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The State of Human Rights in Mongolia

On April 5th, the Mongolian President Battulga announced an initiative to restore the death penalty to perpetrators of child abuse. This declaration goes against global trends of declining executions and convictions. The death penalty was removed from the Mongolian Criminal Code in 2015.

The possible reinstatement of the death penalty was one of the key issues discussed last Friday April 13th, in a two-day event organised in Ulaanbaatar by the Globe International Center, within the framework of DRI’s project Promoting Human and Labour Rights through GSP+, an EU trade scheme that promises better market access for better human rights protections. Ninety participants from civil society organisations, chambers of commerce, national and provincial officers of the National Human Rights Commission, UN agencies and diplomats engaged in a dialogue with expert panellists. The EU Delegation’s representative reiterated that the possible re-introduction of the death penalty “would be a major step backwards and raise questions regarding Mongolia’s international commitments”.

With contributions from a representative of the International Labour Organisation representative, the Secretary General of the Confederation of Mongolian Trade Unions and a representative of the Employers’ Federation of Mongolia, participants discussed how to improve legal and regulatory frameworks concerning the organisation and representation of the informal sector and the right to assembly in the public sector.

In the past few years, Mongolia's general commitment to the protection and promotion of universal human rights standards was confirmed by the National Action Plan on Implementation of Universal Periodic Review Recommendations. Adequate resources and executive decisions to implement the recent positive legislative revisions are still missing, however. GSP+ provides an opportunity to bring together diverse stakeholders to discuss the country’s progression and shortcomings in meeting its international treaty obligations: notably, the need for stronger partnership between government, civil society, and the business community to implement the already existing action plans.