A/HRC/41/39/Add.2 Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. The Government should follow through with those steps, which would be important demonstrations of its commitments to human rights, and for which it should get real credit from the international community. It should also establish a national human rights institution that is fully compliant with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles). II. Access to information 10. A lack of access to information, in conjunction with restrictions on freedom of expression, poses a tremendous barrier to sustainable development, the Lao people’s ownership of the country’s natural resources and the realization of human rights. The Government and international partners cannot address poverty without an accurate understanding of the challenges facing the Lao people, but limited data collection and a lack of transparency make it difficult to accurately assess even the current state of poverty, which leads to programmes being designed around limited, outdated and sometimes misleading information. Independent organizations have questioned the reliability of official data, indicating that it does not correspond with their own findings, but the Government has not shown an interest in addressing such discrepancies. Those problems are compounded by government-encouraged self-censorship, which keeps important conversations and findings in the dark. 11. The Government should issue instructions at the highest level that the collection and dissemination of up-to-date and reliable information should be prioritized, including by requiring that data be collected on a more consistent and rigorous basis and be made publicly and promptly available. Access to information and transparency enables evidencebased decision-making by public officials, reduces corruption, enhances public confidence and empowers individuals. Recent initiatives to provide online access to information are promising and should be expanded. The Government should ensure that its citizens receive information and can freely generate and share it and enjoy the right to freedom of speech, as enshrined in both the Lao Constitution and international human rights law. This could include providing support for activities such as citizen journalism, opinion polling and public debate, community learning centres, translation and conference participation, training for bloggers, school competitions and youth exchanges. Informed citizens engaged in deliberative activities make far greater contributions towards sustainable development. 12. The international community should support the Government with the expertise and resources necessary to systematically increase data collection and transparency, including through support for independent online databases and portals. International actors should also consistently make public their own data and studies. High-quality but unpublished studies and reports confidentially shared with or described to the Special Rapporteur contain valuable information that may never see the light of day and cannot be cited herein. Some prominent organizations refused to make crucial information public, despite repeated requests. The international community should seriously reconsider the implications of depriving the Lao people of access to valuable independent and objective information, especially in a country that in 2018 ranked 170th of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index. III. Translating economic growth into poverty reduction 13. Impressive aggregate GDP growth has not translated into commensurate improvements in the lives of most people. Factors contributing to the persistence of poverty and limiting the enjoyment of human rights by people in poverty include an opaque budget, inadequate public expenditure on important social services, such as education and health care, State revenue lost to overly generous corporate tax exemptions and corruption, a regressive tax system that disproportionately burdens the poor and growing but often undisclosed debt. Large infrastructure projects have too often had negative and even impoverishing effects on the people directly affected. The National Institute for Economic 5