TO COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN 32ND SESSION, 10 TO 28 JANUARY 2005, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Prepared by the Transnational Radical Party (1), a non-governmental organization in Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and the Lao Movement for Human Rights(2)

As a preliminary observation, it needs to be emphasized that organizations that deal with human rights-related issues - be they civil and political or economic, social and cultural -, are not allowed to work freely in the Laos People's Democratic Republic (LPDR). The impossibility to interview Laotians on the ground, as well as the lack of access to remote regions where indigenous peoples live, which are at the center of many radical governmental policies, do not allow a thorough independent assessment of the overall situation vis-à-vis human rights. Therefore, the issues of concern contained in this paper, are prepared on the bases of figures, examples and estimates prepared by international organizations, or individual governments attentive and/or active in the region or compiled thanks to publicly available information produced by free lance journalists and the official Laotian news agency.

On the relationship between eradication programs and internal displacements:

On 9 July 2004, Dr. Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued a press release entitled “Laos Reduces Its Opium Poppy Cultivation by Half in One Season”(3) in which the UNODC was confirming that the Lao PDR opium cultivation in 2004 showed a 45% decline in comparison to 2003.

In his statement Mr. Costa also called on the international community to assist farmers in Laos, who were giving up their income from opium, with sustainable alternative sources of livelihood and added that “in many areas, opium elimination has been achieved without farmers having the opportunity to develop other sources of income. Although the opium growers in fact never derived a great deal from this crop, the cash from selling opium was important for farmers living on, or below, the poverty line.”

In concluding his statement, Mr. Costa also added that there was a “collective responsibility to ensure that the poorest of the poor are not the ones who pay the price for successes in drug control. A large number of people have been displaced by drug control initiatives. Extending a compassionate hand to destitute farmers is also a condition for ensuring the sustainability of the elimination of opium production in Laos” Mr. Costa therefore urged “donor countries and development agencies to join forces with [UNODC] to make this drug control success a humanitarian one as well.”
The exact figures concerning the number of people displaced have never been made public, but knowing the systematic persecution of indigenous peoples that during the so-called “secret war” that was waged in the 1960s and 1970 in Laos, and who sided against the faction that today is ruling Laos, and if one should draw a conclusion from the amount of money that is currently invested in the country on so-called “supply eradication programmes” conservative estimates could put the number of the indigenous groups that have been displaced between 25 and 30% of the population that was inhabiting the provinces.
In 2002, a six-year strategy to eradicate opium poppy and reduce its production in the northern regions of the Lao PDR was announced by the government of Laos and the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP, today renamed UNODC)(4) . The programme was supposed to “addresses the growing problem of opium poppy production and abuse in the northern part of the country”; in signing the memorandum, the Chairman of the Lao National Commission of Drug Control and Supervision (LCDC), Minister Soubhan Srithirath stated that the "the northern target area is physically and economically isolated", but did not mentioned the fact that those regions are mainly inhabited by the indigenous Hmong; Dr. Halvor J. Kolshus, the UNDCP Representative in Laos stressed that the fact that "measures to address food security, provide alternative income sources, better health facilities and reduce poverty are essential components of the drug control programme."

According to the UN, opium has traditionally been used as a cash crop to trade for rice and also has medicinal purposes in the northern regions. In 1998, 57% of the annual opium production in the Lao PDR was consumed locally. The national opium addiction rate for people aged 15 and above was 2.1%, the second highest opiate addiction rate in the world after Iran. The addiction rate for the northern provinces is nearly twice this figure.
The Government of the Lao PDR has been receiving assistance from the international community for drug control activities since 1989. Total requirements for the new programme in the north is US$ 80 million. For the first component of the new programme, UNDCP will contribute approximately US$ 4.7 million and the Lao government will contribute about US$ 500,000.

There are concerns about the ways in which some programs are in fact carried out where indigenous people live and it legitimate to speculate that several relocation programs have targeted specific communities that were not necessarily involved in the production of poppy. The LDPR, but also UNODC, should be asked to provide figures concerning the actual number of communities displaced in the framework of the country narcotic supply eradication programs and also to provide the plans concerning the implementation of so-called “alternative development” programs that, according to Dr. Costa still have not been carried out.

The 2004 Laos Opium Survey issued by UNODC(5) presents the success of the eradication programs in the country, it would be crucial to understand if the relocation that resulted from those programs is to be considered temporary or if, given that problem seems to have been “solved”, those groups will be allowed to go back to their ancestral lands. In all those forced displacements, women become an easy target for harassment, exploitation if not abduction and maltreatment.

Indigenous groups have always been at the center of particular policies carried out by the Government as a retaliation for their siding with the enemy during the Indo-China war, once again women were at the center of several incidents. In fact, according to the U.S. State DepartmentI(6) “the increased number of attacks by Hmong insurgents against civilian and military targets, coupled with the outbreak of a localized uprising in Houaphanh Province in August 2003, heightened ethnic tensions and aroused the government leadership's suspicion of Hmong irredentist desires. These heightened security problems also resulted in increased efforts by security forces to eliminate scattered pockets of insurgents living in remote jungle areas. One group in Saisomboun Special Zone numbering 700 ethnic Hmong, mostly women and children, was highlighted in several international press articles, which alleged that the group was being systematically hunted down and attacked by government air and ground forces and that it was at the point of starvation. During the year, the U.N. Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination strongly criticized the Government for its treatment of these insurgent Hmong remnants”.

Other sources on displacements policies:

In their new book published in November 2004 entitled “Planned Resettlement, Unexpected Migrations and Cultural Trauma in Laos”(7) Olivier Evrard and Yves Goudineau address the issue of relocation. “Though not officially considered a ‘policy’ by the Lao government” states the presentation of the book “resettlement of ethnic minorities has become a central feature of the rural development strategy in Laos. Over the past ten years, a majority of highland villages have been resettled downhill, and the local administrations are planning to move the remaining villages in the coming years”.

This essay draws on a national survey about resettlement in Laos, commissioned by UNESCO and financed by UNDP, that was undertaken by the authors, and focuses on the consequences of these huge shifts of population and on the social and cultural dynamics that underlie them.

The planned resettlements, which are intended to promote the ‘settling’ of the highland populations by enforcing the ban on slash-and-burn agriculture and opium growing, actually cause increased and diversified rural mobility. This in turn complicates the implementation of the rural development policy and the political management of inter-ethnic relationships.

It would be worth questioning representatives of LPDR on the ‘settling’ process promoted by the State, highlighting the often tragic social consequences, which can generate unplanned or unexpected further migrations, which could be called ‘resettlement-induced forms of mobility’ that have an even more tragic impact on weak groups such as women.

In a statement recently issued by the World Rainforest Movement (8) it is pointed out that “for more than a decade, the Lao government has been carrying out a programme to remove Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral homes in the mountains to lowland areas of the country”. The statement also mentions the U.S. State Department survey on Laos (9) , which, among other things, notes that during 2003, the Lao government “accelerated efforts” to relocate upland farmers to lowland areas, “in keeping with the Government’s plan to end opium production by 2005 and slash-and-burn agriculture by 2010.” The Lao government’s resettlement programme amounts to a complete restructuring of rural society in Laos. Hundreds of villages, many of them of Indigenous Peoples, have been moved from the mountains down to lowland areas. In theory, the government provides services such as roads, schools and health care at a series of “focal zones” in lowland areas and “encourages” people to move. In reality, “District and provincial officials used persuasion and, in some cases, verbal orders to encourage villages to relocate, especially in the northern provinces,” according to the U.S. human rights report.

A foreign development worker in Laos, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the reality of life in the focal zones as “in too many cases the economic alternatives for those relocated are nothing more than modern indentured servitude. Young girls end up in brothels and the men end up exploited as illegal immigrant labourers in neighbouring Thailand.

On the issue of human trafficking:

The Laotian Penal Code prohibits abduction and trade in persons as well as the constraint, procuring, and prostitution; however, according to the U.S. State Department �trafficking in persons, particularly women and children, was a problem. Laos was primarily a country of origin for trafficking in persons and to a lesser extent, a country of transit. There was almost no effective border control. There was little reliable data available on the scope and severity of the problem until recently, when studies indicated that the scale of economic migration out of the country, mostly young people between the ages of 15 and 30, was far greater than had previously been supposed. About 7% of the total sample population in three southern provinces migrated, either seasonally or permanently. Approximately 45% of them were male and 55% female, and an unknown number of these persons were actually trafficked in some sense of the term�.

Other press reports from the regions have indicated that also a small number of citizens were trafficked to China and other third countries, including the United States of America. �In recent years� the U.S. State Department says, �highland minority women from the remote interior of the country have become the group most vulnerable to traffickers. These groups do not have the cultural familiarity or linguistic proximity to Thai that Lao-speaking workers can use to protect themselves from exploitative situations. A much smaller number of trafficked foreign nationals transited through Laos, especially Burmese and Vietnamese. Trafficking in women and girls for prostitution therefore remains a problem. Prostitution is illegal with penalties ranging from 3 months to 1 year in prison.

HIV/AIDS

According to the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS(10) , LPDR is faced by many risk factors that could lead to increased HIV transmission in the near future if appropriate prevention measures are not taken. Below the Country HIV and AIDS estimates as at the end of 2003.

Adult (15-49) HIV prevalence rate | 0.1% (range: <0.2%)
Adults (15-49) living with HIV | 1700 (range: 550-3300)
Adults and children (0-49) living with HIV | 1700 (range: 600-3600)
Women (15-49) living with HIV | <1000
AIDS deaths (adults and children) in 2003 | <200 (range: <400)

While there are also independent reports that warn of a growing number of HIV/AIDS infections reported in LPDR, official definitive figures have not been produced. The secretive nature of the Laotian regime on the one hand, and the almost total closeness of certain regions of the country to outsiders on the other, have so far been instrumental in keeping the infection rate low, but the situation is changing rapidly.

On 16 April 2004, the e-mail bulletin UN Wire in a piece entitled �HIV/AIDS Threatens Hill Tribes In Laos�(11) which contained excerpts taken from an article published in the Baltimore Sun on 14 April, the northern Laotian town of Muang Xai was presented as an economic hub, where �prostitution and a steady stream of itinerant workers are turning the town into the most dangerous of several U.N.-identified 'hot spots' for HIV/AIDS.�

According to the article, Muang Xai's HIV prevalence rate is still not known, but prostitution and the trafficking of girls from the hill tribes in northern Laos to China and Thailand are common, and a study is under way to determine the scope of the HIV problem.

Once a remote and quiet town, Muang Xai is slated for development by the Asian Development Bank as a commercial transport hub linking cities in China, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Already tens of thousands of workers and truck drivers, mostly Chinese men, have crossed the border nearby to work on dams and roads and to transport goods between China and Laos.

Some of them hail from parts of Southeast Asia with very high HIV rates. Many drivers reportedly have several 'minor wives' along their routes, paying families for the services of girls, who in turn have more than one 'minor husband.' Awareness of AIDS in the hill country, long isolated from the rest of the world, is low, and condom use rare.

According to anthropologist David Feingold, an expert on the hill tribes at UNESCO's Bangkok office also quoted in the Baltimore Sun piece, "there is the potential for some of these groups to be both physically and culturally wiped out, because you are dealing with small populations."

A recent article published in the Australian newspaper �the Age� entitled �Development fuels jungle sex trade�(12) draws further the attention on the construction of the highway and highlights other un-intended consequences of development that will have dramatic repercussions on the health of women.

In fact, under the same plans quoted by the Baltimore Sun and financed by the Asian Development Bank and individual member countries, the remote area of Udomxai in Laos is emerging as something of a commercial land transport hub, which will eventually link Kunming, China, to Bangkok and ultimately Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City; Hanoi to northern Burma and ultimately Rangoon. As a matter of geographical fate, all these routes will intersect in Udomxai, bringing to town large numbers of men from regions with some of the world's worst AIDS epidemics, men who frequently engage in high-risk sex.

This development will certainly further fuel the sex trade and create "enormous potential for the rapid spread of HIV", as emphasized by a UN Development Project report quoted in the article. Lee-Nah Hsu, manager of the UNDP's South-East Asia HIV and Development Project also stated that the UN needs "to work hard and fast," and compared the situation to the one of sub-Saharan Africa before catastrophe struck. "(HIV/AIDS) is there, but it will take time before we can get some concrete numbers out. By the time the information gets out, it might be too late� he also said.

According to the article, the proposed roads will have implications for the spread of HIV �as far away as Singapore, but the hill tribes in northern Laos are especially vulnerable, the poorest and most isolated people in a poor and isolated country. Many are already enduring tremendous upheaval, including forced relocation as part of Government efforts to eradicate opium growing and slash and burn agriculture.

UN Officials are worried about Highway 3, which runs from Luang Namtha, near China's Yunnan province, south to Huay Xai, just across the Mekong River from Thailand's Chiang Rai province. For most of its 160 kilometers it is little more than a dirt track that goes through the jungle, flanked by hill tribe villages as yet mostly untouched by the changes seen in Udomxai. But the road has been designated as a major corridor between China and Thailand. Construction have already begun and many workers, also from China, are already there. Information on the prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS should be asked

The national legal framework

The Laotian Constitution, adopted in 1991 and amended in 2003, provides for equal rights for women; the Government also set up the Lao Women's Union, which is the only organization that is allowed to operate nationally to promote the position of women in society. The Family Code prohibits legal discrimination in marriage and inheritance. Discrimination against women was not generalized; however, varying degrees of traditional, culturally based discrimination persisted, with greater discrimination practiced by some hill tribes.