FOX News : Health

29 December, 2011

Cambodian garment workers’ long struggle with short-term contracts

28 Dec 2011 22:41
Source: trustlaw
 By Amy Lieberman

PHNOM PENH (TrustLaw) – Nearly all of the 300,000-plus female Cambodian garment workers who stitch goods for Nike Inc., Gap Inc., and a host of other major Western companies can rely on one constant in their uncertain line of work: if they become pregnant, they will lose their jobs.

This reality reflects a relatively new system under which Cambodian factory owners grant workers only short-term contracts of two to nine months. The subjective nature of the contracts’ renewal allows employers to evade gender discrimination and maternity leave laws by refusing to renew a worker's short-term contract after her pregnancy becomes evident.

Within the past year, a handful of garment workers began furtively to organize and learn about labor laws. They are doing this independently of the dominant hundreds of autonomous and factory-controlled unions that are led mostly by men.

The garment industry in Cambodia is the low-income country’s main industry. In 2010, garment exports totaled USD $3 billion or 90 percent of Cambodia's total exports, according to the International Labor Organization.

But the vast majority of workers who make the industry tick remain unaware of their basic rights on the job,  such as 30-days of maternity leave with 50 percent of their pay, as long as a worker has been employed for more than one year, even on a series of short-term contracts.

Veteran pregnant workers routinely and resignedly accept their dismissal.

“I hid my pregnancy for six months. When my employer saw I was pregnant and wanted to stop my contract I lied about how far along I was,” said Cha Lyna, 36, a garment worker who was in her eighth month of pregnancy when she spoke with TrustLaw. “Already I know I will work just until the end of this month. I'm angry, but what can I do? Maybe after I give birth they will let me have my job back, but maybe not.”
Four months pregnant, co-worker Poule Chantu's stomach protruded only slightly, but she still wore baggy shirts to work. She said it is not a question of if she would lose her job, but when.

Entry garment workers often travel as teenagers from rural provinces to the capital city of Phnom Penh to work long, six-day weeks in the factories. Monthly salaries average $61 a month, about half of which is often sent home. Wages can rise to about $100 a month, with cash earned through illegal overtime hours.
The women typically live secluded lives on the outskirts of the city, clustered in run-down apartment buildings within walking distance of the unmarked factory compounds. Living costs are slashed by squeezing five to seven roommates into one small room and eating two small meals a day.

Short-term contracts serve as a “very strong tool to eliminate the fundamental rights of the workers,” who lack the education and resources to know and defend their rights, said Moeun Tola, chief of the labor program at the Phnom Penh-based non-profit organization Community Legal and Education Center.

First introduced in factories around 2004, short-term contracts have yet to become major points of contention in garment worker protests and factory shut-downs. These mostly revolve around wage increases and treatment of union leaders.
Moeun said all three issues are interconnected.
“A worker can stay on [in a series of] short-term contract for years, making it so she cannot get a raise, which would otherwise be required if she was a permanent worker and worked for more than one year,” he said. “Joining a union is another risk to not getting your contract renewed.”

 Near a factory that manufactures clothing for Swedish retailer Hennes &Mauritz AB, known as H&M, around 40 women each month visit a drop-in information center. The center was created to provide information about labor laws in Cambodia and problems with short-term contracts. However, operated without the knowledge of factory employers, the center doesn't hold much appeal for most garment workers, according to those who visit it.

“I try to tell co-workers about the center and labor laws and sometimes they listen, but often they say, 'You are crazy. What you are talking about is useless. Go away so I can work,'” said local union leader Rum Pary, one of the few female union leaders in this string of factories.

 The center is one of several in garment factory neighborhoods, all supported by Social Action for Change, a grassroots movement whose organizers include former garment workers. The initiative helps workers gain confidence and knowledge. Nevertheless, education cannot guarantee workers’ rights will be upheld.

After Touch Sat, 27, a frequent visitor to the center, became sick with an intestinal virus in September 2010, she requested and was denied a day off from work. Her union rejected her request for support.

 Shortly afterward, her short-term contract was not renewed, but she still comes to the information center.

“After my requests for help were denied and I lost my job, I felt helpless, but I keep coming here to get more support,” said Touch, a worker of four years. “There's nothing else I can do.”

 (Editing by Lisa Anderson)

28 December, 2011

The Flanarant: Debunking the garment industry myths of 2011

Source: Just-style.com
Author: | 22 December 2011

There's been a huge amount of confusion recently about the competitiveness of Chinese textiles and apparel. While China's not offering the prices Western apparel buyers would like, it is cheaper in relative terms than it was a year ago, according to Mike Flanagan. Here he debunks a few other garment industry myths that rose to the fore in 2011.
China's share of US apparel imports grew to just about their highest ever in September. Oh, and the average price per square metre of Chinese clothing imported into the US rose more slowly, for the third straight month, than the price of clothing from the rest of the world.

As these numbers were being published, four garment factories were being closed in Honduras - because "it's getting too expensive to work here, so everyone's moving to Nicaragua", the local trade association claimed. And the world's largest garment maker decided to pull out of Guatemala, with locals there also claiming garment making was getting too expensive.

Yes, that was in 2011. And no, you've not accidentally stumbled across a web page from 2008.
But surely China's getting too expensive? Isn't "everyone" getting out of China as fast as they can? Aren't garment factories in Central America "rammed" as US buyers are flocking there? Just as European buyers are pouring into Turkey, and Japanese buyers are sourcing from anywhere in Asia with a sewing machine, as long as it's not China?

According to a new Clothesource survey available from just-style - 'Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing?' - there's been a huge amount of confusion recently about the competitiveness of Chinese textiles and apparel.

But more importantly, much of the world apparel trade has a much bigger problem to deal with.
China's share (by weight) of US apparel imports in September rose to 48.95%; just a shade below the all-time record for China's share set in September 2009 of 49.3%. And this is way, way up on the 23.5% China got in March of this year.

Few buyers are likely to worry too much, though. They're all a great deal more concerned that sluggish retail apparel sales (when measured in volume, rather than inflated current prices) mean they're selling fewer clothes.

And worse still, with imported clothes arriving in US ports on average 17% more expensive than in September 2010, they're unable to persuade shoppers to pay proportionately more.

The numbers vary a bit for EU or Japanese retailers and brands - but the general trend's the same. China's not the problem anymore. Throughout the West, retail garment sales are falling, however much the media obscures this by quoting annual changes in cash, rather than the number of garments sold.
And as costs are growing, retailers' margins are tumbling to levels that customers just won't allow to be reflected in higher prices.

Myths mount upThe real world has already moved on, way past the "uncompetitive China" hysteria of the past few months. The "China flight" myth must surely now join all the earlier myths: from "quota restrictions will never come off garment imports from Asia" (everyone in China: 2004-2006) to "China will put every other garment producer out of business" (every American textile lobbyist, morning, noon and night, since about the day the Pilgrim Fathers landed).

It might be a good Christmas party game to speculate what's going to replace it, either among the debunked myths, or as the media's 'Textile Industry Fad of the Month'.
For example:
  • "Everyone's going to Central America" is showing dangerous signs of being debunked even before it ever gets to be a media fad. At the beginning of 2011, US apparel imports from CAFTA, Mexico and Haiti combined were up 21% (measured by volume) on 2010. That growth stopped in June - and by September, apparel imports from the region were 10% down on 2010. Within the CAFTA-DR countries as a whole (Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador), things have got even worse, with US apparel imports down 12% in September. Though imports from Mexico and Haiti aren't growing, they're scarcely down.
  • "The Chinese market's growing so fast they don't want foreign customers any more" sounded pretty unbelievable earlier in 2012, when first heard from major buyers. But with output from Chinese garment factories just 6.7% up on 2010 in the July-September quarter, such stories are getting rarer. What was actually going on at the time was something rather more subtle: Chinese factories weren't refusing foreign buyers - they were refusing foreign buyers' attempts to sell unprofitably.
  • "There's more competition among buyers to find suppliers than among suppliers to find buyers." If that really were true, factories wouldn't be closing in Honduras and Guatemala. While at the height of the "China's got uncompetitive" myth, it WAS often tough to find factories, these things almost always right themselves. Korean multinational Sae-E is closing in Guatemala mainly because it's developing a 20,000 worker complex in Haiti. 52 new factories have been registered this year in Cambodia. India's announced 21 new Textile Parks - and with the rupee hitting its lowest-ever level against the US dollar in late November, Indian garment makers may have the incentive to fill them with new factories. The "uncompetitive China" fad sparked off a flood of new investment in capacity, and it's possible we'll see a world garment factory glut by 2012 or 2013.
  • "Garments will just keep on getting pricier" might never make it to myth status: for most spinners, weavers, garment makers and buyers, the crucial driver has been the cotton price, which peaked back in March. With global cotton production likely to be greater than demand for the next year or so, Indian devaluation and a (possibly short-lived) boom in new factories, it's impossible to predict how long the current level of producer prices will stick.
Does that mean - for example - that the obvious arguments for Americans to source garments from Central America are going to get weaker and weaker till Americans stop sourcing from their neighbours? Not at all. These myths illustrate a more serious truth.

Low wage countries lead productionMuch of the garment industry - and much of the media commentating about it - really hasn't got over the shock of seeing most rich country garment production sail off to Asia, and keep prices tumbling for almost two decades as a result.

Some believe, deep down there's an infinite number of potential new countries the industry hasn't discovered, and when they're discovered, prices will collapse all over again. Others believe that the whole period was an aberration, caused by the Chinese playing with their currency, or Bangladeshis working for nothing, and that sooner or later it'll all get back to normal.

Both groups are equally deluded. As long as there's a huge disparity between wages around the world, as long as factories in low-wage countries keep on improving their efficiency, and as long as barriers to global trade remain low, labour-intensive products are going to be made in low-wage countries.

It'll take decades for wage disparities to disappear, there's no real pressure for rich countries to re-erect trade barriers, and most successful garment factories are committed to continuous improvement.
On the other hand, it's tough to see another dramatic game-changing innovation that will transform garment making economics as dramatically as moving production to poorer countries. If Uzbekistan, say, or Laos, ever develop a large-scale garment industry, at most it'll add just a bit of extra competition.

The success of offshore factories in competing with each other on efficiency and quality of service will go through ups and downs, driven by management competence and commitment and by host government actions. Governments will intermittently help or undermine them with the quality of transport infrastructure, the honesty and competence of officials, the inflation, interest levels and exchange rates their economic policies produce, as well as the reliability of energy supply, and the safety of personnel and property.
Relative strengths and weaknesses - of countries and of corporations - will be in constant flux. And, by and large, by the time most media (with the permanent exception of just-style, of course) have found out who's strong and who's weak, the wheel will have moved on.

In all this, there'll be just two constants. As we show in 'Is there an alternative to China as the dominant location for apparel sourcing?', for most readers' lifetimes China will remain the dominant force in global garment and textile manufacture. And the media will trot out a new 'Fad of the Month' more or less every four weeks.

26 December, 2011

The year of possibilities

Source: DECCAN
Monday 26 December 2011

As the year 2011 is drawing to an end, Colin Todhunter offers a glimpse of the highlights of what has generally been a year defined by ‘people power’, and marked by protests and scams.

 If one thing appeared to define 2011, it was ‘people power’. Most notably, there was the ‘Arab Spring’. This was followed by mass protests against social and economic inequality in the form of ‘Occupy Wall Street’ and the international ‘Occupy Movement’. And let’s not forget the anti-corruption protests in India as well. Dissent could be witnessed across the globe, and events reminded many of the radical days of the 1960s when ordinary folk believed they could effect meaningful social change by acting together. The year’s end presents an opportunity to look back on events and evaluate whether the optimism surrounding ‘people power’ was well founded.

First off, the ‘Arab Spring’, probably the most important phenomenon of 2011. The media coined the term to describe a series of protests that took place across the Arab world against a range of autocratic rulers. The ‘Arab Spring’ began in January after a market trader set himself alight in protest against the regime in Tunisia. The government subsequently fell after a month of increasingly violent protests, and President Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.

The focus then shifted rapidly to Egypt, where the world’s media homed in on the thousands who occupied Cairo’s Tahrir Square demanding democratic rights and for President Mubarak to step down. Well, he did, eventually. A military junta took control and sanctioned elections, but not before launching a major assault on thousands of people in November who were still occupying Tahrir Square in protest against the army. 
The King of Bahrain declared a three-month state of emergency in March as troops from the Gulf Co-operation Council were sent to quell unrest there. The West stood by as Saudi soldiers attacked civilians in Bahrain and put a brutal stop to any notion of democracy. Its attitude was rather different when it came to Libya, though.

A ‘spontaneous’ anti-Gadhafi uprising took place in the Libyan city of Benghazi, or so we were led to believe. Unlike the events in Bahrain, the US, Britain and France fell over themselves to get a UN resolution to ‘protect civilians’ from what they claimed was going to be an imminent, merciless attack on the people of Benghazi by government forces. Many pondered the West’s underlying motives in intervening in Libya, given that it was turning a blind eye to (even sanctioning) the violent attacks on civilians by troops in Bahrain.

Fuelled by an intensive NATO bombing campaign, an eight-month-long civil war ensued, leaving tens of thousands dead. A ragtag bunch of anti-government fighters, ably assisted by western special forces, subsequently captured and murdered Muammar Gadhafi. Not so much part of any ‘Arab Spring’ — more a preplanned policy of regime change by foreign powers.

The ‘Arab Spring’ rumbled on into Yemen and then Syria, with thousands fleeing that country to Turkey as protests and a government crackdown followed. Over the next few months, many were reported dead.

                                                             *******

Apart from the turmoil in the Arab world, the tumultuous impact of the 2008 economic meltdown continued. As the economy nosedived in the UK, young people rioted in towns and cities across the country. Later in the year, however, a more constructive tactic emerged across the world in the form of the ‘Occupy Movement’, a kind of ‘democratic awakening’ that was partly inspired by the ‘Arab Spring’ and aimed at redressing various injustices, including more equal distribution of income, banking reform and a reduction of the influence of big business on politics.

Taking their cue from events in Cairo, ordinary people occupied and set up camps in key locations, such as Wall Street, London’s financial centre and outside the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Much of the movement was directed towards the bankers and financiers who had been responsible for the economic crisis and its crippling effects on the lives of millions.

Over the weeks, despite attempts to discredit it by much of the media, the movement had more than a few politicians squirming, especially in the US, by drawing particular attention to the crooked links between Wall Street and various Washington politicians. Barack Obama, David Cameron and Manmohan Singh expressed a certain sympathy with the aims of the movement, implying that protesters were expressing legitimate concerns about fairness in society.

Fine words, but with no substance. A violent, co-ordinated police crackdown on protesters took place in many cities across the US during late November. Moreover, not wanting to pay any sort of financial price for their actions that had resulted in the destabilisation of so many economies, the bankers and speculators plunged Europe into a state of permanent crisis throughout 2011 by insisting that political leaders should fall in line and make ordinary people bear the cost. Politicians meekly obliged.

The good people of Greece, despite their highly publicised street protests, appeared powerless to prevent the onslaught on their public services and living standards to pay for a crisis they had no part in. The situation reverberated around Europe, with Italy, Portugal and a number of other countries sliding towards their own Eurozone sovereign debt nightmares.

Sections of the media in northern Europe conveyed the message that the ‘lazy’ Greeks (or ‘feckless’ Italians) were bleeding everyone dry with their failing economies and bailouts. It was a great Greek myth based on lies about the work-shy, welfare-loving people of Greece.

It was much easier to delegitimise the Greek protests by blaming the ordinary folk of Greece and their perceived character defects for a bulging national debt rather than focusing on culpable financial speculators and skewed economic relations between nations within the Eurozone. Europe’s pre-World War Two spectres of scapegoating and nationalism were thus beginning to rear their ugly heads again on the back of a major economic crisis.

And so to India, where scam after scam just keeps coming to light — the 2G telecom affair, the UP rice scam, Commonwealth Games corruption, the 2010 housing loan issue and… well, let’s be blunt, there are just too many to mention and on so many levels. In 2011, people had just about had a gutful.

Anna Hazare spearheaded the anti-corruption protests that sprang up across the country, and Swami Ramdev also led protests over the repatriation of black money from foreign banks. The government appeared to give way. Then it backtracked and dithered over the nature of the Lokpal Bill. Widespread support from various civil bodies and prominent figures across the country put pressure on the government to act. Things turned ugly with on-off hunger strikes, beatings and government crackdowns on protesters, and on Hazare himself. Bitter verbal attacks have become the order of the day.

Just as Julian Assange was threatening to declare precisely who had siphoned off what from the Indian economy into their personal foreign bank accounts, the US Government, Bank of America, PayPal and the like willingly lined up to financially cripple WikiLeaks and effectively prevent it from operating.

Under house arrest in the UK on what may well be bogus sexual abuse charges, Assange appears to be moving closer to being extradited to Sweden and then possibly the US to face espionage charges over the leaking of sensitive government information. With WikiLeaks and Assange on the ropes, it’s not just Washington that is letting out a sigh of relief. Many an Indian politician, private organisation and ‘high net worth’ individual might be too, who, according to a report by Global Financial Integrity, are the ones mainly responsible for depriving the ordinary people of money equivalent to 13 times India’s national debt.

                                                     *******

What else happened in 2011? The new state of Southern Sudan came into being, Formula 1 roared its way into India, and there was pandemonium in parliament, as US retail giant Wal-Mart and other international multi-brand retailers took a step closer to entering India’s retail sector.

The ‘William & Kate’ spectacle took place in London, a royal wedding that some say drew in an estimated two billion TV viewers, corruption yet again reared its head in cricket, with a number of Pakistani cricketers being sent to jail, and the global population officially reached seven million.

A massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan and dominated the headlines for weeks. Leaving a trail of death and havoc in its wake, particularly around the Fukushima nuclear power plant, some serious questions were raised by governments around the world about nuclear power and its safety, so much so that Germany decided to phase it out.

The UN declared a state of famine in Somalia, a car bomb killed 100 in the capital Mogadishu, and Norway mourned after 76 people were murdered in Oslo because a gunman had a grudge against the ruling political class and decided to go on a shooting spree.

And there was, of course, also the increasing instability in Pakistan. The US killed at least 24 Pakistani troops on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border in November, adding to the ongoing destabilisation of that country. With its influence in Libya already having been curtailed by NATO intervention there, warnings came out of China concerning possible military confrontation with the US over its role in Pakistan. This was preceded by Osama Bin Laden’s illegal assassination by US personnel, again on Pakistani soil, and unbeknown to the Pakistan authorities at the time. 

Throughout the world, thousands of people lost their lives due to various natural and manmade disasters, including floods in Pakistan, Brazil, Thailand and Cambodia, a pipeline explosion in Kenya, a massive earthquake in Turkey and the bombing of Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport.

But it was the rich and famous that tended to get more column inches. And on that note, 2011 said goodbye to Hollywood legends Jane Russell and Elizabeth Taylor, spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba, painter M F Hussain, British singer Amy Winehouse, actor Dev Anand, director and actor Shammi Kapoor and computer guru Steve Jobs.

Looking back, the general narrative for 2011 was shaped by the mainstream media. However, although much news was underreported, or only featured in little known yet well respected ‘alternative’ websites or niche journals, we can safely say that 2011 was a year of uprisings and instability.

                                                               *******

It would be nice to state that 2011 was the year when autocracies came crashing down in the Arab world and democracy prevailed, when the corrupt in India were shaking in their boots and when the bankers and politicians in the West were trembling in the face of protests on the streets. If only that analysis rang true. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

Although the media focussed on the spontaneity and grassroot nature of events in the Arab world, and there’s no denying that many ordinary folk with genuine grievances were involved, there is evidence that many of these ‘uprisings’ were sparked off or manipulated from outside, with the US helping to fuel protests in the region for its own self interest. 

Egypt’s President Mubarak had become a thorn in the side of Washington by disagreeing with US policy in West Asia. He was removed. The West’s erstwhile bogeyman Muammar Gadhafi was conveniently got rid of too. And with Iran’s ally Syria also being destabilised, USA’s long time goal of toppling the regime in Tehran appears to be a step closer.

As for the ‘Eurozone crisis’, with French and German leaders Sarkozy and Merkel zipped firmly into their pockets, the bankers and speculators are attempting to secure a guarantee that their future financial losses will be offset by the European taxpayer. An increasingly banker-dominated, centralised and autocratic Europe is looking less appealing by the day, with many, not least in Britain, demanding their government retain some semblance of national sovereignty and leave the European Union.

And, in India, the highly placed crooks seem likely to do their utmost to intimidate, procrastinate, water down or dodge the consequences of any anti-corruption parliamentary bill.

Too negative an assessment of ‘people power’ in 2011? Not really. Perseverance is the key to change. Nothing worth anything ever came easily, as Egyptians, more than most, know full well.

Notwithstanding the role of outside forces in the ‘Arab Spring’, many protesters seem likely to continue with their efforts to try to leverage at least some measure of democratic accountability from the new regimes. Despite media hostility and the crackdown on the ‘Occupy Movement’, the various occupation protests could be regarded as some kind of a starting point for effectively challenging the erosion of democratic rights and the corrosive power of big finance. Same too with India. A broadening of the anti-corruption movement beyond what it has now become is required to force politicians’ hands.

Whether this is at all realistic lies in the resolve of the people themselves. But given our digital age and the much talked about power of social media, it’s not wholly unreasonable to assume that perhaps many more Assanges, Hazares and dissenters will eventually emerge, especially if Julian Assange gets extradited to the US, Anna Hazare’s shoulders prove too narrow to carry the fight in India, or the occupation movements hit a dead end. After all, in ancient Greek legend, didn’t the Hydra of Lema sprout more heads after one of its originals was chopped off?

Too much wishful thinking? Yet another fanciful Greek myth? Only time will tell.

24 December, 2011

Cambodia: Revise or Abandon Draft NGO Law

Source: Human Rights Watch
 Donors Should Insist on Protections for Civil Society
23 December 2011

(Bangkok) – Donors, who provide approximately half of Cambodia’s national budget, should make clear to the Cambodian government that the fourth draft of the Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO) must be revised to protect civil society or be withdrawn, a group of concerned international human rights organizations said today. Any revisions should involve meaningful consultation with civil society organizations and aim to support their activities instead of creating a legal framework allowing for arbitrary closure of organizations or the denial of registration.
The Cambodian government is pressing forward with a draft law that grants it broad authority to make arbitrary decisions about which groups can operate and which cannot. Civil society delivers essential services and acts as a constructive watchdog over government and private sector activities. This law is hardly the sort of "reform" that will benefit Cambodian citizens. Donors should say no to this farce.
Brad Adams, Asia director

The groups involved are Human Rights Watch, Global Witness, Freedom House, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Article 19, Southeast AsianPress Alliance (SEAPA), Civil Rights Defenders, Lawyers’Rights Watch Canada, Centrefor Law and Democracy, Protection International, and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a joint program of the International Federation for Human Rights - FIDH, and the World Organisation Against Torture - OMCT).

“The Cambodian government is pressing forward with a draft law that grants it broad authority to make arbitrary decisions about which groups can operate and which cannot,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Civil society delivers essential services and acts as a constructive watchdog over government and private sector activities. This law is hardly the sort of ‘reform’ that will benefit Cambodian citizens. Donors should say no to this farce.”

The 4th draft of the LANGO contains vague and unspecified terms that will enable the government to target critics by ordering their closure or denying them registration, the groups said. These terms should be clarified, and new and unnecessary barriers to the registration and operations of international NGOs should be eliminated. Furthermore, protections should be established to ensure that if an organization decides not to register, it is not denied legal status and therefore rendered incapacitated. Provisions placing burdensome notification requirements on community-based organizations should be removed.

Governments have a legitimate regulatory interest in providing benefits to organizations that become legal entities and preventing criminal activity. But such regulations cannot be used as a cover to undermine rights to freedom of association, expression and assembly, which are protected under the Cambodian constitution and international treaties to which Cambodia is a party.

The Cambodian context is critical for understanding the risk to Cambodia’s civil society should the current draft of LANGO pass, the groups said. Cambodian governance is still missing the checks and balances found in functioning democracies that limit arbitrary action by the executive branch of government. Government officials who react most harshly to NGO criticisms frequently are found to have a financial stake in the case at hand. Therefore, to argue that Cambodia should have a specific law on NGOs simply because other countries have one ignores the Cambodian government’s increasing actions to constrict public space for pluralistic debate and peaceful expression of views.

The fourth draft of LANGO fails to establish clear provisions to justify denial of registration to associations or NGOs. It violates Cambodia’s obligations under international law, such as under article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Cambodia is party. LANGO also fails to include clear and objective standards in articles 28 and 29 concerning suspension or termination of registration. Article 28 provides that domestic organizations can be “dissolved by court decisions” but no further details are given, leaving matters to the discretion of a judiciary where political interference is common.

There are no provisions for appealing a suspension or termination and the law lacks procedural safeguards such as advance notice of regulatory action, opportunities to resolve problems prior to termination or suspension, or limiting termination to a sanction of last resort. Such provisions are extremely worrisome given the political and governance context of Cambodia, which is characterized by endemic corruption, arbitrary application of punitive legislation, and an absence of judicial independence, the groups said. The Ministry of Interior’s suspension in August of the NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) is a harbinger of the sudden, unilateral, and non-transparent actions this law will legitimize. The government has still failed to adequately indicate the legal basis for STT’s suspension.

“Many officials in the Cambodian government have never accepted that civil society should operate independently or criticize their decisions,” said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, the director of Southeast Asia Program at Freedom House. “A major success of the UNTAC peacekeeping mission 20 years ago was to create this space for civil society. Now it is up to donors to protect it and ensure NGOs can continue to independently provide their essential services to Cambodians.”

Despite promises by the Cambodian government to eliminate mandatory registration, the fourth draft makes legal status dependent on registration, and thus essentially maintains the requirement. The fourth draft represents a bait-and-switch by removing the mandatory clause but then requiring an organization to register if it wants to obtain legal status. Without legal status, it is unclear under the draft law whether an association or NGO will be able to operate in Cambodia since that status is required to enter into legal contracts, open bank accounts, hire staff, import materials, and collaborate with partners “for implementing aid projects according to the existing laws.”

This arrangement effectively undermines respect for the right to freedom of association and cynically presents local associations and NGOs with the choice of either registering or facing constant bureaucratic roadblocks in their work. Although community-based organizations will no longer have to register, under article 5 of the draft law, they will be required to provide prior written notice to local authorities who could be easily used to restrict their work.

The groups also expressed serious concerns that this fourth draft specifically targets international NGOs (INGOs) and would severely hamper both their projects and their advocacy efforts to promote good governance and development approaches that respect human rights. Article 17 of the draft law sets out an overly broad and vague standard that will allow the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) to use wide discretion in dealing with INGOs, including terminating a group’s registration if the ministry decides that the INGO has conducted activities that “jeopardize peace, stability and public order…or harm the national security, national unity, culture, customs and traditions of the Cambodian national society.” Moreover, the Memoranda of Understanding that INGOs would have to negotiate with ministry is valid for only three years, resulting in a de facto re-registration process. INGOs also will have no right to appeal any termination of their registration.

“This latest version of the law can be arbitrarily misused to root out international NGOs who employ rights-based development approaches and offer constructive but critical opinions and critiques of the government’s policies and practices,” said Yap Swee Seng, Executive Director of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA).

Finally, passage of this law is not necessary in light of existing Cambodian legislation addressing legitimate regulatory concerns: NGOs can obtain legal status through the newly effective Civil Code. Civil Code sections 46-118 provide details on registration and dissolution of non-profit legal entities, the right to appeal government decisions, and far less burdensome registration requirements. The Penal Code and Anti-Corruption Law address fraud; meanwhile, INGOs already obtain legal standing through Memoranda of Understanding with the government.

“Cambodia’s donors should press the Ministry of Interior to extend the consultation period on the fourthdraft of LANGO so that all viewpoints and voices are heard,” said FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen and OMCT Secretary General Gerald Staberock.

Simon Taylor, Director of Global Witness, concluded “At stake now is the last 17 years of development assistance in Cambodia and the extent to which the donors will be remembered for failing to prevent the removal of one of the few instruments of accountability in Cambodia, nurtured to a great extent thanks to their investments.”

Top 10 ASEAN Stories of 2011

Source: The Diplomat
23 December 2011

Southeast Asia was overwhelmed by political brinkmanship, territorial disputes and natural disasters in 2011. Perhaps just as important, the courts also figured prominently with some of the region’s more colorful and notorious personalities feeling the full brunt of the law. Here are some of the biggest ones:

1. Southeast Asia’s Big Wet

Storms killed more than 2,000 people across the region with record floods and billions of dollars in losses chalked up by business primarily in Thailand and the Philippines, with Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos also taking a massive knock.

Floods were a constant fear throughout most of the second half of the year, culminating mid-December in a storm dubbed Washi that triggered flash floods and mudslides in the Philippines and left a thousand dead. Hardest hit were the cities of Cagayan de Ura and Iligan, where more than 250,000 were homeless.That natural calamity, like the typhoons that struck earlier in the year, came suddenly and proved almost as deadly as the floods in Thailand, which persisted for months.

The United Nations noted Bangkok had for years been warned about the need to develop a fully integrated approach to flood prevention. But the biggest impediment was convincing government, and this was made all the more difficult in Thailand where rapid changes in leadership had compromised the ability to plot long term strategies to combat floods.

International aid donors were quick to react with millions of dollars of food, supplies and medicine airlifted in. Harder to shift were attitudes. As waters rose, authorities complained that residents refused to budge, saying they feared looters.

Thailand is the world’s largest rice exporter and had expected a rice crop of about 25 million tons in 2012, a number that’s forecast to slump by a quarter. From livestock to poultry and computers to automobiles, industries are still counting the costs.

2.     Emerging Burma?

Thirteen months ago, the Burmese military allowed elections that resulted in the first civilian government coming to power since 1962. The poll – despite being widely regarded as a sham – has pushed the country in a direction welcomed by the international community.

President Thein Sein has revised laws on political parties, freed about 300 political prisoners, sought a conciliatory line with pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and stunned observers by defying one of its few allies, China.

Beijing had planned to build a mega-dam inside Burma, but the plan generated enormous local resentment, prompting Naypyidaw to suspend construction. The government has also legalized trade unions and eased censorship laws.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) applauded the moves and decided to award the ASEAN chair to Burma in 2014.

As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived on an historic visit to encourage further reforms, Suu Kyi lent some support by announcing she would contest up-coming by-elections once her National League for Democracy (NLD) party had been re-registered.

However, 1,700 political prisoners remain behind bars and complaints of human rights abuses persist, particularly in the countryside, where ethnic conflicts continue, prompting warnings that Burma’s ruling elite still had a long way to go before convincing skeptics its reforms are anything but superficial.

3. Clean Malaysia

When a group of non-governmental organizations and opposition political parties decided to rally in support of fair elections in Malaysia, few had expected the police and politicians in Kuala Lumpur would react as harshly as they did.

Prime Minister Najib Razak had initially attempted to play down the protest by Bersih, which means “clean” in Malay, but changed his tune after Amnesty described the crackdown as the worst case of suppression seen in his country for years.

Police were deployed under “Operation Erase Bersih”. They sealed off roads, dispatched toxic water cannons and opened fire with tear gas as tens of thousands attempted to march towards the iconic Merdeka Stadium. Stampedes followed, and the crowds dispersed into smaller groups and taunted riot police armed with batons, guns and shields. Baton charges followed.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, whose trial for sodomy was finally wrapped up at years’ end, was injured after police fired tear gas canisters into a tunnel. Protesters, however, remained defiant amid more than 1,000 arrests.

Most were too scared to wear yellow, the color synonymous with the movement. One man was dragged and kicked from outside the Chinese Maternity Hospital as tear gas was fired into the hospital’s grounds and next door at Tung Shing Hospital where protesters had sought shelter.

4. Yingluck Win Eases Tensions

Thailand was the only country in Southeast Asia to experience a change in leadership in 2011 after Yingluck Shinawatra and her Pheu Thai Party won a landslide victory over Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in July.

Her win resulted in an easing of tensions at home and across the border and paved a way home for her brother and former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless 2006 coup. Her victory also delivered some respite for Thais frustrated by the long running and bloody standoffs between the Red and Yellow Shirts.

Importantly, victory generated an improved political climate with Phnom Penh, allowing for an easing of tensions along their border. At the 900-year-old Preah Vihear Temple where at least 10 people were killed in February when fighting broke out between Cambodian and Thai troops. A further 18 died when fighting erupted in April along other parts of the border.

Many thought her first task would be to negotiate an amnesty for her brother. However, Yingluck’s priorities were to change rapidly as the country’s worst disaster since World War II began to take shape.

Floods would take a heavy toll and redefine her first months in office, winning applause from her supporters and, perhaps too predictably, criticism from her political opponents.

5. End of a Deadly Era

Almost nine years after bombings by Islamic militants left 202 people dead on the idyllic Indonesian island of Bali, the last of the bombers was finally arrested, signaling an end to an historic manhunt and the War on Terror in Southeast Asia as defined by the first decade of this century.

Omar Patek was captured by Pakistani authorities in January following an apparent tip-off from U.S. intelligence. His arrest wasn’t made public for another two months.

The arrest afforded some closure for the relatives of victims and survivors of a tragic episode that heralded what became known as the Second Front in the War on Terrorism, covering Southeast Asia.

Osama bin Laden was killed soon after.

An explosives expert, Patek was Jemaah Islamiyah’s deputy field commander at the time of the first Bali bombing, committed amid calls for an Islamic caliphate across Southeast Asia. He’s also wanted in Australia, the United States and the Philippines, and is standing trial in Indonesia.

6. The Spratly Islands

Southeast Asian countries have seen an unwanted rise in tensions over the Spratly and Paracel Islands as China tries to flex its growing economic and military muscle. Tensions this year were perhaps at their worst yet with Chinese belligerence over the issue leading to rare protests in Vietnam.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines also have claims over the chain. Chinese claims are ambitious as the Spratlys lie across a sea and largely within the 200-mile limit of the Philippines and a political stone’s throw from Malaysia and Brunei.

In Hanoi, where the Paracels are particularly sensitive, protests were allowed and held in the lead-up to an ASEAN Regional Forum in Bali that was dominated by the Spratly issue. There was also a push to drop the name South China Sea. No one could agree on that either. Manila is now referring to it as the West Philippine Sea, the Vietnamese call it the East Sea.

Then Manila decided enough was enough and sent a political delegation of four to Pagasa Island, populated by about 60 Filipinos, within the disputed chain. They declared it Philippine territory and Beijing was hopping mad, again. Foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu insisted China held “indisputable sovereignty” over the island chain despite the geographical realities. None of its neighbors agree.

7. Khmer Rouge Tribunal

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal hit its stride with the three most important surviving leaders of the ultra-Maoists confronting the U.N.-backed court for crimes against humanity and delivering shocking testimony before the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts in Cambodia (ECCC).

Prosecutors focused on the immediate forced evacuation of Phnom Penh and urban centers around the country after the Khmer Rouge seized control in April 1975. Brother Number Two Nuon Chea, one-time head of state Khieu Samphan and former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary denied the charges.

Nuon Chea says the Vietnamese were to blame for atrocities, including genocide. Between 1.7 million and 2.2 million people died under Pol Pot’s rule, which ended in January 1979 when invading Vietnamese forces pushed the Khmer Rouge into the countryside where conflict continued for another 20 years.

Construction of a massive Chinese-backed airstrip in the central province of Kampong Chhnang was telling. Beijing supported the Khmer Rouge throughout the Cold War.

At least 30,000 people were marched to the air strip and ordered to work. Conditions were so bad that many preferred suicide, choosing to leap under passing trucks. The court was told how every member of Pol Pot’s Standing Committee visited the site and encouraged people to work harder.

8. Singapore’s Irritated Elite

When a government loses a handful of seats at a general election with little impact on the overall governing of the state, the media attention is usually minimal. But in Singapore, where the authorities have for years’ encouraged nothing but whole-hearted support for their leadership, such losses seemed tragic.

At the 16th parliamentary elections in May, the opposition polled better than ever. The People’s Action party (PAP), in office since independence in 1965, won a reduced 60 percent of the vote, down from 67 percent in 2006.

Still the PAP managed to win 81 of the 87 contested seats.

Singapore’s founding father, longest serving prime minister and, from 2004, the cabinet’s minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew, was upset and resigned. His son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, subsequently urged citizens to become part of a cause to build a better Singapore.

He also described the poll as a watershed. Housing shortages, problems with public transport, a growing wealth gap and immigration were blamed for the PAP’s worst performance in its history. Singapore’s ruling elite isn’t used to criticism. The prime minister’s commented: “… the issue is not policies or whether we are doing right or wrong, but who is in charge, in power.”

9. People Smuggling

For Australia, the year began much the same way as it ended. People smuggling and illegal immigration dominated its agenda with Southeast Asia, particularly Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

A refugee swap with Malaysia was struck down by Australia’s High Court as overloaded boats ferrying human cargo from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Sri Lanka continued to land. This led to the December sinking of a boat off Indonesia, with perhaps 180 lives lost.

However, Prime Minister Julia Gillard insists a deal with Malaysia along with a regional solution remains the best way to combat people smuggling. More than 1,200 asylum seekers are being held in detention facilities on Christmas Island off Australia’s northwest coast.

10. Malaysian Heroics in London

One Malaysian deservedly won himself a place among the top stories of 2011 for being decent. Soft spoken Asyraf Haziq Rosli, stunned and bleeding, was filmed being helped to his feet after being beaten in East London at the height of the August riots.

The cameras then caught his apparent “rescuers” rifling through his backpack and stealing what they could. At least three million people watched the cowardly act on YouTube. But Rosli was applauded for his response, after initially suffering a broken jaw and lost teeth when 100 youths charged him and a friend.

“I feel sorry for them... It was really sad, for among them were children, boys in primary school. It was quite shocking,” the 20-year-old reportedly said.

Cameron said Rosli’s plight highlighted how things were “badly wrong in our society.”

23 December, 2011

Police claim debris from Thai aircraft

Authorities found debris from what they claimed was an unmanned Thai surveillance plane soon after what sounded like explosions above the Preah Vihear temple sent tourists rushing for cover yesterday morning.

A day after discussions drew Cambodia and Thailand closer to withdrawing troops and ending the Preah Vihear border dispute, Choam Ksan district deputy police chief Mey Chhai Yan said authorities had found parts of an “unmanned surveillance plane” they claimed Thai forces had blown up after it had taken pictures of the temple.

“We do not know what the aim of taking the pictures was,” he said. Some parts had fallen around the temple, but had not caused damage.

Villager Sao Yath, a 57-year-old from Choam Ksan district, said he had heard 10 explosions and saw smoke about 10:45am.

“Women were panic-stricken and feared Thais were launching artillery shells,” he said.

Srey Doek, military commander of intervention division 3, stationed near the Preah Vihear temple, said eight pieces, the biggest of which was about a metre long, had been found at gateways 1, 2 and 3 and authorities were searching for more.

The noise and falling parts had sent tourists rushing to find places to hide, he said.

Thai authorities could not be reached for comment.

22 December, 2011

Are Millennium Development Goals Just a First Step?

Source:Voice of America
Joe DeCapua
22 December 2011

In September 2000, the United Nations approved the Millennium Declaration. It set the stage for the Millennium Development Goals, which are due to be achieved in 2015. But have the MDGs brought meaningful results or are they just a first step?


The goals aim to reduce poverty, hunger and disease, while improving health, education, gender equality and the environment.
 
“There’s a debate that’s brewing about what happens after 2015 when these targets come to their natural end. Should there be more targets? Should you get really ambitious about ending world poverty in, say, 2030 or something like that? And we thought it might be useful to take a look at what’s actually been achieved over the last 10 years or so and ask a series of questions about the impact of the MDGs,” said  Andy Sumner has evaluated their effectiveness in his paper More Money or More Development: What Have the Millennium Development Goals Achieved?
Sumner is a fellow in vulnerability and poverty reduction at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.


He said, “We wanted to ask if the MDGs had changed the nature of the debate in terms of, had they shifted priorities, at least in policy discussions. We wanted to ask, had the goals led to greater mobilization of resources, so more money for development. And we wanted to see if they actually led to changes in policy and changes in outcome in terms of has poverty reduction been faster over the last 10 years compared to previous periods. Could you say that the MDGs were part of that success story?”

Toothless
That’s a lot to ask, he said, of what he calls a “legally toothless document

“Actually, the MDGs themselves, these U.N. goals, were never signed up to by heads of state. What was signed by heads of state was a declaration called the Millennium Declaration in 2000, which the targets were then drawn out of. Toothless in the sense that if they’re not met, no one’s really accountable for that. And maybe that’s a question to put forward if there’s another set of international goals on reducing poverty,” he said.

Following the declaration, many reports were issued estimating costs and proposing policy changes. Sumner said this suggested, at least, a “widespread hope that the MDGs could make a real difference in speeding development progress.”

“What we found was rather a kind of mixed picture. I think it’s fair to say the MDGs changed the nature of the debate in the sense that they made global poverty reduction something that was mentioned at many G8 summits, for example, but less so at the G20 since the financial crisis. So clearly they moved poverty reduction and social spending and health and education very much onto the center ground, where perhaps in the past, they hadn’t been quite so central, those kind of social issues,” he said.

It’s also likely,” he said, “the Millennium Development Goals led to more money being spent in terms of aid.

Differing viewpoints
But judging their effectiveness can depend on whether you take a broad or narrow view. Sumner said the original intention was that they be global goals.

“So, do you judge these things at a global level? So, for example, of the seven key U.N. poverty goals here, three of them are on track to be met and three of them are not too badly off-track. One is very off-track, maternal mortality. No one’s quite sure if the data’s meaningful. There’s a real area of contention about the data for maternal mortality. But if you judge it at country level, then things have been largely helped by massive progress in China, for example, and other large countries. It comes down to how you judge these things and of course that was never clear at the outset,” he said.

He added the goal to cut poverty in half by 2015 would suggest there’s still some unfinished business.
“What might you achieve by say 2030? We’re trying to assess what might be reasonable for 2030. And we think it’s not out of the question that certain aspects of extreme poverty could be eradicated by 2030. So the MDGs, the Millennium Development Goals, were the kind of first stage of getting halfway. And then you might want to aspire to end extreme poverty by 2030 and that might be reasonable,” he said.

Sumner said there’s a symbolic value in the world saying it cares enough about poverty to set goals to reduce it. In fact, he says, it may be one of the few areas where there’s widespread international agreement. The question now is what happens after 2015? Will updated goals be proposed to follow-up on the Millennium Development Goals.

Links to the ILO Materials in Relations to MDG-F Joint Programme on Food Security and Nutrition in Cambodia

By Chea Sophal
22 December 2011


Links to the ILO Materials in Relations to MDG-F Joint Programme on Food Security and Nutrition in Cambodia


1.     Researches and Studies

1.1            Informative Research on Women working in factories and maternal health-focus on the nutrition component (December 2010)

1.2            Study on the Perceptions of Garment Factory Owners on Nutrition and the Feasibility for Pursuing Canteen Service in the garment Sector in Cambodia (June 2012)


1.3            Practical challenges for maternity protection in the Cambodian garment industry (31 January 2013)

This report presents the results of research by the ILO on the practical challenges involved in ensuring maternity protection in the Cambodian garment industry. It is based on focus group interviews with workers employed in six garment factories and two footwear factories, and on one-on-one interviews with union representatives, factory managers and labour officials inspectors as well as a review of 49 relevant awards of Cambodia's Arbitration Council between 2003 and 2011.

2.     ILO and the MDG-F Joint Programme

2.1            ILO and the MDG-F Joint Programme on Children, Food Security and Nutrition (Eng)


2.2             ILO and the MDG-F Joint Programme on Children, Food Security and Nutrition (Kh)

3.     Setting up Action Plan on Maternity Protection

3.1            Enterprises in Kampong Speu Setting up Action Plan on Maternity Protection at the Workplace (August 2010)

3.2            Enterprises in Svay Rieng Setting up Action Plan on Maternity Protection (September 2010)

4.     Maternal Health of Working Mothers in the Garment Sector

4.1            Launching the report on maternal health with the focus on nutrition (January 25, 2011)

5.     Photo Collection and MDG-F Joint Programme

5.1            Photo Catalog (MDG-F)

6.     Newsletters Articles

6.1            Enterprise Representatives Set up Action Plan on Maternity Protection at the Workplace (BFC, Newsletter No.16, September 2010

6.2            Women working in factories and maternal health-focus on the nutrition component (BFC, Newsletter No.17, March 2011)

6.3            Workshop on Occupational and Health for Provincial Labour Officials (BFC, Newsletter No.17, March 2011)         


6.4            Breast milk expression helps working mother (page 3,Quarterly e-Newsletter of ILO Cambodia No.5, April-June 2012)     

5.5 An Investment in Nutrition for Workers (page 8, BFC Newsletter No.20, September 2012)

                                                URL:  http://www.betterfactories.org/content/documents/1/ILO-BFC%20Newsletter%20N20%20%28Eng%29.pdf

7.     MDG Joint Programme in Cambodia Materials

MDG Joint Programme for Children, Food Security and Nutrition in Cambodia
The Joint Programme will contribute to the attainment of the Cambodian Millennium Development Goals 1, 4 and 5 by improving the nutritional status of children aged 0‐24 months and pregnant and lactating women. In partnership with relevant government ministries, it will build capacity to implement nationwide behaviour change communication programmes to promote early and exclusive breastfeeding, adequate complementary feeding and improved maternal nutrition. In addition, it will implement a comprehensive integrated package of nutrition and food security interventions to reduce undernutrition and improve food security among a high risk population. The Joint Programme will further strengthen nutrition, food security and agriculture policies and develop innovative implementation strategies for improving nutrition at population level. It will strengthen existing monitoring systems, assess the impact of implemented interventions and provide guidance for scaling up the comprehensive package.

7.1            Joint Programme Document


7.1.1       JP MDG-F Revised Proposal Master Revisions 13 Nov 2009 changes accepted FINAL

7.1.2        MDG-F Concept Note Children Food Security & Nutrition (FINAL)

7.1.3        CMDG Gap Analysis FINAL

7.1.4       Joint Implementation Guidelines FINAL July 2009

7.1.5        ToR National Programme Coordinator

7.1.6       ToR Provincial programme Coordinators


7.2            MDG JP Annual Workplan

7.2.1       MDG JP Work Plan 2011

7.2.2        MDG JP Annual Work Plan 2012 Final

7.3            Mid-Term Evaluation

7.3.1       Cambodia CFSN Final report 7 November         

7.3.2        Improvement Plan update 22 Dec 2011 Final

7.3.3        Summary challenges and lesson learned of JP at National Level

7.3.4        Summary challenges and lesson learned of JP Sub National Level


7.4              MDG JP Advocacy and Communication Plan

7.4.1        MDG Advocacy Plan_Final

7.4.2        Advocacy Presentation malnurished Children

7.4.3        MDG JP Press Release During launched of the JP

7.5            Minutes of PMC Meetings

7.5.1        Terms of References for the Program Management Final

7.5.2        Report of First PMC Meeting MDG JP CFSN Final-Sept 2010

7.5.3        Minutes of Second PMC Meeting MDG JP CFSN with Annexes

7.5.4        Minutes of PMC meeting 3-June-2011 with annexes final

7.5.5        Minutes of PMC Meeting MDG JP CFSN_16 Sept 2011 with annexes

7.5.6        Minutes of Fifth PMC Meeting MDG JP CFSN 13 Dec 2011_with Annexes


7.6              MDG JP Monitoring Reports

7.6.1        Quarterly Color-coded report for Q1&Q2_2010

7.6.2        Quarterly Color-coded report for Q3 &Q4_2010

7.6.3        Quarterly Color-coded Report Q1+Q2_2011

7.6.4        Quarterly Color-coded Report Q3+Q4_2011

7.6.5        JOINT PROGRAMME MONITORING REPORT (Jan-June 2010)updated 20 July 2010Master File Final

7.6.6        JOINT PROGRAMME MONITORING REPORT (Jul-Dec 2010)updated 20_July 2010Master File Final

7.6.7        Bi ANNUAL MONITORING REPORT (Jan-Jun 2011) Master File


7.7            Publications and Policy Development Under MDG JP:

7.7.1        FAO-Nutrition hand Book for Family (Eng) 

7.7.2        FAO-Nutrition hand Book for Family (Kh) 

7.7.3        UNESCO-Media Handbook Final (Eng)

7.7.4        ILO Photos highlights for MDG JP

7.7.5        ILO Study on women working on factories and maternity health focus on nutrition

7.7.6        Cambodia Food Security and Nutrition Quarterly Bulletin


 

សារព័ត៌មានអន្តរជាតិInternational News

BBC News - US & Canada

CNN.com - RSS Channel - HP Hero

Top stories - Google News

Southeast Asia Globe

Radio Free Asia

Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera

NYT > Top Stories

AFP.com - AFP News

The Independent

The Guardian

Le Monde.fr - Actualités et Infos en France et dans le monde

Courrier international - Actualités France et Monde