Laos marks World’s Indigenous People Day

(KPL) The Lao Front for National Construction (LFNC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Lao-based United Nations Development Programme organised a workshop, “Lao ethnic groups” in Vientiane on 15 August.
This workshop was held to mark the occasion of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, which falls on 9 August.
Professor Sayamang Vongsak, LFNC Vice-President, said that the United Nations designated this particular day every year to make people aware of the presence of indigenous people. So on this day the UN itself and its member countries organised various events.
In September 2007, the Lao government adopted the declaration of the UN on the rights of the indigenous people and 143 member countries of UN approved it.
The Lao government took note of this declaration and it asked the LFNC to co-ordinate with the various sectors and to work on the issues that were relevant to the indigenous people of the world.
Over the past years, the LFNC had been playing an important role in uniting the people who belonged to different ethnic and religious groups and in mobilising them to develop the country. The Lao PDR had many ethnic groups, which have their own cultures and religions. However, in spite of such a diversity, there exists the spirit of solidarity and self-help among them and vis-a-vis the Lao Loum and the latter form the majority group in the country.
During the course of this meeting the participants discussed the importance of the provision of free access to information on the indigenous people of the world, the need to be well informed on issues relating to the indigenous people and the cooperation of Laos on this matter with the world’s community.
Representatives from the various ministries, the United Nations Development Programme in Laos and international organisations attended this meeting.

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