Lao Cai, August 10 -11, 2023, the Wildlife Conservation Society – Viet Nam program (WCS Viet Nam) collaborated with Department of Legal Affairs (Department 14), Supreme People’s Procuracy (SPP) of Viet Nam to organize a workshop on “Review the application of the Criminal Procedure Code in handling wildlife-related cases”.
Overview of the workshop, Lao Cai, August 2023
The workshop brought about 50 participants who are representatives of the SPP, Supreme People’s Court; Ho Chi Minh city University of Law; People's Procuracy of the provinces of Tuyen Quang, Son La, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Yen Bai, and Ha Giang; and law enforcement and judicial agencies of Lao Cai province, including: Provincial People's Procuracy, Provincial Investigative Police Agency, Provincial Border Guard, Provincial People's Court, Customs Department, Provincial Civil Judgment Enforcement Agency.
This workshop aimed at providing prosecutors with a forum to exchange, share skills and experiences in practicing prosecution rights, supervising the initiation of criminal proceeding, prosecution and trial of wildlife-related crime cases. At the same time, they discussed and proposed solutions to improve the criminal procedure legislation through experienced of handling wildlife-related cases. Thefore, at the workshop, the participants were updated with the situation of wildlife crime in Viet Nam 2018-2023, the overview of criminal procedure legislation in handling wildlife-related cases; and the difficulties in applying these regulations in the practice.
Participant shared at the workshop, Lao Cai, August 2023
Especially, at the workshop, the participants had the opportunities to share their challenges in the handling of wildlife as evidence in the criminal cases including the practice of soliciting expert witnesses, and usage of expert witnesses’ results, mutual legal assistance, property valuation, and usage of property valuation conclusion in handling wildlife crime cases at their provinces/districts.
After the workshop, WCS Viet Nam will synthesize and analyze the sharing and recommendations of participants; while the SPP’s Department 14 will consider these inputs to integrate in the plan to update and amend the Crimial Procudue Code.
The workshop was conducted within the framework of the project “Scaling up efforts to counter wildlife trafficking in Viet Nam” funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), United States Department of State.