MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY OF JUSTICE HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI OANH APPLYING CUSTOMARY LAW OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PEOPLE’S COMMITTEES IN THE CURRENT CENT[.]
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY OF JUSTICE HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI OANH APPLYING CUSTOMARY LAW OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PEOPLE’S COMMITTEES IN THE CURRENT CENTRAL HIGHLANDS PROVINCES SUMMARY OF THE DOCTORAL DISSERTATION OF LAW STUDIES HANOI - 2023 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY OF JUSTICE HANOI LAW UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI OANH APPLYING CUSTOMARY LAW OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PEOPLE’S COMMITTEES IN THE CURRENT CENTRAL HIGHLANDS PROVINCES Major: Theory and History of State and Law Code: 9380106 SUMMARY OF THE DOCTORAL DISSERTATION OF LAW STUDIES SUPERVISIOR: PROF PHD NGUYEN THI HOI HANOI - 2023 PART A INTRODUCTION Opening statement and background of the study Legal sources are one of the important matters not only in justice science but also in law implementation practice The needs to diversify legal forms has caught special attention from the State, especially legislators In addition, as a matter of fact, Vietnam is a nation with 54 ethnic groups living together Moreover, not only are legal documents difficult to access and understand, but they are also strange to the traditional culture of ethnic groups This leads to the inevitable application of custom to solve individual and community problems Customary law is a timely compensation and supplement for the lack rigidity and tradition of the legal document system in the context of increasing needs for legal methods to solve problems that always occur in a volatile integrated society in the Central Highlands nowadays That is the reason why it is necessary and urgent to study the topic “Applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the actitivies of the People’s Committees in the current Central Highlands provinces" Research aim and objectives 2.1 Research aim This study aims to build a scientific and practical basis to propose possible solutions for continuing the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands so as to enhance the management efficiency of these agencies 2.2 Research objectives To reach the research aim, research objectives are set as follow: First, learning about the topic issues shown in previous research works of domestic and foreign authors, thereby evaluating the existing research results and identifying the problems to further research in accordance with the requirements of this study First, find out the research situation of the topic's problems Second, interpreting and clarifying contents such as concepts, principles, methods of application and basic factors affecting the application of customary law Third, assess the current situation of applying customary law of ethnic minorities in state management activities in some fields of the People's Committee in the Central Highlands provinces over the past time Fourth, propose solutions to be taken to continue applying customary laws of ethnic minorities in the operation of the People's Committee Scopes of the study - Scope of content: Thesis research on customary law of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands evaluates the effectiveness of the process of applying customary law in the activities of the People's Committee in the provinces of Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, and Lam Dong - Scope of space: The thesis studies in areas where ethnic minorities live and in the activities of the People's Committee in a number of administrative units at commune and district levels of the Central Highlands provinces - Scope of time: The thesis studies the application of customary law in the operation of the People's Committee in the period from 2016 to 2021 Methodology and Research methods 4.1 Methodology The dissertation is studied on the basis of dialectical materialism, historical materialism of Marxism - Leninism; Ho Chi Minh's ideology and the policies of the Communist Party of Vietnam on State and law, especially focusing on the views about nation and national unity, state management and community self-governance; implementation of democracy at localities, relationship between law, customary law, and custom 4.2 Research methods The thesis is researched using specific research methods such as: analytical, synthesis, historical, comparative, logical, statistical methods; interdisciplinary research methods; survey and statistical methods to collect and process information New contributions in terms of scientifics - First, elaborating and explaining the necessity to apply, principles and methods of applying customary law of ethnic minorities - Second, identify and explain the provisions of customary law that ethnic minorities can apply, the principles and methods of applying customary law and the basic factors affecting the application of customary law - Third, evaluate the actual situation of applying principles, application methods and application results in a number of specific activities of the People's Committee - Fourth, provide views to unify in the application process and propose groups of possible solutions to continue applying customary law in the operation of the People's Committee Significance of the study 6.1 Contribution to academics The dissertation clarifies and implements further theory of customary law and the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands 6.2 Contribution to goverment The dissertation provides with methods to apply customary law of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands in the process of performing state management activities with the subjects of ethnic minorities At the same time, the dissertation is also a useful reference in the process of studying, researching and teaching jurisprudence as well as applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the reality of the State’s social management Thesis structure In addition to Conclusion, List of References and Appendix, the dissertation is structured into parts: Part A: Introduction Part B: Literature review Part C: Main content of the study Chapter 1: Theoretical issues about applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands Chapter 2: Actual situations of the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the current activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands provinces and the causes Chapter 3: Perspectives and solutions to continue the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the current activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands provinces in the coming time PART B OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH SITUATION ISSUES OF THE THESIS TOPIC Through the study of the works related to the issues of the topic, some conclusions can be drawn as follows: Evaluation of the research situations of the thesis topic By studying scientific works related to the topic’s matter, it shows that a diversity of previous research works on customary law which are from many angles and aspects, basically clarifying the theoretical problems of customary law However, the research directly studying the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees is still very limited, unfully clarified the content of theory, reality, viewpoints and solutions for this problem In summary, the following observations can be drawn: 1.1 In terms of theoretical issues on the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees Researchers have clarified contents such as the concept of customary law, the values of customary law in relation to the law and in the community life of ethnic minorities in a certain region, the needs to apply customary law to social management However, up to now, there has not been any scientific work that has built a sufficient theoretical basis for the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands Therefore, that is one of the basic research tasks of this dissertation 1.2 In terms of the actual situations of the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees Regarding the actual situations of the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees, previous researchers have analyzed and evaluated the actual situations of the application of customary law to state management of a specific ethnic group in a certain region of Vietnam There are examples and illustrative data such as the Cham people in Ninh Thuan, the K’ho people in Lam Dong, the Ede people in Dak Lak, the Thai people in the North Central But there has been no work that mentions the reality of applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in a large area within five provinces of the Central Highlands Therefore, this is another fundamental research task of this dissertation 1.3 In terms of solutions of applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees Regarding the viewpoints and solutions to apply customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees, there are several solutions mentioned by previous researchers but the effectiveness is quite low For example, in terms of legal solutions, many researchers have mentioned the steps for the State to recognize, legislate appropriate and progressive contents of customary law in order to regulate social relations in some fields serving state management activities in certain localities In summary, researches on customary law in general and the application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in particular have now achieved certain results that can be inherited as a useful reference for the postgraduate in the process of carrying out this dissertation Dissertation topics that need further research After evaluating the research situation of the content of the thesis on the basis of inheriting the existing research achievements, the thesis focuses on the following issues: - Developing and explaining the concept of application, the need to apply, principles and methods of application; factors affecting this application - Presenting and evaluating the actual situation of applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committee, mainly in the process of state management over a number of basic areas in the life of the ethnic minorities ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands provinces today Point out the advantages and limitations of this application and identify the causes leading to that situation - Seeking and proposing viewpoints and solutions to continue the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands in order to improve the effectiveness of state management in ethnic minority agencies Research hypothesis and research questions 3.1 Research hypothesis Along with the law, customary law is both an indispensable tool to regulate social relations arising in the social life of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands and an important tool contributing to improve the efficiency of the People's Committees as well as to protect the rights and benefits of ethnic minorities Therefore, applying customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands is indispensable in the process of building a state ruled by law in Vietnam today 3.2 Research questions The following research questions are posed to achieve the dissertation’s research aim and objectives What is the characteristics of applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands? Why are they important? On which principles should the application be based? In what ways and which activities can be applied? What are the achievements and limitations of the application of the customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands over the past time? What are the main reasons for the actual situations? What are the directions and solutions to continue the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands to ensure the effectiveness, the rights and benefits of ethnic minorities? C CONTENT OF CHAPTERS Chapter THEORETICAL ISSUES OF APPLYING CUSTOMARY LAW OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PEOPLE’S COMMITTEES IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS 1.1 Concepts, characteristics, principles, methods, necessity of applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands provinces 1.1.1 The concept of applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the operation of the People's Committee 1.1.1.1 The concept of customary law of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands According to the dictionary of jurisprudence, “customary law is the obligatory codes of conducting and behaving that are established by village communities These codes are passed down from generation to generation”1 In the dictionary of Theoretical Terms of State and Law, the author Thai Vinh Thang states that: Customary law is the obligatory codes of conduct that are built up by village communities and passed down from generation to generation Customary law can exist either orally or writtenly… Customary law is the law of village communities or of ethnic minorities If customary law suits the social progress, creates fairness, justice, social order, and is recognized by the State, it will become a customary law of the State2 With this understanding, customary law can become the customary law of the State - one of the basic sources of law that plays an important role in regulating social relations 1.1.1.2 Operation concept of the People's Committee The activities of the People's Committees consist of: Judicature - Institute of Legal Sciences (2006), Jurisprudence Dictionary, Justice Publishing House, Hanoi, p.528 Thai Vinh Thang (2008), Dictionary of Theoretical Terms of State and Law, People's Public Security Publishing House, Hanoi, p.156 In terms of form: collective activities through meetings of the People's Committees, activities of the Chairman of the People's Committees and activities of other members of the People's Committees In terms of content: The activities in which the People's Committees at all levels in the Central Highlands can apply customary laws are the following activities: (i) promulgating legal and administrative documents; (ii) propagating, disseminating and educating the law; (iii) organizing law implementation; (iv) inspecting, examining, settling complaints and/or denunciations, handling violations of the law 1.1.1.3 The concept of applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the operation of the People's Committee Applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees is using local knowledge and knowledge in the customary law of ethnic minorities that are suitable or not contrary to the law to supplement, support or concretize legislation to help the People's Committee's state administrative management activities in the areas of ethnic minority communities, make it easy, convenient and achieveable towards their proposed aims The application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committee in the Central Highlands provinces can be divided into direct application and indirect application 1.1.2 Features of the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands provinces The application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands provinces has the following basic characteristics: Firstly, on the subject of application: the subjects who directly apply the law continue to be the collective of the People's Committee at all levels, the individual President of the People's Committee and other ministries and civil servants under the People's Committee; subjects who indirectly apply customary law through the roles of village elders, priests, pastors, Fatherland Front, Women's Union, Youth Union, etc Second, in terms of application scope: customary law is applied mainly in the following activities: promulgating legal documents and administrative documents; law dissemination and education activities; 13 Chapter ACTUAL SITUATIONS OF THE APPLICATION OF CUSTOMARY LAW OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE CURRENT ACTIVITIES OF THE PEOPLE'S COMMITTEES IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS PROVINCES AND THE CAUSES 2.1 Results of the application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands 2.1.1 Results of implementing principles of customary application The needs to apply customary law of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands is now an objective requirement and it has brought practical effects to the People's Committee's management activities for ethnic minorities over the past time That comes from the fact that the People's Committees have thoroughly grasped and effectively implemented the principles in the process of applying customary law to their activities The application of customary law is not contrary to the basic principles of the prescribed law and in the direction of serving the people and ensuring human rights, citizenship, legitimate rights and benefits of ethnic minorities 2.1.2 Results of the application of customary law in specific activities of the People's Committees 2.1.2.1 In the actitivies of administrative documents As a matter of fact, the People's Committees of the Central Highlands not directly issue administrative management documents that directly regulate the application of customary law of ethnic minorities, but many administrative management documents like determination, report, project formulation, plan promulgation indirectly mention customary law and the application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in order to implement ethnic policies that promote the application of customary law to the implementation of the State's general policies and schemes such as the project on reducing child marriage and inbreeding, documents regulating prestigious people among ethnic minorities That is the basis to support the process of applying customary law to achieve higher efficiency in the activities of the People Committees 2.1.2.2 In the activities of law dissemination and education 14 One of the tasks of legal propaganda, dissemination and education in ethnic minority areas is that the propagation and dissemination of law must be suitable to the needs, characteristics, customs and traditional culture of each ethnic group in different regions The propaganda, dissemination and education of the law for ethnic minority areas, officials have integrated the provisions of the ethnic customary law in the process of propaganda, dissemination and education of the law This is the activity where customary law is applied the most, both to ensure that the law is easy to understand, closer to the people and to mobilize the people to abolish outdated customs, to promote the fine customs 2.1.2.3 In the activities of law implementation In the process of organizing law implementation, subjects applying customary laws have thoroughly exploited customary laws to apply them to the process of organizing law implementation in ethnic minority areas which contributes positively to the process of compliance, implementation and use by people in ethnic minority areas in the Central Highlands today Specifically in areas such as: manufacturing; Marriage and family; security, order and social safety; culture, belief, religion; natural resource protection, environmental protection and property ownership and land use management have achieved remarkable results With economic development, in the villages of ethnic minorities, income has increased, many households have escaped poverty The marriage registration was done voluntarily Most customary laws of ethnic groups uphold the decisionmaking power of both men and women, respect the stability of marriage, protect the monogamous marriage, and respect each other between husband and wife parents and children The provisions of customary law have also played a very good role in protecting security and peace of the village, stabilizing society, spaciously built houses, clean, and heavy customs about ghosts Fasting, marriage, customs such as death and burial, unreasonable abstinences, ghosts and even customary law behaviors have been greatly eliminated, the economic life of a part of the religious population has been greatly improved lift up The local government will allocate land and forest to the villages, the People's Committee of the commune will coordinate with the 15 villages to allocate forest land to households with a commitment not to destroy the forest The property relations and property division have been harmoniously combined by the government with customary law to ensure equality between the subjects, so that the people voluntarily abide by the management decisions 2.1.2.4 In the activities of inspection, examination, complaint and/or denunciation resolution, handling of law violations In the process of inspecting, examining, resolving complaints and/or denunciations, and handling of law violations against ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands, the application of custom in general and customary law in particular usually occurs in the two specific cases as follow: First, for conciliation activities before resolving conflicts, disputes and handling violations Second, for the activities of resolving disputes and handling specific violations 2.1.3 Results of implementing methods of applying customary law Based on the reality, in each activity of the People's Committees, customary law is applied in different degrees and scopes In general, in the activities of the People's Committees of the Central Highlands, customary law is applied directly so that the efficiency in the activities of the People's Committees is greatly improved, reducing disputes and costs for the state agencies In order to maximize the effectiveness of customary law in adjusting social relations, the People's Committees at all levels in the Central Highlands have flexibly applied many different methods to be able to apply customary law in the fastest and easiest manner Among which, the form of people meeting is widely applied and very effective At the same time, through most of the activities of communities, families, clans, churches, festival activities, in the process of building house conventions, conventions of ethnic groups in different regions are integrating good customs and traditions, commandments of customary law into specific provisions of the conventions and conventions 2.2 Limitations in the process of applying customary law to the current activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands 16 2.2.1 Limitations on the principle of application Although most of the principles have been effectively implemented in the process of applying customary law to the activities of the People's Committees, there are still certain limitations For example, the content of application principles is still unclear for many subjects; the implementation of the principles of the application of customary law is neither consistent nor widely disseminated Therefore, the application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees is more or less reduced in effectiveness and the people’s legitimate benefits are not guaranteed 2.2.2 Restrictions on the subjects of application Currently, the People's Committees at all levels not clearly define the tasks, powers and scope of the subjects directly involved in the process of applying customary law in the activities of the People's Committees In fact, the official application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees is mainly carried out by commune-level officials and civil servants Besides, for the subjects who apply informally, the reality shows that nowadays, the application of customary law in the Central Highlands is often applied by prestigious people such as village elders, patriarchs, priests, pastors Although these subjects are knowledgeable about customary law, they have limited legal knowledge, so they have not fully developed the role of law and customary law The selfgoverning institutions in villages have not been properly assessed for their position in the mechanism of applying customary law 2.2.3 Limitations on the methods of application The implementation of these methods is mainly carried out at the commune level while many commune-level officials and civil servants have not paid enough attention to applying customary law into their work; the effectiveness of the application of customary law has not been exploited at the provincial and district levels Many methods of applying customary law that can be applied have not been exploited For instance, applying through legal aid activities for people, organizing contests for people to learn about customary law, building and distributing multiple choice questionnaires for people about the observance of customary law and the application of customary law in life 17 2.2.4 The limitation of the application of customary laws in specific activities of the People's Committee In addition to the positive effects of customary law implementated by the People's Committees in ethnic minority areas, many of customary law have created difficulties and limitations, failing to ensure the benefits of involved people or violating the principles prescribed by the law This leads to the low statistics of law observance and the slow effectiveness of the People’s Committees in organizing and implementing the law The people still face certain difficulties in the maintenance of customs and habits such as the custom of capturing husbands, challenging marriages, marriages of cousins, succession custom, funeral customs Consequences of these are contrary to the law with child marriage, inbreeding marriage, high wedding challenges, cumbersome and expensive funeral arrangements Another example is found in division and inheritance of property, which is affected by the matrilineal regime In other words, only daughters inherit land or property given by parents when getting married or receiving property inheritance It is these regulations of the customary law that obstructed the People's Committees when settling disputes of compatriots The process of collecting customary law of each ethnic group as well as of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands has not been synchronized; the customary law currently applied are local and regional In the past time, the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands has also lacked a general review and assessment for the application process in each province and in five provinces in order to share experiences among the People's Committees of the Central Highlands, making the application process still spontaneous, leading to low management efficiency 2.3 Causes of the situations 2.3.1 The causes of the achieved results The results obtained in the process of applying customary law to the activities of the People's Committees prove that the process of applying customary law has been on the right track to maximize the positive value to the process, contributing to improve the state management efficiency of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands The underlying causes for those results include: First, the legal document system is the legal basis for the application process 18 Second, the State has comprehensively and objectively assessed the roles of the village elders and other prestigious people Third, civil servants of the People's Committees directly applying customary law to the management process are well aware of the roles of customary law Fourth, the people have understood and voluntarily obeyed the application of customary law in combination with the law in the management process of the People's Committees, so the efficiency of state management has increasingly improved 2.3.2 Causes of limitations in the application of customary law First, on the legal basis for the application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees: there is no clear and consistent legal basis for the application of customary law in the specific activities of the People's Committees First, on the legal basis for the application of customary law in the operation of the People's Committee: unclear and inconsistent Second, the content of customary laws of ethnic groups is different, leading to the fact that the application of customary laws of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees between provinces as well as within each province lacks integrity consistency Third, the link between cadres and people is still limited, has not found a common voice, and has not come up with an effective method of application to promote the role of customary law Fourth, there are many outdated regulations of the customary law that never keep up with the development of social relations They are no longer consistent with the regulations of the law, leading to the difficulties in the interpretation and application of the law Fifth, due to the inconsistent viewpoints and perceptives of many subjects applying customary law, the understanding and application between the appellants and the people about the application principles, the application content, the application method are still wanderous, making the subjects afraid to apply 19 Conclusion Chapter The review of the actual situations of the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands shows that, over the past time, the People's Committees here have applied customary law in the management of a number of fields such as marriage and family, civil affairs, security, safety and social order They have achieved some remarkable achievements, which should be further promoted in the coming time However, besides these achievements, the process of applying customary law still has certain limitations such as the spontaneous inconsistent application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in provinces, districts, communes and even in each ethnic group; there is a lack of coordination between subjects who directly apply customary law in many localities, other organizations in the political system at all levels and self-governing institutions in villages; the methods of applying customary law to the activities of the People's Committees is not effective and closed enough to the conditions of ethnic minorities; the process of applying customary law has not been synchronized and lacks uniformity in localities There has not been a summary assessment among localities to find the most effective common application method Therefore, in order to promote the advantages and overcome the limitations of the application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands, it is necessary to implement a number of solutions that will be presented in the following chapter 20 Chapter PERSPECTIVES AND SOLUTIONS TO CONTINUE THE APPLICATION OF CUSTOMARY LAW OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE CURRENT ACTIVITIES OF THE PEOPLE'S COMMITTEES IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS PROVINCES IN THE COMING TIME 3.1 Perspectives on continuing to apply customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands provinces in the coming time In order to continue applying and to apply more effectively the values of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands, it is necessary to identify and master the following main viewpoints: First, the application of customary law must derive from the requirement to effectively solve practical problems arising in ethnic minority communities and to create favorable conditions for ethnic minorities in daily life Second, the application of customary law must not be contrary to the Party’s guidelines and policies and not contrary to the polices and law of the State Third, the applicatoin of customary law must aim to inherit and promote the good traditional values of the nation, targeting at building an advanced culture imbued with national identity 3.2 Solutions to continue applying customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands provinces in the coming time In order to apply customary law in the future so that it can contribute to improve the effectiveness of state management of the People's Committees, better meeting the requirementss and more firmly protecting the benefits of ethnic minorities, it is necessary to carry out synchronously some of the following basic solutions: 3.2.1 Continue to renew subject’s awareness about the application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees First, it is necessary to properly recognize and promote optimally the role and practical value of customary law in an objective and comprehensive way in relation to other social norms and legal norms, in order to solve the problem appropriate measures to regulate social 21 relations arising in the life of ethnic communities in the Central Highlands Second, it is also important to renew the legal awareness, people's understanding of customary law and the roles of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees To so, it is necessary to strengthen the propaganda, dissemination and education of the law and the active roles of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees 3.2.2 Completing legal regulations on the application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the actitivies of the People's Committees The application of the current source of customary law is not consistent with the regulations of written law Therefore, the legal values of customary law must be recognized through the development of legal guidelines and policies and a mechanism to ensure the specific application of customary law The implementation of this solution must be carried out from the central to the local 3.2.2.1 For central government agencies The Government needs to direct the localities that are managing the ethnic minorities to report on the current situations of applying customary law in their localities On that basis, the government assigns the General Drafting Board to prepare draft and promulgate a Decree stipulating uniform principles, subjects, objects, forms and methods of applying customary law throughout the country 3.2.2.2 People's Committees at all levels in the Central Highlands Currently, there is no legal document regulating the application of customary law in the activities of People's Committees at all levels in all Central Highlands Therefore, on the basis of the Government's Decree, the "Practice of the dictionary" was built, the People's Committees of the province should issue a legal document in the form of a Decision to prescribe the rules of application of the customary law for each ethnic group in the province, to institutionalize the progressive contents of the customary law of ethnic minorities into legal norms, thus ensuring implementation on a province-wide basis and highly obligatory because it is legal documents 22 3.2.3 Training officials and civil servants who are capable, qualified and skillfull in applying customary law in the activities of the People's Committees Given the certain characteristics of the ethnic minority communities in the Central Highlands, in order for the application of customary law in the management of the People's Committees to be highly effective, it is necessary to simultaneously apply the following solutions: First, to develop necessary standards for the contingent of cadres and civil servants who directly perform the task of applying customary laws of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committee such as having certain knowledge about legal knowledge about customs, practices, customary law, traditional cultural identity and know how to speak the language of the people in the area under their management; at the same time, having certain experience in applying the national customary law Second, planning and training officials and civil servants who directly perform the task of applying customary law in the activities of the People's Committees 3.2.4 Strengthen the propaganda, dissemination and education of the law as well as the active roles of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees In order to effectively apply customary law in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands, it is necessary to implement the following solutions in the tasks of law propagation, dissemination and education First, continue to promote the effectiveness of oral communication in ethnic minority areas Second, continue to promote forms of propaganda, dissemination and education with limited target audience: opening intensive training courses on legal topics and customary law that need to be disseminated to village heads, patriarchs, prestigious people in the community or family lines Third, continue to diversify other forms of propaganda, dissemination and education in ethnic minority areas 3.2.5 Promote the roles of institutions at local level such as village elders, patriarchs, priests, pastors, representatives of Women's Union, Youth Union, Fatherland Front and other prestigious people 23 Nowadays, in ethnic villages in the Central Highlands, while the self-governance movement is developing and religions are an indispensable part of the community's life, the influence of other institutions such as village elders, patriarchs, priests, pastors, Women's Union, Youth Union, Fatherland Front also plays an important role The optimal promotion of the roles of village elders and other prestigious people will help improve the effectiveness of the process of applying customary law in the activities of the People's Committees 3.2.6 Promote reconciliation at the local level Reconciliation is a fine tradition of our nation and has brought great efficiency in the management process Therefore, in order to continue to apply customary law in the activities of the People's Committees, it is necessary to overcome some limitations and promote reconciliation Specifically: First, promulgate binding regulations which are obligatory to implement commitments and agreements when conciliation is successful Second, modify the standards of Mediators in the areas with a large number of ethnic minorities in general and the Central Highlands in particular Third, strengthen rewarding activities for typical collectives and individuals with many achievements in reconciliation, workshops, training courses on legal and professional knowledge for mediators at the commune level Fourth, increase the cost of reconciliation at local level 3.2.7 Continue to collect and document customary law The systematization and documenting of customary law has been carried out for many years However, it has only been implemented in some localities and for some ethnic groups These ethnic groups all have customary law at present, but the customary law of many ethnic groups still exists in the form of oral tradition and many parts have been lost a lot, leading to different application of customary law of each ethnic group in other locations Therefore, there is a need for documentation to uniformly apply the content of customary law 3.2.8 Solutions for organization and application In order for the application of customary law to be most effective in the process of organizing its application, it is necessary to fulfill the following requirements: issue documents guiding the application of 24 customary laws of ethnic minorities in the activities of People's Committees at all levels ; organize training on the application of customary law; inspect and supervise the application process and summarize and draw experience 25 Conlusion Chapter It can be affirmed that the application of customary law plays a very important role in the state management of the People's Committees in ethnic minority areas Therefore, in order to promote the advantages and overcome the limitations of the application of customary law in the operation of the People's Committee in order to improve the management efficiency of the ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands in the Currently, it is necessary to synchronously implement a number of basic solutions analyzed above in order to maximize the role of each subject in the process of applying customary law, ensuring while keeping the supremacy of the law the law has promoted the positive values of customary law of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands in particular and the country in general 26 CONCLUSION By studying of the topic "Applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the current activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands", some conclusions can be drawn as follows: Customary law is a valuable source of material for research on ethnic society and ethnic culture and is one of the additional sources for the State's laws The customary law of ethnic minorities is a common code of conduct to regulate social relations and is guaranteed to be implemented by the self-discipline of each member, by habits, public opinion as well as measures of commendation rewards and coercion of the community The application of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees must comply with a number of principles such as ensuring conformity, not being contrary to current law; combing harmoniously and reasonably with the law, ensuring the supremacy of the law; … In the past time, the People's Committees in the Central Highlands provinces have applied customary law in state management activities and have achieved some remarkable achievements, which should be further promoted in the coming time But besides these achievements, the process of applying customary law still has certain limitations that need to be overcome in order for the application process to be more effective In order to promote the achieved achievements and overcome the limitations in the application of customary law in the activities of the People's Committees at all levels in the Central Highlands provinces today, it is necessary to synchronously implement basic solutions the next version: continue to renew the perception of the subjects; perfecting legal provisions on the application of customary laws of ethnic minorities; building a contingent of cadres and civil servants who are capable, qualified and skilled in applying customary law; promote reconciliation at the grassroots level, … i LIST OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS RELATED TO THE DISSERTATION Nguyen Thi Oanh (2018), “Property and property ownership in the M'nong’s customary law – The current situations in Dak Nong province”, http://tapchitoaan.vn, 16.3.2018 Nguyen Thi Oanh – Tran Thi Khanh Chi (2018), “Koho’s customary law with current marriage and family relations”, https://kiemsat.vn/, 14.5.2018 Nguyen Thi Oanh – Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai (2018), “Applying the customary law of the Koho ethnic group in the management of the K’ho community in Lam Dong province”, Magazine of Democracy and Law, 6/2018, tr.24-27 Nguyen Thi Oanh (2019), “Human rights in customary law of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands”, http:// https://kiemsat.vn/, 02.11.2019 Nguyen Thi Oanh (2021), “Applying customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees to the field of marriage and family in the Central Highlands provinces today”, Magazine of Industry and Trade, 23 – 10/2021, tr.67-72 Nguyen Thi Oanh (2021), “Renovating the work of legal propaganda, dissemination, education and the active roles of customary law of ethnic minorities in the activities of the People's Committees in the Central Highlands provinces”, Magazine of Industry and Trade, 24 – 10/2021, tr.46-51