Press release , New York 17 january 2005

The Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) denounced this Monday the violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) by the Lao Popular Democratic Republic (LPDR), which is to present its first report on the situation of women before the United Nations this week, 23 years after the ratification of this treaty by Vientiane in 1981.

On Monday 17 January 2005 Vanida THEPHSOUVANH, president of the LMHR, declared in her speech given before the CEDAW Committee at the seat of the United Nations in New York, that "as long as there shall not be any transparency, good governance and respect of democratic values in the LPDR, the situation of women shall not improve in Laos.

She particularly put emphasis on "the desperate plight of thousands of women of the Lao-Hmong minority. They are the victims of a double form of discrimination, as they are also tracked day and night through the Lao jungle by armed forces", especially in the Saysomboun Special Zone and in the Bolikhamsay province.

The LMHR president also called upon the attention of the United Nations on the plight of thousands of Lao women forced to leave their villages located in the mountains and high plateaus, to settle down in the plains. Their extreme destitution and the absence of any access to education, to the healthcare system, and to sanitary information, make these women easy preys for prostitution networks, and the victims of AIDS and other sexually transmissible diseases.

To the LMHR, as long as good governance and the respect of the most fundamental human rights will not be implemented, the eradication of poverty, development and the respect of specific women's rights will remain impossible to achieve in Laos.

The LMHR called upon the Committee for it to request from the Lao government access to the country for independent international observers to assess the situation of women, in particular in the Bolikhamsay region and in the Saysomboun Special Zone, as well as the adoption and implementation of legal texts punishing with adequate severity those responsible for prostitution networks, drug trade, and human trade.

Mrs. THEPSOUVANH also called upon the Committee to request from the Lao government the immediate implementation of concrete measures benefiting women from rural areas, including the women that were relocated, the urgent implementation of a voluntarist policy with the view of increasing the representation of women in every institution in the country in the respect of freedom and democracy, and the recognition of independent organizations working for Lao women's rights, so that the Lao Women Union (LWU) - satellite organization of the Unique Party in power - does not remain the only recognized entity in this field