1. Ban on forcing others to drink alcoholic beverages in effect from January 01, 2020
This notable content is provided in the 2019 Law on Prevention and Control of Harmful Effects of Alcoholic Beverages which is coming into force from January 01, 2020.
According to this Law, from January 01, 2020, the following acts shall be prohibited:
- Inciting, persuading and forcing others to drink alcoholic beverages;
- Consumption of alcoholic beverages by persons under 18 years of age;
- Operating vehicles with blood or breath alcohol concentration (existing regulations stipulate that riders of mopeds with their alcohol concentration are still allowed provided the tested alcohol concentration does not exceed the allowable limit, click HERE for more details);
- Consumption of alcoholic beverages before or during working hours and break periods by officials and public employees working for regulatory authorities or organizations, officers, non-commissioned officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers; ....
2. Separate incarceration of LGBT prisoners
This is a new content of the 2019 Law on Enforcement of Criminal Judgments which is coming into force from January 01, 2020.
According to this Law, the following prisoners shall be held separately:
- Female prisoners;
- Prisoners under 18 years of age;
- Foreign prisoners;
- Prisoners with group-A infectious diseases as prescribed in the Law on Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases;
- Prisoners showing signs of mental diseases or other diseases that cause them to lose their awareness or control of their behaviors pending court’s decisions;
- Prisoners raising children under 36 months of age, who live with their mothers in prisons;
- Prisoners frequently violate internal regulations of the detention facility;
- Prisoners who are LGBT people or whose gender is unidentified may be held separately.
Thus, instead of 06 groups of prisoners held separately according to existing regulations, there are 02 more groups of prisoners to be held separately as prescribed in the 2019 Law on Enforcement of Criminal Judgments, including:
- Prisoners who are LGBT people or whose gender is unidentified; and
- Prisoners raising children under 36 months of age, who live with their mothers in prisons.
3. Ban on beating or maltreating livestock from January 01, 2020
This is one of new contents in the 2018 Law on Animal Husbandry which is coming into force from January 01, 2020.
This Law stipulates the humane treatment of livestock as follows:
- Do not beat or maltreat livestock;
- Own breeding housing and breeding space suitable for the livestock;
- Provide adequate animal feeds and water meeting hygiene conditions;......
This Law also stipulates that every slaughter facility must reduce fear and pain of livestock; take measures to make the livestock pass out before slaughter; not allow the livestock to witness slaughter of their fellow-creatures.
4. 03 projects exempted from the investment policy requirement
Pursuant to the 2019 Law on Public Investment (which is coming into force from January 01, 2020), the following 03 projects shall be exempted from the investment policy requirement:
- Urgent public investment project (that is a public investment project designed to promptly prevent, control and mitigate consequences of acts of God, disasters or diseases; an urgent duty to ensure national defense, security and external relations that is subject to the decision of a competent authority);
- Projects belonging to national target programs;
- Constituent projects belonging to those projects already obtaining the competent authority’s investment policy decisions.
Additionally, the following 02 tasks are also exempted from the investment policy requirement:
- Investment preparatory tasks; and
- Planning tasks.
5. The 2018 Law on Crop Production (which is coming into force from January 01, 2020) stipulates that organizations and individuals trading plant varieties must set up a legitimate business location and ensure that the origin of a plant variety batch may be traced back.
6. The 2019 Law on Amendments to the Law on Management and Use of Weapons, Explosives and Combat Gears (which is coming into force from January 10, 2020) provides additional definitions of “military weapons” and “weapons with properties and uses similar to those of hunting weapons, cold weapons and sporting weapons”.
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