Commission on Human Rights
61st session, Geneva March 14 – April 22, 2005
Item 10 : Economic, civil and Cultural Rights

delivered by Vanida S. Thephsouvanh




Mr.Chairman,

The Transnational Radical Party is extremely preoccupied by the economic and social situation of Lao people, and more particularly by that of the 80% portion of the population living in rural zones and for which the access to health services and education is at the very limit of what is acceptable, in spite of the hundreds of million euros of aids that the Lao People's Democratic Republic leaders (LPDR) received from the international community.

The fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by the CESCR, the first of which being the right to education, to health and to food, are extremely limited and too often missing in the LPDR, country in which every kind of political opposition is prohibited, and where religious organizations, unions and the judicial system remain under the control of the Unique Party and the State's.

According to a World Bank report published in December 2004, "the health system is characterized by high mortality and morbidity, low use, poor quality of services and inefficient public spending." "40% of children are underweight, 13% severely underweight. Hospitals lack supplies. Public spending on health is inefficiently allocated." (Lao PDR Country Economic Memorandum).


"Life expectancy is low; child and maternal mortality rates are three to four times higher than those of other East Asian countries. Two-thirds of households have no electricity, and half of them lack access to safe water", the World Bank stated.

Regarding Education, "nearly a third of children between the age of 6 and 14 do not attend school", and "about one half of the students who start school drop out before completing Grade 5." Teachers receive a very low salary and are not paid regularly. Schools lack teachers, supplies and care, according to this same report.

Mr.Chairman,
The Transnational Radical Party is also highly concerned by the desperate situation of the Lao-Hmong minority from the Saysomboun and the Bolikhamsay regions, tracked down day and night in the jungle by the armed forces. The testimonies of the Western journalists who went on the field brought back, without exception, images of a population living out of roots and leaves, unable to cultivate the land or pick the fruits from the forest, unable to build permanent homes, for fear of being spotted and killed by the army. The right to food is denied to these thousands of people, composed mainly of woman, children, and old people.

On March 22nd Radio Free Asia, based in Washington, broadcasted a desperate call from the leader of a Lao-Hmong group "encircled, without food or medicine, in the Dam mountain sector". As is their habit, the Lao authorities only denied the existence of that call for international help.

The LPDR, one of the states that benefited the most from the help of the international community in these last 20 years, is nevertheless one of the poorest states in the world, when its leaders display unscrupulously their riches in this country where one third of the population lives under the poverty threshold. Corruption is practiced in all impunity within the State, in spite of the calls from international organizations for transparency and good governance.

In its report, the World Bank thus considered that in order to ensure the success of the Eradication of Poverty at the Dawn of 2020 Plan drafted by the LPDR, the LPDR "must do all that is possible to ensure that all national budget allocations, international loans or donor funds reach their intended project targets, and do not become part of the cycle of externally funded corruption"


We are convinced that the respect of fundamental rights is the key to every human sustainable development. To us, the best way to defend economic, social and cultural rights is the promotion of the freedoms of speech and reunion, participation to the political life in a democratic and open system, within which the citizens would be able to provide to their most essential needs.

Mr.Chairman,
The Transnational Radical Party asks the Commission to request the LPDR government to :

- put an immediate end to every kind of repression against the Lao-Hmong minority, and to grant access to these persons to the United Nations representatives and other international humanitarian organizations;

- ensure a transparent and responsible management of the country in the respect of democratic rules;

- fight corruption, and grant every Laotian access to information regarding the expenditures and incomes of the State;

- use the resources, notably those received from international donators, to finance programmes aiming at improving the education and the economic, social, and sanitary situation of the Lao population.