In advance of the 3rd Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the UNPO and the Congress of World Hmong People (CWHP) have jointly submitted a report to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights highlighting the desperate situation of the Hmong people in Laos.

The report highlights that extreme violence is used by the Laotian military against the ChoaFa Hmong, a Hmong community who have been forced into hiding in the jungle around Northern Laos, with repeated attacks seeing to eliminate those living in the Phou Bia region.

Members of the Hmong community, along with other ethnic minorites in Laos, suffer from extreme poverty and widespread, top-down, discrimination. Their freedom of religion is also curtailed with members of the Catholic Hmong community subject to threats, forced eviction, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment by the government.

UNPO and CWHP are calling on the government of Laos to end its persecution of the Hmong peoples and for the international community to take strong action to pressure the government of Laos to do so and to provide humanitarian support to impacted communities.

The 3rd UPR of Laos will be conducted in January 2020.