A/HRC/61/49/Add.1 3,000 villages located within those areas and raises concerns about the customary rights of long-term forest users. More widely, the argument that “development” and “poverty alleviation” supported by infrastructure projects automatically lead to poverty reduction is challenged by reports indicating that benefits flow mostly to investors, people in urban areas and central and provincial governments, while local communities bear most of the social and economic costs. 44. Cultural rights may be – and are – jeopardized in development processes conducted in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The cultural dimension is too often overlooked by the authorities, partly due to the weak consideration given to cultural rights. 45. The Special Rapporteur appreciates that laws and decrees in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic require that impact assessments be conducted for development projects. However, they fall short of ensuring proper cultural rights impact assessments. For example, Decree No. 389, on environmental impact assessment (2022), focuses on the environment. The amended law on national heritage (2021) requires impact assessments for cultural heritage; however, this concerns the protection of national heritage deemed to be of outstanding value, not cultural rights for all, including as expressed through ways of life. Other pieces of legislation, such as Law No. 45, on resettlement and vocation (2018), require feasibility studies that include social impact assessment and information on the “culture” of targeted villages, but this is set out in vague terms with no reference to rights. Such approaches, coupled with an understanding of “culture” as an instrument for cultural engineering, remain insufficient to ensure respect for cultural rights. 46. As stated in article 1 of the Declaration on the Right to Development, the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized. Hence, the cultural rights aspect of development policies must not be forgotten, the impact on ways of life must not be overlooked and people must be informed accordingly. 1. Impact of hydropower policies 47. With more than 100 dams under construction or in advanced stages of planning, the country has seen a transformation of its rivers over the last 20 years. This is an integral part of the Government’s scheme for development, transforming the country into the “battery of Asia”. However, this poses numerous threats to the livelihoods of and sources of income for millions of people in the lower Mekong basin and seriously affects ways of life and cultural practices, including through the resettlement of many villages. 48. The Special Rapporteur visited Luang Prabang, which has attracted a lot of attention because an 80-metre-high, 275-metre-wide dam – the Luang Prabang hydropower project – is being built 25 kilometres away from the city, which is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage city. 49. Concerns have been expressed because the construction of the dam, which is expected to be finished in 2027, will result in the relocation of 26 villages comprising almost 10,000 people. According to a social impact assessment, six villages will be fully submerged, and all of the residents fully relocated; nine villages will be partially submerged, and affected households will be relocated; eight villages will lose farmland but residents will not be relocated; and three villages will experience an environmental impact.9 In addition, the dam is approximately 10 km away from an active seismic fault. Importantly, in 2020, the Mekong River Commission noted that the city of Luang Prabang would be largely flooded if the dam broke, and that the highest standards of dam safety were needed for the project. 50. In 2022, a UNESCO reactive monitoring mission recommended taking a precautionary approach. Stressing the high likelihood of cumulative impacts of numerous dams upstream and downstream, combined with climate change effects, it noted the absence 9 GE.26-01463 Mekong River Commission, Technical Review Report: Prior Consultation for the Proposed Luang Prabang Hydropower Project (2020); see also www.mrcmekong.org/news-andevents/consultations/pnpca-prior-consultations/luang-prabang-hydropower-project/. 9