FOX News : Health

30 March, 2011

Garment Workers Open University: Can Education Better Factory Conditions?

Monday 28 March 2011
by: Anne Elizabeth Moore, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis


Bright and extremely early one Sunday morning in January, slightly more than 400 young women and a handful of young men trundled out of bed to attend class on the east side of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (While the notion of a Christian day of rest doesn't exist in the Buddhist country, it was their day off - for some, the only one they have for weeks.) Students sat in classes, repeated lessons back to instructors, took breaks to laugh and play in the courtyard and dreamed about their futures. It looked and felt like any college campus in the world - at least, any low-income college campus. Except that these women were learning about labor law. Because - oh yeah, did I forget to mention this? - they're garment factory workers.


Over a series of consecutive Sundays, 500 textile laborers per day were invited to an experimental educational initiative of the International Labour Organization's Better Factories Cambodia, held at the National Technical Training Institute on Russian Boulevard, next door to the June Textiles Company. A full day of classes, lunch, entertainment, health services, fiscal advice, job training information and free gifts were offered to more than 2,000 workers at factories around the city, all in an effort to make laborers aware of their rights under the complex Cambodian legal system.

Implementation, however, was not without drawbacks. Attendance was only 85 percent of invited participants, a problem due, in part, to the written invitation. "Many of the workers didn't understand it," one organizer explains.

It's not that it was particularly confusing, or the concept of a law school for factory workers that difficult to grasp. It's just that the information was written down. Many of the workers can't read.

* * *


(Photo: Anne Elizabeth Moore)

If the June Textiles Company sounds familiar, it's because the BBC documented underage workers at the Singapore-owned facility a decade ago. The story was big, so buyers for US-based companies Nike and Gap got out fast, canceling contracts instead of pressuring the factory to adhere to labor laws.

Cambodia panicked. Since it had entered the garment trade in 1996, the country had relied upon sales to rich nations like the US and Germany to support its fastest-growing industry. Twenty to thirty factories per year had opened in a country that had no natural resources left after decades of civil war and years of secret American bombings. (Now there are 380 exporting garment factories in the country.) The 1974 Multi-Fibre Agreement had ensured that wealthy countries would import from poorer ones under a quota system, but that agreement was set to end in 2004 and a future for the industry relied on maintaining current contracts.

Yet, incidents like the one at June Textiles proved that retaining current trade agreements meant assuring that international buyers couldn't be attached to human rights abuses like child labor. So in 2001, the Garment Manufacturing Association of Cambodia (GMAC), the trade organization and lobbying group for the industry, asked the International Labour Organization (ILO) to establish a monitoring program. Following a few fits and starts, the ILO's unique and weird project Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) emerged in 2006.

Now, ever since the ILO was adopted as a United Nations agency in 1946, it's been establishing and monitoring international labor standards throughout the world. So, if it seems hinky that an international body like the UN would be invited in to monitor a fast-growing industry in a country where corruption wasn't even tracked until 2006 (when Transparency International ranked it 151st out of 163 countries), many are concerned it might be.

Most concerns stem from the heavy hand industry plays in guiding the project. Funded by the US Department of Labor, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Agence Francaise de Developpement, the GMAC, the Royal Government of Cambodia and international buyers, BFC is lead by a tripartite committee made up of Cambodian ministries, the GMAC and trade unions (and we'll look more at them in a moment). After all, the June Textiles incident had shown that international buyers are more concerned with maintaining brand image and low cost than resolving human rights issues. And the factories, on their own, were not self-monitoring effectively.


(Photo: Anne Elizabeth Moore)

Yet, few critics quibble with the project's methods. "By means of monitoring and providing training and advisory services," BFC training specialist Catherine Vaillancourt-Laflamme explains, the project "seeks to improve working conditions in the local garment industry through engaging with various stakeholders." BFC has been widely credited with improving compliance with international labor standards, as well as contributing to the growth of the industry even after the expiration of the Multi-Fibre Agreement.

In fact, innovative programming like the Garment Worker Open University has allowed BFC to emerge as a model project in the last five years and is now set to spawn spin-offs throughout the developing world.

* * *

Meanwhile, just down the road from June Textiles, morning classes at the campus have ended. A fifteen-minute free lunch in the classroom began a few minutes before my arrival. BFC wants to make sure that workers have had at least one good meal on their watch, but the food service industry has a ways to go before catching up with wealthy textiles, so no donations were received. Still, one organizer tells me, "We want to make sure they have all eaten." BFC purchased the food - lunch, afternoon snacks - themselves. Because when garment workers run short on cash, they often skimp on food. (Read my previous report here.)

As lunch breaks up, 418 young adults make their way toward the courtyard. The first table en route offers immediate health services, distributed by the Red Cross.

Health services, although required to be offered in factories, are notoriously bad. Workers often simply refuse to seek treatment on the basis of quality of care alone, although the added possibilities of employer reprimands, penalties, or flat-out firings cannot boost confidence in visiting health services on offer. (Read more here.)

As I wander by, several women receive bandages for minor wounds, partially healed already, so likely accrued over the course of the week. Others take white pills I recognize: anti-diarrheals. A young woman in line complains to me of a headache; another describes in Khmer "a problem with her stomach," the vague idiom for gastrointestinal rumblings that could indicate vomiting.

Those who have no immediate medical issues make their way, chatting and laughing, toward a row of tables along a wall at the far edge of the courtyard. Here non-governmental organizations (NGOs) distribute giveaways and answer questions about their services. Public health initiatives, credit unions and a job-training organization hand out posters, calendars and stickers.

All Open University students are wearing one-day uniforms: navy blue, polo-style shirts with white collars, emblazoned with every logo and slogan that will fit: BFC on one side and the ILO on the other, left breast decorated with a tasteful text describing the day's activities. The back is splashed with a slogan I forget to have translated. The same design, although on a turquoise shirt, is worn by volunteers for the event - only a handful of them are women. Most are managers in the factories.

The Cambodian love of formalism is not satisfied with a sea of navy, however, and each student also wears an orange lanyard around the neck, on which hangs an ID card. It provides something else to straighten as the young women stand, stomach tucked, in groups, their hair properly adjusted and clothing smoothed. Some walk festively, arm-in-arm, showing off totally unrisqué posters for OK condoms they received from Marie Stopes International or calendars from Credit Mutuel Kampuchea. Workers are urged to mark paydays and set savings goals.

Many consider it carefully: Even top earners devoted to consistent overtime can take home just a few dollars over the living wage of $93 per month. Most send home about half of what they earn to farming families, a system that keeps about a fifth of the country fed and is the reason daughters are sent off to the big city in the first place. ("Do you like your job?" I ask one and she looks at me, baffled. "Oh no," the translator explains. "I am only happy when I am at home.") A savings account is an affront not only to the traditional Cambodian mistrust of banks, which in richer days meant wives would wear the entire family's wealth in jewels, but to the primacy of the family itself.

The idea of a safety net appeals. Last June, the base wage was set to raise from $55 per month to $61 in the fall, and a follow-up series of mass strikes in September (reported on here - which ultimately failed - assured that there wouldn't be any more discussion of paying a living wage to garment workers for some time.

The 2010 strikes from 13 to 16 September had been dramatic: between 100,000 and 200,000 workers (of the nearly 300,000 employed in the industry overall) had walked off jobs in protest of the paltry raise. The number of striking workers was never verified, but the GMAC was horrified enough to agree to a meeting to renegotiate wages.

That meeting never happened. Instead, 26 labor leaders were immediately "banned" from jobs - a tricky way around the prohibition against firing workers for participating in union activity. These workers weren't fired: they were just not allowed to enter the buildings where they worked. A September 18 rally held in protest attracted 3,000 factory employees. Police injured five while attempting to break it up.

Over the winter, organizers regrouped. The demand for wage increases had turned into a protest over firings. These kicked off more firings, which led to more protests. The number of laborers effectively out of work over what was originally a reasonable argument for a wage increase quickly grew - some estimate well into the thousands.

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But the story became even more bizarre. When a British labor activist wrote to the Cambodian embassy in the UK expressing concern over the firings, he received a quick response. "It's none of your business!" the Telegraph reported the reply read. "Please report to your clown boss to stop this childish game and stop this circus at once," it continued. The note was signed "Webmaster." The activist wrote back, requesting a more comprehensible response and received the following instead: "Please go to the moon and stay there until you get an answer. Cambodia is not part of the British Empire."

All this, and still, "Nothing happened," one organizer told me anonymously. Even by January 2011, 300 illegally fired workers remained out of work at 20 factories around the country. "I don't know how. We had people, but we did not have good leadership. The unions, they do not listen."

And this is one possible effect the Open University initiative may have. To get the labor unions to listen.

* * *

There are 650 registered unions in Cambodia, a testament to the ease with which the law allows people to organize. Unfortunately, yellow unions - company-backed organizations that seed support for management decision - are fairly common, as are competitive unions within one factory. There are an average of six. Occasionally, two different groups that are members of the same federation will have competing branches of the same union. Leadership, universally male, acts without regard for the concerns of the workers - who are usually female. It's possible, I suppose, to consider this freedom of assembly and of expression, but it's definitely a wicked, hot mess.

"None of [the unions] are poster childs of anything," said one anonymous source.

Even so, labor leaders and workers alike are concerned about a new draft law set to regulate trade unions in the country, following the success of similar legislation that restricted the activities of NGOs and provoked concerns about freedom of expression from rights groups and donors. The law would give the government greater freedom in blocking protests, jailing leaders and disbanding unions. And it would make new unions much more difficult to form.

None of this is probably good for the labor movement in Cambodia, but it's difficult to argue that some sort of industry-wide reform isn't necessary.

There are, after all, only four vulnerable spots on the unwieldy body that is the international garment trade: national ministries of labor, individual factories, international buyers and unions. In Cambodia, the government has already played its hand, through arrests; public statements; and this new, restrictive legislation, and BFC monitors the factories directly.

International buyers weighed in with their stakes in a September 27 letter to the GMAC that expressed "great concern" over the protests. The letter was signed by Adidas, Gap, H&M, Levi's and Disney and further recommends that "all parties and stakeholders":

"Respect the process and engage in good faith dialogue to find a solution; Show commitment to constructive action for a long term solution and refrain from any inflammatory action or counterproductive rhetoric; Find a solution that is inclusive of all parties' concerns and provides longer term stability for the industry."

The letter is worded carefully: while it underscores the need for abiding by the law and sounds encouraging, it does not explicitly state a commitment to paying higher fees for goods if necessary, nor does it make a long-term commitment to maintaining a presence in Cambodia. Unfortunately, the June Textiles example - and others like it - bring these contrasts into sharp focus. Shape up, the letter could be read, or we ship out.

So that leaves unions as the most likely to forward a progressive agenda in the Cambodian garment industry. Or rather, considering the particularities of the confused Cambodian labor movement, it leaves union members.

* * *

Back on campus, an excessively didactic play has begun, a variety of storytelling favored by Cambodians, to be followed - yes, there it is now - by a quiz indicating how well audience members received the intended messages about public health issues. One wins a bike. She is thrilled. Another wins a sewing machine. Her smile is sublime.

The four sewing machines given away over the course of the program represent a victory for BFC. They were donated by the GMAC, which originally balked at the idea of a Garment Worker Open University. By the end, however, BFC's Vaillancourt-Laflamme explains, "The employers' organization sent some representatives to the event and we were pleased that they appreciated the quality of the overall event in terms of level of labor-law teaching presented to the workers and logistics."

I am not allowed to enter the classrooms where the lessons take place, so I ask Vaillancourt-Laflamme more about who was teaching them and what they were learning.

The instructors are all ILO employees, she tells me, "most of them being from Better Factories Cambodia. Senior trainers and labor specialists from BFC organized a thorough training of trainers in the weeks before the event, to ensure quality and consistency of the teachings and methodologies. BFC developed the material, which focused on the main - not all - aspects of the Cambodian Labor Law."

Sessions are devoted to labor contracts, working conditions, occupational health and safety, labor dispute resolution and rights and responsibilities of laborers.

By the end of the four-week program, each of the 1,700 workers that participated took home five copies of the Cambodian Labor Law guide to share with a total of 8,500 friends. In total, Vaillancourt-Laflamme estimates, they reached around a quarter of the exporting garment factories that operate in the country.

It was an exhausting effort. Still, Vaillancourt-Laflamme says, "we believe it was well worth it. It provided some opportunity for workers to learn about one of the most fundamental institutions one country has, the law."

"Many of the workers, factories and other partners have asked BFC to repeat the initiative," she tells me later via email. She also sends a few of the glowing evaluations workers filled out about the event. "BFC will have to evaluate how it can do so in the future and how we can improve the delivery."

* * *

It's one thing to ask the teacher what was taught, but it's another entirely to ask a student what she learned. I finagle an interpreter and convince two girls to sit at a picnic table with me and tell me about their day.

"What did you learn?" I ask and prepare to hear stats about HIV transmission.

"Before this day, we don't understand about labor law in Cambodia," a loquacious girl with a skin pigmentation problem and untended teeth enthuses. "We just work hard, every day and try to work well, but not try to understand. Both of us." She gestures to her friend, who is shy and merely nods.

"The teacher explained to us about permanent work and temporary work salaries. When we start, after three months, how much salary we get. And we study about the condition of work. For both the factory worker and the owner. If the employer give us the salary properly or not. If we work hard every day, overtime. If we agree or not."

She is a sewer and has been at her factory for around six months. I ask if she learned today about any problems that exist in her factory and she says no. A little later in the conversation I ask her again and she says no again. When I ask her a third time, however, she smiles.

"I have three months of temporary work. After three months, they have to increase salary. But the factory not increase yet." She looks, however, excited. "I want all worker to do something with the same purpose, with the same goal, to go together if there is a request to do something.... So we should go together and talk together to solve this problem."

At the six-month mark, she should be earning $61 per month. "You are only being paid as a temporary worker?" I ask. Temporary workers make $48 per month, which should go up to $55 at the three-month mark. I know this, but she talks me through it anyway. All the same, small bonuses and overtime often add up, sometimes almost doubling the monthly take-home pay.

"For attendance, five dollars more," the interpreter translates her response.

"How will this change what you do in the future?" I ask.

"Now I understand about labor law in Cambodia much more than before. When I arrive in factory, I will speak the information to others about labor law. My friends and coworkers. To make sure that we understand together." I hear, "A little knowledge goes a long way."

"Before," she goes on, "I feel wonder and not sure about myself. If I want to talk something, I afraid of mistake or something of the law but now, more like, encouraged. And brave in asking." She's been empowered. This is evident in her speech pattern, her willingness to meet my gaze and her ability to be articulate, even though she just discovered her employer's been screwing her, out of only a few bucks, sure, but around 20 percent of her salary.

The quiet, young woman, a lowly cutter right now, finally speaks. "I want to save money and find a professional job as a sewer. Now I just earn money in the factory, but I want to save money and make my own business." She, too, is thrilled with her prospects.

The young women trundle off to catch their afternoon session, although not before I ask them to thank all their friends for my shirt, which I bought at H&M and claims (via tag) to be made in Cambodia. It's possible that only the tag was sewn on here, of course, but I like to be thorough. All my clothes come from the kind of high-quality, low-cost manufacturers that have allowed Cambodia to emerge in recent years from total economic devastation to its comparatively hopeful state of deep disparity.

But it's never enough.

An event organizer had been watching our conversation and pulls me aside as my interviewees giggle on their way.

"Fifty-two dollars per month," she says, introducing herself as Eva Ferron. She is Indonesian, but lives in Phnom Penh now. She's a little better clued in to how much money that might be, given the local economy. And even she is shocked.

"I can spend that in a night drinking," she says.

* * *

A few weeks after the final session of the Garment Worker Open University, around 2,000 employees of June Textiles walked off the job in protest of two high-ranking company officials. Workers clearly articulated their concerns that the managers fired employees without cause, forged pay-related documents and meddled with union activities. In the months ahead, management will need to confront the new wave of empowerment among its worker base - and decide whether it will heed the call for change.

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27 March, 2011

Sometime We Have to Speak Out We cannot always remain silent

The Phnom Penh Post
FRIDAY, 25 MARCH 2011 15:02 THOMAS MILLER

After a long career in Cambodia, including four years as head of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Christophe Peschoux said this week he will step down at the end of April to take a senior position with the office in Geneva.

Although Peschoux said in an interview yesterday with The Post that he brought cooperation between his office and the government to “unprecedented levels”, senior officials called for his ouster last year.

Prime Minister Hun Sen made the appeal during a meeting in October with visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, following a request to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in August and a public warning from Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong in July.

Nevertheless, Peschoux yesterday defended the work of his office, including its public statements on pressing human rights concerns, and gave insight into his layered relationship with the government.
“Human rights work is not a cocktail party, it’s a struggle,” he said.

Peschoux, who also spent seven years investigating human rights abuses for OHCHR in the 1990s, will be replaced on an interim basis by his deputy, James Heenan, on May 2.
This is an edited transcript by Thomas Miller.

Why are you leaving your position at the end of next month?
I have been offered a new position in OHCHR in Geneva. This is not a sudden decision.... I began to apply for positions in April last year, for family reasons because my children are going to enter university next year and I want to be in Europe at that time.

In the meanwhile, [there is also] the tension with the Government as a reason over the statements that we issued in July.


One was my comment to The Cambodia Daily, in response to their request, regarding the illegal extradition of the two Thai Red Shirts [activists wanted by Thailand for suspected involvement in a bombing].

That created a lot of irritation in the Foreign Ministry. You remember the public letter from the foreign minister against me warning me that my position would be reconsidered if I did it again.

A week later there was another statement, issued this time by the spokesperson of the high commissioner in Geneva, in relation to the human rights implication of the [opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker] Mu Sochua defamation case [brought by Prime Minister Hun Sen].

That was quite a fairly straightforward statement, but I think the combination of these statements have provoked the anger of the government, probably of the Prime Minister, and as a result they have requested my removal to the [UN] high commissioner [for human rights Pillay]. That was in August, and the high commissioner declined on the ground that there was not sufficiently good reasons for that, and expressed complete confidence and support in me.

The matter rose again when the secretary general met the Prime Minister here and the Prime Minister brought the matter up during the meeting and requested the secretary general to remove me, and the secretary general stood by the high commissioner position.

As a result I have been internally [persona non grata] in the sense that there was a note sent [by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs] to all government officials in the ministries to cease to recognise me and cease cooperation with me. And that was in November. Since then all government officials have been reluctant to meet me.

Cooperation with the office has more or less continued. In some ways it has been affected, but we have been able to reestablish in most cases normal cooperation. But the instruction was clear: You don’t meet Peschoux.

And they have not met me, which, as you can understand, has made my life quite difficult because I have premised the approach and the work of this office on dialogue and cooperation.

Then there is this political logic ... that it was time for me to move. So these factors accelerated the decision process but [have] not affected it significantly. In the course of the year I would have left irrespective of whether there were tensions with the government.

You came in as head of the office here in 2007. How did you build up trust with the Government?
I have worked many years in this country and in this region, and I have learned a number of things. Face is important here – public face. And public controversy, public confrontation, is counterproductive.

The second lesson is that we do not have, as a human rights institution, the means of protection. So the question is how can you contribute to improve the situation of human rights?
And the response to that question is that you have to engage with the powers that be.

[Another] lesson is that in Cambodia as in other countries of the region ... a lot of things can be said if they are said between four eyes. In other words, confidential discussion of issues of concern is much better accepted if it is done with a care not to make your interlocutor lose face.

So having learned these lessons when I arrived here, I explained to my interlocutors in the Government that I wouldn’t dialogue with them through the media.

But I’ve told them at the same time, we will have confidential dialogue, but the condition is that your door has to be open and that you are willing to listen to what we are saying, because when we will be bringing issues of concern to you, they will be well-documented; they will be well thought-out; we will have conducted a legal analysis; and we will come up with ideas for a solution.

These were the main elements of my approach, and we have built relationships with various institutions in the Government on these premises. And I think so far it has worked well. It has not worked everywhere. But frankly after four years of testing this approach in this country, I can’t see any other way to further our protection objectives and to have an impact, because what we are after is to have an impact.

Against this background, I have not completely abandoned public advocacy. But we have used public advocacy only when we feel that there is either no dialogue going on with the Government, because there is no willingness to address these issues, or there is an emergency situation and we have no time to engage in dialogue.

What do you think are the biggest successes of your approach?
I always quote our prison programme, because this is a programme that we have jointly developed with the Ministry of Interior. This is a programme where there is a willingness to reform the institution but there is a lack of know-how.

We had visited several prisons, and a recurring theme coming out from prisoners, but also from staff and the directors of the prisons, was that prisoners were hungry, they didn’t eat their full.

So we wrote that up with the Ministry of Interior and persuaded them that there was a need to increase the food allocation that they received. The ministry accepted [the proposal] to develop the daily food allocation from 1500 to 2800 [riel].

A second example was the question of ill treatment in prison and abuse by detainees on other detainees. The prison authorities had delegated some of the disciplinary authority to prisoners, to groups of prisoners that were organised in the prison, which they called prisoner management cells. This goes against basic international standards on the management of prisons because it creates a state within the state, and then a lot of abuse happened which you can’t control.

We have highlighted the problem, they have understood it, and they have reformed that system.... and the number of abuse [cases] has decreased. Not disappeared – prisons are prisons – but there has been a significant improvement.

You emphasise confidential dialogue, but is there something lost, in terms of accountability, if the public is not aware of Government commitments?
Yes, of course this is a risk. But this is part of this ‘gentleman agreement’. Confidentiality, we regard it as a tool for dialogue, not as a shield for inaction. So that’s the basic premise. So as long as confidential dialogue leads to action – to corrective action and to progress – we engage.

But if we experience that confidentiality is being abused for doing nothing, then we have to reassess our engagement and decide whether we are going to speak publicly on this issue or withdraw our cooperation.

The Government named you specifically – and not the OHCHR office – as the problem. Why do you think they singled you out?
Let’s go first to the three main allegations that have been levelled against me to justify the fact that I’ve been shunned.

The first one is that I don’t cooperate with the Government. Everything I’ve done in the past four years shows the contrary. I have brought the level of cooperation of this office with the Government to unprecedented levels.

Second is that I am the spokesperson for the opposition. Everybody who is familiar with my work knows that it is totally independent. I am not in bed with the Government. I am not in bed with civil society. I am not in bed with the donor community. We are totally independent.... And this may not be appreciated. But ... we are a UN institution with a human rights mandate. And I am very clear about what my role is in this country. And my role is to talk to everybody.

But we have reached a situation in this country whereby any public criticism expressed vis a vis policies or practices are immediately tarred with the opposition brush.

The third factor is that I overstepped my mandate. Again, the high commissioner has been very clear, the secretary general has been very clear: We have a public advocacy mandate, as UN and as OHCHR. I have been exercising this public advocacy mandate with a lot of tact, I think, in a very courteous manner and as diplomatically as I could.

But sometimes we have to speak out, we have to say things, we can’t remain silent. That’s part of being a human rights and a UN voice in a country where we are dealing with difficult issues. There are issues [over which] we can’t simply remain silent because silence becomes a complicity.

In my own personal and also professional view as a human rights activist and official in the UN, that’s the bottom line. We have a moral authority and sometimes we have to exercise this moral authority.

Is there [a personal] element related to my work in the past ... when I was here from 1993-99. It’s possible. I was in charge of the investigation unit of this office. I have investigated hundreds of various human rights violations – killings, extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture, rape and so on and so forth. I have been a very scrupulous investigator, and not all of the cases that I have documented during this period have been dismissed, because the investigation was properly done and all the facts were well-established.

So am I a reminder of some of the crimes, some of the human rights violations of this period? Possibly.

Why do you think the Government is particularly sensitive to public criticism from the UN? Do you think it dates to the 1980s, when the UN seat was filled by the Khmer Rouge-led coalition?
There is a UN dimension. The UN was involved in the war against Cambodia from 1979-91 and the signing of the Paris Agreements in the sense that the UN was used by the powers exercising their authority through it to pursue the Cold War.

This has had a very detrimental affect on Cambodia and on its population because Cambodia was coming out of the Khmer Rouge period completely ... shattered, people’s lives were shattered, there was no one, there was no resource, and the current party here in power was reconstructed by the Vietnamese and tried to put this country together.

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Not only were they not provided international assistance from the West but they were besieged by the West and by China at the time during this period of Cold War. So they were trying to rebuild society in the face of an aggression, in the face of war, and that has left deep scars, I think, in the psyche, in the memory of many in the current leadership.

I think perhaps it would be a good idea for the UN one day to do what the UN did in Rwanda and to humbly apologize to the Cambodian people for the way that it had been used. I think it would be useful. That may help turn the page of this sad chapter of the UN history in this country. I think it would be a human thing to do.

25 March, 2011

Women in Garment Factories Help Cambodia Out of Poverty


Marwaan Macan-Markar


PHNOM PENH, Mar 25 (IPS) - Cambodia’s rise out of poverty continues to depend on the nimble fingers of young women like Khiev Chren.
She has spent the last three years in a garment factory on the outskirts of this capital city, churning out clothing for international name brands such as Levis, Dockers and GAP. "This is my first job and I need the money to help my family in the province," the 23-year-old said, barely pausing as her fingers guided the left leg of a white trouser under the needle of her electric sewing machine.

Around her rose a hum from nearly 2,000 sewing machines, behind which sat women stitching garments from jeans to shirts, in a well-lit cavernous hall. "This is a more secure job than working in the rice fields back home," Chren admitted, alluding to the hardship of life in her rural-rice-growing province of Takeo, south of Phnom Penh.

The increasing dependence on women like Chren for this Southeast Asian country’s journey out of poverty was brought home Monday by the World Bank’s ‘East Asia and Pacific Economic Update’. "Garment exports registered a 24 percent growth in 2010 after shrinking 20 percent during the 2009 [global financial] crisis," the international financial institute revealed of the main driver of Cambodia’s fledgling export economy.

"Two of Cambodia’s growth drivers rebounded faster than expected," the Bank added in its assessment of the country’s economy, referring to the garment and footwear sectors. "As a result, some 55,300 new jobs have been created by both industries in 2010, recovering most of the jobs lost during the 2009 economic downturn."

Women in this country of 14 million have benefited from this windfall in new jobs, amplifying the trend in the garment sector from the time it set its roots in the mid-1990s helping Cambodia recover from decades of conflict, genocide and occupation - which ended with the 1991 Paris peace accords - and extreme poverty. Today, the face of the 320,000 workers in the country’s 270 garment factories remains a feminine one.

The garment factories, which serve as a base for this country’s limited industrial sector, are also pivotal as an employment magnet for the bulging youth population. Nearly 35 percent of the population is between 10 and 24 years old, earning this country the distinction of having the biggest youth population in Southeast Asia, according to U.N. estimates.

It is the labour of the female workforce, in fact, that has contributed to over 70 percent of export earnings from garment sales to markets in the United States and Europe. In 2008, before the global financial crisis, exports earned 4.07 billion U.S. dollars, dropping to 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2009 following the crisis - which saw U.S. markets shrink. But by last year, the export market, led by garments, had rebounded, with earning inching close to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars.

And the monthly income of the female labour-force - above 90 U.S. dollars - has been a significant element in helping alleviate poverty in a country still ranked among the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimates that Cambodia, which has a third of its population living below the poverty line, will fall short of meeting a 2015 global millennium development goal (MDG) of slashing by half the number people who had been living on less than one dollar a day in 1990.

In rural Cambodia, where close to 85 percent of the population live, the number of people living below the poverty line was as high as 43 percent of the population in 1994, but had dropped to 34.79 percent prior to the 2009 financial crisis. It is a drop for which the garment sector earns kudos.

"The garment factories have been an equaliser in alleviating poverty in rural Cambodia," says Tumo Poutiainen, chief technical advisor of Better Factories Cambodia, a special initiative to ensure high labour standards involving the International Labour Organisation (ILO). "Women come to work in the garment factories not just for themselves, but to send money home."

The remittances that the 350,000 garments factory workers sent home prior to the crisis helped two million people in rural areas, ILO estimates reveal, not counting the additional 150,000 jobs the factories spawned on the fringes of Phnom Penh creating a "secondary economy".

Better Factories Cambodia has been hailed by labour rights activists as an answer to sweatshops, a still persistent reality in countries that Cambodia is competing with to produce cheaper garments, such as Bangladesh. Such economic rivalry, which also involves garment factories in Vietnam, has intensified following the end of the multi-fibre agreement, an international quota system for garments, at the beginning of 2005.

Investors from South Korea and Malaysia are leaders in the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to this country, much of it helping to bolster the garment and the telecommunications sectors. The garment industry grew at a rate of 44 percent annually between 1997 and 2007, helping the economy hit an impressive 8.2 percent annual average growth rate during that decade.

But rural women in their early 20s who have been drawn to the city to stitch their way out of poverty have also had to pay a price. The freedom, liberty and economic independence they have displayed in their new surroundings have been rebuked by residents of Phnom Penh - including charges of "immorality".

"City residents look down on the garment factory workers. They are being accused of destroying the culture of Cambodian women," says Ly Phearak, coordinator of the Workers’ Information Centre, a non-governmental organisation championing the cause of garment workers. "They expect the women from the village to live according to their traditional and conservative rules, and not feel empowered, more confident." Ignored, as a result, is the life of vulnerability these single women face in a new environment. "These workers need social protection and care to grapple with issues like nutrition, labour rights, and HIV," asserts Chrek Sophea, a former garment factory worker. "Few want to say thank you to these workers for helping Cambodia’s economy improve."

(END/2011)

24 March, 2011

Gov’t set to align labor policies with int’l standards

Source: Malaysia Business Insight

The Philippines is moving to align labor policies in the garment sector with international standards to push a proposed United States measure giving preferential treatment to Philippine garments.

Trade Undersecretary Cristino L. Panlilio said officials of the Garments and Textile Industry Development Office and the Department of Labor and Employment are holding meetings to "develop and adopt a labor compliance program for the local garment industry along the lines of the ILO Better Work Program."

Panlilio did not provide details on the initiative but said leaders of both the garment industry and workers’ unions are enthusiastic in doing their part to push the proposed US Save Our Industries Act.

The proposed measure seeks to grant duty-free treatment to certain apparel products wholly assembled in the Philippines, provided that these are made from US fabrics. It also seeks to levy a lower tariff on products made from US yarns.

In addition, the bill seeks to grant duty-free treatment to a limited range of Philippine exports of "cut and sew" apparel that are not produced in the US and, thus, deemed non-sensitive.

Better Work is a unique partnership program between the ILO and the International Finance Corp. launched in February 2007 that aims to improve both compliance with labor standards and competitiveness in global supply chains.

The Philippines lobbied hard for the passage of the bill but the last US Congress failed to act on. The Philippines has relaunched a campaign for filing the same bill in the current 11th US Congress.

Panlilio said several US legislators are at the forefront of introducing the Save Act in their respective chambers. They are Sen. Daniel Inouye, Senate president pro tempore and chairman of the appropriations committee; Sen. John Ensign, member of the Senate finance committee; Congressman Jim McDermott, ranking member of the House ways and means trade subcommittee; Congressmen Charles Boustany and Erik Paulsen, members of the House ways and means committee, and Congressmen Brian Bilbray and Bob Filner, co-chairmen of the US-Philippines Congressional Friendship Caucus.

According to Panlilio, securing more co-sponsors in both chambers will be one of the major objectives of the campaign.

Panlilio said the advisory contract with Sorini, Samet & Associates (SSA) had been renegotiated effective March 1.

SSA and Ambassador to Washington Romulo Manlapig will lead the campaign, supported by Filipino-American community leaders.
Panlilio said newly appointed Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia is also very keen on championing the Save Act.

"President Aquino has made clear the importance of the Save Act to the Philippines, as have other officials in the Philippine government in meetings with US counterparts. We believe US officials are well aware of the priority the President gives to the Save Act initiative pending with the US Congress and we will continue to encourage favorable consideration of the bill," Panlilio.

According to its website, Better Work involves the development of both global tools and country-level projects, with a focus on scalable and sustainable solutions that build cooperation among governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations and international buyers.

As the program acknowledges that improving compliance with labor standards in global supply chains is an important part of a pro-poor development strategy, Better Work ensures protection of workers’ rights and entitlements as well as compliance with labor standards.

Medicines to Help Meet the MDGs 

Source: SOS Children's Villages Canada
22/3/2011 - The World Health Organisation has released a list of essential medicines for sick women and children. The list will help countries meet health-related Millennium Development Goals.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a list of priority medicines for common and serious illnesses that affect women and children. The list includes 30 essential medicines that will help developing countries to meet internationally-agreed upon targets for maternal and child health.

Every year, 1,000 women and 8.1 million children, mostly in developing countries, lose their lives. Many of these deaths could be prevented by providing sick people with the right medicines, in the right combinations and in the rights doses.
Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (Studies in Development Economics and Policy)


The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010

Representatives of the specialized United Nations agency gathered in Accra, Ghana yesterday for the 18th WHO Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines.

The Committee's purpose in publishing the list of essential medicines was to expedite progress toward reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – Goal 4 of which calls for a two-thirds reduction in child mortality rates and Goal 5 of which calls for a three-quarters reduction of maternal mortality rates across developing countries.

The MDGs are a set of eight benchmarks for international development. They aim to comprehensively reverse some of the foremost causes of the poverty cycle, including income poverty,  low access to primary education, gender inequality, HIV/AIDS, environmental factors and a need for more development funding.

Dr. Suzanne Hill, clinical pharmacologist at the WHO, spoke at a press briefing for the Committee. According to Dr. Hill, the list was developed in cooperation with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in order to pinpoint and improve the availability of the medicines that would make the biggest impact on reducing maternal, newborn and child mortality rates. Dr. Hill is in charge of Medicines Access and Rational Use at the WHO.

All the drugs on the priority list for women and children were also on the Model List for Essential Medicines. The Committee was also charged with developing strategies for improving the use of essential medicines and providing policy advice on a number of health issues.

Severe bleeding (haemorrhage) is the leading cause of maternal deaths. Haemorrhage can lead to death in only a couple of hours. The WHO has therefore recommended that new mothers receive an injection of oxytocin immediately following delivery to effectively curb the bleeding and save the mother's life.

Pneumonia remains a major killer of children worldwide. Despite that fact that a simple course of antibiotic treatment could prevent up to 600,000 lives, the disease continues to claim the lives of 1.6 million children every year.

Further interventions recommended for children include treatment for diarrhoea, malaria and HIV/AIDS. Expanding access to oral rehydration salts and zinc supplements could save the lives of the 1.3 million children who die of diarrhoea every year. Meanwhile, providing children with the most beneficial combination of anti-malarial drugs and anti-retroviral medication could greatly reduce the number of child deaths from malaria and opportunistic infections related to HIV/AIDS.

Survey-based research in 14 African countries showed that children's medicines are only available in 35% to 50% of both private and public pharmacies. While zinc is often not available at all, oral rehydration salts are available in only half of African pharmacies.

Improving the supply, distribution and cost barriers to women and children's access to essential medicines will prove indispensable to meeting Goals 4 and 5 of the MDG agenda.

Army Hasn't Nixed Talks: Thais

THURSDAY, 24 MARCH 2011 15:03 CHEANG SOKHA
The Phnom Penh Post

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The Thai Foreign Ministry has denied reports that senior Thai military leaders have backed out of attending a proposed meeting with Cambodian officials in Indonesia next month aimed at resolving the countries’ ongoing border dispute.

The Bangkok Post reported on Tuesday that Thai Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon had decided not to attend the meeting because they believed the border dispute with Cambodia should only be settled in a bilateral forum.

“We won’t go.  We don’t want the meeting to be held in a third country,” Prayuth was quoted as saying.

“Soldiers of the two countries are very close to each other.  Talks should be between soldiers of the two countries only, and a third party should not be involved.”

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said on Tuesday evening that he was still in the process of “verifying the report” and could not comment further. Yesterday, however, he said the article in question “appears to be a misquote”.

“We verified the report with the Ministry of Defence and the army,” Thani said. “The report that came out was premature.”

“The Thai General Border Committee is still in discussions with the Cambodian side about the details of the meeting,” he added.

The proposed talks, scheduled to be held in Indonesia on April 7-8, follow four days of fighting between the two sides in early February along the border near Preah Vihear temple that left at least ten people dead, dozens injured and thousands of civilians displaced.

Earlier this month, Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva reportedly expressed support for the talks in Indonesia, which Cambodian officials had already agreed to attend.

Yesterday, Thailand’s MCOT state news agency reported that Prayuth had expressed reservations about delegations of unarmed Indonesian military observers that Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to host on their respective sides of the border. Prayuth reportedly said the observers should not be allowed to enter a stretch of territory near Preah Vihear temple that is claimed by both sides.

“If the observers will really enter at the borders, I don’t want them to enter the disputed area, as it’s a dangerous zone and will make it more difficult to solve the conflict,” Prayuth was quoted as saying.

Mug Black " DEPARMENT US ARMY Muay Thai " Sports


Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Thai officials are wary of third party involvement because they do not want outsiders to see their “bad tricks”.

US Army Special Forces, Technical Manual, TM 9-1240-262-34&P, TELESCOPE, ARTICULATED: M105D (1240-00-980-1745), M105F (1240-00-764-1668), 1987


“They don’t want to resolve the dispute peacefully,” Koy Kuong said. “They want to talk bilaterally because they want to use their military to threaten Cambodia.”

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JAMES O’TOOLE

Thai army chief rejects border observers

By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 3/23/2011

Thailand's powerful army chief on Wednesday said Indonesian observers were not wanted in a disputed area on the Thai-Cambodia border, despite an earlier agreement between the neighbours.

Thailand's powerful army chief on Wednesday said Indonesian observers were not wanted in a disputed area on the Thai-Cambodia border, despite an earlier agreement between the neighbours.

"Regardless of where the observers are from, we don't want them.. in the disputed area because it's dangerous and will complicate the problem", General Prayut Chan-O-Cha said.


The Thai defence ministry, armed forces and military commanders reject the idea of outside monitors in the territory, he said, before conceding that it was up to the government to decide.

A simmering border dispute over a small piece of land around an 11th century temple erupted in early February and heavy fighting between the armies of both sides claimed at least 10 lives and displaced thousands.

Prayut said the longstanding General Border Committee, chaired by Thai and Cambodian defence ministers, should be convened as planned in April to help the countries decide whether observers were wanted in the area.

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn denied a split between the government and military view of the situation.

"There's no change in position," he said, adding that the GBC meeting would be held first to iron out details such as location and agenda before observers would be allowed in the territory.

"I asked Khun Prayut... he said he did not reject the principle. They have to be clear on the conditions and in order to do that the GBC should resume first," he said. Khun is a Thai term of respect.

Thailand and Cambodia have each accused the other of starting the border clashes, which erupted around the Hindu temple of Preah Vihear.

Ties between the neighbours have been strained since Preah Vihear was granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but both countries claim ownership of a 4.6 square kilometre (1.8 square mile) surrounding area.

The initial deal to allow observers into the area came in late February during a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia, which holds the current chair of the 10-member block.

The Observer's Military Vehicles Directory from 1945


At the time Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, speaking on behalf of ASEAN, said it was a "unique arrangement" for the grouping, which devotes most of its time to trade and avoids conflict resolution.

Photo Military Observers of Neutral Countries on Danube 1900

The observers, including soldiers and civilians, were expected to be embedded with armies on either side of the disputed border and report to the governments in Bangkok and Phnom Penh on any violations of the ceasefire.

23 March, 2011

PM Pushes home jobs

The Phnom Penh Post
TUESDAY, 22 MARCH 2011 15:03 CHEANG SOKHA AND DAVID BOYLE

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called for a crackdown on labour trafficking to Thailand, amid a new round of concerns over training centres for Cambodians seeking work abroad.

Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony for construction on National Road 57B in Battambang province, Hun Sen urged Cambodians to work in the Kingdom rather than migrate to Thailand.

He said many people cross the border for jobs to harvest rice, sugar or corn, but there were equally valuable work opportunities at home.

HOW REMITTANCES ARE USED?: A Study of Livelihood of Family of Women Garment Workers? in Kampong Speu Province in Cambodia

C1920 Cambodia Sampot Garment Catafalque Monument

“We’ve had a lack of labourers recently, so I would like to appeal to our people that there are many job opportunities in Cambodia,” he said.

“The wage is not different [in Thailand, and] we are not the employers, we are labourers in the agriculture sector, the same as in Cambodia.”

Hun Sen said people who chose to work in Cambodia could avoid abuse and mistreatment from Thai employers and would not risk arrest when crossing the border illegally.

Hun Sen also ordered a crackdown on labour traffickers who smuggle Cambodians to work illegally in Thailand.

Soum Chankea, a coordinator for the local rights group Adhoc based in Banteay Meanchey province, said locals travel to Thailand seeking day labour, seasonal work and long-term employment because of the opportunities next door in contrast to low levels of local employment.

“It’s a culture of the local Cambodians to work in Thailand – we cannot stop them,” Soum Chankea said. “Despite our border dispute, villagers continue to enter Thailand without concern for their safety.”

Soum Chankea said labourers on local farms could earn more than 10,000 riels per day (US$2.48) and would expect a similar price in Thailand.

Cambodians, however, could avoid being shamed by their neighbours for being labourers if they worked in Thailand, he said, adding that some villagers take their entire families across the border after the rice harvest in order to supplement their income.

Nilim Baruah, chief technical advisor at the International Labour Organisation, said wage differences between the two countries provided a “push factor” for Cambodians.

Nearly 125,000 Cambodians were legally registered to work in Thailand as of last year, in addition to untold thousands more undocumented migrants.

Dy Phen, director of the Cambodia-Thailand Border Relations Office in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town, has told The Post previously that Cambodian authorities received between 150 and 200 workers daily from Thai authorities after they had been caught crossing illegally.

Dy Phen said at the time that authorities routinely informed local villagers about the dangers of crossing the border illegally, including the risk of being shot by Thai border officials.

Winai Wittayanugool, vice governor of Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, which borders Banteay Meanchey province, said earlier this month that more than 10,000 Cambodians cross into the Thai side daily to do business and find work at the Rung Cleur market.

Hun Sen’s comments on migrant labour come amid a growing controversy surrounding a training centre in Phnom Penh accused of illegally detaining trainees headed to Malaysia to work as maids.

The International Labour Organisation on Sunday issued a statement condemning the detention of female trainees at the T&P Co Ltd training centre.

“There is a pressing need for legislation in Cambodia for better regulation of recruitment agencies,” the statement said.

One woman died at the firm this month, while another broke both her legs while trying to escape by jumping from T&P.

Maeve Galvin, a communications officer at the ILO, said the government was aware of the issue and open to assistance.

“They know themselves that they need to get a grip on this and they’re quite open and willing to hear our advice,” Galvin said.

Matthieu Pellerin, a consultant for the rights group Licadho, said, however, the government was too slow to act on the issue.

“I think words do very little. I think what matters is action and up to now what we’ve seen is the Ministry of Labour [is] very reluctant to overview the actions of these companies, they’ve very much closed their eyes to these centres,” Pellerin said.

Baruah from the ILO said proper oversight could ensure work abroad was safe and profitable.

“In general and in the short to medium term, however, because of proximity and wage differentials, Cambodians can benefit from job opportunities in Thailand provided these are safe, legal and do not increase debt (due to high recruitment costs),” he said.
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Labor Ministry’s Annual Conference







23 March 2011

Chaktomok, Phnom Penh 22 March 2011, The Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training (MoLVT) held its annual conference on the achievements for 2010 and raising objectives for 2011 from 22 to 23 March 2011 at Chaktomok Theater.

“2010 was the 3rd year of its implementation of Rectangular Strategy’s Phase II.  The Government had tried to boost the Cambodian economy particularly for 2010 to leap out of V-shaped crisis after it had experienced its economic slowdown deriving from 2990 financial crisis. In 201, Cambodian economy grew by 5.5% and will continue to grow by more than 6% for 2011.  Based on this, it has prompted Cambodia reduce poverty from 47% in 1993, 35% in 2004, 30.1% in 2007, 27.4% in 2009, and approximately 6% in 2010.”
                                MoLVT Annual Conference, Summary Report on Achievements, 2010-2011.

The conference focused on Ministry’s achievements in 2010 and outlined objectives for 2011.  The accomplishments for 2010 included the labour inspection, labour dispute resolution, employment and manpower area, occupational health area, children area, social security, technical vocational education and training area, and gender mainstreaming in labour.


Labour Inspection
Over the course of 2010, a special labour inspection was made 306 times and 2,047 times for ordinary labour inspection.  There were 77 new enterprises employing 22,776 workers (18,776 female) while 51 factories closed down their operation.  There were 17,141 workers losing their jobs from those closed factories. Besides this, 4 factories suspended their operation resulting in the losses of jobs for 1,220 workers (1,052 female)[1].

“Labour Inspectors are tasked by the Cambodian Labour Law to inspect and pose limitations or fines when finding any non-compliance issues. The Labour Inspection Department took measures in dealing with the enterprises/institutions violating the labour law.  In 2010, the measures taken by the Department included limiting 404 enterprises while inspecting the labour compliance.  After posing limitations, no enterprises have been fined for filed to the Provincial Court or Municipal Court because all enterprises complied with the limitations promptly and in good cooperation. ”
                                MoLVT Annual Conference, Summary Report on Achievements, 2010-2011.

Labour Dispute Resolution
Article 309 of Labour Law states that if conciliation of dispute fails, the labour dispute shall be referred to a settlement by any arbitration, or any other procedure agreed on by the dispute parties.

“In 2010, 164 cases of disputes were settled, of which 58 cases have been healed and 106 unhealed, 141 cases were sent to the Arbitration Council.  The Ministry has registered 265 professional organizations out of which 95 are from provinces.  Up to now, there are 2,003 professional organizations.”
                                MoLVT Annual Conference, Summary Report on Achievements, 2010-2011.


Occupational Health
The Department of Occupational Health and Safety conducted inspections to 837 enterprises for hygiene and safety condition for 1,442 times.  The Department checked up the health for both Cambodian and foreign workers of 132,159 (101,376 female), of those 129,227 are Cambodian and 2, 932 are foreign workers.  In collaboration with CARE organization and DWA, the AIDs Committee of MoLVT helped set up AIDs Committees in 47 enterprises. (MoLVT Annual Conference, Summary Report on Achievements, 2010-2011)

Social Security
Since its beginning operations in 2007, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has registered 1,910 enterprises which employ 594,686 workers.  In 2010, 927 establishments were registered, of which 551 are in Phnom Penh and 376 are in the provinces.  There were 143,454 workers registered with NSSF in 2010. (MoLVT Annual Conference, Summary Report on Achievements, 2010-2011)



[1] MoLVT, Summary Report on the Achievements of the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training for 2010 and Its Objectives for 2011
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