities for the seriously disabled in Vietnam, and the facilities in these facilities are rudimentary and have not received much investment.

Thus, due to financial difficulties for the work of the disabled, we see that the attention and development of the work of the disabled has only stopped at the level of meeting the minimum rights of the disabled, but has not created general conditions for the development of the disabled. The regulations and policies of the State have not really promoted the full requirements of the lives of the disabled as well as their participation in the community. In order for the work of the disabled to develop further, it is not only based on the efforts of the State but also requires the attention and support of all other components of society to join hands with the State in the work of the disabled.

2.3. METHODS TO PROMOTE AND PROTECT CIVIL RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ACCORDING TO CURRENT LAW

Protecting and promoting the civil rights of people with disabilities is a common responsibility of each country, in which the State plays the most important role in creating conditions for people with disabilities to access their rights. To protect and promote the rights of people with disabilities, it is necessary to always base on the principle of fairness and equality between people with disabilities and other normal people in society. Therefore, calling for the participation of the whole society in the work of people with disabilities is an important method to best protect and promote the rights of people with disabilities. And the responsibility of the State as well as other subjects in protecting and promoting the rights of people with disabilities has been clearly stipulated in the Law on People with Disabilities 2010.

2.3.1. Eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities

Discrimination against PWDs has existed for a long time in history, both in law and in practice. PWDs themselves are treated as objects of pity, they are restricted in all aspects of life from studying, housing to traveling and normal activities. In some places, PWDs are even discriminated against and isolated from community life, which greatly affects PWDs and their opportunities to integrate into the community. Therefore, the State needs to have policies and laws that clearly define the responsibility of the whole society in ensuring the life and integration of PWDs into the community. The State also needs to have policies to propagate and educate the whole society about PWDs and the rights of PWDs so that society must change its perspective on PWDs, calling on the whole society to join hands in the work of PWDs. Only then can the protection and promotion of the rights of PWDs be guaranteed.

2.3.2. Public financial resources to support people with disabilities

This is the first issue that arises when wanting to support PWDs within the scope of a country. Every year, the state needs to allocate a budget to support PWDs, which is both a responsibility and a demonstration of the state's interest in PWDs' work. However, relying solely on state financial resources is not enough, so in supporting PWDs, there must be participation and cooperation from the whole society, and it is necessary to call for the unanimous help of many different subjects in society, only then can the best conditions for PWDs to develop can be ensured.

2.3.3. Implementing protection policies

For many reasons, the number of PWDs is increasing, and PWDs themselves cannot take care of and support themselves, so the State needs to have many policies to protect PWDs such as assistance.

PWDs in health care, in travel conditions, in learning, assisting severely disabled people, elderly disabled people and disabled children... These assistance policies will partly help PWDs ensure their lives and participate in social activities.

In order for PWDs to be able to participate in and integrate into community life as well as raise the awareness of the whole society about PWDs, the State needs to train a team of people who work as consultants and support PWDs. This is the main force to help the State in ensuring the rights of PWDs. They will help, encourage and care for PWDs so that PWDs can confidently participate in social life. And this is also the main force to do propaganda and education work for other groups in society to understand PWDs in order to eliminate social discrimination against PWDs.

In addition to supporting methods to help people with disabilities have the best conditions to participate in life, the State also needs to have strict sanctions to handle agencies, organizations and individuals who violate the provisions of the Law on People with Disabilities and related legal provisions. This is one of the methods to protect the rights of people with disabilities from violations by others, ensuring respect for the rights of people with disabilities by the whole society. The State needs to issue regulations on handling administrative and criminal violations of the rights of people with disabilities. At the same time, the State must also monitor, inspect and handle violations against subjects who violate these regulations.

To best protect and promote the rights of PWDs, it is necessary to enhance the role and responsibility of all subjects in society, from the State to agencies, organizations, families and individuals. It is necessary to define and highlight the role and function of each subject regarding the issue of PWDs. All subjects in society must have the responsibility to respect and help PWDs.

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