Zanaa Jurmed
Director
The National CEDAW Watch Network Centre
Master in Social Science

Foreword

Issues of human rights and freedoms, equality, democracy and justice are now viewed broadly. An important condition for ensuring human rights and freedoms is the creation of national legal framework that corresponds with international human rights standards.

The Constitutions passed in 1924, 1940, and 1960 guaranteed equal rights of men and women. However, citizens' political, civil and economic rights were not enforced fully because pluralism was not permitted.

The 1924 Constitution of Mongolia determined women's rights for the first time. It stated that "Women of the People's Republic of Mongolia shall enjoy equal rights to men in all spheres of life including political, economic, cultural and educational fields.”

The Constitution passed in 1940 stated that "it is prohibited and legally punishable to marry or give in marriage a woman under the legal age or marry many women; to prevent women from acquiring education and participating in social, political, cultural lives or put any other obstacles to elevating women from the status of slaves and ensuring their equal rights.” It also stated "all citizens of Mongolia regardless of their being men and women, shall enjoy equal rights to elect and be elected" and that "conditions shall be created for women to acquire education, be covered by social insurance, work and have vacations."

The Consitutions passed in 1940 and 1960 guaranteed the following rights to the citizens:
· Freedom of speech
· Freedom of press
· Freedom to organize meetings and gatherings
· Freedom to organize street demonstrations and ceremonies.

The Consitution of 1960 also guaranteed women's rights stating that "women will enjoy equal rights to men in all sectors of state, economic, social, political, cultural life" and that "it shall be legally prohibited to prevent women to enjoying their rights."

The Constitution of 1992 did not proclaim the freedom of the “real people/arat” as did the Constitution of 1924, nor the interests of "the proletariat led by the working class” as did the Consitution of 1960 but it proclaimed Mongolian citizens’ rights and freedoms in all aspects of society and family, based on the principles of a civil, demcoratic society governed by the rule of law, and in accordance with the international human rights standards.

Although all the Constitutions of Mongolia have officially guaranteed equal rights of men and women, an unequal approach to women's and men's rights and freedoms on the part of laws, the public and the decision-makers, still exists and is carried on through traditions, customs, and culture.

One. Human Rights, Women's Rights and International Laws

The Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ratified in 1945 states that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”.

Attitudes towards human, particularly women's rights and freedoms, and other social issues have changed fundamentally in the post-World War II period, especially in the last 30 years. In particular, women are to considered as producers of social goods not merely as beneficiaries.

Studying the United Nations' documents and policies developed in this period shows a preference for concrete measures aimed at promoting women's equal participation in development, increasing their status, elevating them from poverty and supporting their economic empowerment via including women in the small credit programs.

Since 1950s, there have been several different approaches to promoting women’s development in the family and social sphere. To follow the chronological development of these approaches, the 1950s stressed a Social welfare development approach, the 1960s – the approach was to ensure economic independence of women, the 1970s – an Efficient development approach, and 1985 signified the beginning of an Equitable development approach and focused attention on the empowerment of women.

Development approaches to women’s issues can be considered as reflections of social attitudes predominant in the society and as studies of human rights, freedoms and gender equality develop into an independent field of social science, women's rigths are posed in a new way in the family, state, society and economy.

International Covenants, Conventions and its principles ratified by the United Nations, abide by three main principles, which are the principle of equality, principle of non-discrimination and the principle of state obligations. States are obliged to enforce these principles de jure and de facto. In accordance with these principles, Article 14, Chapter 2, of the 1992 Constitution of Mongolia stated that "no person shall be discriminated against on the basis of ethnic origin, language, race, age, sex, social origin and status, property, occupation and post, religion, opinion or education. Everyone shall have the right to act as a legal person." This means that neither men, nor women shall have any advantage over each other and all people shall enjoy equal rights. This section of the Constitution guarantees equal rights of men and women under national and international laws in accordance with the international human rights standards. However, the enshrining of human rights and women's rights in the legislation is only the first step towards providing human rights and freedoms.

According to the above-stated three principles - the principle of equality, the principle of non-discrimination and the principle of state obligation – the states are obliged to produce relevant laws, develop a mechanism for their implementation, monitor and inform the public about the implementation and receive feedback from the public. Thus, we can measure the status of human rights and freedoms can be measured by the following indicators:
· Articles of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights that deal with human rights are reflected (or not) in the national legislation;
· Concepts of national legislation correspond (or not) with international human rights principles and approaches;
· A national mechanism is created (or not) for enforcing international human rights treaties, covenants, and national legislation;
· There is (or is not) a trained personnel to work on human rights issues;
· Law-enforcement organizations and courts follow (or do not) human rights basic/fundamental principles in their activities;
· Organizations that monitor the implementation of laws and policies on human rights are capable (or not) to work;
· A national system to promote public knowledge and education on human rights is created (or not)); and
· Government and non-governmental organizations cooperate (or do not) efficienlty on human rights issues .

Two. Human Rights and Women's Rights Situation in Mongolia

Mongolia has a weak legal environment to ensure human rights and women's rights, and the national system is at the initial stages of development. In other words, the community, decision-makers and officials at law-enforcement organizations still have poor knowledge of human rights, women's rights and freedoms.
That's why citizens and women still experience discrimination and violence at home, work place and even public places.

Laws and policies of Mongolia have a protectionist approach when analyzed from the point of gender principles and approaches. However, when we talk about any issues of equality, we consider it on the basis of equal opportunity concept, which corresponds with concepts of democracy.

The main disadvantage of the protectionist approach is that it sets a limit to the rights and freedoms that citizens and women should enjoy. Thus, it prevents them from enjoying their political, social, economic, and cultural rights fully. The following provisions of the law can be mentioned as an example.
· Article 100, section 7 under the topic "Women’s Work" of the Labour Code, which states that "the dismissal of pregnant woman and a single mother/father with children under the age 3 is prohibited";
· Article 100/1, 100/2 and 101, which lists jobs that are prohibited to women;
· Article 102 on the prohibition of night shifts, overtime work and business trips for women;
· Article 102/1, 102/2 and 106 on the entitlement to childcare leaves;
· Article 106/1, 106/2, 106/3 and 108, which sets a limit to burden/loads that women carry.

On one hand, these articles reflect a social attitude that it is women that bear primary responsibility for the upbringing of children because their give birth and breastfeed, and on the other, they reflect an abstract assumption that such women need to be protected. Laws with protectionist approaches limit one's rights and forces people into a non-productive status. For instance, due to the current legislation, it is common that women remain away from social life, colleagues, information and education, when bringing up their children, they fall behind social and political development and face difficulties reentering their professions.

Although Article 10 of the Family Code states that "family members bear equal responsibilities for bringing up their children," certain articles of the Labor Code of Mongolia violate that statement and accord greater responsibility to women instead of maintaining the principle of equality, thus encouraging discriminatory traditions and customs that view women primarily as housewives. One example of such a harmful clause is the ban on the dismissal of women with infants. This articles results in the reluctance of employers to hire women. Existence of social attitudes that discriminate women by appearance, age, height and babies, prevents women from finding employment. Hence, women face economic difficulties and suffer from depression.

Women are being discriminated against because of their reproductive rights and abilities not only through legislation but also through traditions and customs. Mongolia signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1981. Section A, Article 5 of the Convention makes it imperative to "modify social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women." However, in Mongolia, a country that has just celebrated its 20th anniversary of membership to the Convention, women are still being discriminated against in Mongolian tradition and customs. Reflection of this issue in the legislation shows that the Government of Mongolia is not taking effective steps to eliminate the discrimination against women.

Women are still being discriminated in the family and at workplace as well. Research results showed that 98.5% of domestic violence perpetrators are males. People are accustomed to incidents of sexual harassment at workplace. It testifies to the lack of attention from the Government to the elimination of such violences against women.

An incident of sexual harassment committed by Mr. Shi. Batbayar, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, towards a woman journalist who was fulfilling her professional duty, during a business trip, was widely reported to the public and women’s NGOs have sent letters of protest to the Mongolian Government. However, we still haven't received a reply to the letter. This incident violated Section 1, Article 14, Law on Government, which mandates the government "to take measures to create and strengthen economic, social, legal and other guarantees to provide human rights and freedoms” and Section 2 that mandates the government "to take measures set in the laws to rehabilitate the rights of victims and enable them to enjoy their rights that have been violated, and to fight against the violation of human rights and freedoms"; and Section 3, which mandates the government "to work in cooperation with non-governmental and international organizations on the protection of human rights and freedoms". I believe that such a government does not have a right to demand that the people follow the laws and policies.

The current election law is one of the examples of obstacles that exist in the current legal system to women’s equal participation in decision-making and enjoyment of their political rights. The majoritarian electoral system in effect becomes a competition of people who are fairly wealthy and are relatively well-known among the people and in Mongolia, people in this category are mainly men. But women remain in a vulnerable economic and political situation given the demands of the majoritarian system and political party bylaws remain closed to the promotion of women as well.

Below is the table presenting some of the findings of a survey conducted among 1,150 people on promoting women's political participation. The survey was supported by the Asia Foundation.

Question: "What do you think about having women in top decision-making positions?"
Answer: positively

Interest groups President Member of Parliament Prime Minister Minister Ambassador
Community 16.9% 85.5% 30.4% 63.7% 49.6%
Women candidates 45.3% 96.2% 62.3% 92.5% 86.8%
Officials at Ministers and Government Agencies 20.8% 88.7% 49.1% 81.1% 67.9%

Based on the analysis of the some of this public opinion survey, there is a significant public support for women's political participation. The promotion of women's political participation was considered advisable by 85.5% of the questioned in the survey. They considered that women are highly educated, capable and skillful, they also added that women are less involved in corruption. Moreover, 13.5% of the questioned viewed that highly educated and capable women are prevented from participating in politics, because of the burden of household works. The responses showed that people are more aware of the gender inequities in the family and society than politicians and political parties, judging by their statements about the role of household burdens in preventing women from equal participation in politics.

A question "Do you think that specific laws, regulations and orders need to be produced to promote women's representations on the following positions?" was put to the leaders of political parties, including the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, Mongolian National Democratic Party, Mongolian Democratic New Socialist Party and Civil Courage Party.

Answers to the questions are presented in the following table:

The table shows that the majority (84.0%-96.0%) of political party leaders are opposed to producing specific laws, regulations, and orders to promote women's political participation. This demonstrates their low awareness and understanding of the Constitution of Mongolia, international treaties and conventions that Mongolia is signatory to.

When asked how they supported women candidates in the Parliamentary and local election of 2000, the political party leaders mentioned the following measures:
o Granted financial support
o Women's organization under the political parties worked for women candidates
o Identified women candidates considering suggestions and opinions from Mongolian Women's NGOs Coalition

These responses show that these did not take consistent, step-by-step measures to support women's human rights and freedoms, women's political rights and rights to be elected, which is guaranteed by international and national legislation. In other words, they acted without a specific, consistent policy but operated on an ad hoc basis.

Conclusion

We can see from the facts briefly mentioned above that the protection of human rights and women’s rights is not adequately ensured in Mongolia and has not reached the international human rights standards. The national legislation needs to be viewed from the perspective of human rights, women's rights and gender equality. State, government, NGOs and community participation will play major role in this endeavour.

Thank you for your attention.