Lao PDR

In 1991, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) adopted a new constitution, under which the government was restructured into nominally separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The constitution and most laws endorse gender-neutrality, and women’s equality is guaranteed in specific provisions of laws governing property, inheritance, labour, and family regimes. In practice, these guarantees still weak in their implementation; the legal system as a whole needs to be developed and resourced further. There are no national NGOs in Laos. The Lao Women’s Union has been set up as a mass organisation with the task of promoting women’s equality and empowerment.

In Lao PDR 85% of the population are engaged in subsistence agriculture. While everyone struggles to make ends meet, Lao women, particularly rural women and women of ethnic minority groups have an even tougher time. The impact of development policies, such as the escalating deforestation, has often fallen disproportionately on women, who are generally responsible for collecting firewood and other forest resources. In areas where mechanisation has been introduced or training provided, women tend to benefit much less from those measures than men do. Improvements are needed to address a high rate of maternal mortality, which is due largely to the high incidence of childbirth at home due to lack of medical assistance. Women’s illiteracy is markedly higher than men’s, and women are not well represented among decision-makers – at the local or national level.

Programme activities in Lao PDR focus on identifying and working within existing openings for change. Collaboration with the Lao Women’s Union will be pursued, and will need to be taken into account at all stages of programming. Programme activities include building the government’s capacity to implement CEDAW, both through the strengthening of the government’s newly created women’s machinery, the National Commission for the Advancement of Women of Laos (NCAW Lao), and by encouraging the mainstreaming of responsibility for CEDAW implementation throughout governmental structures. This assistance will include encouragement and support to the government in submitting its report and attending its first CEDAW session, as well as help in developing an implementation strategy once the Committee’s concluding comments have been released.

CEDAW Resource Pool Development Training

Vientiane, Lao PDR

October 23 – 26, 2006 Organised by the National CEDAW SEAP Co-ordinating Programme, the training brought together a broad sectoral representation of participants working in the fields of ending violence against women and other women’s concerns. With a view to enhancing the knowledge and skills among the participants, the training was designed to be a practical, collective educational activity, in which participants considered how to apply CEDAW to advance rights for women in relation to their respective mandates or agendas.

Most participants said the training helped equip them with a better understanding of the CEDAW framework, particularly its key concepts of equality and non-discrimination. They said to have also developed a clearer idea on how to actually apply these understanding and sills in the analysis of issues and their respective fields of work.