A/HRC/41/39/Add.2 (f) The conditions of those affected by the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy dam collapse are highly unsatisfactory. Monthly allowances must be increased and paid on time, the victims must be genuinely consulted, fertile land must be provided and counselling made available; (g) Civil society should be unchained. The Government should roll back restrictions on civil society activities, end retaliation for peaceful speech and enable the registration of associations to take place in less than one month, as it has done for businesses. It should provide a public database indicating applications made and actions taken. Government surveillance of civil society should cease, and requirements that government monitors must accompany travel within the country should be eliminated. 91. Allowing civil rights sores to fester is not in anyone’s interests. The Government should demonstrate good faith by inviting the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to investigate cases, including that of Sombath Somphone, and it should remedy the injustices suffered by the Sekong Province detainees. 92. Policies towards minority groups should be re-evaluated in order to enable them to escape widespread and often deep poverty and gain access to basic services. Refusal to recognize their existence only compounds their exclusion and hinders their inability to contribute to the economic development of the country. 93. Formal commitments to gender equality are undermined by deep disparities in education, employment and political participation. In order to send a meaningful signal and bring about real change, the Government should commit to closing education and employment gaps and ensuring that one third of all provincial governors and village chiefs are women by the year 2025. 94. The proposed land law should protect customary land tenure, including for people who rely on communal land and those who live in areas recently designated as “forests”, and the Government should adopt a more transparent and equitable approach to compensation. 95. The international community must do more to rapidly clear unexploded ordnance and support those affected. Development partners should reckon with their own responsibilities for the lack of progress in relation to poverty elimination and human rights. The United Nations should consider how it can change the perception that it has failed to be a voice for the vulnerable, let alone for human rights. Multilateral and bilateral lenders should give more consideration to the harms caused by foreign investment and ensure that projects bring greater benefit to the Lao people. 21