Attending the conference were Mr Nguyen Van Hien- Standing Vice-Chairman of the Judicial Reform Steering Committee, Mr Ha Hung Cuong- Minister of Justice, Mr Do Kim Tuyen-Deputy Head of the General Police Department under the Ministry of Police, and representatives from relating agencies from central to local levels.

Justice Minister Ha Hung Cuong said, after five years' implementation of the Ordinance on Judicial Assessment, the work of judicial assessment has recorded significant achievements. Right after the issuance of the Ordinance, Ministry of Justice disseminated and guided other Ministries, sectors and locals to propagandize the Ordinance to agencies, organizations and individuals that carried out the work of judicial assessment.

According to the statistic of Ministry of Justice, at present, the pool of judicial assessors has been reinforced and reached a total of 3,115 engaging in forensic medicine, forensic psychiatry, criminological techniques, finance-accountancy, culture, construction, natural resources, environment, transportation, agriculture, forestry, technical science…

Judicial assessment has also served as an effective measure to protect lawful rights and interests of defendants, victims and parties involved in criminal, civil and administrative cases. In the context of socio-economic development, judicial assessment has also made an important contribution to meeting the social demand for extra-procedural assessment.

Yet, judicial assessment still saw many shortcomings and weaknesses: The system of judicial assessment institutions remains incomplete; physical foundations of assessment institutions, especially provincial-level ones, are inadequate and obsolete; the pool of judicial assessors remains quantitatively insufficient and qualitatively poor; judicial assessment conclusions were not entirely accurate and objective in some cases, causing difficulties to procedure-conducting agencies and even leading to delayed handling of some major cases; and the state management of judicial assessment remains unsatisfactory.

The conference also grasped thoroughly the content of Decision No. 258/QD-TTg dated February 11, 2010 of the Prime Minister approving the Scheme on renewing, and raising the effectiveness of judicial assessment as well as Decision No. 258/QD-TTg of February 11, 2010 (referred to as Project 258), raising the quality and effectiveness of judicial assessment to meet requirements of proceeding activities and the social demand for judicial assessment in line with ongoing judicial and legal reforms, and contributing to the socio­economic development.

At the conference, Ministry of Justice also awarded certificates of merit to 19 collectives and 34 individuals that have excellent achievements in the field of judicial assessment over the past five years./.- ITD