United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against women, its causes and consequences, Reem Alsalem

Good afternoon,

Allow me to start by thanking the Government of Mongolia for inviting me to visit the country, from 29 November to 8 December 2021, and for all the support offered to ensure its fruitful completion. I would also like to thank the Government for its openness; and express my sincere appreciation for constructive dialogue throughout the visit.

During my visit I met with several high ranking Government officials, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Deputy Minister of Justice; the Deputy Minister of Education and Science, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Health; the First Deputy Chief of the National Police Agency; the Secretary of the National Committee on Gender Equality; and officials from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection; the Head of the Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Human Rights; the Deputy Prosecutor General; the Chief Judge of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court; judges of the Criminal Court of First Instance; the Chair of the Sub-Council on Domestic Violence; as well as the Acting Chief Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission. While I met officials from the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, I regret I was not able to meet the Minister herself, given the Ministry’s direct responsibilities and mandate with regards to violence against women.

I have also had the pleasure of meeting representatives from international organizations such as the UN Country Team and IDLO, as well as Mongolian civil society groups. Finally, I am also grateful for the fact that I have met had good exchanges with some donor countries supporting projects to end violence against women and gender equality such as the European Union and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation, as well as representatives of the Asian Development Bank.

I also met with the Governor of Umnugobi province and other local officials in Dalanzadgad. Finally, I visited a One Stop Service Centre in that same city and spoke to victims of domestic violence; beneficiaries of youth programs; and migrant women and young people.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator, UNFPA and UNDP for their extensive support in preparing and facilitating this visit.

I would also like to thank deeply all of the many people who took time to meet with me, and to share their knowledge of these issues. In particular, I would like to thank the victims and survivors I met for sharing their personal stories, often traumatic, of surviving and overcoming gender-based violence. I greatly appreciate it.

Unfortunately, some of the planned activities were not carried out due to constraints related to the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, my request to visit the detention facilities in Mongolia was not feasible, reportedly on the account of COVID-19. Nonetheless, the meetings and visits of the last ten days have provided me with an overview of the situation of violence against women in the country, which will allow me to provide recommendations and guidance on the ways to build on the progress made and to enhance the work towards preventing and combatting violence against women.

As Special Rapporteur, I am mandated by the Human Rights Council to conduct two country visits per year, in which I conduct an overall assessment of the situation of violence against women, as well as the institutional, legal and policy framework to address it, in light of international human rights norms and standards. Based on that assessment and a constructive dialogue with Government, civil society and other stakeholders, I provide recommendations to implement Mongolia’s international human rights obligations and adopt measures to prevent and eliminate gender-based violence against women.

Today, I will present some preliminary findings and recommendations, whereas a full, in-depth analysis will be included in a report to the 50th session of the Human Rights Council, which I will present in June 2022.

Institutional and legal framework

I would like to start by referring to the progress made by Mongolia in the last 30 years to become a democratic country based on the rule of law and a broad range of legislation aimed at protecting and promoting human rights. Particularly in the last decade, several pieces of legislation have been passed to combat gender-based violence. The country has also committed to promoting women’s rights and gender equality as a priority of the highest level, which is reflected in the way the Government has structured itself to respond to it, including through having a National Committee on Gender Equality since 2009, an inter-ministerial body tasked with coordinating national policies for women’s rights and gender equality, and which reports to the Prime Minister’s office. This demonstrates the recognition by Mongolia that a multi-sectorial and multidisciplinary approach is needed to achieve gender equality and to combat gender-based violence against women

I would also like to commend the current work that is being carried out to harmonize domestic provisions with international human rights treaties. This extensive review of legislation, in light of international obligations, is an important step to effectively integrate human rights law into the domestic framework. That said, I call upon the Government to take into consideration the results of this review, and to use them to propose and pass additional amendments or new bills that are still necessary to advance on this harmonization. I continue to be ready to offer my recommendations and expert guidance on the harmonization of international standards on the elimination of gender-based violence against women, in order to support these efforts. I see this visit as very much the beginning, rather than an ending, of a longer engagement with Mongolia and support to all stakeholders to end violence against women.

Mongolia has passed important legislation, especially in the last ten years, to promote gender equality and eliminate gender-based violence against women, including: the Law on Gender Equality; Law on Combatting Domestic Violence; Law on Combatting Trafficking in Persons; Law on Child Protection; Law on Victim and Witness Protection; amendments to the Criminal Code and the new Labour Code. In particular, these legislative changes criminalized domestic violence and other forms of violence against women; further defined domestic violence; and provided an institutional framework for preventing and combatting it.

While the passing of these laws represent significant and much needed progress, some important gaps and inconsistencies remain. For example, there remains a need to harmonize the Law on Domestic Violence – and its definition of the four types of domestic violence (physical, sexual, psychological and economic) – with the Criminal Code and the Infringements Law – both of which still only recognize physical and sexual violence. Ambiguous language requiring domestic violence to take place “constantly” to be considered a criminal offence, and a 6 -month statute of limitation in the Infringements Law on domestic violence, amount to obstacles in victims’ effective access to justice. Furthermore, the Law on Domestic Violence does not apply to non-cohabitating intimate partners.

Likewise, although amendments to the Criminal Code improved provisions related to sexual violence, marital rape is still not explicitly criminalized. I recommend that such a provision be included in order to send a clear message that, regardless of the relationship between victim and perpetrator, sexual relations without consent is always rape, and to ensure that such cases are prosecuted.

In addition, there remain important challenges in implementation of these laws, which is essential to ensuring a gender-responsive approach. For instance, the Law on Domestic Violence does not include gender-sensitive language, resulting in a family centred approach to its implementation, which can come at the expense of the protection and assistance needs of a woman that is either at risk of violence or a victim of violence. Furthermore, State actors not only prioritize violence against children but have subsumed the issue of violence against women in it, resulting in the dilution of the goal of eliminating of gender-based violence against women and girls in related policies and programming. . I recommend that any efforts to build the capacity of different actors responsible for implementation of this law be strengthened, with a very clear gender focus. It is also important that more resources are directed towards increasing public awareness of these laws, particularly by victims, as well as of the different services and resources available to them.

A complex institutional framework has been put into place to prevent and combat gender-based violence. I welcome the establishment of the National Committee on Gender Equality (NCGE), which has an important role in promoting a coordinated and multi-sectorial policy agenda for women’s rights and empowerment. In my view, there is space for the NCGE to become more assertive in leading an integrated approach to gender equality, alongside other ministries. For example, there is still room for mainstreaming gender-sensitive approaches into the work agenda of other sectors. Here, I would like to particularly highlight the health sector and the gender-differentiated impact of health services. While a thorough examination of this issue has not been possible, information I have gathered in the course of the mission have revealed gaps in identifying gender differentiated impacts of gaps in the health sector. For example, there are no laws or regulations that allow for the identification and response to obstetric violence. Furthermore, the unhealthy environments in mining areas and which affect the health of everyone have proven to be particularly detrimental to women’s reproductive health

I would like to express my concern at the possibility currently being raised of removing the NCGE from the Prime Minister’s office and placing it under the Ministry of Labour; I encourage the current arrangement to be maintained, which expresses the high-level nature of the gender equality agenda and the need for inter-ministerial collaboration under a clear Government-wide mandate. I also note the need to further expand the capacity of its Secretariat to ensure the NCGE can properly conduct its coordination role.

Similarly, the Coordination Council for Crime Prevention and its Sub Council on Domestic Violence provide important coordination among entities responsible for the implementation of the Law on Domestic Violence. I encourage the Sub Council to further strengthen its gender-sensitive approach in its work, particularly in its technical and methodological support to the multidisciplinary teams, which I will refer to later. In fact, a gender-sensitive approach should be integrated into the work of all six Sub Councils that compose the Council for Crime Prevention, to ensure that all of them contribute to the elimination of all manifestations of gender-based violence against women, including but not limited to domestic violence.

I would also like to welcome the recent restructuring and strengthening of the National Human Rights Commission, and commend its important work in monitoring human rights. I call on the Commission to continue strengthening its work on gender-based violence against women, and call on the Government and Parliament to continue to engage constructively with it.

Policies to combat gender-based violence against women, including essential services for victims

I commend the Government for its recent efforts to improve data collection on violence against women, in particular the National Study on Gender-Based Violence in Mongolia, carried out in partnership with UNFPA in 2017. As the first nationwide survey on violence against women, with a focus on domestic violence, it provided a much-needed overview of the situation and a baseline upon which progress can be assessed. I recommend that the Government further strengthen its collection of disaggregated administrative data related to violence against women, including on use of services. In particular, it is important that data on persons housed in shelters and one stop service centres differentiate between children victims of violence and children accompanying their mothers who are victims. This will allow for fine-tuning the different policy responses that are necessary for these different kinds of beneficiaries.

I also welcome that a number of essential services have been set up in recent years to provide support to victims of gender-based violence against women, including at provincial level, which have significantly expanded the Government’s capacity to provide assistance to women experiencing violence. For example, and as direct outcome of the Law on Domestic Violence, multidisciplinary teams have been set up, which include law enforcement, social workers, health workers, psychologist and other professionals. Spread nationwide, they are the first responders to situations of domestic violence and are able to assist victims with different needs. The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy has made significant progress in setting up these teams; providing technical and methodological support; and funding them, in coordination with local governments. However, I am concerned that placing the teams and other services under the direction of Departments of Family Policy often poses a challenge, where the goal of supporting family units might supersede that of protecting women and girls from violence. I am also concerned about the high turnover of staff in multidisciplinary teams, in connection to the political cycles and the electoral changes of local governors who are the heads of the teams, as well as their low salaries. Many of them are also exercising this important function in addition to their full time jobs. I therefore recommend that the Government consider having dedicated staff in multidisciplinary teams in provinces where there is high demand, and to strengthen the use of mobile teams in rural areas.

I also acknowledge that in recent years, there has been a significant expansion of the number of shelters and one stop service centres in the country, totalling now 38 units between Government and civil society facilities, and 323 beds. I encourage the Government to continue strengthening these centres and ensuring that they can provide, additionally to emergency accommodations, the multidisciplinary services they are designed to offer, as well as referral mechanisms for other important specialized services such as legal support, particularly in the countryside.

Given the multidisciplinary services shelters provide, their management should in principle not be delegated to law enforcement. In addition, shelters should not be the only available tool to prevent perpetrators from contacting victims, and they should never be used as a form of protective custody, resulting in the de facto confinement of the victim. Protection should be available to victims including during transport to and from shelters.

I am also concerned at the low use of protection orders in the country, and the imposition of excessive requirements that restrict access to them. Prosecutors rarely seek restraining or deterrent measures for protectors. The use of protection orders should be expanded and should not depend on the victim being able to produce evidence of physical harm, but rather rely on an objective risk assessment based on the victim’s statement. Protection orders should order a perpetrator to vacate the residence of the victim for a sufficient period of time and prohibit the perpetrator from entering the residence or contacting the victim.

A low percentage of reported cases lead to prosecutions, and few of those prosecuted result in the conviction of perpetrators. Court cases are lengthy and protections for victims from revictimization, from the investigative phase to trials, are mostly inexistent. I urge the Government to adopt legal and policy measures to implement a victim centred and gender sensitive-approach to judicial proceedings on cases of gender-based violence. Such an approach will require – amongst other measures – ensuring the access of victims to legal aid and counselling in a more predictable manner

I learned during my visit of some initiatives to support women victims of violence in developing new skills and obtaining grants for starting small businesses. These opportunities should be scaled up and expanded to reach more women, as they are key to support women in their efforts to break cycles of violence by reducing their financial dependency on perpetrators.

Furthermore, I was concerned to learn about the influence of gender stereotypes and biases in the work of some service providers, including social workers and the police, which would lead to pressure victims to withdraw complaints in order to preserve the family unit or the perpetrator’s reputation and social standing. I urge the Government to continue and further strengthen efforts at capacity building to ensure a gender-sensitive approach to service providers to women victims of violence.

I also take the opportunity to acknowledge the leading role that civil society has played in initiating and developing the network of services for victims. They continue to provide services such as shelters, legal counselling, psychological counselling, as well as counselling to perpetrators, among others, often by referral of judicial and law enforcement. Especially for adult women and women of diverse sexual orientation and gender identities, NGOs seem to be the lead provider of gender-sensitive services. However, they should not be the sole service providers in any geographical area or for any group. Additionally, it is important that the collaboration they offer to State entities be paired with adequate funding by the Government. I encourage the Government to support civil society organizations, continue and expand dialogue with them, and further involve them in the design, implementation and monitoring of programs aimed at combatting violence against women.

The United Nations Country Team present in Mongolia, and particularly UNFPA, have been crucial in supporting civil society and Government efforts to set up services and deepen public understanding and awareness of the situation of violence against women in the country. Likewise, international donors and financial institutions have provided much needed resources as well as a gender-sensitive framework for initiating many of the current programs. I call on them to continue to prioritize in their activities the support to gender equality and the prevention of gender-based violence; to expand their support; and to mainstream gender equality in all aspects of their work.

Finally, while I welcome the work done by the Government on tackling domestic violence, I recommend that additional efforts be directed to other manifestations of gender-based violence against women, including, workplace harassment, online violence against women, among others.

In the course of the visit, it has also become very clear to me that despite favourable policies targeting women as a whole, there are groups of women and girls that continue to be invisible in their suffering and that are falling through the cracks of the safety nets. I am particularly referring to victims of trafficking, as well as persons of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity, sex workers, foreign migrant women who are not identified, protected and assisted in a timely manner. A victim-centred approach to dealing with the phenomena of violence against sex workers and victims of trafficking is overshadowed by a crime-prevention and law enforcement focus. Where it is addressed, the focus is again primarily on children.

Furthermore, violence against LBTI persons is under-reported and victims mistrust Government officials and service providers due to prevailing stereotypes and biases against this group. There is an urgent need for broader capacity building for all sectors involved in responding to these issues and providing services for victims, including for multidisciplinary teams and the justice system, to improve outreach and inclusion in mainstream government programs and response mechanisms. There is also a need to improve data collection and statistics about the situation of these groups.

Prevention programs and policies

I welcome the sensitivity of all actors I have spoken with to the importance of prevention, particularly in situations where there are physical and sexual violence is prevalent. In Mongolia, data shows that levels of violence against women comparable to world estimates, with roughly 3 in 10 women ever having experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetimes. Domestic violence is prevalent both among high and low-income families, in rural and urban areas Sexual harassment in public life and at work is also high.

There is also a very positive intention to work with perpetrators, as well as men and boys in general, pointing to the need to change mindsets and focus on preventing further violence, rather than only responding to the violence that has already taken place. There is also a broad recognition of the need to dismantle harmful stereotypes about gender-based violence against women and women’s role in society. These programmes have to be scaled up and expanded.

As deeply seated stereotypes play a large role in perpetuating these forms of violence, they have to be tackled from an early age. I therefore recommend that the Government include in the national curricula of schools human rights education, including on gender equality, diversity and gender-based violence. The Ministry of Education is well placed to take a more leading role in promoting and campaigns and awareness raising initiatives in educational settings, from early schooling to universities. These can and should be complemented by other campaigns and awareness raising efforts targeting the wider public.

One area I would urge the authorities and the private sector to do more is tackling alcoholism. Almost everyone we have spoken to recognizes the multiple ways in which alcoholism triggers and exacerbates domestic violence, and the lack of specific policy responses to combat it effectively, including campaigns to educate the public about its negative impact; as well as laws to further regulate its sale and abuse.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to express my appreciation for all the progress that has been done in Mongolia to build a legal and institutional framework to prevent and combat gender-based violence against women. Now, the Government must ensure that laws are translated to reality. There is still much work to be done at the legal, institutional and policy levels.

There is a need to elevate and delineate the issue of gender-based violence against women from the general policy framework, particularly the framework on domestic violence, which seems mostly dedicated to domestic violence against children. Child protection needs must be differentiated from those related to gender-based violence, even as they often intersect. A gender-sensitive approach is key for sound policymaking overall, including on child protection. Most child victims of sexual abuse are girls, and a gender-sensitive framework is necessary to provide effective responses to prevent it and to protect victims.

Furthermore, it is important to ensure that gender responsive and human rights-based frameworks are translated into reality so that they can bring about real change in the lives of thousands of Mongolian women and girls, and the larger Mongolian society as a whole. For gender equality and the prevention of GBV is not only a human rights issue, it is a development issue and a prosperity issue.

It is necessary to further enhance the work to raise awareness, promote human rights education and combatting gender stereotypes. Mongolia needs courageous, far-reaching campaigns that directly address harmful stereotypes and eliminate the stigma that persists on speaking publicly about gender-based violence. It is necessary to increase victims’ knowledge about existing legislation. More needs to be done to address alcoholism and its harmful consequences for the safety of women and girls.

I am confident that these are steps the country is well positioned to take. You can count on my collaboration to support these efforts to ensure that women and girls in Mongolia can enjoy their right to a life free from violence.

Thank you.