Charity activities in Vietnam – Issues and recommendations

Charity is always encouraged all over the world. This humanitarian behavior shows the human value between people and helps society become better, which is in line with the spirit of the thousands of generations of Vietnamese people: “lá lành dùm lá rách - the leaves protect the tattered ones”. However, besides the positive aspects achieved so far, this activity in recent years has shown many negative behaviors that distort the inherent good nature of charity activities. The violations of the law in charity activities stem from many different reasons, such as the fact that legal system governing charity in Vietnam is still incomplete and ineffective. The Vietnamese government has not yet enacted a law on charitable organizations; charity activities are mainly governed by sub-law documents such as government decrees (Decree No. 93/2021/ND-CP issued on October 27, 2021, on mobilizing, receiving, distributing, and using voluntary contributions to support overcoming difficulties caused by natural disasters, epidemics, and incidents; support patients with critical illnesses). Besides, the issue of social consciousness and the impacts of the economic and social context are also causes leading to many inadequacies in charity. In particular, during the period of the COVID -19 epidemic and after, many people took advantage of the difficult situation to illegally earn money from charity activities. The consequences of these illegal actions have affected the community's trust in philanthropists and charitable organizations. In this article, the authors are going to focus on analyzing the legal regulations on charity activities in Vietnam and some of the current issues that have taken place in the last 5 years. On the basis of theoretical analysis, situation analysis, and comparison with legal regulations in some countries around the world (such as Canada and Germany), this article will offer some solutions to strengthen legal regulations and improve their effective control over philanthropy in Vietnam.