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Home / CEDAW in Southeast Asia / Lao PDR / State Reporting
 CEDAW Committee Concluding Observations
The key areas of concern raised by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women at their 32nd Session in January 2005 included the following:
- Inadequate institutional structure and financial resources available to the national women’s machinery.
- Pervasive poverty and underdevelopment of women, especially in rural and ethnic minority communities – the Committee also stated a concern that ethnic minority women, without any alternative sources of income, depend on production of opium poppies for their livelihood.
- Rural women, despite carrying out more than half of total agricultural production, primarily bear the burden of housework and childrearing, and are excluded from important decision-making on the village council and in development programming.
- High illiteracy rate of women, and the large discrepancy between male and female literacy rates, and between urban and rural women’s education.
- High maternal and infant mortality rates, and the high fertility rate, especially among women in rural and remote areas and among ethnic minorities – the Committee noted the lack of healthcare facilities and services in rural and remote areas, and the lack of awareness among women and adolescents regarding reproductive health and family planning.
- Prevalence of traditional gender-role stereotyping leading to disparities in leadership and decision-making.
- Increasing exposure of the population to the danger of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, especially along construction and trade routes.
- Increasing incidence of trafficking, and the absence of substantial information on how new measures that have been established to combat trafficking work.
- Low representation of women in administration, at the national and local levels, and in the judiciary – despite the fact that 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas and that the village chief and village council handle most everyday affairs, less than 1 percent of village chiefs are women.
- Lack of awareness or recognition of domestic violence, including marital rape, as a form of discrimination against women.
- Marriage under the age of 18 is allowed in ‘special and necessary cases’.
- Lack of autonomous, active women’s and human rights organizations.
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