Provincial National Assembly delegates give opinions on the draft Identification Law

Continuing the program of the 6th Session of the 15th National Assembly, on the morning of October 25, under the chairmanship of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, the National Assembly conducted discussions in the hall on a number of contents with different opinions in the draft Identification Law.

Delegate Luu Ba Mac, Lang Son Provincial National Assembly Delegation, spoke at the conference hall about the draft Law on Identification

Moderating the content of the meeting, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong said that at the 5th Session, National Assembly deputies discussed this law project in groups and halls. Immediately after the meeting, the National Assembly Standing Committee directed the National Defense and Security Committee to coordinate closely with competent agencies and receive opinions from National Assembly deputies, the National Assembly Standing Committee, and experts, researcher to explain, revise and complete the draft law.

After being received, revised and completed, the draft law now has 7 chapters and 46 articles. The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly asked delegates to give their opinions on the following issues: the reception and revision of the draft law closely follows the conclusions of the National Assembly Standing Committee, the reasonableness of the provisions of reception and explanation; name of the draft law; content explaining terms, especially some concepts of personal identification numbers, integrating information; regulations on information in the national population database, with classification of mandatory information and voluntary information…

Expressing opinions on the draft Identification Law at the meeting, delegate Luu Ba Mac of the delegation of Lang Son Provincial National Assembly expressed approval with the latest version of the draft Identification Law, as well as the content of explanation and reception of this draft law.

The delegate requested the drafting agency to consider removing the requirement to collect biometric information about the iris, as in Point b, Clause 3, Article 23 of the draft law. At the same time, it is possible to consider and add the collection of biometric information about the iris to Point d, Clause 1, Article 16, similar to DNA and voice.

According to the delegate, the collection of biometric information about the iris should only be regulated when people voluntarily provide it or during the process of resolving a case according to assigned functions and tasks, the agency conducting the proceedings, the agency managing the person subject to administrative handling measures, solicited expertise or collected biometric information and shared that information and data with the identification management agency to update the identification database.

According to the delegate, in reality today, in many places and localities, specialized equipment to collect biometric information about the iris is not guaranteed and not feasible. Furthermore, it is not really urgent to collect it compulsorily to issue identification cards.

Furthermore, on page 15 of Report No. 1931/BC-BCA of the Ministry of Public Security at the 5th Session on policy impact assessment,  mentioned that collecting biometric information about iris, DNA, and voice only applies to some people with criminal records to serve the work of preventing and combating crimes and violating the law (This regulation is similar to the regulations of many countries around the world such as China, USA, UK, France, Singapore, Korea…).

According to the program, on the same afternoon, the National Assembly discussed in the hall a number of contents with different opinions in the draft Law on Management and Protection of National Defense Works and Military Zones; through the list of people receiving votes of confidence.