In September 2024, China Labor Watch submitted a Universal Periodic Review of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to the United Nations in the 49th Session of the UN Universal Periodic Review cycle. This submission highlights China Labor Watch’s concerns regarding human rights violation and trafficking in persons in the country.
Introduction
1. China Labor Watch (CLW) submits the following information regarding Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s (Laos) implementation of the recommendations of its 4th cycle (2024) Universal Periodic Review (UPR). This report will focus on human rights and trafficking in persons to a) The Charter of the United Nations; b) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights; c) Human rights instruments which States are party to; and d) Applicable international humanitarian laws.
2. Laos’ national laws impose strong punishment against any form of trafficking. For instance, a 2004 Law on Development and Protection of Women that covers the protection of women and children from trafficking in persons, criminalizing trafficking, and complicity in trafficking. Article 215 of the Penal Code criminalizes trafficking, punishable by five to 15 years of imprisonment. The fine is ranging from 10 million to 100 million Lao kip (around $1,080 to $10,780). The Article further stipulates that if the crime implicates an underage victim, the fine increases to 500 million Lao kip (around $53,880) at most. The 2015 Law on Anti-Trafficking in Persons further specifies the legal definition of trafficking.
The Lao government has engaged in various anti-trafficking detection and enforcement actions. Beginning in 2004, the government created a National Committee on Anti-Trafficking in Persons (NCATIP), an inter-agency body focusing on the monitoring, identification, and investigation of trafficking in persons. The Anti-Trafficking Department (ATD) was established under the General Police Department in 2011. In 2012, the Lao government adopted a National Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy, leading to the first National Plan of Action on Anti-Trafficking that same year.
Victims of trafficking in Laos are legally entitled to a full range of support services including the right to protection and care, shelter, food, clothing, vocational training, and repatriation. Lao Embassies are required to provide protection or assistance to Lao trafficking victims abroad; and victims have the right to report, testify, and present evidence and to request compensation and rehabilitation. The Laos Women’s Union also offers free physical and psychological rehabilitation, phone counseling, and hotline service for trafficking victims.
3. In addition to its national laws, Laos has human rights obligations as a result of the ratification or accession of the Forced Labor Conventions, and the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (ICRC). Additionally, Laos is also a participating state party in the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT) and the ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons (2015).
4. Since the last cycle, the Lao Government has put forth legislative effort to strengthen those rights, including the incorporation of international treaty language including the definition of torture, trafficking in persons, corruption, genocide, terrorism, money-laundering and financing of terrorism, ethnic discrimination, discrimination against women, as well as discrimination against persons with disabilities into its Penal Code and stipulated those acts as criminal offenses.
5. Despite considerable legislative and institutional frameworks offering protective possibilities for trafficking victims, there remains room to improve for enforcement. Some issues of human rights abuse, human trafficking, and labor rights infringement are identified and detailed as follows.
Human Rights
6. Little progress has been made in the realm of freedom of expression and association and political rights has been made since the last cycle. In 2022, Freedom House characterized the country as “not free.” Indeed, the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) dominates all aspects of politics and harshly restricts civil liberties. The U.S. Department of State characterizes Laos as “…an authoritarian centralized one-party state ruled by its only constitutionally authorized party.”
7. In the last cycle, the infringement of persons’ political and civil rights was highlighted. AL, ADL, CSW, JS1, JS2, JS7, and JS8, noted the Laos officials’ heavy-handed prosecution of crimes involving illicit substances and mistreatment of dissidents. Little improvement has been shown in recent years. Human rights activists, journalists, religious minorities, and political dissidents continued to face harassment, arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances, and intimidations. Lao’s deportation of Chinese human rights defenders who, upon return to China, might face torture, detention, and other inhumane treatment, also raises significant concern.
8. Also highlighted in the last cycle, Lao citizens’ rights to assembly continue to be systemically infringed. Peaceful assembly continued to be obstructed for “public disorder” related charges. The formation of nongovernmental, civil society organizations remains a time consuming and difficult process under the authorities’ restrictive rules.
9. The Laos Constitution, the Criminal Code, the Law on Media, and other relevant legal frameworks grant citizens the right to freedom of expression. However, these rights are routinely obstructed by the government, especially for public criticisms that it deems harmful to its reputation. State-controlled media outlets do not allow for independent speech and opinions that are deemed harmful for “national interest” or “traditional culture.” Moreover, internet freedom is also severely obstructed by the government, as it implements resources to control internet servers and monitor internet activities. Infringement of privacy and speech rights is routine and systematic.
Trafficking in Persons
10. Laos is primarily a source nation of labor- and sex-trade-related trafficking in persons, though recently, parts of the country have also become destinations for transnational human trafficking. In the last cycle, the issue of human trafficking in Laos was highlighted.
11. Despite these, Laos’ existing legal framework offers some measures against the trafficking of persons. As mentioned previously, the Lao authorities have put forth considerable efforts in trafficking enforcement in collaboration with civil society, INGOs, and governments. Reflecting these efforts, the U.S. Department of State’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons report classified Laos as Tier two, or not fully meeting the minimum standards in the UN TIP Protocol and the United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) but has made significant efforts to do so, an improvement from previous Tier three evaluation.
12. The majority of the working-age population in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country engage in agricultural work. Lack of job opportunities and underdevelopment pushed thousands of Laosian youths to neighboring countries for work, and becoming a population particularly vulnerable for exploitation. Aside from underdevelopment, corruption is a facilitator of human trafficking and smuggling. Foreign and Lao workers at or near foreign-owned or foreign-operated agricultural plantations—including banana and rubber plantations, railway construction sites, and SEZ – are extremely vulnerable to human trafficking.
14. Trafficking of Laotian women and girls to China, especially to sex trade and coerced marriage, has been an ongoing issue. This is especially problematic during economic downturns. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, there was an upsurge of sex trafficking of Laotian women to China. Some women are “sold” to China by their family voluntarily or involuntarily, while others are lured by fabricated job opportunities. In China, many young women face wrongful detention, coerced marriage, and sexual exploitations. Despite enforcement efforts, on Chinese social media platforms Douyin and Kuaishou, Mandarin accounts run by marriage intermediaries can still be seen advertising Lao girls, presumably targeting a market of unwed Chinese men.
Labor Rights
15. According to international treaties and national laws, workers in Laos have the right to: the opportunity to earn a living through work which can be freely chosen or accepted, remuneration including for public holidays, safe and healthy working conditions, equal opportunity, and rest, leisure and reasonable limitations of working hours. Workers also have the right to form and join the trade union of their choice.
16. In practice, workers are prevented from forming and joining worker organizations independent of the Lao Federation of Trade Unions (LFTU), a government-backed trade union. Workers who participate in protests, demonstrations, and other collective actions that might affect “social instability” may face prison time.
17. As mentioned, facilitation of forced labor can incur a civil or criminal charge. However, enforcement remains lacking. Lao migrants migrate overwhelmingly to neighboring Thailand, but also to China, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and further afield. Lao labor migrants are vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking at various stages of their migration – from recruitment to transit to in the destination countries. Poverty, oftentimes irregular immigration pathways, and lack of knowledge and network make Laos labor migrants especially vulnerable to abuse.
18. Despite Laos being primarily understood as an source country for trafficking in persons, recent reports indicate an emerging trend of online scam operations located in the country’s Special Economic Zones, particularly in Boten province, involving in the trafficking of nationals from China, Thailand, Cambodia, and other neighboring countries’ nationals for labor in criminal organizations. This shifts Laos from an origin country to a transit or destination country for the trafficking in persons.
19. As a case example, in 2022, CLW provided emergency assistance to a Chinese national was lured to Boten by a personal friend over a false job opportunity, only to be illegally detained, imposed impossibly high amounts of debt, forced to engage in cyber-crime activities, and severely beaten when they were found to be defiant. The victim suffered life-long health consequences after being tortured following a failed escape attempt. No Laotian authorities intervened despite multiple attempts to reach the law enforcement.
Recommendations
- Enhance rule of law through strengthening judiciary independence and establishing independent national accountability mechanisms to monitor judicial, legislative, and law enforcement bodies’ actions in accordance with national and international standards.
- Authorities should cease their repressive measures targeting civil society, and allow for third-party monitoring mechanisms independent of governmental organizations–such as NGOs, civil society organizations, and other interest groups–to examine, control, and monitor labor rights abuse. Specifically, Laos should allow UN Special Procedures to make entrance and conduct human and labor rights review periodically.
- Sign and ratify the following: the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
- Ensure the protection of human rights of both citizens and non-citizens without discrimination. Implement systematic measures to hold the agencies accountable for rights infringement acts such as forced labor and human trafficking.
- Fully implement the following: the Forced Labour Convention (1930), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, along with its UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children (2003). Ensure workers’ fundamental rights including humane standards of living and working conditions, freedom of expression, freedom of associations, and freedom of movement.
- The official should periodically conduct proactive trafficking screening on locations, services, and areas of high risk of trafficking activities, including along the border, in mining, agricultural, and construction projects, and service parlors including but not limited to nightclubs, karaokes, and massage parlors.
- The official should engage in anti-corruption and counter-trafficking training campaigns across government agencies specifically targeting the falsification of documents, border crossing, law enforcement, and immigration and airport personnel to better trafficking detection, enforcement, and reporting work, and prevent conflict of interests of public officials from interfere with counter-trafficking efforts.
- Continue to cooperate with international and civil society organizations in the field of trafficking victim identification, support, and rehabilitation. Establish an independent complaints mechanism with the authority to investigate all reported allegations of and complaints about acts of torture and ill-treatment.
- Take legal action against companies and offenders who violate anti-forced labor and anti-trafficking laws, and take proactive measures to provide support for victims and survivors who were trafficked to foreign countries. The Lao authorities should coordinate with other countries’ authorities–such as China–to provide repatriation to survivors and free and affordable short-term shelter and services.
- Increase the transparency of government efforts to combat trafficking and provide disaggregated data on investigations and prosecutions, victim identification, and service provision, including by continuing to share relevant data with international partners.
