| Abstract: |
An enclaved and strongly contrasted country, Laos is home to some forty to sixty ethnic groups, of which the most numerous, the Thai Lao (Lao Loum), has always held power. The 1991 Constitution for the first time acknowledged the multiethnic character of the State and the concept pf a multiethnic people. It granted the minorities a true legal status with, in particular, a right to cultural difference. Although no institution exists where minorities are represented as such, a lexical analysis of the basic law bears witness to the attention paid by the Legislature to this question. But is political reality consistent with the Legislature's intentions? The minorities' representation ion the State's machinery is relatively warranted (Party, government, Parliament, etc.) and their integration into the political decision-making process has actually begun, nevertheless, still more can certainly be achieved in this direction.
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