At the 61st session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Vanida S. THEPHSOUVANH, president of the Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) and member of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party, on behalf of which she spoke on Wednesday afternoon, denounced the situation of health service and education in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) as being "at the very limit of what is acceptable", pointing more particularly at the situation of the 80% portion of the population living in rural zones, in spite of the hundreds of million euros of aids received from the international community.

Mrs. THEPHSOUVANH recalled that within the LPDR, every form of political opposition is prohibited, and that social and religious organisations, unions and the judicial system remain under the strict control of the Unique Party, and that the right to education, health, and food remain extremely limited and too often inexistent. "The LPDR, one of the states that benefited the most from the help of the international community in the course of 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", as reminded by the LMHR president.

She quoted a World Bank Report published in December 2004 (Lao PDR Country Economic Memorandum), underlining the fact that "the health system is characterized by high mortality and morbidity, low use, poor quality of services and inefficient public spending." "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", according to this report. Its conclusion suggested that in order to ensure the success of the LPDR's eradication of poverty plan, the LPDR government "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."

Mme Vanida S. THEPHSOUVANH also denounced the desperate plight of the Lao-Hmong minority from the Saysomboun and the Bolikhamsay regions, "which is being tracked down day and night in the jungle by the armed forces, which is being denied the right to food and is forced to live 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."

To the LMHR, the best way to defend economic, social, and cultural rights is through the promotion of the freedoms of speech and reunion, and 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.

The LMHR president concluded by asking the Commission to request from the Lao government the immediate cessation of every form of repression against the Lao-Hmong minority, and access to the Bolikhamsay and Saysomboune regions to United Nations representatives and other international humanitarian organizations.

She also called on the Commission to request from the LPDR leaders a transparent and responsible management of the country in line with democratic rules, to fight corruption, to grant every Laotian access to information regarding the expenditures and incomes of the State, and to 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.