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United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women - State Party Reports |
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women
Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
Combined fifth, sixth and seventh periodic reports of States parties
* For the initial report submitted by the Government of Mongolia, see CEDAW/C/5/Add.20 which was considered by the Committee at its fifth session. For the second periodic report see CEDAW/C/13/Add.7 which was considered by the Committee at its ninth session. For the combined third and fourth periodic report see CEDAW/C/MNG/3-4 which was considered by the Committee at its twenty-fourth session.
Mongolia*
FIFTH NATIONAL REPORT BY THE GOVERNMENT OF MONGOLIA
ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION OF
THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION
AGAINST WOMEN
Introduction
The Government of Mongolia hereby presents its fifth report on the implementation of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
This report is based on the information and sources accumulated after the presentation of the third and fourth reports by the Government of Mongolia 1997 and 2001 respectively. It also attempts to analyze the specific situation of the right of women from the gender perspectives through assessing dynamic changes during the transition to the free market since 1990.
The first part of the report covers the general economic situation and summary information on the situation of women while second part reflects the gender approaches in the policy of ensuring human rights and legal reform process.
The third part addresses the issues concerning the realization of the rights of women to develop, and participate in social life, its achievements and lessons learned, challenges, and measures taken by the Government to resolve them and issues to take into account in further steps.
One. General information on economic situation and women
Many development issues Mongolia faces today have closely associated with the transition to democracy and free market society. The transition to the market economy has not been an easy process. Some major reform measures since 1990 were the liberalization of main domestic markets and international trade, free currency float, and privatization of state owned enterprises. The shock therapy treatment of the economy showed mixed outcome.
At the start of the transition between 1990-1994, the economy experienced sharp decline and income abruptly dropped. The sign of economic stabilization started from 1995 and since then economy grows constantly but has not reached the prior 1990 level. With inflation controlled private sector starts developing fast.
Due to the consecutive three-year winter hazards since 1999, agricultural production was declined and the GDP growth was only 1.1 percent in 2000. So the country’s growth experienced stagnation and livestock loss was huge in amount.
Table 1. Statistics of heads of livestock (thousands) for 1995-2004:
Livestock
|
1995
|
1996
|
1997
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
Camels
|
367.5
|
357.9
|
355.4
|
356.5
|
355.6
|
322.9
|
285.2
|
253.0
|
256.7
|
256.6
|
Horse
|
2648,4
|
2770,5
|
2893,2
|
3059,1
|
3163,5
|
2660,7
|
2191.8
|
1988.9
|
1968.9
|
2005.4
|
Cows
|
3317,1
|
3476,3
|
3612,8
|
3725,8
|
3824,7
|
3097,6
|
2069.3
|
1884.3
|
1792.8
|
1841.6
|
Sheep
|
13718,6
|
13560,6
|
14165,6
|
14694,2
|
15191,3
|
13876,4
|
11937.3
|
10636.6
|
10756.4
|
11686.4
|
Goat
|
8520,7
|
9134,8
|
10265,3
|
11061,9
|
11033,9
|
10269,8
|
9591.3
|
9134.6
|
10652.9
|
12238.0
|
Total
|
28572.3
|
29300.1
|
31292.3
|
32897.5
|
33569.0
|
30227.4
|
26075.3
|
23897.6
|
25427.7
|
28027.9
|
Growth rate
|
6,6
|
2,5
|
6,8
|
5,1
|
2,0
|
-10,0
|
-13.7
|
-8.4
|
6.4
|
10.2
|
Source: National Statistics Office, National Statistics Office 2005
Table 2. Main macroeconomic indicators of Mongolia for 1996-2004
Indicators
|
1996
|
1997
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
GDP growth (percentage)
|
2.4
|
4.0
|
3.5
|
3.2
|
1.1
|
1.0
|
4.0
|
5.6
|
10.6
|
Agriculture (percentage)
|
3.4
|
4.3
|
6.6
|
4.4
|
-15.9
|
-18.3
|
-12.4
|
4.9
|
17.7
|
Industry (percentage)
|
-3.4
|
-2.6
|
3.7
|
1.6
|
0.3
|
15.5
|
3.8
|
4.8
|
15.0
|
Services (percentage)
|
5.1
|
7.5
|
1.1
|
3.1
|
15.3
|
6.1
|
11.6
|
6.1
|
6.3
|
Change in consumer prices (end of year, percentage)
|
44.6
|
20.5
|
6.0
|
10.0
|
8.1
|
8.0
|
1.6
|
4.7
|
11.0
|
Foreign trade balance
(million dollar)
|
-35.0
|
65.1
|
-120.0
|
-113.0
|
-140.1
|
-116.2
|
-166.8
|
-185.2
|
-151.5
|
Exchange rate
of national currency (end of year, 1 USD)
|
693.5
|
813.2
|
902.0
|
1072.0
|
1097.0
|
1102.0
|
1125.0
|
1168.0
|
1209.0
|
Unemployment rate (Percentage of registered unemployed)
|
6.7
|
7.7
|
5.9
|
4.7
|
4.6
|
4.6
|
3.4
|
3.5
|
3.6
|
Percentage of total investment in GDP
|
20.3
|
20.0
|
23.7
|
25.7
|
25.6
|
24.9
|
24.8
|
27.5
|
25.4
|
Percentage of total budget revenues in GDP
|
25.2
|
25.5
|
27.6
|
28.8
|
34.4
|
39.4
|
38.4
|
37.9
|
39.4
|
Percentage of total budget expenditures in GDP
|
32.7
|
34.5
|
41.9
|
39.4
|
42.2
|
43.9
|
44.4
|
42.1
|
41.6
|
Percentage of current budget balance in GDP
|
4.0
|
1.6
|
-0.7
|
-0.3
|
3.1
|
5.7
|
4.4
|
7.6
|
9.3
|
Percentage of total budget balance in GDP
|
-7.5
|
-7.8
|
-12.5
|
-10.6
|
-7.7
|
-4.5
|
-5.9
|
-4.2
|
-2.2
|
GDP (billion tugrug, current price)
|
646.6
|
832.6
|
817.4
|
925.3
|
1018.9
|
1115.6
|
1240.8
|
1461.2
|
1910.9
|
GDP (million dollar, current price)
|
1159.1
|
1049.1
|
968.5
|
905.6
|
946.6
|
1016.3
|
1117.5
|
1274.5
|
1612.1
|
Per capita GDP (thousand tugrug)
|
285.2
|
362.5
|
341.1
|
392.3
|
437.0
|
460.0
|
504.6
|
586.8
|
758.7
|
Source: National Statistics Office, Ministry of Finance, 2005
The economic growth revived from 2002, but has not shown a significant impact on the employment growth and poverty reduction, therefore, can not give confidence to the sustainable growth.
In general, poverty and related social discrepancies resulting from the decade- long transition are not significantly reducing. The increasing disparities between urban and rural, rich and poor pose further challenges to the social structure of the country. The quality of the basic social services such as education and healthcare is not improving. Because of the huge environmental challenges such as draught and zud (harsh winter), degradation of pastureland, desertification, climate changes, the economic growth can not significantly contribute to the reduction of poverty alone. Therefore, the economic growth needs to focus on reducing poverty and advancing human development.
The Government of Mongolia has committed to achieving MDGs through implementing policy and programs articulated in Economic Growth Support and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EGSPRS) which was agreed between the Government and World Bank in September, 2003. EGSPRS is both a comprehensive development plan and a basic document for poverty reduction.
United Nation’s Development Fund for Women released two reports entitled “Women in Mongolia: Mapping Progress under transition” in 2000 and “A Gender lens on the rural map of Mongolia: Data for policy purposes” in 2003. The first report described the situation of women during the transition period and challenges they face and the positive and negative impacts of changes in the economic, social and political spheres on the economic and political position of women in the country. The second one focused on the gender analysis of the information related to rural life and contributed to the formulation of the strategy of development policy and programs.
The 2005 joint Asian Development Bank and World Bank publication on Mongolia’s Gender assessment describes the situation that “There appears to be relative gender equality in Mongolia compared to many other countries. However, evidence from recent studies and a gender analysis of national statistics show that the impacts of the economic transition have been different for women and men”. It further elaborates that “Many families were plunged into poverty during this period as previously protected jobs disappeared. At the same time, social services were drastically reduced so there remained little to alleviate the effects of unemployment. This period of change is creating gender gaps”.
At the end of 2004, the resident population of Mongolia reached 2533.1[1] thousand and women were 50.4 percent and ratio was 98.5 men to 100 women. Rural to urban migration accounts for the increase of the urban population and 60 percent of women live in urban areas and 40 percent live in rural areas. By age, 32.4 percent of all women is 0-14 years old, 61.5 percent is 15-59 years old and 6.1 percent is 59 and older.
One of the more than 20 conventions related to ensuring human rights and freedom which Mongolia joined since the UN membership is its ratification of Optional Protocol of CEDAW on 14 December 2001. Since its joining Mongolia strives to implement the Convention as a new norm of guaranteeing rights, interest and needs of women.
The Government is implementing 20/20 initiatives by mobilizing its national potential for well-being of men and women of the country. At present the Government is implementing number of projects in the framework of more than 10 specialized programs covering the protection of interest and health, education, employment and development of women. For instance, declaring by law that not less than 20 percent of the total budget is to be allocated for the education of children and youth was a success.
Table 3. Comparative budget expenditure in social sectors for 1995-2004 (percentage)
Years
|
Total expenditure in social sector
|
By type
|
||||
Educational activities
|
Health
sector activities
|
Social insurance and welfare
|
Housing and public utilities
|
Recreational and cultural activities
|
||
Percentage in total budget expenditure
|
||||||
1995
|
49.1
|
17.0
|
11.3
|
15.7
|
1.6
|
3.5
|
1996
|
44.4
|
15.9
|
10.6
|
13.6
|
1.1
|
3.2
|
1997
|
45.5
|
16.2
|
9.9
|
14.9
|
1.2
|
3.2
|
1998
|
46.2
|
17.1
|
9.6
|
15.1
|
1.1
|
3.3
|
1999
|
48.4
|
17.8
|
9.8
|
16.4
|
1.3
|
3.1
|
2000
|
52.5
|
19.1
|
10.7
|
17.7
|
1.6
|
3.4
|
2001
|
52.8
|
20.1
|
10.8
|
17.3
|
1.5
|
3.1
|
2002
|
51.5
|
18.8
|
10.5
|
17.6
|
1.4
|
3.2
|
2003
|
51.3
|
18.7
|
9.5
|
19.1
|
1.0
|
3.0
|
2004
|
56.0
|
19.2
|
11.0
|
21.9
|
1.0
|
2.9
|
Percentage in GDP
|
||||||
1995
|
13.4
|
4.6
|
3.1
|
4.3
|
0.4
|
1.0
|
1996
|
11.3
|
4.0
|
2.7
|
3.4
|
0.3
|
0.9
|
1997
|
16.0
|
5.7
|
3.6
|
5.2
|
0.4
|
1.1
|
1998
|
19.4
|
7.1
|
4.0
|
6.4
|
0.5
|
1.4
|
1999
|
19.1
|
7.0
|
3.9
|
6.5
|
0.5
|
1.2
|
2000
|
21.6
|
7.9
|
4.4
|
7.2
|
0.7
|
1.4
|
2001
|
22.9
|
8.7
|
4,7
|
7.6
|
0.6
|
1.3
|
2002
|
23.1
|
8.4
|
4.7
|
8.0
|
0.6
|
1.4
|
2003
|
23.2
|
8.5
|
4.3
|
8.6
|
0.5
|
1.3
|
2004
|
24.8
|
8.5
|
4.9
|
9.7
|
0.4
|
1.3
|
Source: Ministry of Finance, 2005
For the last 10 years, 44.4-56.0 percent of total budget expenditure or 11.3-24.8 percent of GDP was spent on basic social services such as education, health, social welfare and recreational and cultural activities.
Mongolia has received total of USD 2.949.4 million in Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the donors between 1991-2004 and of the total 47.5 percent (USD 1399.6 million) is grants and 52.5 percent (USD 1549.8 million) is soft loans. The donor grants have been playing significant role in tackling transitional difficulties and emergency measures, overcoming economic decline and crisis.
At the beginning financial and emergency aid was dominant in ODA. The Government is pursuing a policy to reduce the proportion of emergency aid and increasing the proportion of medium and long term development project financing in the composition of ODA. The grants are targeted to spend on developing and strengthening human resource capacity and social sector objectives. This policy trend is to be continued further.
Of the grants and soft loans 33.2 percent accounts for infrastructure development (energy, road, communication, and public utilities), 15.5 percent for social infrastructure (education, health, and human resources development), 14.6 percent for industry and agriculture, 12.6 percent for financial and economic management, and 23.9 percent for other sectors.
Two. Gender Trend in the Legal Reform Policy and Expansion of the Civil Society Participation in it
Mongolia recognized women’s rights as a essential part of human rights. The new Constitution adopted in 1992 categorically prohibits any kind of discrimination stating that “No person may be discriminated on the basis of ethnic origin, language, race, age, sex, social origin or status, property, occupation or post, religion, opinion, or education”.
Article nineteen of the Constitution states that “the State is responsible to the citizens for the creation of economic, social, legal, and other guarantees ensuring human rights and freedoms, for the prevention of violations of human rights and freedoms, and restoration of infringed rights”. In other words, the Mongolian State assumes an obligation to create ways to implement the legal regulation prohibiting such discrimination.
Mongolia guarantees by law equal rights to men and women to participate in labour relations.
An important step made by Mongolia to fulfill its constitutional obligation since the submission of its 4th report under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is adoption and implementation of the Law on the Mongolian National Commission on Human Rights in 2003. This law defines principles of and legal grounds for the activities of the National Committee and regulates relations related to the exercise of its powers.
According to the Law, the National Commission on Human Rights is an organization empowered to make proposals on any matters concerning human rights in Mongolia, to make recommendations and opinions on compliance of legislation and administrative decisions with basic principles of human rights and to give opinions on fulfillment of international treaties on human rights and on preparation of the relevant Government reports.
Within its competence, the National Commission on Human Rights has been conducting a survey on the human rights situation since 2001. It has published four reports on the human rights and freedoms in Mongolia. The reports involved specific studies and issued objective conclusions and recommendations on the situation of economic rights of individuals, rights and freedoms of the vulnerable groups of the society, rights to labour as well as the implementation of the principle of non-discrimination in employment. This plays a significant role and contributes to the legal reforms in Mongolia, i.e. revision of the national legislation to conform with the Constitutional spirit.
The Law on the Mongolian National Commission on Human Rights provides that a Mongolian citizen alone or together with others can file a complaint with the National Commission on Human Rights under the law if he/she considers that a business entity, organization, official or individual violated the human rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of Mongolia and international treaties. The Law states that the National Commission on Human Rights reviews such a complaint, takes a certain action or measure and makes a decision. During the past four years the National Commission reviewed and resolved complaints from 100-160 citizens on violation of human rights and freedoms.[2]
Mongolia is currently experiencing intensive legal reforms, i.e. revision of legislation to conform with the Constitutional spirit. While at the first stage of the reforms many legal acts enacted were regulating general and social basic relations, during the last years there have been adopted acts regulating specific social relations, including those concerning human rights and freedoms such as the Law on Public Radio and Television and the Law on Fighting against Domestic Violence.
The experience and lessons from the last years prove that needs and interests of women, especially mothers and girls, must be a matter of priority in any developmental activity. Particularly, the following lessons were taken from the past experience:
❖ A change should take into account women’s interests;
❖ A policy should be toward solution of the factors affecting a specific group of women;
❖ Women’s rights should be adequately protected in all sphere and violation of their rights should be effectively fought against;
❖ Special attention should be paid to the social aid and support to mothers and children development, especially in households at risky level of living; and
❖ Appropriate effective and results-based mechanism for coordination and management to promote women’s sustainable development and civil society participation should be selected.
Non-governmental organizations such as the National Center against Violence, Mongolian Women Lawyers’ Association and others worked actively in organizing public awareness raising activities on creation of favorable environment to fight against domestic violence and mitigation harms of such violence. Such activities were taken as implementation of the recommendations from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women given after consideration of the 3rd and 4th reports of the Government of Mongolia on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Such efforts resulted in the adoption of the Law on Fighting against Domestic Violence by the State Ikh Khural (Parliament) in 2004.
The Law on Fighting against Domestic Violence regulates relations related to seeking by a victim of domestic violence for protection of his/her rights, imposing liability on the violators, preventing from various forms of domestic violence and ensuring participation of state and non-governmental organizations as well as individuals in the fight against such violence. The law provides ways to protect victims of domestic violence. For example, in accordance with the spirit and principles of international treaties, the law provides for victims remedies such as bringing a victim to a shelter house, giving the victim to temporary protection of parents, relatives or community, transferring the victim to a childcare center or social welfare organization if necessary, giving the victim necessary information as well as legal and other advice, providing medical care and rehabilitation services if the victim is temporarily psychologically affected or physically abused.
The National Center against Violence together with the police has started projects on proper treatment of victims of crime, provision of legal remedies and improvement services for victims and set offender identification rooms with special equipment. Such measures are significant in creating conditions to prevent victims from being identified by suspects and accused, which may lead to threat and revenge[3].
With the implementation of the Law on Fighting Against Domestic Violence, the Working Group led by the Minister of Justice and Home Affairs was established by the Prime Minister’s decree to develop a National Program on Fighting against Domestic Violence. International organizations such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the United Nations Population Fund have been providing professional, methodological and financial support for the elaboration of the Program. It can be said that cooperation and relationship between the state, civil society and international organizations involved in gender issues has been improving significantly to ensure conditions for peaceful life free of violence and threat.
Along with the Law on Fighting against Domestic Violence, Mongolia is paying large attention to creation of legal environment for protection of victims of violence through adoption of other legislation. This includes the newly revised Criminal Code which has provisions to impose a criminal liability on violence against women considering the offence as a crime against children, family and social morals. For example, the law provides for punishment and aggravating circumstances of the crimes of satisfaction of sexual desire in unnatural manner, rape, forcing a woman into abortion and abortion in non-medical conditions. If the victims of such crimes got into psychological depression due to duress and coercion and their names were impaired, they have a right to file a suit under the Civil Procedure Code for monetary compensation for psychological damage and the court is to make a decision on such suit together with the criminal case.
There is a trend to review and amend any legislation which allows gender discrimination. For example, an amendment providing for paternal leave was introduced in 2003 to Article 106 of the Labour Law in addition to maternal leave. Also, the Law on Advertisement provides that “...any use of words, comparison and description humiliating somebody’s nationality, language, race, social origin, age, sex, education or occupation, religion and opinion” is to be considered as illegal advertisement and to be prohibited from creation and distribution. A violation of this provision is liable to a fine. Unfortunately, some newspapers and other means of advertisement still publish for business profits slander of somebody’s honour and negative expressions against women for sensation purposes and business profits. This demonstrates that the implementation of the law is not satisfactory and that the prevention incentives and methods need to be changed or improved.
Lately, mass media started running cases of violation of human rights when girls and women who are lured by advertisements such as job abroad, marriage with a foreigner and local employment go abroad, get easily abused and trafficked due to their vulnerable situation and suffer from physical and psychological pain.
“Sale and purchase of humans” is a crime punishable by a criminal liability under Article 113 of the Criminal Code of Mongolia. Also, the Article provides for stricter liability for aggravating circumstances when the same crime is committed “with the purpose of taking human blood, tissues or organs; with the purpose of engaging the victim into prostitution; with the purpose of trafficking person; repeatedly; against two or more persons; against a person under the legal age; or in a group or by a group at an advance agreement”. However, in investigating practice, investigators, prosecutors and judges are not always able in to determine the crime, especially if a person is trafficked abroad. In Mongolia, there were recorded in total 7 crimes of human sale and purchase in 2003-2005. We are not able to have real facts and data on how many women are trafficked abroad for prostitution every year[4].
Mongolia is considering an issue of ratifying the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children adopted by the United Nations in 2000. Use and trafficking abroad of children and women for sexual exploitation purpose was not a critical issue in Mongolia until recently. However, lately, Mongolian girls and women are lured by fraudulent advertisements and dealers and go abroad where they get exposed to violence and force due to their vulnerable situation as they cannot seek for help because of their illegal residence, lack of documents, income and language. They suffer from physical and psychological pain. Their rights are violated. Thus, paying special attention to children and women’s rights, the Government of Mongolia adopted in 2005 the “National Program to Protect People from Sale, Especially from Use of Children and Women for Sexual Exploitation”. The Program was elaborated in more than a year with the Support of the United Nations Children’s Fund as a result of more than 10 meetings and discussions of the working group and other different representatives reflecting their proposals and recommendations. The Program aims for such goals as performance of the obligations assumed by Mongolia under international treaties concerned with human trafficking specially from use of children and women for sexual exploitation, increase of the capacity to prevent, identify and fight, sophistication of the relevant legal environment, ensuring organizations’ and citizens’ participation and increase of the relevant knowledge and understanding. The Program also defined its activities.
The Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs is currently reviewing the implementation of the legislation against obscenity and working on amending the Law on Fighting against Obscenity (1998).
About 380 laws are affecting in Mongolia today. However implementation of some laws is not sufficient. We have to acknowledge that some laws have provisions which implicitly have discriminative nature. Women get retired 5 years earlier than men. On one hand, this provision is criticized in the past years among the population as a provision restricting opportunities for women to work and receive high payments. On other hand, the provision is objected by non-governmental organizations which claim that the retirement age must be changed carefully, since old age pension has become main income for many elderly women today.
Mainstreaming gender issues into national policy and program, thus change of the national mechanism to protect women’s interests to conform with the new content of development, has become another important objective of the state policy reforms with gender orientation along with legislative reforms. The National Program for Advancement of Women’s Situation is one of the prominent documents to guide the state policy on Mongolian women in order to implement, in accordance with the national peculiarities, the concept of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the concept of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the 1995 Conference on Women’s Situation. Implementation of the Program played an important role in creating national machinery to guarantee women’s rights, improve their education, improve their reproductive health and ensure women’s development as well as in ensuring equal participation of men and women in social development, thus setting understanding and sense of gender in social psychology[5].
The National Program for Gender Equality was adopted in 2002 by the Government Resolution No 274 in accordance with the modern developmental trends and practical and strategic needs and necessities of gender development. The Program was elaborated through reflection of the recommendations and proposals from four theoretical and practical conferences which were organized to discuss actual problems of the Mongolian men and women. Also, the National Forum “Gender and Development” was organized in 2002 at which representatives of the state, local government, non-governmental, scientific, media, private sector and international organizations, including vast representation of women, discussed over the draft National Program for Gender Equality.
The National Program for Gender Equality consists of five parts, namely: Gender Equality in Family Relations, Gender Equality in Economic Relations, Gender Equality in Rural Development, Gender Equality at Decision Making Level, and National Machinery and Civil Society Participation. Each part includes as a package the 12 critical areas of concern of Platform for Action which were approved at the Beijing Conference. The National Program is to be implemented in four stages (first stage: 2003-2004, second stage: 2005-2008, third stage 2009-2012 and forth stage: 2013-2015) until 2015.
According to the Program, the work done at each stage is assessed and the work to be done at the next stage is developed in details and approved by the Government each time. The first stage of the Program was assessed in 2004. The draft workplan of activities for the second stage was discussed at a Strategy Planning Seminar. Also, a consultative meeting on the plan of the activities for the second stage was organized in 2005 on the national level. The workplan of activities for the second stage of the National Program for Gender Equality was discussed and approved by the Government in January 2006.
The Government has been considering that a national mechanism on gender equality with civil society participation plays a significant role in successful implementation of the policy and decisions on equality and has been paying attention to sophistication of such a mechanism. The National Council on Gender Equality which was established in 2001 and led by the Vice Chairman of the Cabinet Office could not become a mechanism for integration of gender issues into the various sectoral policies, programs and planning and for coordination of the comprehensive activities under the National Program for Gender Equality. Therefore, the National Committee on Gender Equality led by the Prime Minister was established by the Government in 2005. The National Committee is a consultative body at the national level on the gender equality prospective. Its functions are to influence to the elaboration and implementation of the state policy in this regard, to support any initiatives of the state, civil society organizations and individuals in assessing its results, and to cooperate with, and coordinate activities of, international organizations and donors.
In addition to the National Program for Gender Equality, the State Ikh Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia adopted the State Policy on Family Development in 2003, the National Program for Human Rights in Mongolia in 2003, The State Policy on Population Development in 2004 and the Mongolia’s Millennium Development Goals until 2015 in 2005. These instruments provide for organizing works to ensure gender equality in family relations, ensure equal rights and equality of men and women and ensure gender equality in population development process.
In the past years, civil society organizations have become increasingly active in the social, economic and political life of Mongolia. This includes establishment of many organizations aimed at protection of human rights and freedoms. Their influence to the Government policy and decision and their support to the implementation of such policy and decision have increased notably. As one of the most popular ways of civil society participation, they are involved in the process of elaborating policy papers and policy determining, participate in the work of working groups to do research in this regard and give their opinions. Wide involvement of women in research, analysis and processing works provides more opportunity to include their view in the drafts of gender development programs and plans and to implement, review and assess the programs and plans. Unfortunately, in comparison to the non-governmental organizations, participation of private sector in elaboration and implementation of social development policies and programs is not sufficient. Active involvement of representatives of private sector and business entities which are developing intensely over the past years in the process of women and gender development has become an important objective. Today both state and non-governmental organizations lack capacity to fully integrate gender issues and include strategic needs of men and women in economic and social policies and programs and to conduct gender analysis.
Today it is the matter of highest necessity to publicize and advocate implementation of international treaties and conventions on human rights, resolutions of international conferences on women as well as national legislation, policies and programs on human rights. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women which was ratified by the Parliament in 2001 and the Millennium Development Goals of Mongolia adopted by the Parliament in 2005 have been successfully advertised on all levels. For example, the Government adopted the Special Three-year Plan to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In the scope of this Plan, there was organized a special workshop named “Preparation of the Convention’s Report” for representatives of state and non-governmental organizations, academicians of universities and institutes and especially for government servants to improve their knowledge and upgrade their qualification with regard to supervision, assessment and reporting on the implementation of treaties and conventions on women’s rights. Participation of representatives of the Asia-Pacific International Women’s Rights Action Watch played a significant role in the coordination of the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in the country with the efforts of international organizations to ensure human and women’s rights.
Moreover, in Mongolia we started organizing campaigns among the public on the occasion of such celebrations as the World Population Day, 16 Days of Activism on Violence against Women, International Day of Protection of Women’s Rights and Family Day. Many important events were organized on the occasion of the 20th and 25th anniversaries of Mongolia’s accession to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This includes advertisement of the Convention’s implementation through the mass media and in public places, distribution of pamphlets, organization of discussions and meetings and broadcast of advertisements on channels of the youth interest by national and international non-governmental organizations in cooperation with mass media organizations. Such measures result in increase of knowledge and understanding of all organizations and officers which work in the field of gender, family and women about the Convention.
Three. Women’s Participation in Social Development
3.1 Activities to Ensure Right to Education
During the years when Mongolia was developing under the concept of socialism, the Government paid large attention to involvement of the population, including all children of school age, in schools and to provision of relevant education to them. There were taken specific measures in this regard in accordance with the stages of the country’s development. Thanks to such efforts the population’s literacy and education rated high at the international level, which was a historically important achievement. Comparative study of the population census materials reveals that the percentage of women of 15 and older years old with higher education increased in 2000 by 4.2 units compared to 1979 and by 2.0 units compared to 1989, thus reaching the same level as men. This shows that the sex ratio of the population with higher education has decreased rapidly, i.e. by 37.5 units.
Table 4. Adult Educational Level (According to the 1979, 1989, 2000 population census data)
|
Illiterate
|
Literate
|
Primary
|
Non-full Secondary
|
Full Secondary
|
With Diploma
|
With Education Degree
|
1979
|
|||||||
Total
|
7.3
|
11.4
|
29
|
28.4
|
9.8
|
7.9
|
6.2
|
Male
|
3.9
|
11.6
|
28.8
|
32.5
|
9.2
|
6.6
|
7.4
|
Female
|
10.6
|
11.3
|
29.1
|
24.3
|
10.4
|
9.3
|
5
|
1989
|
|||||||
Total
|
3.5
|
6
|
20.5
|
33.9
|
18.1
|
9.6
|
8.5
|
Male
|
1.8
|
5
|
19.7
|
38.8
|
17.6
|
7.4
|
9.8
|
Female
|
5.1
|
7
|
21.4
|
29
|
18.6
|
11.7
|
7.2
|
2000
|
|||||||
Total
|
2.2
|
3.2
|
16.4
|
30.1
|
29.7
|
9.2
|
9.2
|
Male
|
2
|
3.1
|
17
|
34
|
27.8
|
6.9
|
9.2
|
Female
|
2.5
|
3.4
|
15.8
|
26.2
|
31.6
|
11.3
|
9.2
|
Source: National Statistical Office. Population and Housing Census 2000,
Education and Literacy: Ulaanbaatar
The material of the 2000 Population and Housing Census (graph 1) demonstrates that the educational status of men and women in total on the national level is similar in all aspects.
Graph 1. Education of Population, by sex
Source: National Statistical Office. Population and Housing Census 2000,
Education and Literacy: Ulaanbaatar.
According to the census, 97.8 percent of the total population of Mongolia aged 15 and older are literate, including 98.0 percent of men and 97.5 percent of women. According to the internationally accepted methodology, the percentage of literate people of 15 and older years old among the total population of the same age is expressed by a term Adults’ Literacy Percentage.
Table 5. Adult Literacy rate
Percentage of Literacy
|
|||
Year
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
1956
|
70.3
|
80.7
|
60.2
|
1963
|
70.1
|
79.0
|
61.2
|
1969
|
79.1
|
87.2
|
72.3
|
1979
|
92.1
|
96.0
|
88.2
|
1989
|
96.5
|
98.2
|
94.9
|
2000
|
97.8
|
98.0
|
97.5
|
Source: National Statistical Office, Population and Housing Census 2000,
Education and Literacy: Ulaanbaatar.
2.0 percent for men and 2.5 percent for women among the illiterate adult population (2.2 percent or 34011[6]) don’t reveal loss of balance in the ratio. However the statistics by age groups demonstrate that, among the young population, percentage of literate men is higher that literate women (Graph 2).
Graph 2. Illiterate Population by age
Source: 2000 Population census data.
Compared to 1989, the percentage of the illiterate among the 15-19 year-old young population increased by 2.2 units in 2000. 4.2 percent or 8.4 thousand people among such age population are illiterate, 66.7 percent of which are male while 33.3 percent are female. This is related to the higher percentage of boys dropped out of schools than of the girls. However, while in 1989, 1.8 percent of the 20-29 year-old youth were illiterate, this percentage reached 2.3 in 2000. In contrast, while, 5.3 thousand people are illiterate, 39.6 percent of them are women and 60.4 percent are men.
If we look at the sex of the illiterate, the statistics are rather different for urban and rural areas. For instance, while in rural areas the percentage of men among the illiterate population, both children and adults, is higher than of women, in urban areas there is almost no gender difference among the children and adults. This can be explained by the fact that boys in herdsmen families in rural areas leave schools early in order to help parents. As to the urban population, there is no such circumstance, hence no big difference between genders.
As to unofficial education, though there are literacy and re-education trainings as well as living skills trainings held for men and women, those programs do not provide for gender education. In other words, gender education has only been an element of official education. Therefore, it is important in the near future to efficiently organize works on provision of gender education to the population in general, especially children and youth dropped out of schools and citizens with low educational level.
Table 6. Number of People Involved in Unofficial Education
|
Literacy education
|
Training to improve general educational level
|
||||
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
|
Number of people
|
7820
|
6800
|
7632
|
179999
|
167830
|
171374
|
Source: Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
The following data demonstrate how the right to education is afforded to women in Mongolia.
One. The following diagram shows by gender the scope of general education schools (GES) in the academic years of 2003/2004, 2004/2005:
Graph 3. Enrolment Ratio of General Education Schools,
2003/2004 and 2004/2005 academic years, by sex
Age of
|
Age of
|
|
Age of
|
Age of
|
8-11
|
12-15
|
|
8-11
|
12-15
|
Source: Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Table 7. Number of students in General Education Schools, by sex
2003-2004
|
2004-2005
|
2005-2006
|
||||||
Number of Students
|
Female
|
Male
|
Number of Students
|
Female
|
Male
|
Number of Students
|
Female
|
Male
|
537398
|
276200
|
261198
|
557346
|
285761
|
271585
|
556876
|
285128
|
271748
|
Source: Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Though the graph and table above demonstrate vast enrolment and large number of students in general education schools, the percentage of the children dropped out of schools is not going down.
Table 8. Number of the Drop out of General Education Schools
(2003/2004, 2004/2005, 2005/2006 academic years)
2003-2004
|
2004-2005
|
2005-2006
|
|||
Number of Children
|
Percentage of the Dropped-out
|
Number of Children
|
Percentage of the Dropped-out
|
Number of Children
|
Percentage of the Dropped-out
|
11953
|
2.1
|
10770
|
1.9
|
9032
|
1.6
|
Source: Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
By gender, the percentage of girls left out of schools is less than that of boys.
Graph 4. Drop out of Schools, by urban and rural areas, and by sex
(11953 children in the 2003/2003 academic year)
Source: Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
The statistics on retraining for dropped out children and youth demonstrate significant gender difference. While the majority of the ones involved in primary education programs are children of 8-14 years old, the majority of the ones involved in unofficial basic education programs are children of older than 15 years old. We can see a positive trend that percentage of boys among the children involved in primary education has increased. It is necessary to pay main attention to provision of unofficial education services for the men older than 15 years old who have spent many years since they were dropped out of schools.
Graph 5. Involvement in Retraining for Primary Education,
by urban and rural areas
Source: Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Though there is no significant difference between boys and girls among the children of 8-14 years old involved in unofficial basic education programs, the higher percentage of males among the group of adults demonstrates that the girls’ dropping-out of schools has decreased.
Graph 6. Involvement in Retraining for Basic Education,
by urban and rural areas
Source: Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
The study of 11953 children who dropped out of schools reveals some reasons such as difficult living conditions, lack of wish to study, switch to job employment, as well as no specific reason. For example, 2515 (1039 of which are female) of those children had difficult living conditions, 1932 (725 of which are female) did not want to study, 3235 (1307 of which are female) switched to job employment and 4371 (1837 of which are female) had no specific reason to leave schools.
Two. The following table shows the status of students of vocational training centers as of the 2005/2006 academic year:
Table 9. Students of Vocational Training Centers, 2005/2006 academic year
Occupational Index
|
Students
|
|
Total
|
Female
|
|
Basic and Intermediate Vocational Training
|
23249
|
5084
|
Basic Vocational Training
|
22015
|
10156
|
Intermediate Vocational Training
|
1234
|
673
|
Basic and Intermediate Vocational Training at State-owned
Schools
|
22334
|
4688
|
Basic Vocational Training
|
21100
|
4015
|
Intermediate Vocational Training
|
1234
|
673
|
Basic and Intermediate Vocational Training at non- state-ownership
Schools
|
915
|
396
|
Source: Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
The fact that the overwhelming majority of the students who finished the 8th grade of general education schools and were enrolled to vocational training centers are male demonstrates that parents are more interested in having their daughters had higher education while they want their sons to obtain a specific vocational profession for labour work. More than 70 percent of the students with basic education who are enrolled to the 9th and 10th grades of schools are girls. Hence, the overwhelming majority of the students enrolled to universities, institutes and colleges are female, which is evidently demonstrated by the following data.
Table 10. Students of Higher Educational Establishments,
2004/2005 academic year
Qualifications
|
Students
|
|
Total
|
Female
|
|
Higher education with diploma
|
5764
|
3426
|
Bachelor
|
111186
|
68125
|
Master
|
5084
|
3409
|
Doctor
|
1790
|
1089
|
Total
|
123824
|
76049
|
Source: Data from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Three. The sex ratio of the employees of schools is a factor which affects to certain extends the gender balance of students.
The study of the teaching personnel who directly works with students reveals that, in the 2004/2005 academic year, 80.2 percent of the teachers of general education schools, 63.2 percent of the teachers of vocational training centers and 53.2 percent of the teachers of higher education organizations are women[7].
However, the gender ratio in the school administrations is opposite to the above statistics. For example: 29.3 percent of directors and deans of general education schools, 16.1 percent of the heads of educational and cultural centers, 10 percent of the directors of vocational training centers, and 15.5 percent of the college and universities’ directors are women. 40.8-61.6 percent of deputy directors, deans and methodologists are also women in higher educational institutions.
This demonstrates that gender stereotypes based on the distribution of functions between men and women in the nomadic style of life had a strong impact on the critical issues of education, which is revealed in the understanding of the concept of gender by young people.
The Gender Observation Unit was established in 2003 by the Decree of the Minister for Education, Culture and Science as an independent organization with the functions to conduct surveys on gender balance in the educational sector in Mongolia, and to give recommendations of policy character to the organizations which develop and implement educational policies. Surveys conducted by the Education Gender Observation Unit in 2003-2005 on gender relations in the educational sector revealed that gender differences or specific needs for male and female are not taken into account properly in the building and equipment of schools and kindergartens, the sense of gender issues in new standard for general education schools is weak, textbooks include gender stereotypes and the gender inequality approaches are likely to deepen in the teachers’ and students’ inbalances.
Though the overwhelming majority of employees in the educational sector and students is women, the physical and psychological environment of the educational sector is not yet fully favorable to them.
Though nowadays students have a rather different understanding of the roles of men and women in the social life, including understanding about young family relations, there is a trend not to accept proposals made by women at the decision - making level.
Also, the study conducted by the Gender Observation Unit shows that it is necessary to improve the quality of education, develop teachers, improve access to information and the educational facilities in rural schools because in practice the difference between the quality of education in urban and rural areas is big even though the law provides for equal rights of men and women to high-quality education both in urban and rural areas. On the other side, the study shows that educational service receivers started understanding that not only efforts of the government but also efforts of the students themselves, their parents and teachers are important in improvement of the quality of education. In other words, they now understand that the education quality is a result of common efforts of all participants in that field. Thus, the study shows general change of attitude to education.
In order to early set proper understanding of gender to the people’s minds, there have been published manuals for the public on organization of wide advocacy activities through media, methodology of quality research on gender matters in education and creation of favorable studying environment with comprehensive scope. With the initiative of the Gender Observation Unit and the recommendation from the Social Policy Standing Committee of the State Ikh Khural (Parliament), 16 hours of the subject on education gender relations have been included in the curriculum of teachers’ qualification training since 2004. Also, trainings for general education school teachers and deans have included methodology of observation and analysis of gender situation since 2004.
While the situation of gender relations in education is an issue of international concern and it is different across countries, researchers, scientific and research organizations as well as state organizations aim their studies to the situation of gender relations in education in Mongolia. The issue is also a matter of concern for the Government. Lately, most of the research results are sex-disaggregated, which facilitates assessment of the policies and activities implemented with regard to education and planning of further measures to take.
The following measures must be taken in order to remedy the gender inequality in the educational sector in Mongolia:
❖ To increase gender information, education and communication activities to improve gender knowledge among the youth of Mongolia;
❖ To improve knowledge and skills of education policy makers, planners and implementers as well as researchers and teachers in order to integrate gender issues in the curricula, textbooks and training practice at all levels of education;
❖ To introduce experience and practice of the countries where gender equality is ensured in the educational sector and to exchange information with such countries;
❖ To promote active local participation and efforts by integrating gender concept in the Aimags’, Soums’ and other local development policies aiming at creation of favorable conditions and opportunities for provision of high-quality education to girls and boys in rural areas; and
❖ To orient the schools’ cooperation to improvement of cooperation of teachers, administrative workers, parents and community for further training and re-training of the girls and boys dropped out of schools.
3.2. Protecting health of women and ensuring the right to
reproductive health
The structure of the health establishments in Mongolia is organized according to the administrative divisions and it has three main steps to provide medical aid and services (Graph 7).
In the primary stage, medical doctors of the household and village level provide health related aid and services including supervising, natal care delivery and post delivery services to healthy and low risk pregnant women and family planning. They advice and transfer those who may have high risk and pregnancy complications to the next step or to the district hospital or health centre or provincial and city medical centers.
40-60 percent women who gave birth in the regional diagnostic and treatment centers, and provincial clinics is those came from villages seeking for more professional assistance. Maternal and Child Medical Research Centre receives and provides specialized services to mothers and infants who have high risk of having pregnancy and delivery complications and conducts training and research activities.
Graph 7. Stages of medical aid
Today 27 medical doctors and 57.2 health professionals are accounted per 10 000 people and 83.6 percent of health sector employees are women. However, their participation at the decision making level in this sector is not sufficient given the fact that only 16.2 percent of women occupy the positions of heads of provincial health department and directors of clinics.
Health professionals working in the rural health establishments are two times less than those in the urban areas. Although with recent urbanization process majority of health organizations, human resources, property and finance is centralized in the urban areas, most of the people living in the vicinity areas and gher districts of the city could not have equal access to variety of health related quality services.
Although the Law on Health guarantees that “a citizen enjoys the right to choose his/her hospital and doctors on their own”, in practice the choice depends on the residency, type of sickness, payment by the health insurance fund. In necessary case, they should be transferred to the next level of hospitals by the recommendation, but it is time consuming. Therefore it violates the right to protect their health. This kind of adverse effect should be changed in order to improve the quality of treatment and services and encourage competition among hospitals.
Healthcare privatization is being conducted as required by management, performance and leasing contracts with the objective to /under the State property privatization program/ increase private sector participation in healthcare services, modify structural and organizational aspects, use resources efficiently, enhance opportunities for investment and increase access to healthcare services[8]. Although management contract based privatization of village hospitals engaged in first aid delivery is already under way, the expected outcome remains elusive due to various factors, namely: provinces’ failure to conduct privatization in line with their specific needs and conditions, province administrations’ failure to provide funds in violation of their obligations, inadequacy of preparations for the privatization taking place in provinces, insufficient knowledge among healthcare privatization participants and the parties concerned, an inadequate number of trainings[9]. 29.8 % of the health organizations is state owned and 70.2 % is privately owned.
It is necessary that medical aid and services shift from the approach characterized by worship of the service provider to the one based on aid reaching out to clients or patients and services aimed at preventing infectious, non-infectious diseases and accidents among the vulnerable group. Providing parenting women and children with quality care, services and nutrition has emerged as one of the issues warranting special attention in the health sector. The transition process in Mongolia should proceed in a manner that ensures provision of state-funded aid, including some low price services, incorporated into an additional primary aid package[10].
45 percent of the health sector budget expenditure is spent on salary, 17 percent utilities, 16 percent drugs, 8 percent goods and services, 5 percent foods, 5 percent capital goods, 4 percent transportation and communications. Most of the sector specific budget and other sources are spent for the city and urban health establishments given that they provide the highest level of services[11].
The Government takes into consideration the fact that access to health services for poor and vulnerable group is insufficient[12]. The Law on Health Insurance has been amended so it enables the access to improved health services for the vulnerable group through providing them health insurance. The amendment is aimed at transferring the health insurance system from individual one to household enabling poor and extremely poor people to be covered by insurance. The insurance fee is paid by the Government. The socially vulnerable groups including older persons and disabled persons have more access to the services such as free or discounted drugs, home-based care, treatment and nursing, and day time nursing[13] at the Gerontology centre.
One of the major changes in the health sector in implementing the “Health sector development Program” financed by ADB soft loan is that the household hospital could operate on its own and is located more closer to its clients who should get their services. It operates on the basis of the contract financing where the expenditure is calculated by one person basis. This calculation has been done that 0-1 years old and 1-15 years old children, 16-49 years old women and people over 60 years old are divided into category of poor and normal living condition and the expenditure of the poor ones are 7-18 percent higher than the normal one according to the age structures.
32.4 percent of Mongolia’s total population is up to 15 years old children and 28.3 percent are women aged between 15-49 years old. The average life expectancy of Mongolian person reached 63.5 years and it is 66.7 years for woman and 60.8 years for man. A birth rate per 1000 population is 17.7 and growth rate is 11.63 and death rate is 6.07[14].
Graph 8. Birth, death and net growth of population for 1994-2004
State Policy on Population Development renewed and adopted by the Parliament in 2004 is aimed at supporting population growth, particularly 2-3 years birth intervals for 20-39 years old women; implementing comprehensive measures to reduce unwanted pregnancy, abortion and its complications; preventing women and men of reproductive age from contracting sexually transmitted disease and HIV/AIDS and treating, rehabilitating and developing community based services[15].
In Mongolia health protection of mother and children is under the constant attention of State. Mother and child receive free health related professional services. The Government Plan of Action has provisions that while health of mother and child have particular attention and reducing maternal and infant mortality will be achieved according to the Millennium Development Goals. Health related services to mother and infant are specified as a priority in the provision of the necessary health related service package in the Health sector Master Plan of 2005-2015 of Mongolia. However, the Government is accountable for the services related only to pregnancy and birth. Other professional services and to pregnant women are provided depending on whether she has health insurance so that it has adverse effect on maternal mortality caused by pregnancy and other associated diseases.
98.9 percent of the pregnant women, of them 80.0 percent are at the earlier stage of pregnancy are supervised[16]. 13.8 percent of the newly supervised pregnant women has experienced anemia which is in comparison with the year 2000 is reduced by 26.2 points[17]. 70.7 percent of pregnant women are taking iron pills only at the later stage of the pregnancy which has negative effect on reducing anemia[18].
The proportion of women who gave birth in hospital was 94 percent in 1998 and 98.9 percent in 2005. Reproductive health indicators are being improved due to effective implementation of the National Program on Reproductive Health and Strategy on Reducing Maternal Mortality.
The following activities carried out with support of Governmental and non- Governmental organizations and international organizations have has positive effect in reducing maternal mortality: creating a favorable conditions supported by decision makers; implementing a guidelines on treatment to improve the quality of reproductive health services; sending pregnant mothers with high risk to professional clinical services at the earlier stage; improving knowledge and capacity of doctors, gynecologists, obstetrics, and other professional doctors; supplying most useful drugs and hospital appliances; improving the knowledge of reproductive health of the population in particular young persons and men. To name few examples and activities Hospital caring mother and child was nominated, Mother friendly Governor was chosen, and guideline for Maternity waiting home services was formulated and implemented.
Graph 9. Reduction of maternal mortality for 1992-2004 (per 100 thousand live births)
The National Program on Reproductive Health was renewed in 2001 and the Strategy on Reducing Maternal Mortality between 2005- 2010 was adopted in 2005 and its implementation shows its timeliness and necessity in meeting the needs of the population.
Last 20 years the dominant cause of the maternal mortality has been bleeding, however, last 3 years disorders associated with pregnancy (28.9 percent), pre-eclampsia (20.7 percent), bleeding (19.6 percent) and sepsis (15.7 percent) have become main causes of maternal death. Cardiovascular disorder (27.9 percent) and TB (19.7 percent) are main causes of death associated disorder with pregnancy[19].
45.2 percent of the maternal mortality between 2000 and 2004 is rural herder women and 30.8 percent are housewives. 69.6 percent of the death occurred in local areas and an average distance to the nearby hospital is 61.8 kilometers. This shows that remoteness, type of employment and risky living condition are main threats to the life of pregnant mothers.
Prenatal death per 1000 live birth is 28.0 has negative effect on infant mortality[20]. However, infant mortality in rural areas (18.1 per 1000 live birth) is comparatively higher than in urban areas (22.5 per 1000 live birth) meaning that reducing infant mortality target will meet MDGs. (Graph 10)
Thanks to the public health measures such as comprehensive vaccination and implementing comprehensive management of infant decease and supporting breast feeding child and under five infant mortality has been constantly decreasing last 10 years[21] and as of the 2004 under five infant mortality rate was 29.1 and infant mortality rate was 22.8.
Graph 10. Infant and under 5 child mortality for 1990-2003
Mongolia has had good system of providing services to mother and child and the education level of mothers are relatively high and this country has no tradition of sexual discrimination among children by education, health and feeding[22].
According to the 1998 Survey on Reproductive Health 9 percent of the girls aged between 15 and 19 gave birth but it was reduced to 7 percent in 2003. 5.7 percent of the girls were in urban cities and 12.9 percent in rural areas in 1998 and it was reduced to 4.6 and 11.6 respectively[23] in 2003.
According to the 2004 health statistics there were accounted 200 abortions per 1000 live birth and 12 abortions per 1000 women of reproductive age[24] (Graph. 11).
Graph 11. Abortion rate (1999-2004)
7 percent of the maternal death between 2000 and 2004 was accounted for abortion and 54.5 of the death occurred due to the complications of unsafe abortion[25]. According to the 2001 survey by the Public Health Institution among 900 women who had abortion, 52.4 percent of them had repeated abortion. One third of women who had repeated abortion never used any method preventing from pregnancy. 37.8 percent of the women who had abortion explained the reason of doing so as economically unviable, 21.9 percent to continue their studies and 17.0 percent has small children. Abortion is done more at the private hospitals but the information on number of abortion is incomplete and registration and information system is not complete[26]. Due consideration should be given to the fact that abortion has been increasing among unmarried women especially among girls and their possibility to receive family planning services are limited[27]. Therefore, the Government in cooperation with international organizations and NGOs are taking measures to develop guidelines to follow standard and management in performing safe abortion; to improve the quality of counseling before and after abortion; to completely reflect the information and report of abortion done at the private hospitals into the health related statistics; and to freely distribute the family planning methodologies and social marketing of contraceptives through primary healthcare workers.
Knowledge and needs of the population about family planning is improving from year to year and in comparison to the 1998 survey on reproductive health the use of modern contraceptive method preventing from pregnancy increased from 33 percent to 45 percent and participation of men in family planning also increased. 62 percent of the married women use contraceptive method. Survey revealed that use of contraceptive methods is relatively high among rural women. Among the use of the modern contraceptive methods intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD), pills and condoms are most popular and 72 percent of women receive them free of charge. However, measures of discovering unmet needs in family planning and covering target families in family planning are still needed to be done. Vulnerable and poor women could not use the effective way of family planning and die of pregnancy and birth complications[28].
As of 2004 among infectious disease 43.6 percent are sexually transmitted disease and of this 45.2 percent is thrichomonasis, 41.8 percent is gonorrhea and 12.9 percent is syphilis[29] (Graph 12).
Graph 12. Spread of sexually transmitted diseases
16 cases of HIV have been accounted since the first case was registered in 1992. There are several factors that make high risk of spreading HIV/AIDS. These are: population is relatively young; STD are increasing in recent years; number of internal rural to urban migration and cross border movement of people are on the constant increase; HIV/AIDS is rapidly increasing in neighboring countries[30]. Among infectious disease STD and TB incidences remain high.
The adoption of the law on mental health by the Parliament of Mongolia in 2000 and the implementation of the National Program on mental health by the Government since 2002 help create favorable legal condition to improve mental health of population and provide community-based mental health services to them.
As a result of the wide range of reform process, previously maintained and equally distributed social system and welfare was collapsed and loss of employment and livelihood assurance make strong impact on the psychology of the people who used to have everything ready. Moreover, difficulties coupled with economic weakness, poverty, unemployment causes increase such adverse social impacts as crime, alcoholism, violence, prostitution and fuelled upset, fear, the risk of getting mental disorder among population.
90 percent of public expenditure on treatment and rehabilitation and social welfare of mental disorder and alcoholism is spent only with hospitals with beds. There is lack of professionals and human resource to give the community based services of mental health. This indicates that due consideration should be given to the following issues: to make mental health services community and collective based; to give special attention to the measures preventing from mental and behavioral disorder; to reduce and eliminate further unfavorable social factors influencing the mental health of the population; to improve the skills of professional organizations and professionals; to increase encourage participation and support of public, individuals and donors in supporting mental health measures.
Cardiovascular disease, cancer, accident especially children’s accident are major problems for the public health[31]. Health indicators show that out of total death 47.2 percent are 55 or more years old people in the last 5 year average. Among the main cause for their death is 45.1 percent is blood circulation disease, 27.8 percent is cancer, 7.5 respiratory diseases, 6.5 percent is digestive disease and 1.5 percent is accident and other external cause[32]. The traditional activities provided to older persons such as improving their health and social welfare and paying their health insurance and providing free hospital service are needed to reconsidered so the policy should be shifted to create an environment where older persons could follow active and meaningful life. Therefore, every individual and family member should customize in protecting the health of their own and their family members according to their age and sex.
The present unequal infrastructure development, lack of road network make difficult to improve the access to the health services especially to give emergency obstetric care on time. Some factors such as traditional behavior, lack of finance and sectoral cross-cutting coordination, unequal support and participation of Government and non-governmental organizations are detrimental to safe motherhood. In order to accomplish the MDGs to reduce maternal and child mortality the following strategy are sought:
1. To increase the participation and support of Government, NGOs, and donors in reproductive health and safe motherhood activities and to improve inter-sectoral work harmonization and collaboration.
2. To improve the management and organization, and supply of services to mother and child, and strengthen human resources capacity,
3. To improve the quality of, and access to the services for the mother and child through localizing tested practices of international standards and meeting national specifics,
4. To increase the accessibility to reproductive health, and safe motherhood services for the socially vulnerable groups who are in remote places, migrant and live below the living standard,
5. To increase and encourage the support of colleagues, family members, spouses and individuals in getting timely services to prevent from pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal complications.
3.3 Ensuring women’s rights to participate in political, economic and social life
Struggle against women’s poverty: Human development indicators are basic criteria of the country’s human development and progress. Mongolia’s human development indices were 0.668 and 0.679 in 2004 and 2005 respectively according to the World human development reports. Thus Mongolia is a medium ranking country by human development.
For instance, according to the above reports Mongolia ranks in 117 in 2004 and 114th in 2005 out of 177 countries. Mongolia’s per capita GDP by PPP index was $US 1710 in 2004 and $US 1850 in 2005 which is far less that the world average of $US 7804 by PPP index[33].
The World Bank estimates Mongolia’s per capita GDP as $US 480 in 2004 and 514 in 2005 and according to this Mongolia is in the list of low income country[34]. Although these indicators do not fully reflect the real consumption of individuals and households, when compared the average livelihood of Mongolians it is relatively low than that of the world average.
Based on the poverty line 36.1 percent of the population or about 900[35] thousand people are poor. In other word 36 of every 100 people have weak purchasing power to buy basic food and non –food stuff and poverty is widespread. The conclusion of the study is not comparable to the ones done in 1995 and 1998 due to the research methods, however, in general it reveals that poverty has not reduced since. Other indicators of poverty measurement such as poverty depth index (11.0 percent) and poverty severity index (4.7 percent) also disclose that there is inequality among the poor.
Table 11. Poverty indicators (urban, rural and average) by percentage
|
Poverty incidence
PO
|
Poverty depth
P1
|
Poverty severity
P2
|
Urban
|
30.3
|
9.2
|
4.0
|
Rural
|
43.4
|
13.2
|
5.6
|
Average
|
36.1
|
11.0
|
4.7
|
Source: Living Standards Measurement Survey, 2002/2003
According to the Ginni coefficient the consumption gap index for 2002-2003 was .0329. The consumption of top 20 percent of the population was 5.5 times more than that of poor 20 percent.
Graph 13. Ginni coefficient for 1995, 1998 and 2002/2003
Source: Living standards surveys, NSO, 1995, 1998, LSMS, 2002/2003
The indicators of the MDGs and Human development indexes would not display that men and women in Mongolia benefit from the developments unequally. Gender development index in Mongolia was 0.677 in 2005. The Gender Empowerment Measure uses variables constructed explicitly to measure the equal participation of men and women in political and economic spheres of activity.
Mongolia’s GEM of 0.388 in 2005 shows that women’s participation and authority in political and social life are weak.
With increasing consequences of the transition, there are more unresolved problems for women in the society. The most common indicator of women’s income poverty has became the number of female headed poor household. Women are more prone to the unemployment and poverty in particular the life of female headed family with many children is difficult. The number of women who heads the family and carries out everyday life and feed children reached 65.7 thousand[36] at the end of 2004 and this is 16.3 times higher than that of the 2000. Among them one second has 3-5 children and one eighth has 5 and more children. Among the poor the proportion of those who get pensions and live on welfare benefits are high. Though social welfare allowances and pension could be increased in terms of inflation it can not compensate the increase of the price of basic consumer goods. Therefore, it causes the poverty to increase. Those who have extended family and no dependant, disabled persons, low education are more exposed to poverty.
While economic growth is central reducing poverty, social protection policy and programs can also help the vulnerable. These include promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing exposure to risks, and enhancing citizen’s abilities to protect themselves against hazards and interruption or loss of income[37].
Though Government has been implementing number of programs and projects in the social welfare sector, poverty and unemployment remain most contentious issues. During the implementation of National Program on Advancement of the Women’s situation between 1996-2002 many positive developments such as ensuring women’s rights, improving their education level and reproductive health, establishing a system to ensure women’s development happened. During the implementation of the national program on poverty reduction between 1996-2000 additional small projects for women especially women who heads households gave positive support to improve their livelihood. However, both in urban and rural areas women’s poverty especially those who head household lack resources.
Some progress has been made during the implementation of the first phase between 2003-2005 of the National Program for Gender Equality. However, the following observations and conclusions were drawn from the evaluation of this phase: to rectify the distortions in ensuring the equal participation of men and women in political, economic and social and family life; to develop their active cooperation; to change the traditional gender attitudes in the economic activities particularly in employment and labour relations; to reduce gender related negative influence regarding real estate activities; to eliminate the reverse gender gap in education; to reduce maternal mortality; to stop resolutely gender based crimes such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, cross border trafficking in women; to improve gender responsiveness in formulating policies, planning, programs and projects; to practice gender sensitive budget planning; to change stereotypes and balance gender based advertisement in mass media; increase women’s participation in decision making level.
The rights of women to labour. The transition period pose many challenges in clearly defining position of men and women in labour market. Women received far less property than men during the privatization and started their private business, however they are exposed to more risk in using equal opportunities in the labour market. Due to the labour market irregulation, investment returns in women’s education have been slow and thus may reduce their contribution to the economic growth.
The weakening of the day-care institutions for preschool children during the transition period is one of the factors to adversely influence the capacity of women in competing freely in the labour market. Reduction in production and real budget, income decline, increase of living cost hit hard women than men.
For Mongolia, unemployment and poverty are new phenomena and women are more prone to them. Statistics in the transition period showed the unemployment rate for women is always high than for men and at the end of the 2004 it reached 3.9 percent which is 0.6 points higher than that of men[38].
Graph 14. Unemployment rate by sex 1992-2004
Source: Annual report on employment, NSO, 2005
The more poor the households and family the higher the rate of poverty among women headed household and they became more prone to unemployment and poverty. Causes of poverty are unemployment, income decline, loss of their dependent, deterioration of health and education, deprivation of natural resources. The ways to get rid off and prevent from poverty is to increase employment, to provide jobs for unemployed people, to improve the quality of their professional skills and education, to eliminate unemployment among working age population.
Mongolia is a party to 16 ILO agreements and conventions on labour and Labour Code of Mongolia ensures the equal right of men and women in labour relations. Adoption of the laws such as Law on Employment Support, Law on Sending work force abroad and Receiving work force and specialists from abroad, and National Program on Employment Support in 2001 and Social Security Strategy Paper in 2003 was the important step in creating favorable legal environment to support employment of women and prevent them from the discrimination against employment.
According to the Law on Employment Support a fund for employment support was established and designed at financing following type of entities and activities: to give incentives to employers who provided job for those who are not able to find job through mediation; to guarantee loan with low interest rate to those who work collectively or individually, self-employed, create new work place for unemployed; and to finance measures and services aimed at job mediation, providing professional skills and information.
Law on Civil servants(2002), Law on Management and Financing of the Public Organizations enable the equal opportunity, open competitive conditions to entering into civil service, and that a civil servant will be hired, transferred and dismissed and promoted only on the merit of knowledge, education, profession, expertise, and skills.
However, there is lack of official legal explanation and recommendation elaborating discrimination and favoritism as well as the principle of open competition which in turn may deny or violate equality in the labor relations or work and profession and employment sector.
According to the labour force participation survey as of the end of 2004, 51.6[39] percent of working age population and 51.0 percent of economically active population or work force were women.
Though the proportion of labor force participation of women has seen a modest increase in recent years, in general labor force participation of men is higher than that of women. (65.2 for men, 63.6 for women)
According to sex and age segregation, labor force participation of women between the ages of 30-49 is relatively higher than men’s participation and in other age categories women’s participation is relatively lower than men’s (Graph 15).
In particularly the low proportion of labour force participation of women between the ages of 16-29 indicates that more women in this age study more than men. It is also connected that women over 50 years old retire for pension.
Graph 15. The proportion of the labour force participation as of 2004
( by sex and age category)
Source: Annual report on employment, NSO, 2005
As of 2004, the proportion of women employment was 61.2 percent. By sex structure, employment of women and men is almost the same as it was elaborated in the graph 16. However, by age group employment of men is a little higher than that of women.
The proportion of women employment is higher than that of men in the fields such as health, social welfare, hotels, restaurants, education, finance, wholesale and retail trade, home appliance repair services and processing industry.
But the proportion of men employment is higher that that of women in the fields such as mining, prospecting industry, electricity production, water supply services, transportation, communication, construction, administrative management, defense, formal insurance sector (See graph 17).
Graph 16. Number of work force as of 2004, by sex and age
Source: Annual report on employment, NSO, 2005
Gender gap is seen in the amount of average salary owing to the fact that men are majority in high paid economic activities and women are majority in less paid services sector.
Unemployment and poverty force women to go for work in informal sectors and unpaid household activities. Due to reasons that there is no system of retraining unemployed women, low employment in private sector and decline in income the interest of men and women to work in informal sector is increasing. Many women are employed in informal sector. However, different surveys showed different numbers such as 69, 54, 45, about the proportion of women employed in informal sectors. Most of the retail traders do not pay for the social welfare and health insurance so they are in risky situation.
Recent years people choose to engage in household activities because of the less tax burden and chance to avoid registration. In this connection, it is pertinent to study the household entity model suited for Mongolia. In general it is time to change the ways and method, activities of conducting business into just and equal playing ground. There is a tendency that the entities based on natural resources and women’s activities are increasing and they are unsustainable and insecure. With increase of the livestock related activities the burden of herding women is increasing. More exposure of herders to the climate change, consequent drought and zud, loss of pasture land and livestock cause difficulties in the labour relations in the rural areas and burdensome.
Graph 17. Sector employment as of 2004 by sex[40]
48.3
51.0
65.5
64.9
43.5
51.8
61.0
41.2
64.8
59.8
43.1
37.6
53.6
30.4
47.6
51.7
49.0
34.5
35.1
56.5
48.2
39.0
58.8
35.2
40.2
56.9
62.4
46.4
69.6
52.4
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Others
Other services provided to community & individuals
Health and Social welfare
Education
State administration & defense
Real estate, business activities
Financial services
Transport, Storage and Communications
Restaurant, hotels
Whole and retail sale, home appliance repair
Construction
Electricity, heat & power production, water supply
Processing industries
Mining, Extraction
Agriculture, hunting, forestry
female
male
Source: Annual report on employment, NSO, 2005
Among women employment issues of the disabled persons’ employment should be looked at however there is a lack of information. According to the registration and sample survey of disabled persons done by NSO with the support from the ADB, as of May, 2004 the registered 69 263 disabled persons are 2.8 percent of the total population. By sex, 3.1 percent of men population and 2.5 percent of women population are disabled.
General survey among disabled persons shows that rate of disabled men employed is slightly higher than that of women (28.3 percent for men, 24.0 percent for women). Among employed disabled persons 56.9 percent are in private sectors, 16.4 percent engages in family business without a pay and 12.8 percent are contract workers.
There are not few cases of discrimination where business entities and their official representations choose their employees based on factors not related to their job performance but on personnel appearance or illegally giving preferences. This limits the equal opportunity provided by law and discriminates. This type of discrimination also is appearing in mass media advertisements.
Recent years discrimination by political affiliation and party affiliation is not only to party members and supporters but also non-party members is on the increase.
There are many inappropriate cases in terms of hiring into and dismissing from the job, and providing salary, labour condition, as well as guaranteeing security. Such cases are common in private entities in particular women are working long hours in garment factors with foreign investment where salary is too low and exploited, and they become victims of health and loose working ability.
Also there is discrimination against women in hiring into job by their nature of having children and age. Therefore, according to the amended law on Employment support the employers would get incentives of 60 percent of salary of the first 6 months given to employees of following categories: female or male head household with 4 or more children under 16 years old; disabled person who lost more than 50 percent of working capacity or dwarfs; those who are more than 45 years old and unemployed and may loose employment; full orphans who graduated from the high school and vocational training schools in the same year; those registered at the labour market and looking for a job more than 1 year.
As the country is moving towards the market economy, small business activities with official registration and permission, as well without permission are becoming popular. This trend was an important tool to increase employment and income, to reduce goods and services deficit at the beginning of the transition period.
According to the NSO informal sector produced 13.7 percent of GDP or worth of 200.6 billion tugrug of work and services in 2003. The sample survey on workforce done by NSO with the support from the ADB in 2002/2003 says that of the total of 126.0 thousand employees in the informal sector 56.4 thousand or 44.8 percent are women.
The unregulated practice of informal employment makes difficult to reveal the socio-economic indicators rightly and define development policies. As for the 2003, 87.4 percent of employees in formal sector is encouraged by social insurance but only 4 percent of those in informal sectors is encouraged. In informal sectors violating labour safety, sanitation requirements, and right to labour is widespread.
The provisions of the labour Code does not apply to those who work including women in the informal sector therefore, the parliament adopted a policy document on informal employment. The implementing this policy informal sector employees in particular women could be provided with favorable environment to be registered and provided with information, management, methodology and through such activities making them formal employees and establishing legal, economic, labour and social welfare guarantee to protect from risk, so that increases economic growth and improves quality and quantity of employment, raises living standards.
The market pressure is more felt for those who has household labour without salary. As the formal employment and income shrink and informal sectors and household activities increase and expand, workload of women and their work time hours increased. The 2002/2003 NSO sample survey on workforce revealed that women are more participating in non-economic activities than men. For instance, women spent 31.8 hours per week for non-economic activities while men spent 17.5 hours and the country’s average was 25 hours. This clearly indicates that women spent more time on unpaid household activities and there is already a gender gap. This shows the necessity to conduct time use surveys and make conclusion.
Some business entities and foreign invested companies avoid to establish labour contract and collective contract stipulated by laws and regulations and do not allow the activities of trade unions which protect legal rights and interest of the employees. Some of them avoid on purpose from paying fees for social welfare and health insurance, and violate the rights of employees to protect their health, to get medical services, to get allowance in case of loosing working ability and getting older and birth and maternal leave because of hiring the employees not by the labour contract but individual contract.
Small business entities are still avoiding to follow the provisions concerning the rights of employment and reproductive health in laws and regulations. There is almost no understanding about mutual responsibility in the informal sector.
There is no legal official regulations reflecting gender perspectives in collecting, analyzing, disseminating and sex disaggregating indicators such as monthly average salary, labour productivity of employees working in the gender related economic activities; monthly average salary and labour productivity of main professional employees; monthly average allowance of pension and welfare; time use; number of persons in the formal and informal sectors; age; residency and income. Also quantities and qualitive statistics of labour market and its extend, and reliability, inadequate, and some facts and information are different because of different sources.
There is lack of activities in making research and compiling information necessary to carry out gender equality policies in the labour relations; making gender analysis of the discrimination in the labour; improving the understanding of gender issues; and integrating gender equality concept into labour policy and activities.
It is proposed that the following measures should be taken in order to realize the equal labour relations based on the gender based labour market.
1. To amend the Civil Code, Labour Code and Criminal Code in order improve the legal understanding and regulations of the activities such as discrimination or favoritism which in turn may deny or violate equality or equal opportunity in the labor relations or work and profession and employment sector and to impose administrative punishment for the above activities and make the punishment heavier;
2. To stop any activities discriminating employees by age, sex, appearance, party affiliation and membership which deny or violate their work and profession, labour opportunity or labour right; in cooperation with civil society organizations to organize monitoring and inspection activities to disclose any contracts and agreements demanding women refuse to become pregnant or her right to look after the children.
3. To conduct a survey concerning the changing trend of gender based labour distribution, time use and unpaid work assessment; to localize gender responsive social mindset of labour relations in all levels; to advocate and publicize the status and contributions of women in economic and social development
4. To raise the assessment and methodology on accounting of household labour among men and women according to international standards and rules and take periodical actions in order to reflect the unpaid household work into the National Accountancy system as a satellite account.
Privatization and right of women to property: Privatization process involves itself many economic and political objectives so in transition countries it was considered that mass transfer of state owned property to private owners would be important prerequisite to transit from centrally planned economy to market oriented economy.
Privatization was a main component of the reform process in Mongolia and studies and researchers consider this country as successfully realized privatization program comparing to the former Soviet Republics. But K. Griffin[41] and others have studied some issues of the Mongolian privatization such as its importance was exaggerated, or it was done in hurry. Privatization in Mongolia was successfully implemented in some part, but it had very little support to overcome the transition difficulties.
Privatization in Mongolia starts when the Government, which owned 75 percent of the total property in 1991 started to distribute vouchers to the people first time. Livestock was privatized in 1992 and housing privatization took place between 1996-1997.
As result of the privatization livestock herders could have the right to own property and conduct their own business and it was one of the biggest result but equal benefits were not secured. According to the 2000 statistics information, 96.7 percent of total livestock was private and a family owns 135 heads of livestock in average.
Some analysts say that in general livestock privatization process was just and well organized but looking at the present situation privatization policy may have had mistakes too. For instance, livestock was given to individuals so that families with different number of members did not receive equal number of livestock. When the first privatization of livestock started numbers of them were few and the process was done in rush, state-owned agricultural cooperatives were dismantled, the social consequences of the process were not foreseen, including adaptation to the unexpected harsh climate conditions. This left the herdsmen with few head of livestock and makes adverse impact on increasing their income and going out of poverty.
Banks and other financial institutions require at least 500 head of livestock for loan guarantee and most of the herdsmen with few of them are left out the financial services and lack of the opportunity to conduct and invest in their household activities[42].
Between May 1997 and end of 1998, worth of 370 billion tugrug 84 584 houses were privatized and about 22 percent of the population benefits from this[43]. Housing privatization did not benefit most of the city poor and rural population. But those who had apartment, bought new houses use them a loan guarantee and rent and conduct business activities as well make it as source of property. So the housing and livestock privatization somehow increased the inequality in the property distribution.
According to the survey results on privatized small and medium size industries and entities almost all of them after the privatization laid off the workers[44]. Between 1992- 2000 average employment rate was decreased per companies and entities.
Table 6. Average employment rate among privatized entities
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
1996
|
1997
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
|
Average employment
|
270
|
198
|
162
|
136
|
105
|
79
|
67
|
63
|
42
|
56
|
74
|
Source: Privatization, Income distribution and Poverty, Survey by Ministry of Finance, Poverty research group, UNDP, Ulaanbaatar, 2004
46 percent of privatized properties such as apartments and livestock are registered only in the name of husband and 30.5 percent is jointly by husband and wife, 16 percent is in the name of wife[45].
The Parliament of Mongolia adopted a historic decision of privatizing land in 2002. According this decision semi property system dominated in the city and its surroundings were expanded and the right to change, inherit, sell an own longer time and rent and mortgage. A family should list all the adult members in the certificate of the land ownership.
There is a lack of information if land registration is made in the name of men or jointly. Therefore it is not possible at the moment to define the tendency[46]. Gender approach in terms of land ownership and use is not sufficiently reflected in the related laws and regulations and the understanding about equal ownership of land among family members and spouses is different.
Due consideration should be given to the active participation of women in the land privatization program. There is a necessity to establish a system look gender perspectives during the implementation of the law on land privatization and to disseminate the understanding among public about the importance of owning joint properties and risk of listing immovable properties in name of individual, to properly reflect the gender issues related to family properties in the case divorce and inheritance in the laws and regulations in a balanced way.
Political right of women: Let’s look at the implementation of right to elect and to be elected which is the key indicator of the political right of people. Today in Mongolia the elections procedures are being done according to the Laws on the parliamentary elections (1992), on presidential elections, and on the elections of the citizen’s representatives to the province, city and districts. Elections are held every 4 years according to the Constitution and other relevant laws and regulations. But the laws do not precisely define the principle of equal elections[47].
During the transition period women’s participation in economic and political spheres increased, however their proportion in the decision making and managerial level has not dramatically increased. In order to rectify declining of women’s participation in political decision making level from the of previous time, the National Program for Gender Equality set an objective to increase women’s representation in the political decision making level and in managerial positions of civil administrative services from 15 percent to 30 percent by 2004.
In 1992, 13 percent of the women candidates were elected to the parliament, 28 percent in 1996 and 12 percent in 2000 made Gender Equality indicators down. According to the 2004 elections statistics, of total 68 women candidates from several parties only 2.2 percent were elected. This is also associated that leading political parties nominated less women candidates than before[48].
The representation of women in the national parliament has declined sharply and is well below the international 30% target set at the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women. Women were 23% of the total in 1990, 3% in 1992, and about 11% following the 1996 and 2000 elections. After the 2004 election, representation declined further to 6.5 %.
Table 13 shows that these low rates extend to all levels of political decision making. This is surprising considering the high participation rate of women in the workforce, but mirrors the fact that women rarely hold senior positions in either the public or private sectors[49].
Table 7. The proportion of women in political decision making positions
1997
|
2001
|
2004*
|
||||
Total
|
Women
|
Total
|
Women
|
Total
|
Women
|
|
President
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
Speaker of Parliament
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
Deputy Speaker
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
Prime Minister
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
Member of Parliament
|
76
|
8
|
76
|
9
|
76
|
5
|
Cabinet Members
|
9
|
1
|
11
|
0
|
17
|
1
|
All level of Governors (aimag, soum, city, district)
|
373
|
9
|
338
|
11
|
338
|
|
Ambassadors
|
28
|
0
|
30
|
1
|
28
|
1
|
Chairpersons of Local citizen’s representatives of Province and
capital city
|
22
|
0
|
22
|
0
|
22
|
1
|
Sources: 1997 data Women’s Information Referral Centre from UNIFEM 2001; and 2001 data from Survey.
“Political Participation of Women,” Gender Centre for Sustainable Development, 2002;
According to the Mongolia’s Gender assessment report, the financial resources required to run a campaign have risen sharply at each election, and women find it harder than their male counterparts to raise the funds required. Nominating candidates within parties is also complex and favors males with existing networks. Senior party members also ran female candidates against each other which was arguably the main factor in reducing the number of women elected in 2004.
The gender empowerment measure (GEM) uses variables explicitly constructed to measure the relative empowerment of women and men in politics and economics. Mongolia’s GEM was 0.458[50] in 2002 which was lower than its GDI. The indicators showing the low level of political participation of women lowers the women’s relatively high participation in economic activities[51].
Though citizens enjoy the equal opportunity without discrimination to participate in the elections by law, National Commission for Human Rights made a survey if this principle is followed by at the all level of elections. According to the survey, some cases of violations of such as imbalance among the representation between parties, coalitions and non-party in the constituencies and local committees, creating barriers to non-party representation, and late formation of constituencies and local committees, have adverse impact on the citizen’s right to elect and to be elected[52].
At the initiative of Foundation for Women Leader representatives of NGOs worked with the Parliament Working Group on making amendments and changes to the Law on Political parties and reflected their joint proposals to that law.
As a result the women members at the Parliament supported the following two provisions such as parties will provide equal opportunity not to discriminate by gender to represent at the parties’ decision making level and nominate to participate in the elections, choosing its cadres without discrimination, to be incorporated in the law.
Following these provisions parties, for instance those who have seats in the parliament took some steps to increase women participation in their activities including reflecting this issue in their parties’ rules and policy documents.
The amended law on Parliamentary Elections adopted in 2006 states that no less than 30 percent of candidates nominated by party and coalition to elections will be women. It is a bid step forward.
Graph 18. The proportion of women in civil administrative service
by position (percentage)
Source: Report of the composition and movement of civil servants, 2004
Secretariat of the Council of Civil servants
Civil society institutions have also developed during this period of government reform and democratization. NGOs headed by women pioneered awareness raising on democratic values and practices. International NGOs have provided support to these organizations facilitating the emergence of several highly reputed women’s NGOs that promote gender equality at various levels though few NGOs can implement development programs.
Most are only active in Ulaanbaatar and do not work at the grassroots level. There is also a lack of capacity among NGOs to carry out gender analyses[53].
Cooperation and collaboration of civil society organizations, women’s efforts and initiative and unity play important role in increasing women’s participation in political sphere but women NGOs can not unite their voices and activities together, lacks united policy and power.
The following graph displays the position and proportion of women at the managerial level in the civil service.
Graph 19. Women in civil administration service by position and proportion
Source: Report of the composition and movement of civil servants, 2004
Secretariat of the Council of Civil servants
The Government proposes to take the following measures to increase women’s position and proportions in political and decision making levels.
1. To support the initiatives and new form of cooperation from the civil society organizations in order to customize the understanding and right trend among public to ensure the significance of increased political participation of women
2. To constantly improve voter education, to conduct training and advocacy campaign among voters to improve their requirements for the elected or appointed leaders gender responsiveness and raise their responsibilities
3. To support policy of the political parties, and activities of their women affiliates in order to prepare women to serve in leadership positions and ensure their participation at the decision making levels.
Annex 1
Reflection of the recommendations on 3rd and 4th periodic report of Mongolia from the Committee on
Elimination of discrimination against women in this report
Reference #
|
Recommendations
|
Response reflected in the current report
|
16
|
The Committee notes with deep concern the deteriorating situation
of women in Mongolia in a period of economic transformation.
It expresses its particular concern that the Government has
failed to prevent the erosion of women’s rights to economic
advancement, health, education, political participation and personal
security.
|
|
17
|
The Committee urges the Government to protect and promote
women’s human rights and to utilize the development and
technical resources available as well as the human resources of the
country, including civil society and women’s groups, so
as to reverse this
trend.
|
Page 10 in part 2
|
18
|
The Committee expresses concern that poverty is widespread among women as a
consequence of privatization and other factors linked
to the transition to a
market economy.
|
Page 39 in 3.3.
|
19
|
The Committee calls upon the Government to collect data and information on
women living in poverty, disaggregated by age and according
to urban and rural
areas; to develop targeted policies and support services; to make efforts to
prevent more women from falling below
the poverty line; and in particular to
address the situation of households headed by women
|
Page 30 in 3.3
|
20
|
The Committee expresses its concern that, although the Constitution
provides for the equality of all citizens before the law, it does not reflect
the definition of discrimination in article 1 of the
Convention, which prohibits
both direct and indirect discrimination. It also expresses its concern that
there are no remedies available
to women to redress violations of their
rights.
|
Page 5 in part 2
|
21
|
The Committee calls upon the Government to undertake legal reforms so as to
ensure that the full meaning of article 1 of the Convention
is reflected in the
country’s Constitution.
|
Ibid
|
22
|
The Committee notes that a series of laws have been enacted but have not
been analyzed for their potentially discriminatory impact
on women. It expresses
its concern that laws are not effectively enforced so as to protect
women’s human rights.
|
Page 8 in part 2
|
23
|
The Committee calls upon the Government to review and reform all gender
discriminatory laws, in consultation with professional and
women’s groups.
It urges the Government to strengthen law enforcement and to provide effective
remedies through the courts.
The Committee requests the Government to develop legal literacy programs
for the community and gender-sensitization programs for judges
and law
enforcement officials.
|
Page 5 in part 2
|
24
|
The Committee notes with concern that Mongolia has not yet specifically
developed gender-sensitization and legal literacy programs
for its large
population of young people.
|
Page 19 in 3.1.
|
25
|
The Committee calls upon the Government to extend its distance education
programs for young people so as to include programs on gender
education as soon
as possible.
|
Page 14 in 3.1.
|
26
|
The Committee expresses its concern that the high achievement levels of
women in education are not reflected in their participation
in national and
local legislative bodies, and in decision-making posts in administration.
|
Page 41 in 3.3.
|
27
|
The Committee expresses its deep concern that the phenomenon of violence
against women has not been adequately addressed in laws,
policies and programs.
It expresses particular concern at the long delay in enacting the proposed
legislation on domestic violence.
|
Page 6 in part 2
|
28
|
The Committee urges the Government to enact the proposed domestic violence
law, including marital rape provisions, to strengthen law
enforcement and to
develop a holistic range of initiatives to respond to violence against women in
the light of general recommendation
19 of the Committee and the Declaration on
the Elimination of Violence against Women.
|
Ibid
|
29
|
The Committee urges the Government to introduce temporary special measures,
in conformity with the Convention, and programs on public
awareness and human
rights education that will create a supportive environment for women’s
greater participation in public
life.
|
Page 10 in part 2
|
30
|
The Committee notes that a range of institutions and agencies deal with
gender issues in an ad hoc manner and do not coordinate their
work. The
Committee expresses its concern that, although the Government has recognized the
weakness of the national machinery, it
has not provided information on new
initiatives to address this problem.
|
Ibid
|
31
|
The Committee urges the Government to establish strong and effective
national machinery so that the Convention and the Beijing Platform
for Action
can be integrated into development plans. It considers that gender mainstreaming
must be effectively coordinated and monitored.
The Committee recommends that
gender concerns be integrated into the work of the Commission on Human Rights
and that women be appointed
as members of this body.
|
Page 9 in part 2
|
32
|
The Committee expresses its concern that limited steps have been taken to
combat prostitution and trafficking of women
|
Page 8 in part 2
|
33
|
The Committee urges the Government to take steps to prosecute persons
engaged in organizing prostitution and to adopt effective measures
to combat
trafficking of women.
|
Ibid
|
34
|
The Committee expresses its deep concern at the negative impact of
privatization on women’s access to adequate health care and
education.
|
Page 22 in 3.2.
|
35
|
The Committee calls upon the Government to ensure that these services are
not reduced and that, in particular, the areas of health
and education do not
suffer as a result of privatization.
|
Ibid
|
36
|
The Committee expresses its concern that Mongolia places the responsibility
of family and childcare exclusively on women, particularly
as the population
policy encourages women to have large families. It notes that this situation
encourages their marginalization in
the economy and exacerbates poverty.
|
Page 23 in 3.2.
|
37
|
The Committee urges the Government to develop laws, policies and
educational programs that support and promote the idea of joint parental
responsibility and prevent discrimination against women because of their family
responsibilities.
|
Page 8 in part 2
|
38
|
The Committee expresses its concern about the high level of unemployment of
women.
|
Page 32 in 3.3.
|
39
|
The Committee urges the Government to establish a legislative basis that
will ensure women equal access to the labour market and equal
opportunities to
work and prevent direct and indirect discrimination in employment. It calls upon
the Government to implement unemployment
policies aimed at reducing the level of
unemployment of women.
|
Page 33 in 3.3.
|
40
|
The Committee expresses its concern with regard to women’s health
throughout their life cycle. The Committee also expresses
its concern that
economic hardship impacts negatively on women’s reproductive and mental
health. In particular, the Committee
notes with concern the acute problem of
maternal mortality, owing in part to abortions performed under unsafe conditions
and the
non-availability of family planning services.
|
Page 20 in 3.2.
|
41
|
The Committee urges the Government to maintain adequate safe, affordable
and accessible physical and mental health services for women
throughout their
life cycle. It also urges the Government to increase access, particularly in the
rural areas, to affordable contraceptives
for women and men, and to provide sex
education to girls and boys.
|
Ibid
|
42
|
The Committee expresses its concern that much of the information provided
in the oral and written responses was not related to the
current situation of
women in Mongolia.
|
-
|
43
|
The Committee requests that the Government provide pertinent information on
the situation of women in its next report, as well as
information on the other
concerns raised in the present concluding comments.
|
This comment was reflected in the report.
|
44
|
The Committee encourages the Government to ratify the Optional Protocol to
the Convention.
|
Page 3 in part 1
|
45
|
The Committee requests the wide dissemination in Mongolia of the present
concluding comments in order to make the people, in particular
governmental
administrators and politicians, aware of the steps that have been taken to
ensure the de jure and de facto equality
of women and of the further steps that
are required in this regard. It requests the Government to continue to
disseminate widely,
in particular to women’s and human rights
organizations, the Convention and its Optional Protocol, the Committee’s
general
recommendations, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the
results of the twenty-third special session of the General
Assembly, entitled
“Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first
century”.
|
Page 11 in part 2
|
[1] Mongolian Statistical Yearbook, NSO, Ulaanbaatar 2005
[2] Report on Human Rights and Freedom in Mongolia, 2002-2005, Mongolian National Commission for Human Rights, Ulaanbaatar
[3] From the Report of the Seminar “Current Situation of Crime Victims and Improvement of the Situation”
[4] Report on Human Rights and Freedom in Mongolia. 2002-2005, Mongolian National Commission for Human Rights, Ulaanbaatar
[5] Experts from the speech by Mr. Shi.Batbayar, Ministry of Social Welfare and Labour, at National Forum on “Gender and Development”
[6] 2000 Population and Housing Census. Ulaanbaatar. 2000.
[7] Statistical Data on the 2004/2005 academic year from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, 2004
[8] Social Sector Privatization, Reform and Privatization in the Health Sector, 2004
[9] Social Sector Privatization, Reform and Privatization in the Health Sector, 2004
[10] Health Sector Master Plan
[11] Human Development Report of Mongolia, 2003
[12] Health Sector Master Plan
[13] Report of the implementation on the Government Plan of Action, 2004
[14] Health Sector Master Plan
[15] State policy on Population development
[16] Health Statistics, 2004
[17] Health Statistics, 2004
[18] Institute of Social health, 2004
[19] Current Situation on Maternal Mortality, 2001,2002,2003, MoH, Maternal and Children Research Centre
[20] Survey on Reproductive Health, Ulaanbaatar, 2003, NSO, UNFPA
[21] Health sector, 2003
[22] National report on MDGs, 2003
[23] Health Statistics, 2004
[24] Health Statistics, 2004
[25] Why mother dies? 2006, ADB, Maternal and Children Research Centre
[26] Health Statistics, 2003
[27] Assessment of the Strategy on improving quality of services for abortion & family planning and reducing repeated abortion, 2003
[28] Why mother dies? 2006, ADB, Maternal and Children research centre
[29] Health indicators, 2004
[30] Health indicators, 2004
[31] Health sector Master Plan
[32] National Program on Health for older persons
[33] World Human Development Report, 2004, 2005
[34] World Human Development Indicators, 2004
[35] Living Standard Measurement Survey, 2002/2003
[36] Annual yearbook on Statistics, NSO, Ulaanbaatar 2005
[37] Social Security Sector Strategic Document, MSWL, 2003
[38] Annual yearbook on Statistics, NSO, Ulaanbaatar, 2005
[39] Annual yearbook on Statistics, NSO, Ulaanbaatar, 2005
[40] Annual report on Employment, NSO, 2005
[41] K. Griffin. Poverty and Transition to market economy in Mongolia, UNDP, Ulaanbaatar, 1994
[42] Privatization, Income distribution and Poverty, Survey report, Ministry of Finance, UNDP, UB, 2004
[43] Privatization, Income distribution and Poverty, Survey report, Ministry of Finance, UNDP, UB, 2004
[44] Privatization, Income distribution and Poverty, Survey report, Ministry of Finance, UNDP, UB, 2004
[45] Country Gender Assessment, ADB, WB, 2005
[46] Country Gender Assessment, ADB, WB, 2005
[47] Report on Human Rights and Freedom in Mongolia. 2002-2005, Mongolian National Commission for Human Rights. Ulaanbaatar
[48] Presentation by Ms. Ichinnorov at the Conference on Participation of Women in politics: Challenges and Tendency, Ulaanbaatar, 21 Oct. 2004
[49] Country Gender Assessment, ADB, WB, 2005
[50] Human development report: Urban-rural disparities in Mongolia, Government of Mongolia, UNDP, 2004
[51] Country Gender Assessment, ADB, WB, 2005
[52] Report on Human Rights and Freedom in Mongolia. 2002-2005, Mongolian National Commission for Human Rights, Ulaanbaatar
[53] Country Gender Assessment, ADB, WB, 2005
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