mdg9_report_mongolia10 by Werner Schneider

Mongolia

MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL-9 INDICATORS AND THE STATE OF DEMOCRACY IN MONGOLIA

“Support in Achieving MDG-9 on Human Rights and Democratic Governance” Project Institute of Philosophy, Sociology, and Law of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences United Nations Development Program

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 2009 2

DDC 352.37 P-93

This report has been prepared within the scope of the Support in Achieving MDG-9 on Human Rights and Democratic Governance Project, MON 07/102, implemented jointly by the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the UNDP Mongolia, and the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). For more information on the MDG-9 Project activities, please visit www.mdg9.mn

Prepared by:

Chuluunbaatar Gelegpil, National Project Director Hulan Hashbat, National Adviser Tsetsenbileg Tseveen, National Project Manager Dorjsuren Perenlei, Research Team Leader Hatanbold Oidov, Admin/Finance Assistant

G.Gankhuyag, ‘Sansudai’ Printing House О.Hatanbold

Cover photos by:

‘PRO-Photo’ Agency

Table of Contents List of Abbreviations List of Chart and Tables Foreword Summary Part I. Millennium Development Goal â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 9 Indicators: Methodology and Baseline I.1. Background I.2. International Experience in Assessing Governance I.3. Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Experience in Developing Democratic Governance Indicators (DGIs) I.4. MDG-9 Indicators Project Brief I.5. Process of Developing MDG-9 Indicators I.6. Description of MDG-9 Indicators 1. 2.

Human Development Index Expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions 3. Percentage of implementation and enforcement of judicial decisions 4. Number of attorneys that provide services to citizens that are not able to pay for such services 5. Public perception of political, economic, and financial independence of mass media 6. Number of state organizations that regularly place reports of their budgets and expenditures on their websites 7. Public perception of activities of state organizations 8. Number of civil society organizations that have officially expressed their views in the process of developing and approving the state budget 9. Percentage of voters that have participated in nominating governors of soums and baghs 10. Index of corruption 11. Perception of corruption in political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions 4

12. Public perception of corruption in public administration and public services

I.7. Summary Baseline Report on MDG-9 Indicators I.8. Reports on Specific Indicators I.9. Concept Note on the MDG-9 Module in the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey I.10. MDG-9 Government Interventionsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Matrix Part II. The State of Democracy in Mongolia, 2008 II.1. Country Information Note -II II.2. Summary Report on the State of Democracy in Mongolia, 2007-2008

List of Abbreviations CIN CSI DGI DIAL GoM HDI IAAC ICNRD IDEA IPSL M&E MAS MDGs MOJIA NPA NSO PMMS RTD SGH UNDEF UNDP

Country Information Note Civil Society Index Democratic Governance Indicator Developement Institutions et Analyses de Long Terme Government of Mongolia Human Development Index Independent Authority Against Corruption International Conference of New or Restored Democracies Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law Monitoring and Evaluation Mongolian Academy of Sciences Millennium Development Goals Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs National Plan of Action National Statistical Office Poverty, MDGs Monitoring and Assessment System Support Roundtable Discussion State Great Hural United Nations Democracy Fund United Nations Development Program

List of Mongolian Terms State Great Hural Aimag

Soum Bagh District Horoo Hural Tugrug

Parliament of Mongolia Territorial and administrative unit of Mongolia Mongolia is administratively divided into 21 aimags. Aimags are divided into soums which are further divided into baghs. Smaller administrative rural unit, of which there are 340 in Mongolia. Smallest administrative rural unit, of which there are 1541 in Mongolia. Smaller urban administrative unit, of which there are 9 districts in Ulaanbaatar. Smallest urban administrative unit, of which there are over 121 in Ulaanbaatar. Local council National currency of Mongolia.

List of Charts and Tables Table 1. Table 2. Table 3. Table 4. Table 5. Table 6. Table 7. Table 8. Table 9. Table 10. Table 11. Table 12. Table 13. Table 14. Table 15. Table 16. Table 17. Table 18. Table 19. Table 20. Table 21. Table 22. Table 23. Table 24. Table 25. Table 26. Table 27. Table 28. Table 29. Table 30. Table 31. Table 32. Table 33.

Baseline of MDG-9 Indicators, 2008 MDG-9 Indicators Expert Evaluation of Conformity of Mongolian Legislation with International Human Rights Treaties and Conventions-I Results of the Survey on Public Perception of Political, Economic and Financial Independence of Mass Media Citizens’ Trust in Mass Media Public Perception of Activities of State Organizations Citizens’ Trust in the State Institutions Corruption Magnitude Corruption Forms Corruption Indices by Sectors Corruption Indices by Provinces/Aimags Results of the Survey on Public Perception of Corruption in Public Administration and Public Services Conformity of National Legislation with International Human Rights Treaties and Conventions-I Conformity of National Legislation with International Human Rights Treaties and Conventions-II 2008 Budget Implementation Reports and 2009 Budget Plan Information as Reflected in Respective Websites of Aimags and the Capital 2008 Budget Implementation Reports and 2009 Budget Plan Information as Reflected in Respective Websites of the State Great Hural, the Government of Mongolia and Its Agencies Percentage of the Individual Indicators Provides a Numeric Expression for the Indicator on Public Perception of Mass Media Question Sets for Performance of State Organizations Component Matrix I Component Matrix II Public Perception of Petty Corruption Democratic Governance (Experts’ Assessment) Impediments in Having Issues Resolved by Courts, 2008 Perceptions of Participants in the Survey on Court Activities Impediments in Obtaining Employment Evaluation by Respondents in the Survey on Social Insurance and Social Welfare Performance, 2008 Levels of Discrimination in the Social Protection Sphere Survey Respondents’ Replies to the Question “How Often Do You and Your Family Members Encounter the Following? Assessment by Respondents of the Fairness of the Election Commission and Local Offices What Are the Causes of Unfair Conduct?, 2008 Level of Trust in Political and Other Institutions, 2008 Share of Women and Men in the Civil Service Police Performance Assessment by Respondents in the Police Activities 7

Table 34. Table 35. Table 36. Table 37. Table 38. Table 39. Table 40. Chart 1. Chart 2. Chart 3. Chart 4. Chart 5. Chart 6. Chart 7. Chart 8. Chart 9. Chart 10. Chart 11. Chart 12. Chart 13. Chart 14. Chart 15. Chart 16. Chart 17.

Survey, 2008 Where Do You Think Conflict of Interest is Most Likely to Reveal Itself at Its Fullest? Levels of Corruption in the Mongolian Society?, 2008 Ability of Survey Respondents to Obtain Timely Information from Government Agencies Levels of Trust Shown by Respondents in various Mass Media, 2008 Respondents on Their NGO Affiliation Types of Relations and Their Influence in Political Sphere as Seen by Survey Respondents Perception of the Level of the Media’s Political, Economic and Financial Independence, 2008 Mongolia’s Democratic Governance Indicators, 2006 Process of Developing MDG-9 Indicators MDG-9 Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism Classification of Crime Cases Where Legal Assistance was Provided Stages of Criminal Proceedings Where Advocates were Engaged to Protect Clients’ Rights Most Corrupt Sector (Scale 1-5: 1-uncorrupt, 5-very corrupt) Which of the Following Affects Corruption Mostly? (Scale 1-5: 1uncorrupt, 5-very corrupt) Financing of Implementation of National Programs Public Perception of Implementation of Laws, 2008 Public Perception of Obstructions to Implementation of Law, 2008 Discrimination in Health Sector, 2005, 2008 Seat Distribution in the SGH, 2008 Elections Governance Matters VII, Mongolia Public Perception of the Most Corrupt Sector Issues that Government Needs to Address Citizen Participation in the Decision-Making Process Net Migration Coefficient for Ulaanbaatar (2000-2007)

FOREWORD In September 2000, the Millennium Summit convened by the UN in New York

adopted the Millennium Declaration with eight global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at reducing poverty and improving health, education, gender equality, and environmental protection. Mongolia along with other countries formulated its national MDGs and targets reflecting the demands of Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social progress. On 21 April 2005, the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia adopted a resolution on the national MDGs that included a ninth MDG on human rights, democratic governance, and anticorruption in addition to the globally recognized eight MDGs. The MDG-9 includes the following objectives: (1) Fully respect and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ensure the freedom of media, and provide the public with free access to information, (2) Mainstream democratic principles and practices into life, and (3) Develop a zero-tolerance environment to corruption in all spheres of society. Thus Mongolia became the first country to formulate governance MDG and emphasize the role of democratic governance in achieving successfully MDGs and other socio-economic development goals. By incorporating the targets on human rights and democratic governance, MDG-9 impacts the process of implementing other MDGs. The Government of Mongolia, national stakeholders, and UNDP and other international partners worked together to develop indicators for Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s MDGs including the MDG-9 and their national monitoring and evaluation mechanism. In order to do that, a methodology to develop MDG-9 indicators was necessary to enable all stakeholders to participate effectively in the process of developing the indicators and their application. Apart from that, it was necessary to conduct activities to ensure a monitoring and evaluation system for the MDG-9 targets, a full participation of all national stakeholders in the process of MDG-9 reporting, and a consultative process for MDG-9 reporting. To support the initiative of the Government of Mongolia, a project to support the implementation of MDG-9 was implemented with the funding provided by the UN Democracy Fund and the UNDP. The current volume is a report on the results and activities implemented under the MDG-9 Project. The successful implementation of the MDG-9 Project was a result of the efforts by many organizations and individuals working in the field of democracy and human rights. Using this opportunity, I would like to express my profound gratitude to the following organizations and individuals for finding and otherwise supporting the project: the UNDEF, UNDP, Ms. Pratibha Mehta, 9

former UNDP Resident Representative in Mongolia, Mr. Joachim Nahem, UNDP Oslo Governance Centre, Ms. Shoko Noda, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Mongolia, Ms. Ts. Davaadulam, Governance Cluster Manager, Ms. T. Bayartsetseg, Governance Specialist, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the National Statistical Office, the National Human Rights Commission, the Anticorruption Agency, the Association of Mongolian Advocates, Mr. J. Jargalsaihan, former Director, Department of Economic Policy, Ministry of Finance, Ms. T. Altangerel, Director, Policy Coordination Department, Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs, Mr. G. Batjargal, Director, Director, Policy Planning and Coordination Department, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ms. O. Enhtsetseg, Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the UN, staff of the Population and Social Statistics Department, NSO, Ms. D. Solongo, Commissioner, National Human Rights Commission, Mr. B. Batzorig, IAAC of Mongolia, Mr. S. Tserendorj, Vice President, Association of Mongolian Advocates, Mr. N. Luvsanjav, lawyer, Mr. D. Myagmartseren and Ms. G. Bilgee, researchers, Policy Research Centre, the Parliament of Mongolia, Ms. H. Hulan, National Project Adviser, Mr. P. Dorjsuren, Research Team Leader, Ms. Ts. Tsetsenbileg, National Project Manager, Ms. Yoshie Oya, Junior Professional Consultant, and Mr. O. Hatanbold, Administrative and Finance Assistant. This publication contains two parts that present the outputs of the MDG-9 Project: the first part describes the methodology and the baseline for the MDG9 indicators while the second describes the changes in the state of Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s democratic governance on the basis of the Country Information Note-II and the State of Democracy Assessment-II conducted in 2008 as a follow-up to the similar pilot research conducted in 2005 and published in 2006.

G. Chuluunbaatar, National Project Director, Academician Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law, Mongolian Academy of Sciences

SUMMARY This publication contains the outputs of the “Support to Achieving the MDG-9, Phase I” Project (2007-2008). It has two parts that reflect two interrelated activities aimed at contributing to a better quality of Mongolia’s democratic governance. The first part describes the process of developing the MDG-9 indicators, the definitions of all 12 indicators, the methodology behind each indicator, and the baselines for 2008. It gives a detailed account of the Project activities that have resulted in the first ever set of institutionalized and fully nationally owned democratic governance indicators in support of human rights, democratic governance and zero tolerance to corruption. The Table below summarizes the basic information on the MDG-9 indicators. The second part of this publication is dedicated to the Country Information Note-II and the second State of Democracy Report. The two documents mentioned above are a continuation of Mongolia’s commitment to the spirit and the practical recommendations that guided Mongolia’s leadership of the ICNRD-5 (2003) and the follow-up process (2004-2006). The two documents reflect changes in the state of democratic governance in Mongolia since 2006 when the first similar documents were produced.

Table1. Baseline of MDG-9 Indicators, 2008 Target

Indicator

Data collection

Method

2008 Baseline as produced by â&#x20AC;&#x153;Support in Achieving MDG-9 on Human Rights and Democratic Governance in Mongolia - Phase Iâ&#x20AC;? Project in 2007-2008

Dimension of change

Who collects

Impact

Target 22: Fully respect and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ensure the freedom of media, and provide the public with free access to information

1. Human Development Index 1990: 0.652; 2000: 0.669; 2006: 0.691 (2004); 2015: 0.830

Statistical data

UNDP, based on national statistics

0.738 (2008)

0-1

2. Expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions (percentage)

Expert evaluation

National Human Rights Commission

3.4 (2008)

1-5

0-100 %

3. Percentage of implementation/ enforcement of judicial decisions

Statistical data (agency level)

Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs

73.4% (2008)

4. Number of attorneys that provide services to poor citizens

Statistical data

Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs

293 advocates (May 2009)

5. Public perception of political, economic, and financial independence of mass media

Household socioeconomic survey data

National Statistical Office

28.5 (2008)

0-100 points

Target 23: Mainstream democratic principles and practices into life

Target 24: Develop a zerotolerance environment to corruption in all spheres of society

6. Number of state organizations that regularly place reports of their budgets and expenditures on their websites

Statistical data

Ministry of Finance

55.6%

25 out of 45 general budgetary organizations with websites

7. Public perception of activities of state organizations

Household socioeconomic survey data

National Statistical Office

53.3 (2008)

0-100 points

8. Number of civil society Statistical data organizations that have officially participated and expressed their views in the process of developing and approving the state budget

Ministry of Finance

n/a

9. Percentage of voters that have participated in nominating governors of soums and baghs

Statistical Data

Government Secretariat

n/a

10. Index of corruption

Public survey, specific index development methodology

Independent Authority Against Corruption

0.64 (2009, calculated by the Independent Authority Against Corruption of Mongolia)

0-1

11. Perception of corruption in Expert survey political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions

Independent Authority Against Corruption

4.09 (2008)

1-5

12. Public perception of corruption in public administration and public services

National Statistical Office

30.8 (2008)

0-100 points

Household socioeconomic survey data

Note: * Indicators that are produced on an annual basis will be collected from annual household socio-economic surveys by the NSO; all others will be produced on a bi-annual basis as required by the resolution of the Parliament

Photo by: Pro-Photo agency

PART I. MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL-9 INDICATORS: METHODOLOGY AND BASELINE 14

I.1. BACKGROUND

Governance

is increasingly recognized as one of the most important issue nationally and internationally, and well-governed public entities are a necessary precondition to solving some of the greatest challenges. However, public institutions operate in complex ways and have certain habits, which are very environment and country-specific. This report outlines the history of assessing governance in Mongolia and describes the methodological experience of formulating the Millennium Development Goal 9 target indicators, as well as its mechanisms as approved by the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia. The MDG-9 Project believes that the experiences shared in this report will benefit a wide range of audiences, including international organizations and other countries that are interested in developing governance indicators and institutionalizing monitoring mechanisms. It also will be of use to the Mongolian public – both government and civil society for awareness-raising and policy action. The World Summit convened by the United Nations in September 2000 adopted the Millennium Declaration that set forth Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at “respecting the most vulnerable and creating an environment conducive to human development.” The MDGs as a common set of goals are to be achieved globally by 2015. As many other countries which endorsed the Millennium Declaration, Mongolia has defined its national MDGs and targets that reflect the country’s needs and priorities. On April 21, 2005 Mongolia adopted its 9th MDG on human rights, democratic governance, and anti-corruption. MDG-9 has three associated objectives: (1) Fully respect and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ensure the freedom of media, and provide the public with free access to information, (2) Mainstream democratic principles and practices into life, and (3) Develop a zero-tolerance environment to corruption in all spheres of society. Mongolia remains the only country in the world to have formulated a MDG related to governance. By adopting MDG-9, Mongolia underlined the importance of democratic governance for socio-economic development and a successful achievement of other MDGs.1 MDG-9 also serves to complement other MDGs by introducing an overarching goal on human rights and democracy.

“Empirical research to date has found a positive and significant relationship between good governance and economic performance”, - note the authors of “Preliminary Survey on Donor Use of Governance Assessments” - in Governance Assessments and the Paris Declaration: Opportunities for Inclusive Participation and Ownership”, UNDP OGC and Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen Seminar Series, Bergen, Norway, 23-25 September 2007, p.1. See also Governance for the Millennium Development Goals: Core Issues and Good Practices. United Nations, New York, January 2007 15

The Government of Mongolia and other national stakeholders are now in the process of refining targets for MDGs 1-9, developing indicators, and establishing a national MDGs monitoring and evaluation mechanism. With the support of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and the UNDP, Mongolia implemented a project to support the achievement of MDG-9. The project was aimed at assisting the Government of Mongolia in implementing its commitment to foster democratic governance and strengthen human rights as reflected in MDG-9 through the institutionalization of governance measurement systems and facilitation of dialogue on governance issues. The objective of the project was to streamline the previously developed DGIs into a manageable set of indicators for national stakeholders in order to (1) monitor the progress of democratic governance reforms and (2) build the capacities of the government, national statistical office and civil society to collect, maintain, and analyze governance related data. In addition, it assisted in the development of an inclusive and consultative framework for the systematic assessment, monitoring, and reporting of MDG-9 related goals and targets as expressed in national development plans.

I.2. INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN ASSESSING GOVERNANCE Assessments of the state of governance and the state of democracy in different

countries and as comparative exercises have recently become more popular than ever before. There is a proliferation of organizations, methods, and uses of democracy assessments and evaluations. A UNDP booklet on “Governance Indicators: A Users’ Guide”2 lists 35 governance indicator sources. Measuring governance involves clearly defining the concepts both in terms of theoretical and practical applications, identifying possible indicators to measure the progress over time in a governance reform area, and then assigning particular scores for the indicators on particular units of analysis.3 Governance indicators are usually narrowed down to measure more specific areas of governance such as electoral systems, corruption, human rights, public service delivery, civil society, and gender equality.4 Governance indicators are also often used to establish benchmarks, objectives, targets, and goals in the development context.5 Governance indicators have also been classified depending on the nature, the content, and data sources such as objective/subjective, qualitative/ quantitative, core/satellite, single/ composite/aggregate indicators, pro-poor and gender sensitive disaggregated indicators, discrete scales, proxy measures, and many others.6 There also exist different classifications of governance indicators depending on the definition of “governance.” For example, Christopher Scott of the London School of Economics provided a single matrix for governance indicators based on the “governance” definition encompassing UNDP’s six service lines at the national level.7 While UNDP Oslo Governance Centre, a lead organization in supporting development and application of governance indicators, continues to use the term “governance indicators,” in one of its more recent publications, the UN uses the term “democratic governance.”8 The publication also gives an indicator matrix for seven core dimensions of democratic governance such as 2

“Governance Indicators: A Users’ Guide”, Second Edition, UNDP OGC, 2006 “Preliminary Survey on Donor Use of Governance Assessments” - in “Governance Assessments and the Paris Declaration: Opportunities for Inclusive Participation and Ownership”, UNDP OGC and Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen Seminar Series, Bergen, Norway, 23-25 September 2007, p.5 4 “Governance Indicators: A Users’ Guide”, Second Edition, UNDP OGC, 2006, p.1 5 Ibid., 6 For more information on this see, for example, Todd Landman, Map-Making and Analysis of the Main International Initiatives on Democracy and Good Governance, University of Essex and Eurostat, 2003 7 See: Christopher Scott, Empowering and Engendering Governance Indicators, Proceedings of the UNDP-ICSSR Technical Workshop on Governance Indicators for Pro-poor and Gender-Sensitive Policy Reform, April 2005, New Delhi, India 8 Measuring Democratic Governance. A Framework for Selecting Pro-poor and Gender Sensitive Indicators. UNDP, May 2006 17 3

parliamentary development, electoral systems and processes, human rights, justice, access to information and the media, decentralization and local governance, and public administration reform and anti-corruption.9 Although the publication does not provide a definition of what constitutes “democratic governance,” it does rely on an underlying set of democratic values as formulated by the International IDEA’s Democracy Assessment Framework. Another widely cited source of governance indicators is a study by the World Bank Institute. For the Project’s purposes, the World Bank’s interpretation of governance is of particular interest as it provides a distinction between analytical and operational frameworks of governance. It specifically avoids the “political regime” aspect of governance. The World Bank study provides periodic cross-country estimates of six dimensions of governance such as voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption.10 For the Project’s objectives, it is important to note that the more recent use of “democratic governance” has been influenced by the UNDP’s rights-based approach to governance and the emphasis placed by the German, US, and EC definitions and policy documents on governance to include “democracy” when referring to governance.11 The normative commitment to democracy that evolved from international instruments on human rights along with political changes in the international arena have contributed to a slow evolution of the discourse from “governance” to “good governance” and then to “democratic governance.”12 Within the UNDP, governance has crystallized into a preference for “democratic” governance focusing on new ways of speeding up the implementation of MDGs.13 Another important initiative that had implications for the Project is DIAL’s (Developement Institutions et Analyses de Long Terme) use of household surveys for monitoring governance, poverty and democracy. The initiative 9

Ibid., pp.19-35 See: www.govindicators.org 11 More about this in “Preliminary Survey on Donor Use of Governance Assessments”- in “Governance Assessments and the Paris Declaration: Opportunities for Inclusive Participation and Ownership”, UNDP OGC and Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen Seminar Series, Bergen, Norway, 2325 September 2007 12 Ibid, also Proceedings, “Governance Assessments and the Paris Declaration: Opportunities for Inclusive Participation and Ownership”, UNDP OGC and Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen Seminar Series, Bergen, Norway, 23-25 September 2007, also Evaluating Democracy Support: Methods and Experiences, IDEA/SIDA, Stockholm, 2007, pp.27-29 13 Goran Hyden, “The Challenges of Making Governance Assessments Nationally Owned” - in “Governance Assessments and the Paris Declaration: Opportunities for Inclusive Participation and Ownership”, UNDP OGC and Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen Seminar Series, Bergen, Norway, 2325 September 2007, p.6 18 10

relates to developing modules on governance, poverty and democracy that are inserted into household survey questionnaires of official statistical agencies in low-income countries. Other recent innovations and initiatives in measuring governance reflect country-specific activities such as METAGORA, Transparency International, Vera Institute of Justice, Mongolia’s ICNRD-5 Follow-up, etc. For the advancement of the Project’s objectives, the IDEA’s Democracy Assessment Framework has played an outstanding role. It “might be considered a breakthrough in terms of offering a universal template by which to assess progress towards democracy”.14 The Framework15 (also called the State of Democracy Framework) is based on two basic principles of democracy: popular control over public decision making and decision makers, and equality between citizens in the exercise of that control. In order to apply these principles to assessing a country’s democratic system, it is necessary to specify a set of mediating values through which they are realized in practice. These values include participation, representation, accountability, transparency, responsiveness, efficiency and equity. Taken together, these mediating democratic values serve as a useful normative base for a set of indicators by focusing on research questions directed at different areas of governance. Indicators provide evidence of the extent to which these values are being realized in particular countries at a specific point in time.16 The Framework has been used in a number of countries to measure progress of democracy. The general discourse on governance indicators has also identified their strengths and weaknesses. Todd Landman notes that “there are always tradeoffs between the different types of indicators. Those that achieve global coverage tend to have a higher level of abstraction and may not provide the kind of differentiation required for policy analysis or policy decision-making. Those indicators that provide highly detailed event counts are difficult to produce across a large global sample of countries… The development of indicators has thus had to confront these inevitable trade-offs.”17 He also lists the following eight methodological problems: (1) validity (i.e. does the indicator measure what it purports to measure?), (2) reliability (i.e. can the indicator be produced by different people using the same coding rules and source material?), (3) measurement bias (i.e. are there problems with systematic measurement error?), (4) lack of transparency in the production of 14

Evaluating Democracy Support: Methods and Experiences, IDEA/SIDA, Stockholm, 2007, p.29 For more information see http://www.idea.int/democracy/sod.cfm 16 Measuring Democratic Governance. A Framework for Selecting Pro-poor and Gender Sensitive Indicators. UNDP, May 2006, p.5 17 Todd Landman, Map-Making and Analysis of the Main International Initiatives on Democracy and Good Governance, University of Essex and Eurostat, 2003, p.7 19 15

the indicator, (5) representativeness (i.e. for survey data, what is the nature of the sample of individuals?), (6) variance truncation (i.e. the degree to which scales force observations into indistinguishable groupings), (7) information bias (i.e. what kinds of sources of information are being used?), and (8) aggregation problems (i.e. for combined scores, to what degree are aggregation rules logically inconsistent or overcomplicated)18. In order to underline the importance of nationally-owned governance indicators, the Oslo Governance Centre mission report draws the attention to the following deficits: 1. Most of those indicators have been developed for inter-country comparisons. 2. Most of the governance indicators sources tend to assume that key concepts, such as human rights, corruption, freedom of expression, etc., are defined in the same way in the multiple sources from which data are drawn. Since the assumption of common definitions is not valid, the use of such aggregate indicators, even for inter-country comparison, should be made carefully, allowing for large margins of error. 3. An analysis of methods used in developing indicators by donor agencies is useful in identifying appropriate methods for developing nationally-owned indicators. 4. Most of the indicators used by donors to evaluate progress of their contributions to democracy in developing countries tend to use the logical framework, and the closely related â&#x20AC;&#x153;results basedâ&#x20AC;? approaches. The key assumption in the log-frame and result-based approaches is that there is a linear, logical relationship between inputs provided and outcomes, and eventual impact of those inputs. However, the dynamics of democracy and politics undermine this basic assumption.19 The above view reflects the more recent trend to emphasize and support country level exercises to develop nationally - owned governance indicators.

Todd Landman, Map-Making and Analysis of the Main International Initiatives on Democracy and Good Governance, University of Essex and Eurostat, 2003, p.10 19 OSG Mission to Mongolia Draft Report by Joachim Nahem and R. Sudarshan, August 2004 20

I.3. MONGOLIA’S EXPERIENCE IN DEVELOPING DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE INDICATORS (DGIs) In September 2003, Mongolia hosted the Fifth International Conference of New

or Restored Democracies20 (ICNRD-5) that adopted the Ulaanbaatar Declaration and Plan of Action committing governments to implement action plans to strengthen democracy. Following specific recommendations for governments to “draw up a national plan for strengthening democracy consistent with the spirit of the Ulaanbaatar Declaration; prepare country information notes outlining the prospects of advancing and deepening democracy and steps needed to address the principles and recommendations of the Declaration, and develop nationally-owned democratic governance indicators’ databases to be better able to monitor progress in democratic and social development over time.”21 The term “democratic governance indicators” was thus first formulated in the documents of the ICNRD-5. Although the semantic importance of the above term is not its most significant aspect, the mere fact of its formulation and inclusion is worth noting. In this regard, the OSG mission noted that “Good governance cannot be good unless it is also democratic. Equally, democratic governance has to have certain characteristics and features that merit the description “good governance.” Overcoming the deficiencies in democratic governance is a project that will advance good governance”.22 As host and chair of ICNRD-5, and with the support of UNDP, Mongolia developed an ICNRD-5 Follow-Up Project to implement the 2003 Conference recommendations. There had been no previous democratic governance assessments, and the Follow-up Project was initiated in relation to a particular international event and the commitment of the Government of Mongolia. The Projects include a series of inter-related activities that would lead to the development of Democratic Governance Indicators (DGIs), Country Information Note (CIN), National Plan of Action (NPA) and Civil Society Index (CSI), as well a series of national and international events and other complementary activities.

The International Conference of New or Restored Democracies (ICNRD) is an intergovernmental process open to all UN member States. Since the first Conference was held with the participation of 13 countries, the ICNRD has grown into a global event bringing together more than 100 countries from all over the world. To date, a total of six International Conferences of New or Restored Democracies were held in Manila, the Philippines (1988); Managua, Nicaragua (1994); Bucharest, Romania (1997); Cotonou, Benin (2000), Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2003), and the latest in Doha, Qatar (2006). 21 Final Documents of ICNRD-5: Ulaanbaatar Declaration and Plan of Action, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2003 22 OSG Mission to Mongolia Draft Report by Joachim Nahem and R. Sudarshan, August 2004 21

In January 2005, the IDEA Democracy Assessment Framework was selected as the only globally established methodology that fitted the ICNRD-5 framework for developing non-ranking nationally-owned governance indicators. The Mongolia initiative, however, would represent the first ‘new’ democracy piloting the IDEA methodology and first country to adopt the assessment within a government led process that included all stakeholders. The IDEA Handbook on Democracy Assessment was translated into Mongolian and served as the critical reference for the Mongolia DGIs exercise. The IDEA Democracy Assessment Framework was different from other methods in the following ways: The prime agents of the democracy assessment should be citizens of the country being assessed The assessment criteria should embrace the widest range of democracy issues, while allowing for selection within them The assessment should be qualitative judgments of strengths and weaknesses in each area, complemented by quantitative measures where appropriate The choice of benchmarks, standards or indicators should be a matter for decision by the country assessors The assessment process should involve wide public consultations, including a national workshop to validate findings. Although the research team adopted the IDEA framework, it was decided that the method and research activities needed to be customized to the Mongolian context. An important innovation of this work was the development of “satellite” and “core” indicators where the latter measures common values of democratic governance while the former assesses national characteristics of democratic governance. 117 cores and 14 satellite indicators were consequently assessed using the four main democratic themes of the IDEA assessment (see Figure 1).23 The Mongolia assessment had been an in-depth two-year assessment focusing on all major dimensions of democratic governance with qualitative and quantitative indicators.

Source: Democratic Governance Indicators: Assessing the State of Governance in Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 2006, p.42 22

Chart 1. Mongolia’s Democratic Governance Indicators, 2006

Qualitatively, the research team used dialogues (N=12), focus groups (N=36), and narratives about democracy in Mongolia. Quantitatively, the research team collected administrative statistics, elite surveys (N=118), mass surveys (N=1000), and expert judgments (N=5). The Mongolian DGIs “mixed” method included quantitative methods (administrative statistics, elite surveys, mass surveys, expert judgments) and qualitative (dialogues, focus groups, and narratives24. During the fall of 2005, the research team carried out an array of data-collection exercises including a national survey in eight aimags (regions) eliciting the views of 1200 citizens on various aspects of democracy. The survey represented the largest and most comprehensive democracy perception assessment in Mongolia. The final DGIs findings of the research team entitled “Democratic Governance Indicators: Assessing the State of Mongolia’s Governance” (370 page draft report) were presented at a national all-stakeholder conference on “Democratic Governance Indicators: Assessment and Challenges” held on 2 May 2006. The DGIs research team also consulted and cooperated with several partners in their research activities. Thus, the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law (the DGIs research team) signed, for example, a memorandum of understanding with the National Statistical Office (NSO) to cooperate in the development of DGIs.

Source: Handbook on Democratic Governance Indicators. Method, Process and Lessons Learned from Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 2006, p.14 23

An important aspect of the process to develop the Mongolia’s DGIs was to engage with key international partners who specialize on democracy assessments. During the course of 2005-2006, International IDEA and Essex University25 provided crucial advice, training and technical assistance to the DGI activities. In particular, a technical workshop with international experts was held in Ulaanbaatar in June 2005 to assist in building the capacity of DGIs researchers, civil society assessors and key government agencies in data collection, process and analyzing methodology for democracy assessments. The national research team also received technical training at the UNDP Workshop on Governance Indicators in New Delhi, April 2005, and in Germany at the September 2005 InWent course on Measuring Democracy, Governance and Human Rights (the Munich Centre for Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics). In general, the exercise received support and engaged with a broad host of international partners during the follow-up process including International IDEA, Essex University, UNDP Oslo Governance Centre, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (Delhi), OECD Metagora Project, and International Centre for Democratic Transition (Budapest), InWent (Germany), International Civil Society Forum on Democracy, CIVICUS, and Transparency International. On June 1-2, 2006, the Government of Mongolia hosted a Follow-up to ICNRD-5 International Conference in Ulaanbaatar. Representatives of 12 countries and 23 international organizations along with representatives of Mongolia’s Government, the Parliament, academia, and civil society attended the Conference. With regard to global learning experiences that could be drawn from the Mongolia study, the following points were emphasized: (1) National and multi-stakeholder ownership (e.g. government, civil society etc.), (2) Country specific characteristics of democracy (e.g. satellite indicators), and (3) ‘mixed’ assessment methods.

IDEA collaborates with Essex University as its academic partner to further develop its State of Democracy Project. The Follow-up Project commissioned Essex University to provide technical assistance as well as several deliverables (e.g. desk studies on the state of democracy in Mongolia and Central Asia) for the Mongolia follow-up. 24

The following main recommendations can be drawn from Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience: 1.Democracy assessment provides a useful tool for engaging different stakeholder in debates and dialogue around governance issues thus contribute to the process of developing reform options aimed at democratic consolidation, 2. The process of democracy assessment should be inclusive, involving members of governmental institutions, parliament, civil society and the media, 3.The process of democracy assessment should be nationally-based and nationally-owned while drawing on international experiences and expertise from around the world, 4.Democracy assessment should pay careful attention to the unique features of a country, while maintaining comparative element, 5.Democracy assessment may adopt a mixed methodology that is multi-disciplinary to yield robust substantive knowledge about the current state of democracy, as well as provide concrete aims and objectives for future democratic development, 6.Democracy assessment could be institutionalized by incorporation into a national monitoring and evaluation mechanism.26 The DGIs activities also helped build national capacity for democratic assessment, awareness-raising on the need for democratic reform across different sectors and showed a remarkable degree of cooperation and understanding between state and non-state actors. The findings and reports produced by the project have been widely used by ministries and agencies in their policy development work, namely, by the Thematic Task Forces formed of the line ministries to draft a MDGs-based National Development Strategy for 2008-2021, as well as many NGOs and researchers. The local capacity was strengthened with researchers now working on many other evaluation and monitoring issues. The results of the survey were disseminated to a wide range of audience, including political parties and their leaders, NGOs, academia and 26

Source: Handbook on Democratic Governance Indicators. Method, Process and Lessons Learned from Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, 2006, p.29 25

practitioners. The brochures and booklets were also distributed to members of mass media. The follow-up project to develop Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s MDG-9 indicators provides a unique opportunity to institutionalize democracy assessments.

I.4. MDG-9 INDICATORS PROJECT BRIEF Mongolia’s exercise to develop DGIs found its logical continuation in a project

to develop indicators for MDG-9 for the latter’s reporting mechanism. The Project was institutionally located at the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law, the locus of the previous DGIs research team. The objective of the Project was to refine previously developed DGIs to enable national stakeholders to better monitor performance in democratic governance reforms and build the capacities of the government, the national statistical office and civil society in collection, maintenance and analysis of governance related data. It was also to assist in developing an inclusive and consultative framework for the systematic assessment and monitoring of MDG-9 related goals and targets expressed in national development plans.

National consultative meeting on “Support in Achieving MDG on Human Rights and Democratic Governance”, State Palace, Ulaanbaatar. March 27, 2008.

The outputs of the Follow-up project (DGIs, CIN, and NPA) fed into the outputs of the MDG-9 Project and helped formulate concrete activities aimed at achieving the MDG-9 targets. Since the inauguration of the Project, the DGIs were reviewed and specific target indicators and methodologies for data gathering based on the selected indicators drafted, national consultations on DGIs and methodology with stakeholders, including the Parliament, NGOs, and the National Statistical Office (NSO) conducted, and a network of MDG-9 stakeholders established. The most important achievement of the Project was the approval of a resolution on MDGs including indicators for MDG-9 by the Parliament in January 2008. Another important step was the testing of MDG-9 survey questions by the NSO in December 2007 in a periodic household survey in compliance with an institutional contract between the Project and the NSO signed in May 2006. 27

A pilot household survey was finally conducted at the end of 2008 - early 2009 by the NSO. Other significant milestones included a national consultative meeting on MDG-9 held in March 2008, a MDG-9 website, and recommendations for government interventions in relation to MDG-9 (two RTDs were with stakeholders and an implementation matrix for government programs related to MDG-9 was prepared). The project activities included numerous consultations with stakeholders in 2007-2008 and local trainings on MDG-9 indicators in three provinces of Dundgobi, Huvsgul, Dornod, and the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. In December 2008, a national wrap-up conference was held to discuss the project results with participation of all stakeholders. The following table presents the MDG-9 indicators as approved by the Parliament of Mongolia in 2008.

Table 2. MDG-9 Indicators MDG-9: Guarantee Human Rights and Strengthen Democratic Governance Targets 22-24 and Indicators as Approved by the Parliament of Mongolia in January 2008 Target

Indicator

Dimension of change

Data collection

Data analysis

How

When How often*

Method

Target group

1. Human Development Index 1990: 0.652; 2000: 0.669; 2006: 0.691 (2004); 2015: 0.830

Statistical data

National

2. Expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions (percentage)

Expert evaluation

Who collects

How Method

Target group

When How often

Who collects

What for

Annual

UNDP

Assess progress in human development worldwide

Impact

Target 22: Fully respect and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ensure the freedom of media, and provide the public with free access to information

3. Percentage of implementation/enf orcement of judicial decisions

Annual

UNDP, based on national statistics

Statistical review Comparative analysis

Statistical data (agency level)

National

Biannual

National Human Rights Commission

Comparative analysis

Biannual

National Human Rights Commission

Assess progress in protection of human rights

National

Biannual

Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs

Comparative analysis

Biannual

Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs

Assess progress in strengthening the rule of law

4. Number of attorneys that provide services to poor citizens

Statistical data

National

Biannual

Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs

Comparative analysis

Biannual

Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs

Assess progress in strengthening the rule of law

5. Public perception of political, economic, and financial independence of mass media

Household socioeconomic survey data

National

Annual

National Statistical Office

Statistical review

Annual

National Statistical Office

Assess freedom of media

6. Number of state organizations that regularly place reports of their budgets and expenditures on their websites

Statistical data

National

Biannual

Ministry of Finance

Comparative analysis

Biannual

Ministry of Finance

Assess freedom of information

7. Public perception of activities of state organizations

Household socioeconomic survey data

National

Annual

National Statistical Office

Statistical review

Annual

National Statistical Office

Assess accountability and transparency of the public sector and assess progress in strengthening the rule of law

Statistical data

National

Biannual

Ministry of Finance

Assess participation and responsiveness of the public sector

8. Number of civil society organizations that have officially participated and expressed their views in the process of developing and approving the state

Comparative analysis

Biannual

Ministry of Finance

Comparative analysis

Target 23: Mainstream democratic principles and practices into life

Target 24: Develop a zero-tolerance environment to corruption in all spheres of society

budget 9. Percentage of voters that have participated in nominating governors of soums and baghs

Statistical Data

National

Once every four years

Government Secretariat

Comparative Analysis

Once every four years

Government Secretariat

Assess participation in the electoral process, participation in local selfgovernment Assess progress in fighting corruption

10. Index of corruption

Public survey, specific index development methodology

National

Biannual

Independent Authority Against Corruption

Comparative analysis

Biannual

Independent Authority Against Corruption

11. Perception of corruption in political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions

Expert survey

National

Biannual

Independent Authority Against Corruption

Comparative analysis

Biannual

Independent Authority Against Corruption

Assess progress in fighting grand corruption

12. Public perception of corruption in public administration and public services

Household socioeconomic survey data

National

Annual

National Statistical Office

Comparative analysis

Annual

NSO in cooperation with the Independent Authority Against Corruption

Assess progress in fighting petty corruption

I.5. PROCESS OF DEVELOPING MDG-9 INDICATORS The process of developing MDG-9 indicators included the following stages and

timeframe: 1. Pre-planning and preparation (Spring 2007); 2. Identifying priority substantive issues and indicators relevant to each of them under three separate targets of MDG-9 (Summer 2007); 3. Analysis and consultations with stakeholders resulting in a manageable set of indicators (DGIs streamlined) (Autumn 2007); 4. Submission of indicators for government review, advocacy, and coordination with the national MDGs process (Autumn-Winter 20072008); 5.Data-gathering for the MDG-9 baseline, support for institutionalization of MDG-9 monitoring and evaluation mechanism, and reflection and action that would lead to intelligent use of indicators (2008).

RD with donor organizations on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Formulating MDG- 9 Target Indicatorsâ&#x20AC;?, Puma-Imperial Hotel, Ulaanbaatar, July 5, 2007

The process was based on the principle of inclusion of all stakeholders (government, academia, and civil society), engagement of decision-makers, relevant experts and marginalized groups, networking with civil society, and advocacy with participation of civil society organizations. While streamlining the DGIs into a manageable set of indicators, the Project followed a general rule of thumb for valuating a method which was to ask whether the concept being measured is SMART27: Sustainable 27

The Project is grateful to Mr. Joachim Nahem of the OGC for having suggested these criteria. 32

Measurable Achievable Relevant Time-specific When choosing indicators for MDG-9, the Project along with its experts applied the following checklist28: (1) Validity Does the indicator measure what it purports to measure? What are the normative assumptions? (2) Reliability Can the indicator be produced by different people using the same coding rules and source material? (3) Measurement bias Are there problems with systematic measurement error across time and space? (4) Transparency Is process of production of the indicator transparent? (5) Representativeness What is the sample for survey data? Is the sample representative for the unit being measured (e.g. country) (6) Variance truncation Does the scales force observations into indistinguishable groupings (is the problem oversimplified)? (7) Information bias What kinds of sources of information are being used (any biases)? (8) Aggregation problems For combined scores, to what degree are aggregation rules logically inconsistent or overcomplicated? The Project was also aware of the need to choose indicators that were specific to Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s democratic governance problems and reflective of particularities of the national context. In this, the Project relied on the results of the Follow-up to ICNRD-5 Project, in particular, the satellite DGIs. Other important considerations in developing the MDG-9 indicators were the use of quantitative and qualitative measurements whenever possible with a slightly stronger emphasis on quantitative indicators, selection of indicators where measurement data is sufficiently reliable in quality for confident decisionmaking, inclusion of the need to disaggregate indicators by gender or poverty status where possible in the methodological recommendations for government

The checklist was suggested by Mr. Joachim Nahem of the OGC in 2006. 33

agencies in charge of data-gathering for MDG-9, and consideration of practical implications of cost and time for collecting measurement data. Another important aspect in developing indicators for MDG-9 was an attempt to clarify the concepts to be measured (human rights, democratic governance, corruption) and key components of the above concepts for use by the National Statistical Office in its design and conduct of the household surveys.

Roundtable discussion with NGOs on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Formulating the MDG -9 target indicatorsâ&#x20AC;? Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law, MAS, Ulaanbaatar, July 15, 2007.

The process of selecting the final draft MDG-9 indicators involved numerous consultations with government and civil society representatives in 2007-2008. A particular importance was given to separate consultations and review by academic experts and practitioners who had been engaged with democraticgovernance-indicators process earlier in 2005-2006. Review and reformulations that had taken place at meetings of the parliamentary working group under both the Subcommittee on MDGs and the Standing Committee on Social Policy helped to refine the selection of draft indicators and also engage in the advocacy activities at the level of senior officials from government ministries, in particular the Ministry of Finance, and from the staff of the Parliament Secretariat. A national conference on MDG-9 indicators that was held in March 2008 contributed to verifying the selection of indicators, systematizing the understanding of the process of developing and selecting the indicators, and 34

refining the public awareness campaign strategy. The conference was successful in building a consensus among stakeholders on both the process for MDG-9 indicators and the actual indicators. While developing MDG-9 indicators, the Project continued its activities to refine the questionnaires/modules for the National Statistical Office for testing and future use of MDG-9 indicators in its annual socio-economic survey. The testing of the module took place in December 2007 and June 2008 with the household survey conducted by the NSO at the end of 2008. The same process of reviewing and refining DGIs took place with regard to the second-generation DGIs once the 2007 DGIs survey results became available after the processing had been completed by the Project subcontractor, a national consulting company. A new assessment of democratic governance in Mongolia became a product of these activities. The assessment was presented at the national wrap-up conference in December 2008.

Participants of a Local training on “Supporting the MDG 9 implementation at the local level”, Erdenedalai soum, Dundgobi aimag, December 20, 2008.

A special focus was given to cooperating with civil society groups representing women and disadvantaged groups of citizens. The Project conducted an outreach campaign on MDG-9 in close collaboration with the “Network of NGOs in support of MDG-9” involving 20 NGOs working on gender and assistance to disadvantaged citizens. Among them, there were the Mongolian National Federation of Disabled Citizens, Center for Democracy Education (DEMO), 35

MONFEMNET, Center Human Rights and Development, Development Gateway, The National Center against Violence and others. The media support activities were conducted in cooperation with the “Chuluut Setgelgee” journal and four newspapers to raise the public awareness of the MDG-9 and its indicators.

National wrap-up conference on “The MDG-9 baseline data”, Chinghis Hotel, Ulaanbaatar, December 23, 2008

The process of developing MDG-9 indicators revealed the following challenges: 1. Producing the baseline and quantitative targets for MDG-9 indicators will take considerable time and effort as the subject matter is difficult to quantify and produce time-series in a short period of project implementation. The third national MDGs implementation report will be published in 2009. The Project assumes that the Government of Mongolia and relevant stakeholders will be able to establish a baseline for MDG-9 indicators by the time the report is completed. 2. There is a variety of institutions involved in producing the indicators with different levels of commitment and capacity of staff involved. The Project assumes that the Ministry of Finance, the Government’s focal point for reporting the implementation of MDGs, will be in a position to coordinate the mechanism of reporting the MDG-9 indicators. The mechanism will be finally defined when the national monitoring and evaluation system for MDGs is established. 3. There is a fundamental need to raise the awareness of citizens of monitoring and evaluation issues for MDGs including MDG-9. Staff of all relevant institutions (government and non-government organizations, 36

individual experts and citizens, national and local) needs to have their capacity strengthened vis-Ă -vis MDGs, their baselines, targets and indicators.

Chart 2. Process of Developing MDG-9 Indicators

MDG-9 Indicators Methodology

Participation in workshops and consultations to develop MDG-9 indicators (streamlining DGIs), comments and reviews by national and international advisors

Multistakeholder Process

Definitions, justifications and other indicators' descriptions prepared

Draft MDG-9 targets and indicators developed and reviewed

Analysis of MDGs 19 from gender and human rights perspectives

Methodology to develop MDG-9 formulated and interconnection with other MDGs reviewed

National and international studies, legal documents, reports, surveys, and data related to MDG-9 reviewed

National Consultative Meeting, March 2008

Outreach Campaigns Reporting the MDG-9 baseline data conference held in December 2008

Parliamentary working group review and parliamentary review

Three RTDs with representatives of civil society held in July, August, 2007 and Febraury 2008

RTD with representatives of government and civil society held in January 2008

RTD with experts from ministries and agenciess in September 2007

RTD with international organizations held in July 2007

The Government of Mongolia is now in the process of strengthening its MDGs monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to provide MDGs related monitoring information and evaluation findings to decision makers for better government policies and actions. In this, it is assisted by a UNDP supported “Poverty, MDGs Monitoring and Assessment System Support Project” (PMMS). The project produced a diagnostic of the current national M&E system from the MDGs perspective and recommendations for the future. 24 targets and 67 indicators for MDGs 1-9 need to be measured/ collected and then stored, and then analyzed, evaluated and disseminated. Mr. Dilli Prasat Bhattarai, chief technical adviser (PMMS), believes that for each indicator, three types of data are needed: baseline data, target data, and actual performance data. He also suggests that data on the determinants of the outcomes are required. Several options for a strengthened M&E system have been proposed within the framework of the abovementioned project.29 The MDG-9 Project believes that monitoring and evaluation of MDG-9 indicators need to be fully incorporated into the national MDGs M&E mechanism to provide for a comprehensive national MDGs-based development framework. The chart below is a suggested M&E mechanism for MDG-9 indicators with the National Development and Innovation Committee set up in 008 as the focal point with all MDG-9 data collecting institutions as reporting agencies.

For more information, please see “A Diagnosis of Monitoring and Evaluation of MDGs in Mongolia”. A Report Prepared by the TAG Support Group for the PMMS Project, MoF/UNDP, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, February 2008 39

Chart 3. MDG-9 Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism

Government focal point: National Development and Innovation Committee Stakeholders: parties, NGOs, academics, individuals: Review data, review evaluations, draft reports

Independent Research Organization: Data analysis and evaluation of indicators

UNDP: 1 indicator

National Statistic Office: 3 indicators

Project involvement

National Human Rights Commission: 1 indicator

Methodology technical assistance, capacity building

Government Secretariat: 1 indicator

Advocacy

Methodology technical assistance, capacity building

Independent Authority Against Corruption: 2 indicators

Methodology technical assistance, capacity building

Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs: 2 indicators

Advocacy

Ministry of Finance: 2 indicators

Advocacy

The MDG-9 indicators represent the first effort to institutionalize nationallyowned governance indicators. The MDG-9 indicators are not absolute or â&#x20AC;&#x153;set in stone,â&#x20AC;? but are expected to evolve and improve as national stakeholders gain more experience with them. There is a strong call for capacity building efforts for all stakeholders involved in the data collection process, and therefore agencies and organizations should continue to learn and change over the next few years. It is envisioned to move from procedure-based and detail-oriented requirements of data collecting and monitoring and evaluating to a system that allows for more focus on results and the actual application of knowledge gained from monitoring and evaluating these indicators.

I.6. DESCRIPTION OF MDG-9 INDICATORS Target 22. Fully respect and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ensure the freedom of media, and provide the public with free access to information. 1. Human Development Index 1990 0.652

2000 0.669

2008 0.738

2015 0.830

Definition The HDI is a summary measure of human development. It measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weight) and the combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weight); a decent standard of living, as measured by GDP per capita (PPP USD). Related Goal, Objective Targets 22 and 23 Justification Democracy/democratic governance serve as guarantees of implementation of human rights that are reflected in the progress in human development. The HDI (progressive realization of socio-economic rights) can be viewed as representing the effects of progress in democratic governance. The Project assumes that there is causality between governance and growth, between democratic governance and full realization of socio-economic rights especially for the poor and the marginalized. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The National Statistical Office (NSO) Method of Calculation

Data Source, Data Collection

UNDP-specific methodology. All countries use the same methodology.

The Human Development Report group uses data and other materials collected by the UN system organizations and national statistical agencies. Comment/Measurement Limitation

The HDI is calculated on an annual basis.

The Indicator cannot fully capture dimensions of human development. There is an indirect relationship with human rights, democracy, and democratic governance.

Human Development Reports, http://www.undp.org Mongolia Human Development Reports: 1997, 2000, 2003, 2007

Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status The HDI individual indices (life expectancy, literacy, etc.) can be disaggregated by gender.

Measurement Replication/Timeframe

References

2. Expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions (percentage) Definition The indicator is an expert evaluation expressed in percentage representing the compliance/conformity of Mongolia’s laws and regulations (in particular those related to the exercise of human rights and immunities) with international human rights treaties and conventions that Mongolia has joined. Related Goal, Objective Targets 22, 23, 24 Justification The national legislation should conform to the requirements of international treaties and conventions that Mongolia is a party to and provide for at least the minimum standards of international law. The Constitution of Mongolia envisions the same status for international treaties and conventions ratified by Mongolia as for the national legislation. It also provides for the priority of international law over Mongolia’s national legislation if there is a conflict between the two. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs Method of Calculation It is calculated on the basis of experts’ assessment as percentage of conformity/nonconformity of the current national legislation with international human rights instruments. Also, on the basis of data from the judiciary, it is possible to provide the number of court cases resolved upon the principle of the priority of international law over the national legislation. Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status There is a possibility to disaggregate the measurement with regard to international instruments on/related to women’s rights.

Data Source, Data Collection All existing legislation All international treaties and conventions ratified by Mongolia

Measurement Replication/Timeframe The measurement is to be calculated every two years for inclusion in the national report on implementation of MDGs.

Comment/Measurement Limitation

References

There are no comprehensive studies on conformity/nonconformity of the current national legislation with international human rights instruments. The judicial practice of referring to international law in court is very limited. There are very few handbooks, instruction manuals, seminars and 43

National legislation, international legal instruments Decisions by the courts Resolutions of the Supreme Court

trainings on the use of international law in the practice of the judiciary and the law enforcement organizations.

3. Percentage of implementation/enforcement of judicial decisions Definition The percentage of implementation/ enforcement of judicial decisions are calculated by comparing the number of judicial decisions that have been implemented to the total number of judicial decisions (over a certain period of time) that needed enforcement. Related Goal, Objective Targets 22 and 23 Justification The percentage of implementation /enforcement of judicial decisions are an important measurement in strengthening the rule of law, upholding social justice, and in protecting human rights and freedoms. It is also a guarantee that the rights that have been violated will be reinstated; the damages that have been inflicted will be repaid by those who have violated the law, and that the court decisions will be enforced speedily and effectively. Every court decision should be fully implemented. However, the implementation of court decisions in Mongolia is far from being satisfactory (30-40 percent), and the citizens still continue to suffer from bureaucratic red tape and nepotism of the organization in charge of implementing court decisions. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs Method of Calculation

Data Source, Data Collection

The measurement will be calculated by comparing the number of judicial decisions that have been implemented to the total number of judicial decisions (over a certain period of time) that needed enforcement.

Reports and other monitoring documents by organizations in charge implementing court decisions The Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs will collect all the materials including monitoring reports by the Ministry and the Procuratorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office regarding the organization in charge of implementing court decisions. Comment/Measurement Limitation

Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status It is possible to disaggregate court decisions with damages of small amounts to be paid. Such decisions with small amounts of money imply that a service fee (up to 10 percent of the overall amount of damages to be transferred to the organization in charge of implementing court decisions will also be small. The Project

Court decisions usually contain provisions on payment of damages. There could be difficulty in assessing realistically the implementation of provisions on payment of damages.

Measurement Replication/Timefra me The measurement will be calculated once every two years for inclusion in the National MDGs Report.

References Reports of the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs Reports and other documents of organizations in charge of implementing court decisions

assumes that there could be an indirect relationship with poverty/finance status of citizens to benefit from implementing court decisions with damages of small amounts.

4. Number of attorneys that provide services to citizens that are not able to pay for such services Definition The number of attorneys that provide services to citizens that are not able to pay for such services is the number of licensed attorneys that have provided legal services to citizens who are not able to pay for such services. Related Goal, Objective Targets 22 and 23 Justification In Mongolia, approximately 80 percent of criminally convicted and imprisoned persons belong to the category of poor citizens, the poorest, and the unemployed. In 2005, 70.9 percent of the convicted belonged to the group of citizens that are not able to pay for legal services. The Law on Courts and the Law on Legal Defense contain provisions to the effect that â&#x20AC;&#x153;legal defense for citizens that are not able to pay for such service will covered by the state budgetâ&#x20AC;?. However, only 12 million tugrugs are allocated annually for the above provision which is far from covering the actual expenditures. It is important to establish a mechanism to support provision of legal defense for the abovementioned citizens at all phases of the criminal process, to improve the quality of and access to legal services. This will contribute to eliminating violation of human rights and freedoms and strengthening the rule of law in the country. In 2006, the Government of Mongolia passed a resolution 263 on approving a national program to provide legal services to citizens that are not able to pay for such services. The program includes such components as setting up legal aid centers for the abovementioned citizens, creating conditions for provision of legal aid in the countryside, and creating positions of state attorneys. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs Method of Calculation

Data Source, Data Collection

A total number of attorneys will be established. Then a comparison will be made between the number of citizens that are not able to pay for legal services and that have made official requests for such services and the actual number of the abovementioned citizens that have received such legal services. Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status

Information will be collected from attorneys, other legal aid professionals, legal aid centers that are engaged in providing legal services free of charge to the abovementioned citizens on criminal issues at the national level, and criminal, administrative, and civil process issues at the local level. Comment/Measurement Limitation 47

Measurement Replication/Timefram e The measurement will be calculated once every two years for inclusion in the National MDGs Report.

References

There is a possibility to disaggregate by gender the number of attorneys and the number of those that have received their services in relation to this indicator.

The national program to provide legal services to citizens that are not able to pay for such services is to be implemented until 2012 in two phases. Major activities include establishing legal aid centers in all aimags and districts and selecting state attorneys to work there. There is now a program to set up legal aid centers in aimags and districts. The lack of appropriate funding is the major obstacle in implementing the program fully.

Reports by state attorneys and legal aid centers Reports and other documents of local and regional courts Information from the Association of Attorneys

5. Public perception of political, economic, and financial independence of mass media Definition The indicator is the percentage of citizens that have expressed their belief in political, economic and financial independence of mass media. Related Goal, Objective Targets 22, 23, and 24 Justification Freedom of mass media is measured by whether the mass media is independent of political, economic, and financial influences. Dependent mass media undermines the principles of democracy and democratic governance. The DGIs study in Mongolia revealed that the existence of dependent media is expressed by subtle, â&#x20AC;&#x153;behind the curtainsâ&#x20AC;? means rather than by outright persecution of journalists. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The National Statistical Office (NSO) Method of Calculation

Data Source, Data Collection

Measurement Replication/Timeframe

The measurement will be calculated on the basis of the results of a household survey containing questions on dependence/independence of mass media with a scale expressing the measure of dependence/independence (full, partial, etc.) Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status

Data will be provided by an annual socio-economic household survey conducted by the National Statistical Office.

The NSO conducts its socio-economic household surveys on an annual basis.

Comment/Measurement Limitation

References

There is a possibility to disaggregate the survey respondents according to their financial/poverty status.

Ordinary citizens may not possess full information regarding political, economic, and financial dependence/independence of mass media.

Annual socio-economic household surveys conducted by the National Statistical Office: http://www.nso.mn

6. Number of state organizations that regularly place reports of their budgets and expenditures on their websites Definition The indicator is the number of state organizations that regularly and openly inform of their budgets and expenditures on their websites. Related Goal, Objective Targets 22, 23, and 24 Justification The indicator expresses the degree of transparency and accountability of government as well as the degree of access to information by citizens that are fundamental principles of democratic governance. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The Ministry of Finance Method of Calculation

The measurement is the number of state organizations that regularly place their budget and expenditure reports on their websites. The number is to be compared to the total number of state organizations at the national level. Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status

There is no possibility for disaggregation.

Data Source, Data Collection

Data will be provided by the Ministry of Finance.

Comment/Measurement Limitation

Currently, there are few state organizations that inform of budgets and expenditures (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science). Reports on websites will only be available to citizens with access to Internet. The poor, the disabled and other marginalized citizens will have limited access to these reports.

Measurement Replication/Timeframe

The measurement will be calculated once every two years for inclusion in the National MDGs Report.

References

Websites of state organizations

Target 23: Mainstream democratic principles and practices into life 7. Public perception of activities of state organizations Definition The indicator is a composite index calculated on the basis of percentages of respondents that have expressed trust/distrust in state organizations and have evaluated their performance as answers to questions on different state organizations. Related Goal, Objective Targets 22, 23, and 24 Justification The indicator expresses the degree of trust in government institutions and reflects their popular legitimacy. One of the biggest challenges to democracy and democratic governance is growing dissatisfaction and distrust of governmental institutions by citizens across various countries. The rule of law is an important measurement of democratic governance. Law enforcement organizations such as the judiciary, the procuratorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; office, and the police play a significant role in strengthening the rule of law. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The National Statistical Office (NSO) Method of Calculation The measurement will be calculated on the basis of the results of a household survey containing questions on trust/distrust of state organizations with a scale expressing the measure of trust/distrust (positive, medium, negative, etc.) Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status There is a possibility to disaggregate the survey respondents according to their financial/poverty status.

Data Source, Data Collection

Measurement Replication/Timeframe

Data will be provided by an annual socio-economic household survey conducted by the National Statistical Office.

The NSO conducts its socioeconomic household surveys on an annual basis.

Comment/Measurement Limitation There are different factors affecting the growing distrust by citizens of state organizations including a variety of socio-economic factors, the economic capacity of the state, etc. There is little possibility to develop one comprehensive measurement with respect to state organizations by formulating one â&#x20AC;&#x153;umbrellaâ&#x20AC;? question. Thus, a composite index is needed.

References

Annual socio-economic household surveys conducted by the National Statistical Office: http://www.nso.mn

8. Number of civil society organizations that have officially expressed their views in the process of developing and approving the state budget Definition The indicator is the number of civil society organizations that have officially expressed their views on the draft state budget to the Ministry of Finance, the Government of Mongolia, and the State Great Hural (Parliament of Mongolia) during the formal process of developing and approving the state budget from the date the draft state budget is presented by the Ministry of Finance to the Government of Mongolia until the date the draft state budget is approved by the State Great Hural (from 15 September until 1 December). Related Goal, Objective Targets 22, 23, and 24 Justification Democratic governance is based on citizen participation in decision-making. Broad participation of academia and civil society organizations in making decisions regarding the development and approval of the state budget is a reflection of degree of openness and transparency of government decision-making. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The Ministry of Finance Method of Calculation The measurement will be calculated as the number of civil society organizations that have officially expressed their views on the draft state budget to the Ministry of Finance, the Government of Mongolia, and the State Great Hural (Parliament of Mongolia) during the formal process of developing and approving the state budget from the date the draft state budget is presented by the Ministry of Finance to the Government of Mongolia until the date of the approval of the draft state budget by the State Great Hural (from 15 September to 1 December). Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status There is a possibility to collect the number of pro-poor and pro-gender equality civil society organizations that have officially expressed their views on the draft state budget.

Data Source, Data Collection

Measurement Replication/Timeframe

Data will be collected by the Ministry of Finance from its own relevant departments and as reports from the Government Secretariat and the Secretariat of the State Great Hural.

The measurement will be calculated once every two years for inclusion in the National MDGs Report. It can also be calculated annually.

Comment/ Measurement Limitation The indicator is more reflective of the participation process rather than the participation results.

References

Reports by the Ministry of Finance: http://www.mof.gov.mn

9. Percentage of voters that have participated in nominating governors of soums and baghs Definition The indicator is the national average of the percentage of voters that have participated in citizens’ public meetings to nominate governors of soums and baghs for appointment by respective governors of higher administrative level in compliance with the Constitution of Mongolia and relevant legislation (the Law on Local Administration and Territorial Division). Related Goal, Objective Targets 22, 23 Justification Effective and broad participation of citizens in local self-government is an important aspect of democratic governance. In Mongolia, the participation of citizens in forming local government institutions is relatively low. There is a wide-spread practice of holding nomination meetings with only relatives, friends, and party colleagues present. There are quorum provisions based on family representation for nomination meetings in the Law on Local Administration and Territorial Division, paragraphs 23.10, 23.11. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The Government Secretariat Method of Calculation

Data Source, Data Collection

Measurement Replication/Timeframe

The measurement will be calculated as the national average percentage of soum and bagh voters that have attended meetings for nominating respective governors as compared to the total number of voters in soums and baghs. There could also be a national average percentage of families represented by soum and bagh voters that have attended meetings for nominating respective governors as compared to the total number of families in soums and baghs. Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status There is a possibility to disaggregate the percentage of voters that have participated in citizens’ public meetings to nominate governors by gender.

Voter lists of citizens of soums and baghs compiled in preparation to local assemblies’ elections, meeting minutes, and other relevant reports by Citizens’ Hurals will constitute the basic source of information. Secretaries of Citizens’ Hurals of all levels in aimags and the capital city will be responsible for collecting the information.

The measurement will be calculated once every four years in compliance with the electoral cycle.

Comment/ Measurement Limitation The indicator does not reflect the dynamics of broader citizen participation in local self-government, and it is calculated only once every four years.

References

Number of families is soums and baghs, voter lists Meeting minutes, reports by Citizens’ Hurals

Target 24: Develop a zero-tolerance environment to corruption in all spheres of society 10. Index of corruption Definition The index of corruption could be a quantitative expression of the following measurements: 1. Magnitude of corruption, traditional and new forms and practices of corruption, 2. Tolerance/intolerance of corruption by the public, 3. Trust/distrust of state organizations by the public from the point of view of corruption, 4. Magnitude of corruption in state organizations viewed as more corruption-prone than others such as the judiciary, the police, the customs agency, taxation offices, etc., 5. Risks of corruption in the business sector, economic cost of corruption, the magnitude of informal economy, etc. Related Goal, Objective Targets 22, 23, and 24 Justification Measuring corruption is an important component in the national strategy of fighting corruption. It allows for identification of the spread of corruption across the country and across different sectors and subsectors as well as corruption “hotbeds”. Regular measurements of corruption help focus on factors that encourage/discourage corruption and its different practices and help formulate effective anti-corruption policies. Paragraph 1.3, Article 18 of the Law on Anti-corruption approved by the State Great Hural in July 2006 states that among others the function of the Independent Authority Against Corruption is “to develop an index of corruption once every two years based on the research of the magnitude, forms, and contributing factors of corruption, and report it to the public”. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The Independent Authority Against Corruption Method of Calculation The methodology to develop an index of corruption will be developed separately. There is a need to conduct a number of studies. A study of international experience in measuring corruption is important in developing a methodology for Mongolia’s index of corruption. Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status Disaggregation by gender and poverty status needs to be included as a requirement in the

Data Source, Data Collection

Measurement Replication/Timeframe

The data for the index of corruption will include quantitative and qualitative studies of corruption.

According to the Law on AntiCorruption, the index of corruption is to be developed once every two years.

Comment/ Measurement Limitation The following issues are related to the methodology: This area of research is

References

While developing a specific methodology for the index of corruption, the following

methodology for the index of corruption.

new to Mongolia, and there is a lack of experience and lack of experts in the field; Corruption is a hidden phenomenon; Governments, as a rule, do not have sufficient motivation in collecting realistic data on corruption; Indices of corruption, as a rule, are based on subjective assessments, perceptions by the public rather than on the practical realistic level of corruption, amount of bribes paid, amount of rent-seeking, scale of repetition, realistic economic cost of corruption.

studies could be consulted: In-house research of the Independent Authority Against Corruption Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) Bribe Payers Index (BPI) Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) Urban Corruption Index (UCI) World Bank Institute (WBI) Governance Indicators Transparency International Kenya Chapter Bribe Index Kenya Asia Foundation Mongolia Trends in Corruption Attitudes, 2006, 2008 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Survey Follow-up to ICNRD-5 Project, UNDP Mongolia/MFA Democratic Governance Indicators: Assessing the State of Governance in Mongolia, 2006

11. Perception of corruption in political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions Definition The indicator is a quantitative measurement/score calculated as an average of scores assigned by a pool of experts (business and financial sector experts, civil society experts) on the basis of their perception of corruption in different areas of political life and government functions such as magnitude of corruption in Mongolia politics, most corruption-prone sectors, institutional leaderships, organizations, forms and practices of corruption, socio-economic cost of corruption, etc. The indicator is a measurement of the “grand” corruption at the highest level of the Mongolian society. Related Goal, Objective Targets 22, 23, and 24 Justification This indicator aims at establishing the experts’ perception of corruption in political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions, the “grand” corruption in Mongolia. The indicator will reflect the degree of influence of financial and business sector actors on political actors, civil servants and officers of law-enforcement agencies and the judiciary. The “Trends in Corruption Attitudes” study commissioned by the Asia Foundation Mongolia in 2006 noted that action was urgently needed to combat corruption in politics and government administration and that political corruption was likely to incur the most damage to the country’s economy. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The Independent Authority Against Corruption Method of Calculation

Data Source, Data Collection

Measurement Replication/Timeframe

The methodology to develop this perception indicator will be developed separately. A particular attention needs to be paid to selection of independent experts.

The source for the data for this indicator will be a perception survey by experts who will assign scores while assessing corruption. The Project assumes that experts (financial and business experts) possess more realistic information on “grand” corruption based on their personal experience and knowledge. Comment/ Measurement Limitation See relevant section above on the Index of Corruption.

This indicator is to be produced once every two years for inclusion in the national MDGs report.

Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status Disaggregation by gender and poverty status needs to be included as a requirement in the methodology for this indicator.

References See section 10 on the Index of Corruption.

12. Public perception of corruption in public administration and public services Definition The public perception indicator will include several qualitative measurements of corruption in areas such as magnitude of corruption in public services, corruptionprone services, sectors, formal practices of corruption in public services, public attitudes to “petty” (petit, small) corruption. Related Goal, Objective Targets 22, 23, and 24 Justification The most wide-spread instrument of assessing the level of corruption is the public perception survey of corruption. The Project assumes that this indicator will encapsulate the general level of corruption as well as public attitudes (tolerance/intolerance) to corruption. National Organization in Charge of Measurement The National Statistical Office (NSO) Method of Calculation

Data Source, Data Collection

Measurement Replication/Timeframe

The measurement will be calculated on the basis of the results of a household survey containing questions on “petty” corruption and public attitudes to corruption.

Data will be provided by an annual socio-economic household survey conducted by the National Statistical Office

Disaggregation by Gender & Poverty Status

Comment/ Measurement Limitation

The NSO conducts its socioeconomic household surveys on an annual basis. The methodology to develop this perception indicator was developed by NSO in cooperation with the Project. References

There is a possibility to disaggregate the survey respondents according to their financial/poverty status.

Ordinary citizens may not possess full information regarding all aspects of “petty” corruption. The indicator is based on subjective perceptions of the public based on personal experiences along with the information provided by different mass media and other sources of information.

Annual socio-economic household surveys conducted by the National Statistical Office: http://www.nso.mn

I.7. SUMMARY BASELINE REPORT ON MDG-9 INDICATORS This report contains a summary description of the baseline of the MDG-9 indicators at the end of 2009. 58

Target 22. Fully respect and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ensure the freedom of media and provide the public with free access to information. 1. Human Development Index 1990

2000

2008

2015

0.652

0.669

0.738

0.830

Today, the NSO announces Mongolia’s HDI on an annual basis. As a comprehensive measurement of the country’s human development, it also reflects the implementation process for all MDGs including MDG-9. The NSO includes the HDI in its annual statistical report. In 2008, Mongolia’s HDI was 0.738. Mongolia produced its first Human Development Report in 1997 and published its forth Report in 2008. If the first report was devoted to general issues of human development, the following three reports were dedicated to specific issues of human development.

The State Great Hural Resolution no. 13 of 31 of January 2008 obliged the National Human Rights Commission and other state bodies to elaborate MDGs indicators and methodologies, monitor and evaluate achievements on each indicator, and create and maintain special and itemized information database. In the framework of the MDG-9, the main objective of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Expert Evaluation on Conformity of Mongolian Laws with International Treaties and Conventionsâ&#x20AC;? was to elaborate expert evaluation questionnaire, evaluate those questions by experts chosen through adopted criteria and elaborate methodology for calculation and summarization of expert evaluation. Since 1921, Mongolia has established around 3000 bilateral and around 180 multilateral treaties. According to the Constitution of Mongolia, international treaties and conventions to which Mongolia is a party shall have the same effect as national legislation. Therefore, the national legislation of a country must comply with international treaties and conventions that it has ratified or at least with minimum standards of those international treaties and convention. In the framework of strengthening human rights, fostering democratic governance, fully respecting and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ensuring the freedom of media and providing the public with access to information, the expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions is presented in percentage. Elaboration of the expert evaluation questionnaire involved not only researchers working in this field but also other researchers, specialists and public comments and recommendations. In accordance with the terms of reference, the selection of international human rights treaties and conventions to which Mongolia was party was made based upon the criteria of direct relation with the right to liberty and private safety and basic freedoms.

1. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966 and entered into force on 23 March 1976. Mongolia signed on 05 January 1968 and ratified on 18 November 1974) 2. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966 and entered into force on 03 January 1976. Mongolia signed on 5 January 1968 and ratified on 18 November 1974) 3. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 34/180 of 18 December 1979 and entered into force on 03 September 1981. Mongolia signed on 10 July 1980 and ratified on 14 May 1981) 4. Convention on the Rights of the Child (Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989 and entered into force on 02 September 1990. Mongolia signed on 26 January 1990 and ratified on 05 July 1990) 5. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 39/46 of 10 December 1984 and entered into force on 26 June 1987. Mongolia ratified on 02 November 2000) 6. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 2106(XX) of 21 December 1965 and entered into force on 04 January 1969. Mongolia signed on 03 May1966 and ratified on 31 March 1969)

For the elaboration of the assessment questionnaire, provisions of the conventions obliging the state party and relevant provisions of Mongolian laws and regulations were selected. The questionnaire on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Expert Evaluation of Conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with International Human Rights Treaties and Conventions Projectâ&#x20AC;? prepared by the experts and specialists was evaluated by Mongolian experts. A general evaluation was calculated through summarization of all given evaluations such as 1,2,3,4,5 that were given to provisions of the conventions directly obliging the state party and relating to human rights, and provisions of Mongolia laws and regulations that directly related to the provisions of the specific convention. 1. Provision of a law 1. 2.

2. Provision of a convention

1-5 numerical expression 1-5 numerical expression 61

1-5 1-5

The experts gave their numerical evaluation on conformity of legal provisions with the content of the provisions of treaties and conventions related to the right to liberty and private safety through the criteria of similarity by using the evaluation points between 1 and 5. The following is the meaning of evaluation points: 1 point -Insufficient 2 points- Slightly above insufficiency 3 points- Medium 4 points- Higher than medium, but need further 5 points- Sufficient

The calculation of expert evaluation of a specific treaty or convention was conducted through utilization of the following formula: K=Y1+Y2+Y3+Y4+Yn Y total K - Evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with relevant international human rights convention or treaty. Y1 - Evaluation given to a specific provision of the law in comparison to the provision of the treaty or convention (numerical evaluation in a single cell) Y total â&#x20AC;&#x201C; total number of cells with numerical evaluations.

The following formula was used to calculate the final evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions: Y=K1+K2+K3+K4+Kn K total Y- Evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions K1- Evaluation given to a single treaty or convention K total â&#x20AC;&#x201C;total number of conventions

By establishing the first baseline data on conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with ratified international human rights treaties and conventions, we identified the present level of conformity which will be an important tool in identifying the level to be reached in 2015. The evaluation, made by selecting laws from the national legislation based on direct relation with the right to liberty and private safety, and with abovementioned treaties and conventions, is shown in the table below.

Table 3. Expert Evaluation of Conformity of Mongolian Legislation with International Human Rights Treaties and Conventions-I №

Conventions

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Convention on the Rights of Child Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Expert evaluation on conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Average of evaluations conducted by Mongolian experts 3 3.7 3.2 4 3 3.9 3.4

Expert evaluation on conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions received an evaluation of 3.4 points out of 5 as maximum. The conformity of the Mongolian national legislation with international human rights treaties is above “satisfactory”, and this indicates that there still was a need for further review of legislation for conformity. Nonetheless, it should be considered that the documents such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have the nature of gradual implementation and, because of that, Mongolia fulfills its obligations in a step-by-step manner. Moreover, the table shows that Mongolia is implementing its obligations with regard to the elimination of racial and sexual discrimination relatively well. However, it should be noted that the expert evaluation on conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions is an evaluation on conformity and does not evaluate their implementation.

This indicator is to be reported by the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs. As of 2008, the General Court Enforcement Agency performed 42.3 billion tugrugs under 13557 writs of execution out of 52.6 billion tugrugs to be performed under 19850 writs of execution leaving 10.3 billion tugrugs not performed under 6293 writs of execution. The average practical performance for court enforcement was 73.4 percent. The practical performance of court enforcement increased as compared to the previous years by demonstrating a 9.6 percent growth compared to 2006 and 2007. 978 writs of execution were suspended in 2008 on the grounds specified in the Court Enforcement Law. This number showed the decrease of suspended writs by 1992 writs or 67.0 percent compared to the average of the past three years. 4147 writs of execution for which legal grounds for suspension ceased to exist were re-opened in 2008, which demonstrated an increase by 2497 writs or 60.2 percent compared to the average of the past three years. Also in 2008, 1.3 billion tugrugs were executed under 7643 writs of execution for small amount cases out of 2.3 billion tugrugs to be executed under 11278 writs of execution leaving 978.6 billion tugrugs under 3635 writs. The practical performance percentage was 63.1, which demonstrated a 5.0 percent increase compared to 2007.

Currently, legal assistance to insolvent citizens is rendered in the following two forms: 1. Article 12.3.8 of the Law on Advocacy specifies that an advocate has a duty to help pro bono insolvent citizens twice a year. In order to implement this provision, the Association of Mongolian Advocates appoints advocates under a certain schedule. Today, there are over 1000 advocates working in Mongolia in total. In 2007, 252 advocates appointed by the Association rendered free legal assistance to 314 insolvent citizens. This number decreased in 2008 when 141 advocates helped 161 people. This fact is explained by the establishment of legal assistance centers across the country. 2. Over 29 months, from June 2004 to November 2006, pilot projects to establish Legal Assistance Centers were undertaken in Hentii aimag and Songinohairhan district with the financing from the Open Society Institute. Implementation of these pilot projects led to conclude that establishment of such a unit would be the most suitable means to protect the rights of insolvent citizens and provide them with access to legal assistance. Also, in order not to limit legal assistance for insolvent citizens only by the advocates appointed by the Association, the Government adopted the National Program on Legal Assistance to Insolvent Citizens by its Resolution 262 in 2006. A National Council operates with local branches to supervise and organize the program implementation. In order to implement the above program, the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs together with the UNDP and the Open Society Institute established legal assistance centers in Hentii and Uvurhangai aimags, and Bayangol and Bayanzurh districts of Ulaanbaatar in April 2008 and other aimags and districts in August 2008. As of today, legal assistance centers were established under local Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office in 21 aimags and 8 districts of Ulaanbaatar. Permanent staff work 8 hours daily providing free legal assistance of a Center and are paid a constant wage. As the number of the citizens requesting free legal assistance is likely to increase, it is necessary to employ advocates on a contractual basis. 65

Contractual advocates deal with specific cases under contracts during the high work-load times of the center and are paid according to a specific rate (adopted by Decree 69 of the Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs). In 2009, the government budget allocation for provision of advocacy services to insolvent citizens increased from 15 million tugrugs to 78 million tugrugs. Since the establishment of legal assistance centers and commencement of their activities in 2008, 2769 people in total were rendered legal assistance. Advocacy services were rendered for 628 cases engaging 689 people, out of which 360 cases were resolved. In 101 cases, the requests for legal assistance were refused on the grounds such as financial capability, conflict of interests and jurisdiction. The report submitted by the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs to the National Development and Innovation Committee in May 2009 stated that there were 476 advocates that provided legal services to insolvent citizens in 2006, 417 in 2007, and 293 in 2008. However, another report on implementation of MDGs by the said Ministry in 2009 stated that there were 544 advocates that provided legal services to insolvent citizens in 2007 and 431 in 2008. The confusion in numbers reveals a lack of common methodology and reporting procedures with regard to the indicator on the number of attorneys that provide legal services to citizens who are not able to pay for such services. To refine the statistical data for this indicator, the MDG-9 Project experts made two recommendations: (1) to ensure the principle of â&#x20AC;&#x153;one advocate â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one clientâ&#x20AC;? reporting, and (2) to include simultaneously the number of insolvent clients in the reporting data, a recommendation that included a proposal for a data reporting matrix was formally submitted by the Project to the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs. The past two years have witnessed such progressive steps as the establishment of legal assistance centers for insolvent citizens, increase of government financing/budget, training of specialized advocates and launching of certain projects and programs. These achievements create conditions for continuous and effective provision of advocacy services for insolvent citizens, improvement of the accessibility and impact of legal assistance to citizens as a whole and protection of human rights. In its most recent report to the National Committee on Development and Innovation, the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs reported in May 2009 that altogether 293 advocates had worked to protect the legal interests of insolvent citizens. 66

The project team and the National Statistical Office (NSO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to include a questionnaire on the abovementioned indicator in the latter’s Annual Household Socio-economic Survey and agreed in 2007 on the methodology and reporting, and conducted a pretesting of the questionnaire in December 2007. The questionnaire was discussed and approved by the Consultative Committee under the NSO Director and was given a “green light” for the pilot and then the implementation within the framework of the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey. The 2006 State of Democracy Assessment produced within the scope of the Follow-up to ICNRD-5 Project revealed that infringements on the freedom of the press were expressed through indirect, covert pressures brought upon journalists rather than through the use of such instruments as prosecution and other means of direct and open pressure. In 2008, the results of the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey conducted among 1872 households revealed that by and large the population viewed the mass media as dependent on political and financial interests. 20 percent of respondents gave the “don’t know answer” to the question on media dependence. This showed that a large segment of the respondents did not feel knowledgeable enough to evaluate the media situation. Table 4. Results of the Survey on Public Perception of Political, Economic and Financial Independence of Mass Media Responses in % № Survey questions

1 Public perception of political independence of mass media 2 Public perception of economic and financial independence of mass media 3 Can Mongolians express their views freely?

Very Dependent Relatively dependent depended

Independent

Very independent

Don’t know

10.5

30.9

21.7

15.8

1.1

20.0

28.9*

8.5

29.3

21.8

13.8

1.0

25.6

28.1*

5.3

18.5

31.0

35.0

6.7

3.6

63.61*

Source: Module on Democratic Governance under the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey, NSO, 2008; *The scores were calculated by the staff of the MDG-9 Project, June 2009.

Total score 30

The total score is a standard score was calculated by subtracting negative values from the positive values (the range is 1-100 scores). 67

The overall result showed that the Mongolian citizens believed that they could express their views freely (the score was 63.6). However, the mass media independence of political, economic and financial interests was 28.9 and 28.1 scores respectively, a very low rate of media independence. The questions regarding the degree of trust in mass media revealed that the public media instruments such as the Mongolian National Public TV (99.3 scores) and the National Public Radio (93.0 scores) had the highest trust among the respondents. Private media scored very low with the “yellow press” having the lowest degree of trust. The average total score of the media independence of political, economic and financial interests was 28.5 percent. The score was calculated according to a methodology described in the section “Concept Note on the MDG-9 Module in the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey”. Table 5. Citizens’ Trust in Mass Media Responses in % Very unreliable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

National Public Radio FM Radio Mongolian National Public Television Private Television Stations Local Television Stations Daily Newspapers Yellow Press

Unreliable Modestly Reliable Reliable

Very reliable

Don’t know

Total score31

1.5

3.9

19.4

57.7

12.3

5.3

93.0

2.3 1.2

8.3 3.5

29.4 17.4

33.6 58.2

4.2 18.7

22.3 1.0

78.3 94.3

1.5

9.4

31.3

43.2

6.1

8.5

81.9

2.0

6.4

23.6

33.8

4.5

29.8

82.1

3.0

13.3

33.0

33.1

4.1

13.5

69.5

10.9

30.3

27.7

12.0

1.9

17.2

25.2

Source: Module on Democratic Governance under the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey, NSO, 2008, The scores were calculated by the staff of the MDG-9 Project, June 2009

The total score is a standard score was calculated by subtracting negative values from the positive values (the range is 1-100 scores). 68

According to the Parliament Resolution, the Ministry of Finance is now responsible for developing the above indicator. The project staff produced the base indicator in collaboration with respective experts of the Ministry of Finance. In the first half of 2008, there were 4037 organizations funded by the state budget excluding state-owned business organizations. There were 32 general budget managers there along with 54 general budget managers including aimag and capital city governors. The majority of the abovementioned organizations are local schools, hospitals and other social sector budgetary organizations. There are basic four budgetary organizations in one soum such as a local school, a hospital, local governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office, and a cultural center. None of these has a functioning website. There is no detailed survey available about this. Thus, it can be assumed that at the local soum level there are no organizations that have placed statistical information on their websites. This is explained by the fact that it has been only two year that a majority of soums received a constant source of electricity whereas around 40 percent still lack a stable access to electricity sources. The following is a performance data with regard to the indicator by 32 budgetary organizations working under general budget managers: one organization has placed its 2008 budget implementation and 2009 budget plan, 12 organizations had budget implementations of earlier years on their websites, 13 organizations had no information, and 6 organizations had no websites to refer to. Only one of the local offices of the Ulaanbaatar City and provincial (aimag) offices had a budgetary report of the current year, 11 had budgetary reports of earlier years, 7 had no information, and 3 organizations had no websites. Among 54 budgetary organizations under general budget managers, there were 2 organizations that have placed full reports of their budgets, 23 had reports from previous years, 20 had no reports on budgets on their websites, and 9 organizations did not have websites. All in all, there were 45 organizations at the national and local level that had websites and 9 69

organizations without websites. 25 organizations or 55.6 percent of organizations with websites had placed reports on their budgets.

The project team and the NSO signed a Memorandum of Understanding to include a questionnaire on the abovementioned indicator in the latter’s Annual Household Socio-economic Survey and agreed in 2007 on the methodology and reporting, and conducted a pretesting of the questionnaire in December 2007. The questionnaire was discussed and approved by the Consultative Committee under the NSO Director and was given a “green light” for the pilot and then the implementation within the framework of the Annual Household Socioeconomic Survey. The results of the Survey were as shown in Table 3. Table 6. Public Perception of Activities of State Organizations №

Responses in % Very poor

Poor

Relatively Good

Good

Very good

Don’t know

Total score32

President

4.0

10.2

34.1

43.4

4.7

3.6

Parliament

10.1

25.9

45.2

15.1

0.8

2.9

Government

6.9

18.4

39.7

28.4

1.9

4.7

Capital /aimag Hurals (assemblies) District/ soum Hurals (assemblies) Horoo/bagh Hurals (assemblies) Capital/aimag Governors District/soum Governors Horoo/bagh Governors Supreme Court

5.2

15.2

33.5

19.7

0.8

25.6

7.1

17.5

35.5

21.9

1.0

17.0

10.0

17.9

32.4

22.6

1.7

15.5

4.7

13.0

34.9

29.0

2.3

16.2

6.0

15.7

35.4

28.9

2.2

11.8

7.2

15.6

31.7

35.9

3.5

6.1

4.4

9.0

21.8

12.3

1.7

51.0

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 32

The total score is a standard score was calculated by subtracting negative values from the positive values (the range is 1-100 scores). 71

11.

3.6

9.8

23.4

13.4

1.0

48.9

3.6

10.8

24.5

13.4

1.1

46.7

3.2

9.7

22.4

16.0

1.7

46.9

14.

Capital/aimag Courts District/soum Courts General Court Enforcement Agency Traffic Police

4.5

11.6

29.2

35.4

2.9

16.4

15.

Criminal Police

4.0

12.4

31.3

27.1

2.4

22.8

12. 13.

16.

Police Patrol

4.7

12.9

31.1

31.8

3.7

15.8

17.

Independent Authority Against Corruption State Specialized Inspection Agency National Audit Office Customs

11.1

16.2

23.3

11.1

1.2

37.2

6.4

14.3

26.8

25.0

2.0

25.5

2.2

7.7

20.3

19.2

2.0

48.6

5.4

11.7

23.7

17.2

1.1

40.9

Authority of Land Affairs Taxation Administration Social insurance organizations Social care organizations Public schools

11.2

16.5

28.1

17.9

1.2

25.2

3.1

8.4

25.6

35.9

3.5

23.5

1.2

5.2

24.5

53.2

5.9

10.1

1.3

5.7

22.4

53.7

7.5

9.3

1.5

6.1

30.9

47.8

6.7

7.1

18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26.

Public Health 4.4 12.3 30.9 43.6 5.2 3.6 75 organizations Source: Module on Democratic Governance under the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey, NSO, 2008. The scores were calculated by the staff of the MDG-9 Project, June 2009

The survey respondents gave a higher satisfaction rate to social insurance and social care organizations (90 scores) whereas the Parliament received the lowest score of 30. The citizens believed that state democratic institutions including national and local assemblies had failed to implement their relevant functions. The indicator average score is 53.3. The result reflects the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s discontent with the performance of the Mongolian democratic state and shows the need for a reform of the state institutions.

Table 7. Citizens’ Trust in the State Institutions Responses in % Very unreliable

Unreliable

Relatively Reliable

Reliable

Total score Very reliable

Don’t know

Parliament of 7.1 23.2 41.4 25.3 1.3 1.7 46.8 Mongolia Government 4.6 15.8 39.3 34.6 2.6 3.0 64.6 of Mongolia President of 4.0 10.4 31.3 45.3 6.9 2.2 78.5 Mongolia Source: Module on Democratic Governance under the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey, NSO, 2008; The scores were calculated by the staff of the MDG-9 Project, June 2009

The indicator score was calculated according to a methodology described in the section “Concept Note for the MDG-9 Module in the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey”.

This indicator was to be produced using the data by the GoM (Ministry of Finance), the Government Secretariat, and the Parliament Secretariat as reflected in the Parliamentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s respective resolution. During the Project duration, two state budgets were approved in 2008 and 2009. During the discussion of the 2008 budget, the MDG-9 indicators were under the process of completion. However, during the discussion of the 2009 state budget, the data on the number of NGOs and citizens that had submitted proposals was not collected. The Project staff made an attempt to collect the data on their own by approaching formally both the Government Secretariat and the Parliamentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Secretariat. The latter two organizations did not have processed data on the above indicator. The interviews with relevant officials showed that many proposals were usually submitted by budgetary organizations rather than NGOs or citizens. The Project staff believes that a specific function /job description should be made available to formalize the collection of the indicator data by the staff at the Ministry of Finance, Government Secretariat, and the Parliamentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Secretariat to ensure the implementation of the indicator.

The Project staff proposed this indicator as a measure of a direct participatory democracy by citizens at the local elections of governors of baghs, soums and horoos. The data could be collected through the Citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Representative Hurals. However, in 2008, the State Great Hural amended the Law on Administrative Units and Their Management by introducing appointments of lower level governors by higher level governors of administrative units. The amendment had a disqualifying effect on the proposed indicator. Still, in March 2009, the Constitutional Court reversed the amendment of the Parliament and restored the initial legal provision of electing governors local administrative units. In the final end, the above indicator has retained its validity. In 2009, the indicator has not been substantiated by a data base.

Target 24: Develop a zero-tolerance environment to corruption in all spheres of society 10.

Index of corruption

Definition The index of corruption could be a quantitative expression of the following measurements: 1. Magnitude of corruption, traditional and new forms and practices of corruption, 2. Tolerance/intolerance of corruption by the public, 3. Trust/distrust of state organizations by the public from the point of view of corruption, 4.Magnitude of corruption in state organizations viewed as more corruption-prone than others such as the judiciary, the police, the customs agency, taxation offices, etc., 5. Risks of corruption in the business sector, economic cost of corruption, the magnitude of informal economy, etc.

This indicator was assigned for development by the Independent Authority Against Corruption (IAAC) by both the Anti-corruption Law and the Parliament Resolution on MDGs. The Project staff initiated two roundtable discussions with relevant officials of the Anti-corruption Agency along with national stakeholders on various existing methodologies to produce a corruption index that were used by international and foreign organizations. The Index of Corruption is a composite index that reflects forms, magnitude, and causes of corrupt practices and shows the corruption variance over time. The Index is produced by the Independent Authority Against Corruption (IAAC), Mongolia’s anti-corruption agency, as prescribed by Mongolia’s legislation. The Index exercise pursues the following objectives: measure changes in the levels of corruption, evaluate the effects of the government policy against corruption, determine extent and forms of corruption, provide data on outcomes of anti-corruption work of the government and its agencies and vulnerability to corrupt practices, contribute to development of future policies and programs against corruption. The Index is a composite of quantitative indicators expressed as an arithmetic mean of two sub-indices: (1) Sub-index on corruption magnitude and (2) Subindex on corruption forms. The Index has values between 0-1 with “1” being the highest positive value and “0” being the lowest value. The Sub-index on corruption magnitude includes the following components: 1. Public and expert perception of corruption magnitude 76

2. Indicator/percentage of economic impact of corruption or economic damage caused by corruption in the annual national budget expenditure 3. Expert opinion of corruption levels/bribes in the total cost of certain types of business transactions 4. Percentage of bribes paid to government officials in the household income. The Sub-index on corruption forms includes the following components: 1. Percentage of corruption crimes with multiple objects 2. Percentage of corruption crimes with twice and more repetition 3. Percentage of organized corruption crimes 4. Indicator of gravity of corruption crime 5. Percentage of corruption crimes motivated by greed. Corruption indices by sectors and by local administrative units are based on perception indicators. The following four sources are used for the calculation of the Index of Corruption: 1. Public perception survey results 2. Expert perception survey results 3. Desktop study results 4. Government organizationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; corruption risk assessments. For calculation of the 2009 Index, a public perception survey was conducted in October 2009, and an expertsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perception survey along with a corruption risk self-assessment by government organizations were undertaken in November 2009. The desktop studies covered the quantitative data of 2008-2009. The Index of Corruption based on the two sub-indices equals 0.64. The Sub-index on corruption magnitude stands at 0.74 revealing widespread corruption phenomena in Mongolia. Table 8. Corruption Magnitude Components

Value

Public/expert perception of corruption magnitude Economic impact of corruption Corruption levels/bribes in business transactions Percentage of bribes paid to government officials in the household income Sub-index on corruption magnitude 77

0.75 0.03 0.10 0.15 0.74

The value of 0.03 of economic impact of corruption equals 2.7 percent loss in the annual national budget expenditure. The value of 0.10 of corruption levels/bribes in the total cost of certain types of business transactions equals 10.4 percent of the cost of government transactions such as procurement of goods and services by national and local public funds, solution of debts, civil litigations, tax deductions, and exemptions. The public perception survey has revealed that 13.3 percent of 677.8 thousand households have given bribes to government officials during the last 12 months with each household spending on average 240.800 tugrugs. Based on the above, the total amount of bribes paid by the households stands at 21.7 billion tugrugs or slightly less than 15 million USD. The Sun-index on corruption forms is 0.54. Table 9. Corruption Forms Indicators Percentage of multiple objects corruption crimes Percentage of repeated corruption crimes Percentage of organized corruption crimes Indicator of gravity of corruption crimes The indicator of greediness motivated corruption crime Composite indicator of the types of corruption

Value 0.31 0.30 0.42 0.37 0.91 0.54

Table 10. Corruption Indices by Sectors Sector

Indices

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Finance

0.63

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Foreign Affairs

0.63

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs

0.61

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Environment and Tourism

0.65

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Defense

0.71

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Education, Culture and Science

0.64

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Road, Construction and Urban Development

0.64

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Welfare and Labor

0.69

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry

0.63

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources

0.47

Within the responsibilities of Minister of Health

0.61

Within the responsibilities of Deputy Prime Minister

0.63

Table 11. Corruption Indices by Provinces/Aimags Aimags, capital city Indices Tuv

0.71

Gobi-Sumber

0.67

Dundgobi

0.66

Dornogobi

0.66

Bulgan

0.66

Zavhan

0.64

Selenge

0.64

Ulaanbaatar

0.60

Uvurhangai

0.60

Darhan-Uul

0.60

Dornod

0.59

Gobi-Altai

0.59

Suhbaatar

0.58

Bayanhongor

0.58

Hentii

0.56

Huvsgul

0.55

Umnugobi

0.55

Bayan-Ulgii

0.54

Uvs

0.54

Orhon

0.49

Hovd

0.49

Arhangai

0.47

The findings of all the perception surveys conducted by the IAAC in 2009 could be found in Mongolian at http://www.iaac.mn

11. Perception of corruption in public organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions Definition The indicator is a quantitative measurement/score calculated as an average of scores assigned by a pool of experts (business and financial sector experts, civil society experts) on the basis of their perception of corruption in different areas of political life and government functions such as magnitude of corruption in Mongolia politics, most corruption-prone sectors, institutional leaderships, organizations, forms and practices of corruption, socio-economic cost of corruption, etc. The indicator is a measurement of the “grand” corruption at the highest level of the Mongolian society.

The indicators on the zero tolerance of corruption in all spheres of society (Target 24) include an indicator on perception of corruption in political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions. The indicator is aimed at identifying the current state of corruption at the “grand” or elite level in the Mongolian society and establishing experts’ perceptions of grand level corruption. The survey targeted the State Great Hural, Citizens’ Representatives Hurals of all level, Ministries, Agencies, local public organizations in provinces, National Audit Commission, judicial bodies, Public Prosecutor’s Office, Department of Police and the Enforcement Agency for Judicial Decisions. The survey questionnaire covered all important areas of corruption phenomenon and included 13 questions and 87 statements. The survey kept anonymous the names of participating experts. The selection of experts was based on the following: experience in a state organization and a law enforcement body, experience in working against corruption or exposure to information about it, legal experience, experience in representing private sector interests before a state organization, and experience in business activities. While selecting the experts, more experts from the private sector were included. This approach was supported by partner organizations such as the Anti-Corruption Agency. Altogether there were 15 experts. The overall mean score of the “grand” corruption in Mongolia was set at 4.09 by the experts leading to the conclusion that the corruption was very high in Mongolia’s political, judicial and law enforcement bodies.

Low level of social and economic development, lack of intolerance of corruption in the society, lack of transparency and accountability, red tape, patronage and nepotism by politicians, inadequate civil service system, weak capacity of government institutions, evasion of responsibility by persons who 80

have engaged in unlawful practices and unethical behavior, poverty and failure of law enforcement were cited by the experts as corruption factors. The section on Reports on Specific Indicators contains a more detailed description of the expert survey on the â&#x20AC;&#x153;grandâ&#x20AC;? corruption in Mongolia.

The project team and the NSO signed a Memorandum of Understanding to include a questionnaire on the abovementioned indicator in the latter’s Annual Household Socio-economic Survey and agreed in 2007 on the methodology and reporting, and conducted a pretesting of the questionnaire in December 2007. The questionnaire was discussed and approved by the Consultative Committee under the NSO Director and was given a “green light” for the pilot and then the implementation within the framework of the Annual Household Survey. The first such survey was conducted in December 2008. The survey questions covered 22 types of public services that the Project experts and the NSO staff identified as the most in demand by the citizens. The results of the survey were as follows. Table 12. Results of the Survey on Public Perception of Corruption in Public Administration and Public Services №

Services

Responses in % During the past 12 Did you observe Number of those months, have you corruption during who did not observe used the following the service? corruption during services? the service 19.7 38.7 61.3

Ratio of numbers33

Get employment for yourself or somebody else in a state organization

Get a child enrolled in school

26.4

22.6

77.4

0.29

Get enrolled in training or retraining courses Get good/better grade Resolve car/traffic related issues

14.6

16.1

83.9

0.19

10.2 24.1

35.6 23.3

64.4 76.7

0.55 0.30

Get medical care

60.6

22.8

77.2

0.29

Get an official document from a bagh/horoo local governor

49.7

6.8

93.2

0.07

Get exempt from army conscription

10.0

23.1

76.9

0.30

Get social care service

37.8

14.4

85.7

0.17

4 5

Observation of corruption/ No observation of corruption ratio is within the range of 0-2. 82

0.63

Get money from or coverage by aid projects/ programs

14.9

24.5

75.5

0.32

Get loans from bank

32.2

9.3

90.7

0.10

Get land permission/ownership license

32.6

67.44

0.48

Get exemption from or preferential treatment by customs office

3.1

55.2

44.8

1.23

Get exemption from or preferential treatment by tax office

2.6

39.6

60.4

0.66

Refer the case for court settlement

4.7

52.3

47.7

1.10

Transfer goods through the border

3.8

47.9

52.1

0.92

Receive passport domestic/international

19.4

13.9

86.2

0.16

Get a foreign visa

5.6

32.4

67.6

0.48

Dismissal of case by court

3.4

46.9

53.1

0.88

Get special license

4.0

42.7

57.3

0.74

21 22

Influence a state tender Evaluation and registration of immovable property

2.2 11.3

56.1 21.9

43.9 78.1

1.28 0.28

Source: Module on Democratic Governance under the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey, NSO, 2008, * Assessment has been based on the survey data collection, MDG-9 project – Phase II, June 2009

The survey revealed a relatively very low rate of observed corruption in the most popular services demanded by citizens such as medical care and documents from local governor’s office. Tender submissions (1.28), customs’ tax exemptions (1.23), court case referrals (1.10) had a very high corruption rate thus identifying these sectors as highly corruption-prone. For instance, only 2.2 percent of those surveyed took part in tender submissions, however more than a half of them (56.1 percent) believed that corruption had an impact on the tender results. The ratio of corruption and non-corruption was the highest (1.28) in the state tender sector. The overall score for the public perception of corruption in public administration and public services is a relatively low score of 30.8 at the scale of 0 to 100.

The methodology of calculation of the indicator is described in the section “Concept Note on the MDG-9 Module in the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey”. 83

I.8. REPORTS ON SPECIFIC INDICATORS This section contains a narrative statement of specific indicators of MDG-9: 1. Expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions 2. Percentage of implementation and enforcement of judicial decisions 3. Number of attorneys that provide services to citizens that are not able to pay for such services 4. Number of state organizations that regularly and openly inform of their budgets and expenditures on their websites 5. Perception of corruption in political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions 84

1. Expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions (percentage) Definition The indicator is an expert evaluation expressed in percentage representing the compliance/conformity of Mongolia’s laws and regulations (in particular those related to the exercise of human rights and immunities) with international human rights treaties and conventions that Mongolia has joined. PREPARATION

The sub-project on “Expert Evaluation on Conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with International Human Rights Treaties and Conventions” was implemented by the National Legal Center. Outcomes of this sub-project were given to the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia for further maintenance, update, and calculation of indicator data. In the preparation phase, the following were accomplished: elaboration and approval of the plan, appointment of working group, identification of necessary information, development of assessment questions, adoption of methodology, adoption of criteria for selection of an expert on questionnaire, identification and categorization of information, selection of experts for evaluation based upon given criteria. The experts of the working group were selected and appointed from the National Human Rights Commission and National Legal Center. Selection and appointment of experts was made based upon criteria such as their work experience, specialization in professional field, knowledge and previous research experience. 1. P. Bayar – Scientific researcher of the National Legal Center 2. N.Munkhtuya – Scientific researcher of the National Legal Center 3. G.Oyunbold – Scientific researcher of the National Legal Center 4. M.Munkhbat – Scientific researcher of the National Legal Center 5. B.Dolgion – Officer of the National Human Rights Commission The following international instruments were selected for evaluation:

(Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989 and entered into force on 02 September 1990. Mongolia signed on 26 January 1990 and ratified on 05 July 1990) 5. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 39/46 of 10 December 1984 and entered) 6. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 2106(XX) of 21 December 1965 and entered into force on 04 January 1969. Mongolia signed on 03 May1966 and ratified on 31 March 1969)

For the elaboration of assessment questionnaire, provisions of the international conventions and provisions of the Mongolian laws and regulations obliging the state party were selected. Six experts for evaluation of conformity of national legislation and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions to which Mongolia is party were selected based upon following criteria: 1. Lawyer, high academic degree 2. Researcher in the field of human rights 3. Human rights research and monitoring experience 4. Relevant experience in working with governmental and non-governmental organizations The experts who complied with the four criteria were the following: a. S.Narangerel (Head of the Law School of the National University of Mongolia, former parliamentarian, Academician, Member of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences) b. S.Tserendorj (Human Rights Professor and Researcher, Former Chief Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission) c. M.Mendsaikhan (Professor of Law and Head of International Law Department of the Law School of the National University of Mongolia) d. M.Togtokhnyam (Head of National Center for Children) e. N.Tsogt (Human rights lawyer, former human rights officer of the Ministry of Justice and Home Affaires) f. M.Uyanga (Professor of Human Rights of the Law School of the National University of Mongolia, former staff of Amnesty International Mongolia) METHODOLOGY

The general evaluation was calculated through summation of scores such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1. Provision of a law 1.

Scores 1-5

2. Provision of a convention Scores 1-5

Scores 1-5

Experts gave their numerical evaluation on conformity of legal provisions with the content of the provisions of treaties and conventions by using scores from 1 to 5. Meaning of evaluation points Scores: 1 -Insufficient 2 - Slightly above insufficient 3 - Medium 4 - Higher than medium 5 - Sufficient The calculation of expert evaluation of a specific treaty or convention was done according to the following formula: K=Y1+Y2+Y3+Y4+Yn Y total K - Evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with relevant international human rights convention or treaty. Y1 - Evaluation given to a specific provision of the law in comparison to the provision of the treaty or convention/a score in a single cell/ Y total â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Total number of cells with scores.

On 25 September 2008, a meeting was organized to collect comments on the questionnaire elaborated by the working group. Important recommendations and comments that contributed to improving the questionnaire, were given by Ms. P. Oyunchimeg, Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia, and T. Jargalsaikhan, Scientific Researcher of the National Legal Center. OUTCOME

By establishing the first baseline data on conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with ratified international human rights treaties and conventions, 87

the sub-project identified the present level of conformity which would be an important baseline in identifying the level to be reached in 2015. The following outputs were produced: 1. Elaboration of criteria for selection of experts 2. Elaboration of evaluation questionnaire 3. Elaboration of the methodology for calculation of evaluation 4. Baseline data on compliance of Mongolian national legislation and regulations with ratified international human rights treaties and conventions CONCLUSIONS

The sub-project produced the following conclusions: Poor engagement with research organizations and experts; poor consideration of their recommendations; lack of proper legal terminology complying with international treaties and conventions in process of elaboration and adoption of national legislation. Although the spirit of international treaties and conventions is reflected in the Constitution of Mongolia, field laws such as the Criminal Code, Criminal Procedures Code and other laws did insufficiently comply with provisions of those treaties and conventions. The Government of Mongolia was insufficiently complying with its obligation to report implementation of international treaties and conventions to the UN Treaty-Bodies and ILO Experts Committee. Shortcomings persist such as lack of knowledge and follow-up action on recommendations given by the UN Treaty-Bodies regarding reports submitted by the Government. Official translation and publication of international treaties and conventions were insufficient leading to low rate of reference in practices of court and law enforcement agencies. Insufficiency in advocacy and awareness-raising activities for the general public with regard to international treaties and conventions. Non-existence of a unified database on conformity of Mongolian legislation with international treaties and conventions targeted at organizations responsible for the implementation of the international treaties and conventions In order to improve the above, the experts recommended the following measures: Engage with research organizations and experts and consider their recommendations in the process of changing the Mongolian legislation to reflect fully international treaties and conventions. With the exclusion of the Convention on the Rights of Child and its Optional Protocols, the reports on the implementation of all other Conventions were 88

delayed for 1-6 years. It was recommended to submit timely reports on international treaties and conventions and improve the implementation of recommendations from the UN Treaty – Bodies. Conduct advocacy of international treaties and conventions for the general public. Establish a unified database on international treaties and conventions RECOMMENDATION

Every state takes measures to conform its national legislation to international treaties and conventions to fulfill its treaty obligations. There are two ways to achieve that: either to consider international norms valid as national legislation or to reform national legislation. As for Mongolia, it introduces new norms and standards into the national legislation. It is clearly stated in chapter 7 article 7.27.1 and article 7.27.2 of the Mongolian Law on International Treaties that “with regard to implementation of international treaties ratified by Mongolia, a proposal on bringing amendments to the Mongolian national legislation and other legislative acts shall be submitted to the Government solely by a central administrative body dealing with legal issues or by a related ministry jointly with special body.” “If there is a necessity to amend the national legislation, the Government shall submit a proposal to the State Great Hural (Parliament)”. The evaluation scores of conformity of national laws with the abovementioned treaties and conventions are shown in the table below. Table 13. Conformity of National Legislation with International Human Rights Treaties and Conventions-I №

Conventions

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Convention on the Rights of Child Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions

2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Average of score of conformity of national legislation 3 3.7 3.2 4 3 3.9 3.4

Expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions received a score of 3.4 points. The conformity of Mongolian national legislation with international human rights treaties was above “satisfactory”, and this indicated that there still was a need for further amendment of legislation for better conformity. It should also be noted that the documents such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have the nature of gradual implementation and, because of that, Mongolia fulfills its obligations in a stepby-step manner. Therefore, insufficiency in conformity with this Covenant is a relative evaluation. Moreover, the table shows that Mongolia is implementing its obligations to eliminate racial and sexual discrimination relatively well. It should also be noted that the expert evaluation of conformity of Mongolian laws and regulations with international human rights treaties and conventions is an evaluation on conformity and does not evaluate their implementation. The article 14 sub-section 14.6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stating that “when a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to law, unless it is proved that the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to him” is included in article 16 subsection 16.4 of the Constitution of Mongolia stating that “the citizens of Mongolia are guaranteed to enjoy the right to be compensated for the damage illegally caused by others” this is not included in the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedures Code. Therefore, experts gave the evaluation of 2.6 points, below medium, revealing the necessity for reflecting the above provision of the international covenant in the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure’s Code. The conformity of the national legislation such as sub-section 44.1 in Article 44 of the Mongolian Criminal Code stating that “… a person who gave an illegal order or decision shall face criminal responsibility for the damage caused by his/her order or decision”, and sub-section 44.2 stating that “if a person accomplishes an illegal order or decision and violates the interests protected by this law shall face criminal responsibility” with sub-section 2.2, Article 2 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment stating that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture” and sub-section 2.3 stating that “an order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture” received an evaluation of 2 points, as 90

insufficient, and the experts recommended to fully reflect the content of the above provision in the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedures Code. The sub-section 8.2, Article 8 stating that “where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity” and sub-section 9.4 Article 9 “where such separation results from any action initiated by a State Party, such as the detention, imprisonment, exile, deportation or death (including death arising from any cause while the person is in the custody of the State) of one or both parents or of the child, that State Party shall, upon request, provide the parents, the child or, if appropriate, another member of the family with the essential information concerning the whereabouts of the absent member(s) of the family unless the provision of the information would be detrimental to the well-being of the child. States Parties shall further ensure that the submission of such a request shall of itself entail no adverse consequences for the person(s) concerned “ of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are included in article 23 sub-section 23.1 of the Law on Protection of the Rights of the Child stating that “Government, governors of all levels and other organizations and public officials holding legal mandates shall supervise within their own competence the administration of the law on protection of the rights of child” and in article 7 of the Law on Migration and Travel of Mongolian Citizens for Personal Reasons stating that “when a minor or person without legal capacity is traveling for personal reasons, migrating her/ she shall be accompanied only by his/her parents or official guardian”. The conformity in regard to the above provisions received and evaluation of 2 points which was below medium and reflected the need for reflecting fully and clearly the content of the international convention. As for article 36 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child stating that States Parties shall protect the child against all other forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child's welfare, it was not reflected in any of Mongolian laws and regulations. Therefore, the experts gave the evaluation as insufficient and recommended to include immediately the relative provisions in the Criminal Code, Criminal Procedures Code, and Law on Protection of the Rights of Child and other relevant laws. Also, article 39 of the abovementioned Convention stating that “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child” is included in the Law on Protection of the Rights of Child stating that “organizations, entities and individuals providing the service of 91

social care shall be responsible for the following: â&#x20AC;Ś1/ ensuring a secure environment without violence and appropriate for the age, physical and mental development of the child, standards of hygieneâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;?. The conformity of the above provision was considered as insufficient and it was recommended to specify the provision stating what specific organizations, entities and individuals shall be responsible for the implementation of the provision.

Table 14. Conformity of National legislation with International Human Rights Treaties and Conventions-II 1. THE UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS Âš

Conventionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s article

Expert 1

Expert 2

Expert 3

Average score

Article 6 1. Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.

3.5

4.1

2. In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime and not contrary to the provisions of the present Covenant and to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This penalty can only be carried out pursuant to a final judgment rendered by a competent court. 4. Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted in all cases. 5. Sentence of death shall not be imposed for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age and shall not be carried out on pregnant women. Article 7 No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.

4.5

3.5

3.8

3.5

3.6

4.6

3. 4. 5.

6. Article 8 1. 2.

No one shall be held in slavery; slavery and the slave-trade in all their forms shall be prohibited. No one shall be held in servitude.

4.3

Article 9 1.

Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.

2. Anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him.

3.5

4.1

3. Anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release. It shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be detained in custody, but release may be subject to guarantees to appear for trial, at any other stage of the judicial proceedings, and, should occasion arise, for execution of the judgment. 4. Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful.

4.3

10.

Anyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an enforceable right to compensation.

11.

Article 14 1. All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law. 2. Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. 3. In the determination of any criminal charge against him, everyone shall be entitled to the following minimum guarantees, in full equality:

2.6

4.6

4.3

12. 13.

To be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the

2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7.

nature and cause of the charge against him; To have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defense and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing; To be tried without undue delay; To be tried in his presence, and to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing; to be informed, if he does not have legal assistance, of this right; and to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the interests of justice so require, and without payment by him in any such case if he does not have sufficient means to pay for it; To examine, or have examined, the witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him; To have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court; Not to be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt.

14.

15.

5. Everyone convicted of a crime shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to law. 6. When a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to law, unless it is proved that the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to him. 7. No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted or acquitted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of each country.

16.

17.

In the case of juvenile persons, the procedure shall be such as will take account of their age and the desirability of promoting their rehabilitation.

4.5

1.5

2.6

1.5

2.5

18.

4.5

3.5

4.5

3.1

4.2

3.3

3.8

3.7

Article 15 1.

No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time when the criminal offence was committed. If, subsequent to the commission of the offence, provision is made by law for the imposition of a lighter penalty, the offender shall benefit thereby. Nothing in this article shall prejudice the trial and punishment of any person for any act or omission which, at the time when it was committed, was criminal according to the general principles of law recognized by the community of nations.

19. Article 17 1. 2.

20.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, or to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 20 1. 2.

Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law. Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law. Overall average score

2. CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Âš

Conventionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s article

Expert 1

Expert 2

Expert 3

Average score

Article 1 1.

For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

2 Article 2 1. 2.

Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

3 Article 3 1.

No State Party shall expel, return ("refuter") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.

3.3

3.2

3.3

3.2

Article 13 Each State Party shall ensure that any individual who alleges he has been subjected to torture in any territory under its jurisdiction has the right to complain to and to have his case promptly and impartially examined its competent authorities. Steps shall be taken to ensure that the complainant and witnesses are protected against all ill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of his complaint or any evidence given. 5 Article 14 1.

Each State Party shall ensure in its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible. In the event of the death of the victim as a result of an act of torture, his dependents shall be entitled to compensation. Nothing in this article shall affect any right of the victim or other person to compensation which may exist under national law.

6 Article 15 Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made. Overall average score

3. CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN Conventionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s article 1.

Article 2 States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women and, to this end, undertake: (a) To embody the principle of the equality of men and women in their national constitutions or other appropriate legislation if not yet incorporated therein and to ensure, through law and other appropriate means, the practical realization of this principle; (b) To adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination against women; (c) To establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination; (d) To refrain from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination against women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions shall act in conformity with this obligation; (e) To take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise; (f) To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against

Expert 1

Expert 2

Expert 3

Average score

women;

(g) To repeal all national penal provisions which constitute discrimination against women. Article 3

States Parties shall take in all fields, in particular in the political, social, economic and cultural fields, all appropriate measures, including legislation, to en sure the full development and advancement of women , for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men. Article 5

(a) To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women; Article 6

3.6

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women. Article 7

3.6

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures:

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life of the country and, in particular, shall ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the right: (a) To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies;

100

(b) To participate in the formulation of government policy and the implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of government;

(c) To participate in non-governmental organizations and associations concerned with the public and political life of the country. Article 9

3.3

1. States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless or force upon her the nationality of the husband. Article 11

3.3

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular: 2. In order to prevent discrimination against women on the grounds of marriage or maternity and to ensure their effective right to work, States Parties shall take appropriate measures: (a) To prohibit, subject to the imposition of sanctions, dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy or of maternity leave and discrimination in dismissals on the basis of marital status; (b) To introduce maternity leave with pay or with comparable social benefits without loss of former employment, seniority or social allowances; (c) To encourage the provision of the necessary supporting social services to enable parents to combine family obligations with work responsibilities and participation in public life, in particular through promoting the establishment and development of a

101

network of child-care facilities;

(d) To provide special protection to women during pregnancy in types of work proved to be harmful to them. Article 12

4.5

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning.

10.

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph I of this article, States Parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation. Article 13 States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in other areas of economic and social life in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular: (a) The right to family benefits; (b) The right to bank loans, mortgages and other forms of financial credit;

11.

12.

(c) The right to participate in recreational activities, sports and all aspects of cultural life. Article 15 1. States Parties shall accord to women equality with men before the law. 2. States Parties shall accord to women, in civil matters, a legal capacity identical to that of men and the same opportunities to exercise that capacity. In particular, they shall give women equal rights to conclude contracts and to administer property and shall

102

13. 14.

treat them equally in all stages of procedure in courts and tribunals. 3. States Parties agree that all contracts and all other private instruments of any kind with a legal effect which is directed at restricting the legal capacity of women shall be deemed null and void. 4. States Parties shall accord to men and women the same rights with regard to the law relating to the movement of persons and the freedom to choose their residence and domicile. Overall average score

4. INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS ¹ Convention’s article 1.

Article 11

4.3

4.6

3.6

4.2

3.9

Expert 1

Expert 2

Expert 3

Average score

1.5

Expert 1

Expert 2

Expert 3

Average score 4

1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent. Overall average score

5. CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD ¹ Convention’s article 1. Article 1 For the purposes of the present Convention, a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is

103

attained earlier. 2.

Article 8 1. States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference. 2. Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity 3. Article 11 1. States Parties shall take measures to combat the illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad. 2. To this end, States Parties shall promote the conclusion of bilateral or multilateral agreements or accession to existing agreements. 4. Article 13 1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice. 2. The exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; or (b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordure public), or of

104

public health or morals. 5. Article 16 1. No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honor and reputation.

2. The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. 6. Article 19 1. States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child. 2. Such protective measures should, as appropriate, include effective procedures for the establishment of social programs to provide necessary support for the child and for those who have the care of the child, as well as for other forms of prevention and for identification, reporting, referral, investigation, treatment and follow-up of instances of child maltreatment described heretofore, and, as appropriate, for judicial involvement. 7. Article 33 States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislative, administrative, social and educational measures, to protect children from the illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances as defined in the relevant international treaties, and to prevent the use of children in the illicit production and trafficking of such substances. 8.

Article 34 States Parties undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and

105

sexual abuse. For these purposes, States Parties shall in particular take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent: (a) The inducement or coercion of a child to engage in any unlawful sexual activity; (b) The exploitative use of children in prostitution or other unlawful sexual practices; (c) The exploitative use of children in pornographic performances and materials. 9.

Article 35 States Parties shall take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form.

10. Article 36 States Parties shall protect the child against all other forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child's welfare. 11.

Article 37 States Parties shall ensure that: (a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age; (b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time; (c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child's best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through

106

correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances; (d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action. 12. Article 39 States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.

13. Article 40 1. States Parties recognize the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child's sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child's respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child's age and the desirability of promoting the child's reintegration and the child's assuming a constructive role in society. 2. To this end, and having regard to the relevant provisions of international instruments, States Parties shall, in particular, ensure that: (a) No child shall be alleged as, be accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law by reason of acts or omissions that were not prohibited by national or international law at the time they were committed; (b) Every child alleged as or accused of having infringed the penal law has at least the

107

following guarantees: (i) To be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law; (ii) To be informed promptly and directly of the charges against him or her, and, if appropriate, through his or her parents or legal guardians, and to have legal or other appropriate assistance in the preparation and presentation of his or her defense; (iii) To have the matter determined without delay by a competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body in a fair hearing according to law, in the presence of legal or other appropriate assistance and, unless it is considered not to be in the best interest of the child, in particular, taking into account his or her age or situation, his or her parents or legal guardians; (iv) Not to be compelled to give testimony or to confess guilt; to examine or have examined adverse witnesses and to obtain the participation and examination of witnesses on his or her behalf under conditions of equality; (v) If considered to have infringed the penal law, to have this decision and any measures imposed in consequence thereof reviewed by a higher competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body according to law; (vi) To have the free assistance of an interpreter if the child cannot understand or speak the language used; (vii) To have his or her privacy fully respected at all stages of the proceedings. 3. States Parties shall seek to promote the establishment of laws, procedures, authorities and institutions specifically applicable to children alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the penal law, and, in particular: (a) The establishment of a minimum age below which children shall be presumed not

108

to have the capacity to infringe the penal law; (b) Whenever appropriate and desirable, measures for dealing with such children without resorting to judicial proceedings, providing that human rights and legal safeguards are fully respected. 4. A variety of dispositions, such as care, guidance and supervision orders; counseling; probation; foster care; education and vocational training programs and other alternatives to institutional care shall be available to ensure that children are dealt with in a manner appropriate to their well-being and proportionate both to their circumstances and the offence. Overall average score

2.4

3.4

3.6

Expert 3

Average score

6. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION Âš 1.

Conventionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s article

Expert 1

Article 2

Expert 2

2.5

1. States Parties condemn racial discrimination and undertake to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating racial discrimination in all its forms and promoting understanding among all races, and, to this end: (a) Each State Party undertakes to engage in no act or practice of racial discrimination against persons, groups of persons or institutions and to en sure that all public authorities and public institutions, national and local, shall act in conformity with this obligation; 2. 3.

(b) Each State Party undertakes not to sponsor, defend or support racial discrimination by any persons or organizations; (d) Each State Party shall prohibit and bring to an end, by all appropriate means, including legislation as required by circumstances, racial discrimination by any persons, group or organization;

109

(e) Each State Party undertakes to encourage, where appropriate, integrationist multiracial organizations and movements and other means of eliminating barriers between races, and to discourage anything which tends to strengthen racial division.

Article 4

2.5

3.5

2.5

(a) Shall declare an offence punishable by law all dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, incitement to racial discrimination, as well as all acts of violence or incitement to such acts against any race or group of persons of another color or ethnic origin, and also the provision of any assistance to racist activities, including the financing thereof; 6.

(b) Shall declare illegal and prohibit organizations, and also organized and all other propaganda activities, which promote and incite racial discrimination, and shall recognize participation in such organizations or activities as an offence punishable by law; (c) Shall not permit public authorities or public institutions, national or local, to promote or incite racial discrimination. Article 5

(a) The right to equal treatment before the tribunals and all other organs administering justice;

(b) The right to security of person and protection by the State against violence or bodily harm, whether inflicted by government officials or by any individual group or institution; (c) Political rights, in particular the right to participate in elections-to vote and to stand for election-on the basis of universal and equal suffrage, to take part in the Government as well as in the conduct of public affairs at any level and to have equal access to public service; Article 6

10.

11.

States Parties shall assure to everyone within their jurisdiction effective protection and remedies, through the competent national tribunals and other State institutions, against any acts of racial discrimination which violate his human rights and

110

fundamental freedoms contrary to this Convention, as well as the right to seek from such tribunals just and adequate reparation or satisfaction for any damage suffered as a result of such discrimination. Overall average score

3.4

111

4.8

2. Percentage of implementation and enforcement of judicial decisions Definition The percentage of implementation/enforcement of judicial decisions is calculated by comparing the number of judicial decisions that have been implemented to the total number of judicial decisions (over a certain period of time) that needed enforcement.

There are two indicators that are set for the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs under the MDG-9. The first is the practical performance of court enforcement while the second is the provision of access to advocates by insolvent citizens/poor people. It is encouraging to report that certain progress has been made in recent years under each of these indicators. The Law on Court Enforcement was adopted by the Parliament of Mongolia on 10 January 2002 and entered into force on 1 September 2002. The General Court Enforcement Agency is a state organization which enforces court decisions on civil and administrative cases, court conviction resolutions on criminal cases and, if provided by law, decisions of other authorities approved by the court. As of 2008, the Enforcement Office of the General Court Enforcement Agency performed 42.3 billion tugrugs under 13557 writs of execution out of 52.6 billion tugrugs to be performed under 19850 writs of execution leaving 10.3 billion tugrugs not performed under 6293 writs of execution. The average practical performance for court enforcement was 73.4 percent. The practical performance of court enforcement increased compared to the previous years, demonstrating 9.6 percent growth compared to 2006 and 2007. 978 writs of execution were suspended in 2008 on the grounds specified in the Court Enforcement Law. This number showed the decrease of suspended writs by 1992 writs or 67.0 percent compared to the past 3 yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s average. 4147 writs of execution for which legal grounds for suspension ceased to exist were re-opened in 2008, which demonstrated the increase by 2497 writs or 60.2 percent compared to the past 3 years average. Also in 2008, 1.3 billion tugrugs were executed under 7643 writs of execution for small amount cases out of 2.3 billion tugrugs to be executed under 11278 writs of execution leaving 978.6 billion tugrugs under 3635 writs. The practical performance percentage was 63.1, which demonstrated 5.0 percent increase compared to 2007.

112

As a result of numerous requests sent to relevant organizations and officials for redress of the damage caused to individuals and legal persons by wrongful acts of civil servants, the court enforcement authority succeeded in having the state authorities include 3.357.125.100 tugrugs in their budget for 2009 as a source for the payment of damage remedies under 76 writs of execution. Damages of 37.042.597 tugrugs caused to 8 individuals by illegal acts of case instigators, investigators, prosecutors or judges were decided to be compensated at the Cabinet meeting of 24 December 2008. Also, a draft Government resolution was prepared on compensation of damages of 66.000.000 tugrugs caused to individuals by illegal acts of case instigators, investigators, prosecutors or judges to be paid out of the Government resource fund. On 4 December 2007, a national forum on human rights “Guarantee of Victims’ Rights” was jointly organized by the President’s Office and the National Commission on Human Rights under the aegis of the President of Mongolia. The recommendations from this forum constituted an important step in providing legal guarantees to victims, specifically guaranteeing, protecting and promoting the victims’ rights. With a view of implementing the forum’s recommendations, the court enforcement authority set specific goals, with a special emphasis, while adhering to legislative acts in its daily work on improving the impact of enforcement of court decisions on criminal, civil and administrative cases, guaranteeing the rights of victims and illegal administrative acts, having the damages caused to them compensated, improving the legislation, increasing the practical compensation of damages caused by crimes, involving the convicted persons in debt in labor and compensating the damages caused by crimes. In order to compensate the damages caused to individuals and organizations by crimes and to implement effectively the relevant execution procedure within the legislation, a Program on increasing damage remedies by convicted persons and supervising payment of debts for 2008-2012 was developed with the purpose of increasing labor involvement of convicted persons, providing them with jobs, thus creating conditions for the payment of damages from their wages as promptly as possible. As a result of the above program implementation, the payment of 465.5 million tugrugs related to 405 offenders was completed. Also following measures were taken under the program with the purpose of achieving specific objectives: Not to release offenders in debt under probation;

113

To provide offenders with jobs, prepare them to integrate into the society and provide them training; To improve living conditions for offenders and provide them with income; and To provide promptly victims with the payment by offenders. The Criminal Procedure Code of Mongolia fails to obligate asset security procedure to case instigators and investigators and causes omission of asset security and seizure procedure. Such a situation allowed the individuals and legal persons in debt to transfer their immovable and movable property to other persons or to conceal them, thus violating legal interests of the payees. Therefore, it is necessary to legalize asset security and seizure procedure for each criminal case. Only so would there be certain progress and result in enforcement of court decisions on criminal cases. Moreover, the requirements for compiling a suit by plaintiffs on civil cases must include requests for security and seizure of the immovable and immovable property as well as accounts of defendants. It is important to publicize on such necessity to citizens and make amendments to the law. In view of the necessity of taking comprehensive measures to make execution procedure expeditious and effective, it was further planned to improve the legal environment, eliminate overlaps and gaps, introduce information technology in execution procedure, develop infrastructure for prompt exchange of information and intensify cooperation among law enforcement organizations.

114

3. Number of attorneys that provide services to citizens that are not able to pay for such services Definition The number of attorneys that provide services to citizens that are not able to pay for such services is the number of licensed attorneys that have provided legal services to citizens who are not able to pay for such services.

Currently, legal assistance to insolvent citizens is rendered in the following two forms: 1. Article 12.3.8 of the Law on Advocacy specifies that an advocate has a duty to help insolvent citizens twice a year. In order to implement this provision, the Advocates’ Association of Mongolia appoints advocates under a certain schedule. Today there are over 1000 advocates working in Mongolia in total. In 2007, 252 advocates appointed by the Advocates’ Association rendered a free legal assistance to 314 insolvent citizens. This number decreased in 2008 when 141 advocates helped 161 people. This is explained by the establishment of a legal assistance centers’ network across the country. 2. Over 29 months from June 2004 to November 2006, pilot projects to establish Legal Assistance Centers were undertaken in Hentii aimag and Songinohairhan district with the financing from the Open Society Institute. Implementation of these pilot projects led to conclude that establishment of such a unit would be the most suitable means to protect the rights of insolvent citizens and provide them with access to legal assistance. Also, in order not to limit legal assistance for insolvent citizens only by the advocates appointed by Advocates’ Association or Council, the Government adopted the National Program on Legal Assistance to Insolvent Citizens by its Resolution 262 in 2006. The National Council of the National Program on Legal Assistance to Insolvent Citizens operates with local branches to supervise and organize the program implementation. In order to implement the above program, the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs together with the UNDP and the Open Society Institute established a legal assistance center in Hentii and Uvurhangai aimags, and Bayangol and Bayanzurh districts of Ulaanbaatar in April 2008 and other aimags and districts in August 2008. As of today, legal assistance centers were established under local Governor’s Office in 21 aimags and 8 districts of Ulaanbaatar. The centers have the following main functions:

115

- to render legal assistance to insolvent citizens involved in criminal cases; and - to organize an informal training and publicity work on basic legal assistance in criminal, civil and administrative cases. Since the paragraph 5.2.5 of the program stipulates that a Center will employ 1-3 advocates and 1 specialist from legal unit of aimag or district (for training and publicity work). Officers in charge of legal training and publicity work at Governorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Offices attended the relevant training and a manual to be used by each center was published. The responsibilities of these officers include training, publicity work, inquiry and information handling, basic legal advice as well as administrative and financial matters. According to the Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s charter, advocates of the Center shall work either (1) on a permanent basis; or (2) on a contractual basis. In 2008, the National Council concluded contracts with 29 advocates for employment at legal assistance centers as permanent staff. Permanent staff advocates work 8 hours daily providing a free legal assistance of the Center and are paid a constant wage. As the number of the citizens requesting for a free legal assistance is likely to increase, it is necessary to employ advocates on a contractual basis. Contractual advocates deal with the specific cases under contracts during the high work-load times of the center and are paid according to the specific rate (adopted by Decree 69 of the Minister of Justice and Home Affairs). In 2009, the government budget allocation for provision of advocacy services to insolvent citizens increased from 15 million tugrugs to 78 million tugrugs. If, to mention briefly the achievements of the Center, they included: In every aimag a legal assistance Center was established to render legal assistance for local citizens and this was publicized through local media, and the work to provide information for other law enforcement organs was launched. Legal divisions organized such activities as doing survey on insolvent citizens in every small administrative unit such as bagh and horoo, checking if their requests for legal assistance were registered by the Center, and publicizing the Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activities specifically among insolvent citizens. Also brochures and manuals about the legal assistance Center were distributed to local citizens. In some aimags, seminars were organized for Governors of soum and bagh on how to identify properly insolvent citizens and implement the National Program on Legal Assistance to Insolvent Citizens.

116

Since the establishment of legal assistance centers and commencement of their activities, 2769 people in total were rendered legal assistance in 2008. Advocacy services were rendered for 628 cases engaging 689 people, out of which 360 cases were resolved. In 101 cases, the requests for legal assistance were refused on the grounds such as financial capability, conflict of interests and jurisdiction. 5755 people were given basic legal advice and 6569 people were involved in informal legal training. 537 people were given legal advice on matters of domestic violence and marriage divorce. The report demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of the cases were crimes of theft, snatch and robbery. This proved that in most cases insolvent people commit crimes causing damages to the rights of ownership. Also, the number of crimes of intentional infliction of bodily injury, assault and fraud was high. Chart 4. Classification of Crime Cases Where Legal Assistance was Provided 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 4th quarter, 2008

grave

117

serious

less serious

minor

Chart 5. Stages of Criminal Proceedings Where Advocates were Engaged to Protect Clients’ Rights 9% 1% 0% 37%

47% 6% case registration/opening first instance

investigation appellation

prosecution supervisory instance

According to the chart, 47 percent of clients requested advocacy services during the first stage of criminal proceedings or the investigation stage. That meant that citizens needed protection of their rights from the very beginning of the criminal proceedings. That leads to conclude that although the number of advocates who rendered legal assistance to insolvent citizens did not increase in 2008, the number of clients who received legal assistance since the establishment of legal assistance centers soared by 48.6 percent, and the initial steps were taken to provide them with an immediate and burden-free assistance. The report submitted by the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs to the National Development and Innovation Committee in May 2009 stated that there were 476 advocates that provided legal services to insolvent citizens in 2006, 417 in 2007, and 293 in 2008. However, another report on implementation of MDGs by the said Ministry in 2009 stated that there were 544 advocates that provided legal services to insolvent citizens in 2007 and 431 in 2008. The confusion in numbers reveals a lack of common methodology and reporting procedures with regard to the indicator on the number of attorneys that provide legal services to citizens who are not able to pay for such services. To refine the statistical data for this indicator, the MDG-9 Project experts made two recommendations: (1) to ensure the principle of “one advocate – one client” reporting, and (2) to include simultaneously the number of insolvent clients in the reporting data. A recommendation that included a proposal for a data reporting matrix was formally submitted by the Project to the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs. The past two years have witnessed such progressive steps as the establishment of legal assistance centers for insolvent citizens, increase of government

118

financing/budget, training of specialized advocates and launching of certain projects and programs. These achievements create conditions for continuous and effective provision of advocacy services for insolvent citizens, improvement of the accessibility and impact of legal assistance to citizens as a whole and protection of human rights. It is also planned to improve the legal environment for provision of legal assistance to insolvent citizens, capacity development of Centersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; advocates and finding solution to Centersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; financing in order to continue and streamline Centersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; activities. In its most recent report to the National Committee on Development and Innovation, the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs reported in May 2009 that altogether 293 advocates had worked to protect the legal interests of insolvent citizens.

119

4. Number of state organization that regularly place reports on their budgets and expenditures on their websites Definition The indicator is the number of state organizations that regularly and openly inform of their budgets and expenditures on their websites.

The indicator is the number of state organizations that regularly and openly inform of their budgets and expenditures on their websites. According to the Parliament Resolution, the Ministry of Finance is responsible for developing the above indicator. In the first half of 2008, there were 4037 organizations funded by the state budget excluding state-owned business organizations. There were 32 general budget managers there along with 54 general budget managers including aimag and capital city governors. The majority of the organizations are local schools, hospitals and other social sector budgetary organizations. There are budgetary basic four organizations in one soum such as a local school, a hospital, a local governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office, and a cultural center. None of these has a functioning website. There is no detailed survey available about this. Thus, it can be assumed that at the local soum level there are no organizations that have placed statistical information on their websites. This is explained by the fact that it has been only two years since a majority of soums received a constant source of electricity whereas around 40 percent still lack a stable access to electricity sources. The following is a performance data with regard to the indicator by 32 budgetary organizations working under general budger managers: one organization has placed its 2008 budget implementation and 2009 budget plan, 12 organizations had budget implementations of earlier years on their websites, 13 organizations had no information, and 6 organizations had no websites to refer to. Only one of the local offices of the Ulaanbaatar City and provincial (aimag) offices had a budgetary report of the current year, 11 had budgetary reports of earlier years, 7 had no information, and 3 organizations had no websites. Among 54 budgetary organizations under general budget managers, there were 2 organizations that laced full reports of their budgets, 23 had reports from previous years, 20 had no reports on budgets on their websites, and 9 organizations did not have websites. All in all, there were 45 organizations at Source: Interview with an expert from Ministry of Finance of Mongolia. December 25, 2008.

120

the national and local level that had websites and 9 organizations without websites. 25 organizations or 55.6 percent of those with websites had placed reports on their budgets. In conclusion, budgetary organizations and their budget managers have not displayed initiative for more transparency and accountability judging by the above data. Also, there has been no initiative to conduct public awareness campaigns for citizens by using websites while in the process of drafting, amending and discussing the draft budgets for organizations, agencies, administrative units, aimags, and cities since July-August when the formal state budget discussions begin. However, the Ministry of Finance established a website on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Transparent Budgetâ&#x20AC;? in November, 2006 which is financed by the Open Society Forum, where it places budget plans, their implementation reports by each budget managers. The following table reflects the placement of budgetary information by government agencies. Table 15. 2008 Budget Implementation Reports and 2009 Budget Plan Information as Reflected in Respective Websites of the State Great Hural, the Government of Mongolia and Its Agencies Name of the organizations

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Presidential Office of Mongolia National Security Council of Mongolia State Great Hural (Parliament of Mongolia) Prime Minister of Mongolia and government agencies

Government agencies

Budget Budget plan for implementation for 2009 2008 There is no detailed information on the budget No information available on the budget. Only topical information for January 11th, 2008 In accessible to website No information available. There is only title of budget for 2008.

State Property Committee General Intelligence Agency Information, Communication and Technology Agency Communication Regulatory Authority

There is no detailed information on the budget

MONTSAME Agency

Website is inaccessible

121

No information available Website is inaccessible

There is in information on amount of 856.9 million tugrugs of the investment of 2008 budget implementation

First Vice Premier of Mongolia and his dependent agencies

Intellectual Property Office Center of Standardization and Measurement Unfair Competition Regulatory Authority

12 13 14

Vice Premier of Mongolia and his dependent agencies

National Authority for Children State Specialized Inspection Agency National Emergency Management Agency

16 17

18 19

Cabinet Secretariat of Government of Mongolia and agencies

20 21 22

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and agencies

Academy of Management Governmental Service Agency Department Service for Diplomatic Corps Foreign Investment and Foreign Trade Agency

Mongolian Tax Administration

General Customs Office

No information available There is no detailed information of the budgetary batch for the Vice Premier of Mongolia on the official website of Mongolian Government No information available There is information on the state budget for 2003-2008 No information available

There is no detailed information There is no information for 2007 No information available

Ministry of Finance and agencies

There is no detailed information

There is no detailed information of the budget

There is no information of the budgetary batch of the First Vice Premier of Mongolia on the official website of Mongolian Government No information available

Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs and agencies General Police Department General Authority for Border

122

No information available No information available Uploaded by the Uploaded by the information of the draft information of budget implementation the budget for 2009for November, 2008 2011 There is an income information of the Mongolian Fund for Development and state budget for the first half of 2008 No budget information available. But there is only information of standard price for October, 2008 There is information of the ministerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s batch for the project implementation of the state budget investment in 2008 No information available Website is inaccessible

Protection 30

State Center for Civil Registration and Information General Authority for Implementing Court Decision National Archives

31 32 33 34

Ministry of Environment and agencies

35 36

Ministry of Defense and agencies

37 38 39 40

General Staff of the Mongolian Armed Forces Ministry of Education, Culture and Science Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor and agencies

41 42

47 48

General Authority for Social Insurance Labor and Welfare Service Agency

Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry Ministry of Health

No information available The ministry has new and old websites such is no detailed information of the budget No information available

Website is inaccessible Information is not complete. There is only information of the benefit and expenditure estimation for 2005-2007 No information available

There is no detailed information There is no detailed information There is no detailed information of budget. There is information on foreign loans and aid. There is no detailed information

There is no detailed information Website is inaccessible Mongolian state Committee of Physical Culture and Sports

Ministry of Roads, Transportation, Construction and Urban Development

No information available

There is information of approved budgetary batch for 2006 No information available

Ministry of Minerals and Energy

National Agency of Meteorology, hydrology and Environment Monitoring Water Authority

No information available

Website is inaccessible Administration of Land Affairs, Geodesy and Cartography

123

There is no detailed information

49 50

51 52 53

Authority of State Registration and Treaty National CenterConstruction, Urban Development and Public Utilities Civil Aviation Authority Railway Authority

There is only budget information by the end of October, 2008

Transport Service Center

No information available

There is only information on income and expenditure for 2008

No information available No information available

Table 16. 2008 Budget Implementation Reports and 2009 Budget Plan Information as Reflected in Respective Websites of Aimags and the Capital Description of the budget information 1 2 3

Arhangai Bayan-Ulgii Bayanhongor

4 5

Bulgan Gobi-Altai

Gobi-sumber

Darhan-Uul

Dornogobi

9 10

Dornod Dundgobi

11 12

Zavhan Orhon

Uvurhangai

Umnugobi

Suhbaatar

16 17

Selenge Tuv

Uvs

There is no detailed information of the budget There is information on the aimag GDP for 2002 There is a banner of the budget and finance in the website. But information is not complete. There is a banner of the budget, but no information available. The aimag website is in English and Mongolian language. There is no detailed information of the budget. There is only information of the budget implementation for the 2nd quarter of 2003 Information is available for the state and local budget plan for the first five months of 2008. There is only information on the budget implementation for 2006 and 714.0 million tugrugs for the state budget income for 2007 There is local statistical information for November 2008 Information is available for the local socio-economic situation of 2002 No information available Information is available for local budget income and expenditure for 2002 There is statistical information for November, 2008 (JuneNovember, 2008) There is a banner of the budget and finance in the website. No information available. There is no detailed information of the budget implementation and plan Website is inaccessible. Information is not open. There is an introduction of 2002 and there is brief information of the budget implementation Website is inaccessible. Information is not open.

Hovd

There is no detailed information of the budget

124

Huvsgul

Website is inaccessible. Information is not open.

Hentii

Ulaanbaatar

There is information on the total budget investment for 20012003 Approved budget information for 2008 is available on the website. There is a budget draft for 2009 on the website

Recommendation: To establish permanent websites with fully transparent budget information in sums that have access to permanent electricity supplies; To update regularly budget information on websites by ministries and agencies; To place on a regular basis budget information on websites of Ulaanbaatar city, aimag and soum administrations; To introduce specific function/job description on budget transparency information for staff that is responsible for budgetary clusters under budget managers. This will include a duty to update website budget information, and will also place supervision for this on budget managers. This work could be done by the Government Secretariat and/or the Ministry of Finance.

125

5.Perception of corruption in political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions Definition The indicator is a quantitative measurement/score calculated as an average of scores assigned by a pool of experts (business and financial sector experts, civil society experts) on the basis of their perception of corruption in different areas of political life and government functions such as magnitude of corruption in Mongolia politics, most corruption-prone sectors, institutional leaderships, organizations, forms and practices of corruption, socio-economic cost of corruption, etc. The indicator is a measurement of the “grand” corruption at the highest level of the Mongolian society.

A Corruption Benchmarking Survey in Mongolia conducted by the Asia Foundation in 2005 underlined the importance of taking urgent measures to prevent corruption at administrative and political levels and stressed that the danger of corrupt practices in the political field could cause a serious challenge to economic development. Also, the Survey stated: “Generally, it is important for Mongolia to take effective measures to prevent corruption which is consistent at both the administrative and political levels”. Despite the positive changes over the last two years since the Corruption benchmarking survey was launched in 2007-2008, the majority of respondents informed that politicians and businesses were corrupt to a moderate or large extent. Most of respondents to the Democratic Governance Indicators (DGIs) survey in 2005 and in 2008 believed that the State Great Hural (Parliament), the central Government (Cabinet), Ministries and Agencies were increasingly viewed as corrupt. The State Great Hural adopted the Resolution on Millennium Development Goals including the MDG-9 on strengthening human rights and fostering democratic governance as well as their indicators in the Annex to the Resolution. The indicators on the zero tolerance of corruption in all spheres of society (Target 24) include an indicator on perception of corruption in political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions. The indicator is aimed at identifying the current state of corruption at the “grand” or elite level in the Mongolian society and establishing experts’ perceptions of grand level corruption. The MDG-9 Project formulated a methodology for the indicator on perception of corruption in political organizations, judicial and law enforcement institutions and conducted the first experts’ survey. The Survey Report is also intended to help the implementation of the action plan by the Anti-Corruption

126

Agency and contribute to developing an Index of Corruption in conformity with the Anti-corruption Law. METHODOLOGY

The MDG-9 Project elaborated the questionnaire for the survey. This provided an opportunity to analyze the experts’ perceptions about causes of corruption in political, judicial and law enforcement bodies, scope of corruption, areas of corruption, officials more prone to corruption, and types of corruption and consequences of corruption at political and administrative levels. The survey targeted the State Great Hural, Citizens’ Representatives Hurals of all level, Ministries, Agencies, local public organizations in provinces, National Audit Commission, judicial bodies, Public Prosecutor’s Office, Department of Police and the Enforcement Agency for Judicial Decisions. The survey questionnaire covered all important areas of corruption phenomenon and included 13 questions and 87 statements. The survey kept anonymous the names of participating experts. The selection of experts was based on the following: experience in a state organization and a law enforcement body, experience in working against corruption or exposure to information about it, legal experience, experience in representing private sector interests before a state organization, and experience in business activities. While selecting the experts, more experts from the private sector were included. This approach was supported by partner organizations such as the Anti-Corruption Agency. Altogether there were 15 experts. The 15 experts were composed of 5 civil servants from government organizations with the experience of working against corruption and exposure to information on corruption, 7 presidents or vice presidents of private enterprises, and 3 lawyers. 35.7 percent of them were from state organizations, 42.9 percent from private sector, and 21.4 percent from NGOs. Among the civil servants 57.1 percent were from administrative services, and the rest was from state special service. As for the gender breakdown, 80 percent were males and 20 percent were females. The survey assessment score was based on a 1-5 range with 1 reflecting a value of “no corruption” and 5 reflecting the maximum level of corruption. RESULTS OF THE EXPERTS’ SURVEY

The mean score of the experts’ assessment of corruption perceptions in political, judicial and law enforcement institutions was 4.09. In other words, corruption in political, judicial and law enforcement institutions was viewed as being very high.

127

Before specific questions on corruption, the experts were asked about their general understanding of corruption. The experts gave their own understanding of corruption. Most of them viewed the issue by focusing on actions of bribe takers, and they defined corruption as misuse of government power and duties by giving others advantages and gaining profits dishonestly and asking for bribe to facilitate a government service. However, Articles 3 and 4 of the Law against Corruption describe corruption as not only misuse of power and duties but actions to instigate corrupt behavior and reward corrupt behavior. Some experts believed that NGOs could also be a subject of corruption in addition to civil servants. This report suggests that more attention be paid to stop, decrease, prevent and punish individuals for actions that instigate and prompt corrupt practices at the “grand” level. Future assessments should take the above into consideration. The report believes that it is necessary to adjust national laws to reflect relevant provisions of UN Convention against Corruption to which Mongolia is party and include officials of foreign government and international organizations and officials or employees of non-governmental organizations and private enterprises as subjects of corruption. The overall mean score of the “grand” corruption in Mongolia was set at 4.09 by the experts leading to the conclusion that corruption was very high in Mongolia’s political, judicial and law enforcement bodies. Low level of social and economic development, lack of intolerance of corruption in the society, lack of transparency and accountability, red tape, patronage and nepotism by politicians, inadequate civil service system, weak capacity of government institutions, evasion of responsibility by persons who have engaged in unlawful practices and unethical behavior, poverty and failure of law enforcement were cited by the experts as corruption factors. The experts believed that the following organizations were most prone to corruption at the “grand” level: government organizations and agencies scoring 4.29 points, political parties scoring-4.36, judicial courts-4.20, prosecutors4.15, police-4.29, local administrative organs-4.14, the State Great Hural-3.71, enforcement agency for court decisions-3.73, and Citizens’ Representatives’ Hurals-3.77.

128

Chart 6. Most Corrupt Sector (scale 1-5: 1- uncorrupt, 5 – very corrupt) 4.36

Political Parties General Authority for Implementing Court…

3.73 4.29 4.15 4.20 4.14

Police Department Prosecutions Courts Local administrations

3.77

All level of Citizens Representatives' Hural

4.29

Ministries, agencies, local administrations

3.71

State Great Hural (Parliament of Mongolia)

3.30 3.40 3.50 3.60 3.70 3.80 3.90 4.00 4.10 4.20 4.30 4.40

The 4.7 score for political, judicial and law enforcement bodies indicates a very high corruption level. Chart 7. Which of the following affects corruption mostly? (scale 1-5: 1- uncorrupt, 5 – very corrupt) 3.64 4.21 4.00 3.64 3.79 4.71

Favoritism by political parties for party or…

4.57

Funding mechanism of political parties

4.50

Funding of Elections

4.14

Current electoral system

0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00

Political party favoritism for government positions, funding of political parties, and the electoral system and its funding altogether scored 4.60 placing them at the top of the corruption factors. There is an urgent need for reform of the above sectors. The experts defined diverse forms of corrupt practices such as creating preferential conditions for one’s personal interests in politics, giving money to lobby for laws and other decisions, making promises to share future profits

129

from decisions, payments for travels and tourism, funding of electoral expenses, giving gifts and other forms (score of 3.87). The factors such as bringing pressure upon government officials and organizations to advance oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own or othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; personal interests, asking for compensations, acting as a go-between for government decisions were viewed as serious corruption forms (score of 3.62). The experts noted that politicians were actively using government services for their own interests, receiving special permits and licenses, influencing courts and law enforcement bodies, and meddling in appointments of government officials. In particular, politicians were influencing to a considerable degree the process of appointments (score of 4.02). Red tape, many layers of bureaucracy, duplication of duties of state organizations, and poor access to state services, lack of transparency and accountability, subjectivity in decision-making, lack of punishment for transgressions, lack of control of enforcement of law, weak capacity of civil servants, and lack of ethics were cited by the experts as the main causes for corruption (score of 4.20). The score for corruption in procurement, special permits and licenses was a very high 4.80 requiring a major transparency reform in this area. 46.7 percent of the experts believed that 6-15 percent of the total amount of funding for projects and programs was used for bribes. 71.6 percent of them replied that at least 20 percent of total amount of bids was used as payment for bribes, and 20 percent of them noted that more than 20 percent of the amount of privatization projects was used for corruption. 46.6 percent of the experts believed that borrowers paid 5-15 percent of loan sums to bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employees as corruption payments. 50.9 percent of the experts assessed that 6-15 percent of the amount of civil suits was used as bribes and 5-15 percent of tax evasion was also used as payment for corruption. 28.6 percent of experts believed that citizens paid 1-10 million tugrugs as bribes for better paid employment. But 22.3 percent of the experts believed that the sum was higher, up to 10-20 million. 26.7 percent of them noted that 1-10 million tugrugs were paid for special permits, while 40.0 percent of them replied that this sum could be as high as 10-20 million tugrugs. 38.5 percents of experts replied that 0.5-10 million tugrugs were spent to dismiss court cases, while 15.4 percent considered that the sum was as much as 10-20 million tugrugs. 42.08 percent thought that a payment of 0.5-10 million tugrugs was made to dismiss a police investigation case, while 21.4 percent said that the payment could be as much as 10-20 million. 21.4 percent

130

of experts believed that official decisions could cost 0.5-5 millions, while 21.4 percent of them noted that the cost was up to 10-20 million. 60.0 percent of the experts suggested a reform of the election system for the national and local parliaments in order to lower corruption, and 66.7 percent of them proposed to change the system of campaign finance and the funding mechanism of political parties. 53.3 percent of the experts thought it was necessary to set up a mechanism to promote collective common interests and improve management and openness in state organizations. 40.0 percent noted the need for elimination of duplication of duties, red tape, and a more active stance of the Anti-Corruption Agency. A half of the experts surveyed proposed to introduce stronger criminal and administrative punishment for corrupt officials. 66.7 percent saw the need to renew the system of responsibility and punishments for judges, prosecutors, and police investigators. 80 percent believed that a Code of Ethics for politicians was needed. The experts suggested to study international experiences on “testing for integrity” for civil servants, improve integrity of state organizations, implement stronger control by the public, use audit codification for individual officials, eliminate personal influences of higher officials, use independent and/or foreign auditors, make courts more transparent to the public, and to adopt a law on private investigation. RECOMMENDATIONS TO FIGHT CORRUPTION

The following are recommendations based on the experts’ survey conducted to measure the indicator on corruption perceptions in political, judicial and law enforcement organizations: 1. To change the current electoral system of for the national and local parliaments to proportional representation system or a mixed system to prevent the domination of district group interests over national interests, eliminate vote-buying, and preserve the integrity of members of parliament. 2. To change the funding mechanism of political parties based on the principle of fairness. In this connection, define the criteria and terms of state funding for parties, eliminate today’s practice to demand contributions from candidates for elections, improve democratic rules within political parties, and reform the Law on Political Parties. 3. To adopt a law on administrative process, formalize procedures for decision-making, prevent officials from subjective decisions, make state organizations transparent, and take the measures to protect collective interests of the public.

131

4. To renew the structure and organization of the government to eliminate duplication of duties and reduce red tape as causes of corruption. 5. To adopt a Code of Ethics for politicians and enforce it. 6. To establish an appropriate integrity control mechanism for civil servants, pilot an â&#x20AC;&#x153;integrity testâ&#x20AC;? and then formalize it. 7. To improve the system of civil service appointments, eliminate unlawful personal influences, pass laws on appointment procedures and enforce them. 8. To reform legal regulations on procurement of products and services and on special permits, and take measures to promote openness of such activities. 9. To improve the welfare and increase salaries of judicial and law enforcement bodies, and improve working environment there. 10. To put into force a mechanism of punishment for unethical practices for judges, prosecutors, investigators and other staff of the judicial system. 11. To assess the operation of the Law on Fighting Corruption and introduce changes in conformity with the UN Convention on Corruption. 12. To improve enforcement and enforcement control of laws and demand stronger punishment for officials for unlawful actions. 13. To introduce changes in the laws to bring stronger criminal and administrative punishment for corruption.

132

RESULTS OF THE EXPERTSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; SURVEY ON PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION IN POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS, JUDICIAL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT INSTITUTIONS

1. How much corruption is there in Mongolia? Category label Percentage of Responses No corruption Low 6,7 Average 6,7 High 46,6 Very high 40,0

No 1 2 3 4 5

2. What sector do you think is the most corrupt? Category label

No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Mean of Responses

Parliament Ministries, agencies Local hurals/assemblies of all levels Local administration bodies Judiciary/Courts Public prosecutor offices Police Authorities for implementing court decisions Political parties Average

3.71 4.29 3.77 4.14 4.20 4.15 4.29 3.73 4.36 4.07

3. To what extend do the following factors cause corruption? Category label Mean of Responses

No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Current electoral system Mechanism of election financing Mechanism of financing of political parties Political appointment (in parties internally and/or appointment of functionaries to public offices) Conflict of interests in the Parliament in law-making Conflict of interests in local hurals in decision- making Decision making procedure in state organizations is not completely formalized Overlapping activities of state administration bodies, red tape, lack of effectiveness and supervision Low wages and poor working conditions of civil servants in police departments, courts and prosecutorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; organizations Mechanism of accountability and ethical norms for judges, prosecutors and investigators is not sufficient Average

133

4.14 4.50 4.57 4.71 3.79 3.64 4.00 4.21 3.64 4.20 4.13

4. How wide-spread according to your evaluation are the following irregularities among politicians undertaken in order to release laws and decisions for their own benefits and advantages? No Category label Mean of Responses 1 2 3 4 5

Gratuities, “commissions" Promise to share profit and income Pay for tour/travel expenses Campaign funding Gifts and other favors Average

4.07 3.80 3.33 4.40 3.73 3.87

5. How frequent do you think are the following forms of influence on civil servants among politicians made at their own initiative or under someone’s order? No Category label Mean of Responses 1 2 3

Put pressure Demand rewards Mediate between others Average

3.64 3.43 3.79 3.62

6. In doing so, what kind of public service politicians influence the most? No Category label Mean of Responses 1 Gain privileged access to public services 4.00 2 Obtain and extend licenses and special permits 4.57 3 Resolve tax problems in their own interest 3.47 4 Face-to-face contacts with state administration units or 4.00 public servants 5 Influence court proceedings 3.67 6 Influence case registration and investigation 4.00 procedures 7 Influence oversight bodies 3.79 8 Influence legislative and decision-making process 4.00 9 Influence appointment/recruiting process 4.79 Average 4.03 7. Which defects of work performance of a state organization cause corruption the most? No Category label Mean of Responses 1 Red tape of bureaucracy 4.47 2 Duplication, multi-referral system 4.33 3 Insufficient access to public services 3.73 4 Lack of transparency in decision-making process 4.67 5 Unlimited possibility to make decision at civil servant’s 4.86 discretion 6 Public officials are not held accountable for violation of 4.53

134

7 8 9 10

law Insufficient control over law implementation and enforcement Weak control of budget managers over planning of resources and public assets expenditure Low wages and social welfare benefits, insufficient housing for civil servants Lack of capacity and weak ethics of government officials Average

4.40 4.00 3.47 4.27 4.27

8. Which of activities of state organizations are the most corrupt? No Category label Pct of Responses 1 Management of state property and budget 4.27 2 Licensing, issuance of special permits 4.80 3 Privatization 3.87 4 Procurement of goods and services 4.80 5 Implementation of projects and programs 4.13 6 Control over law enforcement 3.80 7 Appointment/Recruitment 4.53 Average 4.31

135

I.9. CONCEPT NOTE ON THE MDG-MODULE IN THE ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD SOCIO-ECONOMIC SURVEY 1. MODULE DESCRIPTION On 31 January 2008, the Parliament of Mongolia adopted a resolution on national MDGs which included indicators of MDG-9 and assigned organizations responsible for their implementation. Among these 12 indicators, three are related to public perception. In a pioneering decision, it was proposed to undertake a survey entitled “Democratic Governance” which would be added as a new module to the Annual household socio-economic survey conducted by the National Statistical Office. Inclusion of these three indicators of MDG-9 in the Annul household socio-economic survey allows collection of data on a regular basis nationwide. The three abovementioned indicators are as follows: - Public perception of political, economic, and financial independence of mass media (under Target 22): Percentage of citizens that have expressed their belief in political, economic and financial independence of mass media. - Public perception of activities of state organizations (under Target 23): indicator (index) that combines percentage of citizens’ trust/distrust in state organizations and their evaluation of performance of state organizations. - Public perception of corruption in public administration and public services (under Target 24):indicator of petty corruption in state administration and public services measuring corruption magnitude. The main objective of the module was to collect data for calculation of the baselines for the above MDG-9 indicators. The module was carried out as an addition to the Annual Household Socio-economic Survey (HSES). The Department of Population and Social Statistics and HSES team were responsible for its implementation. Under the survey schedule, the following activities were undertaken: 1. Develop and approve a detailed work plan and a calendar work plan; 2. Develop, discuss and approve a survey questionnaire and instructions; 3. Test the questionnaire and instructions in pilot areas and review results; 4. Develop and make ready a survey sampling design; 5. Conduct training for survey workers; 6. Develop software for data entry, data processing; 7. Develop and approve data entry manual, conduct related training; 8. Ensure preparation work for survey data collection and commence the survey; 9. Monitor data collection process; 10. Process data, develop result tables.

136

Survey sampling was the sub-sampling based on the HSES sampling, and sampling size was equal to each adult member of one third or 3744 selected HSES housesholds or 3744 persons. The sample size error variation was 1.6% at 95% confidental level. Survey sampling population was the list of all adult members of households selected for HSES. Persons to be interviewed were selected at random numbers from sampling population list (HSES form 3, section 1 or household members list) by survey counter. Instructions for selection were included in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Manual for Survey Countersâ&#x20AC;?. The data were collected by interviewing selected household persons using interview questionnaire method. After the survey questionnaire was developed and tested, it was then discussed by the NSO Research and Methodology Council and the NSO Board and later approved by the NSO Director. The computer staff and survey senior workers trained at aimag statistics departments and NSO were responsible for data entry and primary verifications. CSpro software was used to create the database, and STATA, SPSS software were used for data processing and analysing. The three MDG-9 public perception indicators are to be included in the annual statistical yearbook. The database will be accessible for users according to the national legislation.

137

MDG-9 MODULE HOUSEHOLD ID YEAR

CLUSTER NUMBER

HH No

DATE YEAR

MONTH

DAY

How would you rate the performance of the following institutions and persons in Mongolia today? Very Poor 

Poor

Moderate 

Good 

Excellent 

To what extent do you trust the following institutions and persons? Very Unreliable 

Unreliable

Moderate 

Reliable 

Very Reliable 

Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Strongly disagree 

disagree 

Somewhat 

138

Agree 

Strongly agree 

0.77 0.32 0.08

## ## ##

0.48 0.15 0.36

## ## ##

0.07 0.60 0.56

READ THE NUMBERS BELOW IN THE ORDER OF THE ARROWS, UNTIL YOU FIND THE NUMBER OF A HOUSEHOLD MEMBER 18 YEARS OR OLDER. START HERE

1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18

THIS PERSON WILL BE THE RESPONDENT FOR SECTION X

How would you rate the performance of the following institutions and persons in Mongolia today? PASS RESPONDENT THE GREEN CARD Parliament Government President Political parties Civil society organizations Public media Capital / aimag Hurals District soum Hurals Horoo / bagh Hurals (assemblies) Capital / aimag Governors District / soum Governors Horoo / bagh Governors Supreme Court Capital / aimag Courts District / soum Courts Traffic Police Criminal Police Police Patrol

Very Poor

Poor

Moderate

Good

Excellent

Don't Know











1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5

99 99 99 99

1 1 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

4 4 4

5 5 5

99 99 99

1 1 1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5 5 5

99 99 99 99 99 99 99

139

1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 2

2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 3

3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07

Independent Authority Against Corruption State Specialized Inspection Agency National Audit Office General Customs Office Authority of Land Affairs Taxation Administration Social Insurance organizations Social Care organizations Public Schools Public Health Organizations To what extent do you trust the following institutions and persons? PASS RESPONDENT THE YELLOW CARD Parliament Government President Political parties Civil society organizations Public Radio FM Radio Public TV channels Private TV channels Daily press Yellow press / tabloids Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? PASS RESPONDENT THE PINK CARD I have done better in life than most of my high school classmates I have done better in life than my parents The Mongolian economy is doing well In Mongolia the laws are respected In Mongolia everybody has equal right before laws Mass media are not under political control Mass media are

1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5

99 99 99 99

1 1

2 2

3 3

4 4

5 5

99 99

Very Unreliable

Unreliable

Moderate

Reliable

Very Reliable

Don't Know











1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5

99 99 99 99

1 1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5 5

99 99 99 99 99 99

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Somewhat

Agree

Strongly agree

Don't Know











140

3.08 3.09 3.10

financially independent Currently, democracy is practiced well in Mongolia Mongolians express their opinions freely Corruption is a big problem in Mongolia

141

ASK QUESTION A FOR ALL ITEMS FIRST

THEN ASK QUESTION B ONLY FOR THE ITEMS FOR WHICH THE ANSWER TO 1 WAS "YES"

FOR ALL ITEMS ON THE LIST

ONLY IF THE ANSWER TO QUESTION A IS "YES"

During the past 12 months, have you used the following services?

Did you observe corruption during the service?

Yes-1

4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22

Get employment for yourself or somebody else in a state organization Get child enrolled in school Get enrolled in training or retraining courses Get good/ better grade Resolve car related issues Get medical care Get an official document from a bagh/horoo local governor Get exempt from army conscription Get social care service Get money from or coverage by aid projects/programs Get loans from bank Get land permission/ownership license Get exemption from or preferential treatment by customs office Get exemption from or preferential treatment by customs office by tax office Refer the case for court settlement Transfer goods through the border Receive passport domestic/international Get a foreign visa Dismissal of case by court Get special license Influence a state tender Evaluation and registration of immovable property

142

No-2

Yes-1

No-2

1 1 1

2 2 2

1 1 1

2 2 2

1 1

2 2

1 1

2 2

1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2

1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2

2. METHODOLOGY OF MDG-9 PUBLIC PERCEPTION INDICATORS

The National Statistical Office and the MDG-Project staff contributed to developing the methodology for the three MDG-9 public perception indicators by designing questionnaires/modules and piloting them as part of the NSO Annual household socio-economic survey. The MDG-9 Project is grateful to Mr. Juan Munoz, (World Bank consultant, Sistemas Intergales, Chili) and Mr. Vasilii Tokarev (Russia, Volgograd, Analytic LLC) for their generous support in designing questionnaires and calculating the indicators. A. Introduction The importance of statistics in tackling public policy in a democratic way to enhance transparency and accountability was stressed by Dr Christopher Scott who pointed out that “policy outcomes are crucially affected by the use of statistics and statistical procedures in ‘upstream’ stages of policy-making, such as issue recognition, program design, policy choice and accurate forecasting” 34. The Metagora practical experiences from many countries along with the InWent endorsement of using statistics in measuring democracy, governance and human rights, the DIAL (Developement Institutions et Analyses de Long Terme) examples of governance modules attached to household surveys have shown the possibility and effectiveness of using household surveys for measuring democratic governance. Also pilot initiatives by the Palestine Central Statistical Bureau demonstrated an effective use of locally-initiated governance assessment projects35. DIAL36 used official household surveys as statistical tools to build and monitor policy-oriented indicators of democratic governance. Thus, using objective (behavior, actual experiences) and subjective information (perception, satisfaction), indicators can be developed to evaluate different aspects of democratic governance. The goal of a democratic governance module in the annual household socioeconomic survey is to collect data and monitor the progress of democratic governance on a transparent, valid and reliable statistical foundation with a prospect towards evidence-based policy-making. The targets of the module are to collect data and monitor public perception of political, economic, and financial independence of mass media, public perception of activities of state organizations, and public perception of corruption in public administration and public services (“petty”). As part of HSES, the module follows procedures and rules of the HSES. 34

Scott, Christopher. Measuring up to the measurement problem: the role of statistics in evidencebased policy-making, Paris 21, January 2005. http://www.undp.org/oslocentre/docs07/workshop/day3_wed_290807/provided_materials 35 More on website: http://www.undp.org/oslocentre/flagship/workshop_measuring_assessing.html 36 See website: http://www.dial.prd.fr

143

B. MDG-9 Public Perception Indicators B.1. Indicator of public perception of political, economic and financial independence of mass media

The indicator is the percentage of citizens that have expressed their belief in political, economic, and financial independence of mass media. Freedom of mass media is measured by whether the mass media is independent of political, economic, and financial influences. The lack of transparency of media ownership in Mongolia is contrary to the concept of pluralism and serves to foster hidden agendas; the provision of partisan information to the public creates societal distortions and confusion. As a result, it is very difficult for the Mongolian public to discern who is telling the truth, and much confidence is thereby lost in the media and in journalists37. This indicator was calculated on the basis of the results of a survey containing questions on dependence/independence of mass media with a scale expressing the measure of dependence/ independence (full, partial, etc.). Questions were measured on a 5 point scale ranging from disagree (1) to agree (5). A calculation of the indicator originated from a model of a well-known and widely used Customer Satisfaction Indicator (CSI)38 in marketing. The Levada Centre in Russia uses a corresponding indicator on evaluation/or opinion about social changes and trends called the Social Sentiment Indicator (ISN)39. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Each question serves as the base for constructing an individual indicator, which is the difference of shares of negative and positive answers plus 100 to avoid negative indicator values. The aggregate ISN is computed as an arithmetic average of individual indices. Thus the ISN is measured in the 37

Media Freedom Report: Mongolia-2008. Published by the Globe International, Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p.3 38 American CSI reports scores on a 0-100 scale at the national level and produces indicators for 10 economic sectors, 43 industries and more than 200 companies and federal or local government agencies. ACSI produces scores for causes and consequences of customer satisfaction and their relationships. The measured companies, industries, and sectors are broadly representative of the U.S. economy serving American households. See at http://www.theacsi.org; also at http://www.symphonytech.com/articles/satisfaction.html 39 Levada-Centre studies trends in social sentiment in Russia based on the integrated Social Sentiment Indicator (ISN) which was launched in the mid-nineties by VCIOM. The Social Sentiment Indicator (ISN) is a synthesized indicator of trends in the societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mass sentiment which reflects the impact of mass consciousness on the development of the country. The ISN is based on regular public opinion surveys conducted in Russia. Public opinion surveys conducted in Russia show that there is a close correlation of political, economic and social evaluations with the opinions of people which form a common vector of public sentiment. The ISN indicates to what extent the subjective factor reflecting the impact of the aggregate of individual preferences and attitudes influences the development of the society overall, the actual political and economic behaviour of the population. See at http://www.levada.ru/eng/methodology.html

144

interval from 0 to 200, and the indicator values lower than 100 indicate that negative evaluations prevail in the society40.” The same approach was utilized for the above-mentioned MDG-9 indicator: a difference of positive and negative answers was divided by the sums of related answers in order to reveal positive/negative trends.

PA I i = 100

PA NA PA NA

Where Ii is an individual indicator based on answers to a particular question. PA is a percentage of positive answers (“strongly agree” and “agree”). NA is a percentage of negative answers (“strongly disagree” and “disagree”) An average of individual indicators provides a numeric expression for the indicator on public perception of mass media independence. The calculation is done in three steps. Table 17. Percentage of the Individual Indicators Provides a Numeric Expression for the Indicator on Public Perception of Mass Media Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? 1. The mass media is not under political control 2. The mass media is economically and financially independent

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Somewhat

Agree

Strongly agree

Don't Know

10,52

30,9

21,73

15,77

1,07

20,01

8,53

29,29

21,78

13,79

0,97

25,64

Step 1. Answers to the first statement served as the base for calculating the individual indicator I1. The following calculation was made for I1: I1 = 100 100

1 ( 1 (

15,77 1,07 10,52 30,9 ) 15,77 1,07 10,52 30,9 15,77 1,07 10,52 30,9

16,84 58,26

41,42 ) 58,26

2 100 1 (0,289 0,71

2 28.9

Step 2. The similar calculation was done for the second statement for I2:

Ibid.

145

I 2 = 100

1 (

13,79

13,79 0,97 0,97 8,53 29 ,29

100

1 (

14 ,76 52 ,58

8,53 29 ,29 ) 0,97 8,53 29 ,29

13,79

37 ,82 ) 52 ,58

28,06

Step 3. The average of I1 and I2 provided the expression for the indicator on public perception of mass media independence:

I = 28.9 + 28.06

28,5

Additionally a level of acquaintance (LA) was calculated in order to find out the level of familiarity with the subject matter: LA 1=100%-%DK=100-20.01=79.99 LA 2=100-25.64=74.36 Average of LA1,2 =77.17% The indicator of public perception of political, economic, and financial independence of mass media is 28.5. The scale ranges from 0 to 100 points.

146

B.2. Indicator of public perception of activities of state organizations

The indicator is a composite indicator calculated on the basis of percentages of respondents that have expressed trust/distrust in state organizations and have evaluated their performance as answers to questions on different state organizations. The above indicator was calculated on the basis of survey on performance and trust/distrust of state organizations with a scale expressing the measure of trust/distrust (positive, medium, negative, etc.) All items were measured on a 5 point scale ranging from disagree (1) to agree (5). Table 18. Question Sets for Performance of State Organizations 1. How would you evaluate the current performance of state organizations in the country? Very Poor Moderate Good Excellent Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Poor know President 1 2 3 4 5 99 Government

Parliament

How would you evaluate the current performance of local government organizations? City/Aimag Hural 1 2 3 4 5

District/Soum Hural

Horoo/Bagh Hural

City/Aimag Governor

District/Soum Governor

Horoo/Bagh Governor

3. How would you evaluate the current performance of judicial organizations? Supreme Court

Capital/aimag Courts

District/soum Courts

General Authority for 1 2 3 4 Implementing Court Decisions 4. How would you evaluate the current performance of the police?

Traffic Policy

Criminal Policy

Police Patrol

5. How would you evaluate the current performance of the following state agencies? Independent Authority Against Corruption State Specialized Inspection Agency

147

National Audit Office

General Customs Office

Authority of Land Affairs

Taxation Administration

6. How would you evaluate the current performance of social sector organizations? Social Insurance

Social Care organizations

Education

Health care organizations

7. To what extent do you trust the following institutions? President

Government

Parliament

All 7 sets of questions (variables) were analyzed for correlation, and then reduced to 7 variables. The factor analysis was used to achieve that. The factor analysis attempts to identify underlying variables, or factors, that explain the pattern of correlation within a set of observed variables41. Extraction of Factors Principal component method was used to extract the factors. Each of the factors (principal component) is a linear combination of all the indicators studied. The first principal component accounts for maximum variation, the second component accounts for the next largest variation and so on. A single component was extracted for each set of variables. The factor score coefficients were calculated for each type of state organizations by substituting the value of the indicators and factor score coefficients, and were then stored as separate variables in the SPSS data file. This was done using SPSS procedure. Obtained variables with factor scores were standardized to a scale of 0 to 100 (100 as the highest degree) according a formula:

G.M. Antony and K. Visweswara Rao. A composite indicator to explain variations in poverty, health, nutritional status and standard of living: Use of multivariate statistical methods. Public Health, Volume 121, Issue 8, The Royal Institute of Public Health Published by Elsevier Ltd., August 2007, pages 57-58, available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/

148

S min

S max

S min

Fi Fmin Fmax Fmin

где Smax и Smin – maximum and minimum of scale, Smax=100, Smin=0. Fmax и Fmin – – maximum and minimum for observed factor Fi – «observed» (ith ) case.

Six sub-indicators on performance of state organizations measured by a scale from 0 to 100 were obtained as a result of the above calculation. All variables in sets showed very strong correlations. Next, six sub-indicators on performance of state organizations were reduced to one by factor analysis. Table 19. Component Matrix I Component 1 Ix01 – State Organizations

0,439

Ix02 – Local Government

0,579

Ix03 - Judicial Organizations

0,747

Ix04 – Police

0,681

Ix05 - State Agencies

0,822

Ix06 - Social Sector Organizations

0,566

1 component extracted.

% variance

42,405 Total Variance Explained: total is 2,544, % of variance is 42,405%.

The importance of each factor is different; the percentage of variation explained is 42%. Variable with factor scores was saved into SPSS file and converted to 0-100 scaled sub-indicator using the above formula. Finally, two sub-indicators on performance and trust of state organizations were calculated and reduced to one indicator on public perception of activities of state organizations. Table 20. Component Matrix II Component 1 Performance of state organizations Trust in state organizations

149

0,780 0,780

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis A 1 component extracted. Total Variance Explained: total is 1,216, % of variance is 60,779%. The indicator of public perception of activities of state organizations scores at 53.3. Standard error is 0. 36270.

150

B.3. Public perception of corruption in public administration and public services

The public perception indicator includes qualitative measurements of corruption in areas such as magnitude of corruption in public services, corruption-prone services, sectors, formal practices of corruption in public services, public attitudes to “petty” (petit, small) corruption. The most widespread instrument of assessing the level of corruption is the public perception survey of corruption. The assumption is that this indicator encapsulates the general level of corruption as well as public attitudes (tolerance/intolerance) to corruption. The indicator is calculated on the basis of survey questions on “petty” corruption and public attitudes to corruption. Table 21. Public Perception of Petty Corruption Services

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Get employment for yourself or somebody else in a state organization Get a child enrolled in school Get enrolled in training or retraining courses Get good/better grade Resolve car/traffic related issues Get medical care Get an official document from a bagh/horoo local governor Get exempt from army conscription Get social care service

Responses in % During the past 12 Did you observe Number of those months, have you corruption during who did not used the following the service? observe corruption services? during the service 19.7 38.7 61,3 26.4

22.6

14.6

16.1

10.2 24.1

35.6 23.3

64,4

60.6 49.7

22.8 6.8

77,2

10.0

23.1

37.8

14.4

Get money from or coverage by aid projects/ programs Get loans from bank

14.9

24.5

32.2

9.3

Get land permission/ownership license Get exemption from or preferential treatment by customs office Get exemption from or preferential treatment by tax office

32.6

3.1

55.2

2.6

39.6

77,4 83,9

76,7

93,2 76,9 85,7 75,5 90,7 67,4 44,8 60,4

Observation of corruption/ No observation of corruption ratio is within the range of 0-2.

151

Ratio of numbers42

0.63 0.29 0.19 0.55 0.30 0.29 0.07 0.30 0.17 0.32 0.10 0.48 1.23 0.66

Refer the case for court settlement Transfer goods through the border Receive passport domestic/international Get a foreign visa

Dismissal of case by court

3.4

46.9

53,1

0.88

Get special license

4.0

42.7

57,3

0.74

21 22

Influence a state tender Evaluation and registration of immovable property

2.2 11.3

56.1 21.9

43,9

1.28 0.28

16 17

4.7

52.3

3.8

47.9

19.4

13.9

5.6

32.4

67,6

0.48

47,7 52,1 86,2

78,1

1.10 0.92 0.16

The indicator of public perception of corruption in public administration and public service is 30.8.

The indicator was calculated as average of percentage of respondents who observed evidence of corruption within the last 12 months.

152

I.10. GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS IN SUPPORT OF MDG-9 Brief on government interventions aimed at implementing MDG-9

Mongolia by its 1992 Constitution has legalized the protection of human rights in accordance with international standards and guaranteed fundamental principles of democratic governance in political and legal perspectives. Over 400 laws, 300 programs and policy papers which are currently valid in Mongolia and more than 180 international treaties and conventions which Mongolia has become a party constitute as a legal environment for the promotion of human rights and democratic governance in Mongolia. However, it can be said that Mongolia still lacks a coherent and compact state policy aimed to implement MDG-9. There are specific reasons to this end. Because MDG-9 has a general content, and its scope is wide, it becomes difficult to define criteria of government interventions. Content is general, but scope is wide Direct or indirect connections with implementation of other 8 goals As general environment for other MDGs, MDG-9 is implemented Since it is limited to express with statistical data, it is difficult to make financing planning or budget allocation Main directions of state or government policies and activities may become government interventions Since this is the new national MDG, there is no common method or methodology to monitor the implementation National criteria for monitoring or implementation of MDG-9 have not yet been defined, evaluation work is at early stage of development List of government’s strategic actions aimed at implementing mdg-9 as reflected in relevant government documents

General Strategy Goals defined in “National Program for Ensuring Human Rights” create all guarantees, be it political, legal, organizational, social, economic, financial or security, to effectively implement them, Strengthen parliamentary system of governance, and ensure democratic form of the State Great Hural’s organizational or operational activities, Enable environment to implement “Strategic Plan of Action for Mongolia’s Judicial System”, Ensure the rights to vote or to be elected in order to hold a free and fair elections, improve electoral bodies’ capacities and create effective system for auditing of election financing,

153

Develop policy and enable legal environment for consolidating process of internal democratic processes of political parties, Ensure the rights to have access to state information so that it can provide openness and transparency for state information and enable audit or control over the state in its accountability, openness and transparency, Revise “National Program to Combat Corruption”, and implement it effectively, Effectively implement policies and priorities defined in “Mid-term strategy for civil service reforms of Mongolia”, Ensure independence of media and press and also ensure journalists’ ethics and legal rights, Develop right local governance through decentralization, improve capacity building of non-government organizations, strengthen civil society and increase private sector contribution into social development and economy Implement a program which aims to transform democratic values into citizens’ trust as nucleus for civil and political education Respect and uphold Universal Declaration on Human Rights, ensure the freedom of media and the right of the public to have access to information Take specific measures to increase national capacity to ensure and protect human rights and freedoms, Integrate international human rights treaties and conventions with domestic laws, raise awareness work and encourage a mechanism to monitor it, Revisit Law on State Secrets, Law on Organizational Secrets, Law on Private Individuals, Law on Crime Prevention and Criminal Law whether these laws contain provisions restricting citizen’s rights to obtain information and remove them if found unnecessary, Provide citizens and media workers with possibility to have access to documents of public organizations and restrict control over information related to state activities as much as possible, and create a legal basis for court ruling if such a request is rejected without justifications and defining roles of public employees to provide information, Make available list of documents and decisions to be found on websites of state organizations, Formulate law on professional freedoms, Legalize rules and conditions for the oversight work for the National Human Rights Commission on how government decisions and activities reflect promotion of human rights, Make amendments to laws and legislation with regard to improving and ensuring legal protection over individual’s or legal subject’s property rights and, if such rights are violated, impose punishments to the fullest degree, Elected Representative of Citizens Hural at aimag, capital city, soum or district level should exercise the rights to ensure and protect the rights of

154

his/her electorates and issue demand or proposals to competent authorities or officials. For this purpose he/she can use printed papers and relevant authorities or officials should get reply. These rules should be made a law. Formulate law on the freedom of press and implement it through better promotion of the freedom of press and better legal environment for independence of media, Make democracy education available to the public through special radio channel and TV broadcast, In case, the rights of media organization or journalist are severely violated, or pressure be given to them, accountability for such actions must be to the fullest degree, and respect the rights of journalists’ to defend sources of information, Translate principles and norms of democracy into reality Adopt and implement national program for strengthening democracy and raise the knowledge among the public of democratic principles, Make amendments to relevant laws in order to increase direct participation and expand control over processes of legislative and administrative decisions and organize implementation; Improve legal environment for election organization and election body, and revise election laws so that they can promote the right to vote or be elected, Upgrade professional criteria for members of General Election Committee and take all measures to ensure independence of the Committee’s members and activities, Increase Civil Service Council’s political, legal and economic independence, defend resource management and civil servants /by their merits/ and transform Civil Service Council into an independent organization that is not dependant from Government, Formulate national program aimed at education of democracy and civil and political education for all and create mechanism to implement it, Encourage and keep fair competition in the political and social-economic arena and ensure equal conditions for participation, Give impetus to development of political parties and create healthy competition for strengthening democracy from within. Zero tolerance to corruption in all spheres of the society Revise the Law to Combat Corruption and take measures to improve the activities of Authority to fight against corruption Streamline Mongolia’s legislation into the UN Convention against corruption, Improve the legal environment for wider income declaration, furthermore allow removing candidates for local hural representatives, and income declaration should express conflict of interests,

155

Set up integrated system for education against corruption on the basis of joint participation of state, civil society, private sector and citizens participation, Formulate and implement law regulating the conflict of interests CONCLUSIONS

Ongoing programs and policy documents/papers:

Goals, targets and content are too general and have a declarative manner Do not take into account a potential workforce and economic resources Detailed information on financial cordination and its rationale has not been given Targets, activities or indicators have not been defined clearly. Some programs do not have criteria indicators, therefore it is difficult to evaluate the implementation. Though specific activities have been undertaken it is common that they do not match with main goals set forth. Program management and organisation

National committees are set up in order to implement programs at national level. In accordance with directions and guidelines of these national committees, governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s offices at provincial, capital and district levels decree to set up local councils and branches. However, in practice these units do not work or their activities are not harmonised. In addition there is often no staffing or financing. In ministries and local government offices there is often an official who is in charge of all programs. This system does not work out. Because he or she compiles all the information from different sources and reports it to his or her higher authority. By doing this he or she has no possibility to oversee program implementation. Coordination, information exchange, coherent management or organisation is not staisfactory though program implementation is supposed to be ensured on the basis of interministerial cooperation. Program imlementation:

Some activities do not reach out to some groups, especially in remote areas or those who have just migrated to capital city without registration or those who have low incomes. Program financing sources mostly come from projects or programs undertaken by international organisations or foreign countries. Financing allocation is inefficient, in most cases allocated resources do not reach those who implement at grassroots or local levels. Financial resources are not earmarked for particular program, but allocated to those who is in charge of budgetary spending. This is a major reason for non-program spending.

156

Case study:

As for nationally implemented programs, financing is not enough. Though government budget contains program financing when it allocates to 21 provinces but they do not have financing for planned program activities from provincial budget. But financing from projects and programs of international organisations or foreign countries is sufficient and well allocated because project or program implementing agencies choose project sites. Financing from local governments for program activities is rare and almost not possible. This example is taken from financial resources for National Program for Gender Equality. This, however, is a general account because there is no official information as to how allocated financing was spent . Chart 8. Financing of Implementation of National Programs From government budget - 29.97 million

tugrugs For each of 21 provinces and capital city 29.97/22 = 1.36 million tugrugs

If on average each province has 13 soums 1.36/13=104.000 tugrugs

If on average each soum has 5 baghs 104.000/5=20.800 tugrugs Program outcome:

There is no fully elaborated criteria, indicators or methodology for program evaluation. So program implementing agencies have nothing but come up with artificial conclusions when they evaluate program outcome. This leads to incompatibility of program implementation report and of program outcome. This means that though the program rate of implemetation is high, its outcome and benefits are not felt for end-users or people. The main methodology for evaluation of program implementation is given by Government decree No-51 of 2006 and according to this decree impelmentation rate is considered on how many activities are undertaken by a given program. Under todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s circumstances this methodology misleads program implementation from the reality. This regulation is also more directed at monitoring, evaluation and incentive driven activities of ministries, central and local governments. Activity implemetation phase is not rationally defined within a given goal,

157

and timeframe is ill-thought. Therefore, program implementation is slow. Effective implementation of some program is dependent on to programs and projects where financing comes from donor community and implemented by them. Data base for program reports is lacking, therefore access by general public to them is not sufficient as required. Monitoring, evaluation and information division within existing structures of ministries limits its work for particular ministry’s or sectoral issues on an annual basis. In other words, they provide program evaluation insufficiently. Progress and evaluation of programs given by ministries or local governments to Government is not realistic. Time for evaluation is too short and evaluation of one year programing is too limited or narrow-minded. It is often the case that implementation of progam activities are bound and given in one particular year. There is no financing for monitoring or evaluation of planned activity or program. There are programs, which have no specific outcome or no information as to whether program activities have been undertaken, or some programs have no evaluation as they are reported as “finished” or invalid. For example, no information has been found as to when finished or what outcome produced from “National program for improving the situation of women” decreed by Government in 1996. However, the Government reports of 1997 and 2001 to CEDAW claim that by implementing national program for improving the situation of women, Mongolia has consolidated non government organizations for women and the program implementation has resulted in positive outcomes for decisions makers to reflect women’s issues into state/government policies. Another example: Among program evaluation indicators such as family, gender education issues, there are many quantative indicators already reflected in the National Program for Gender Equality. 10 out of 25 indicators are quantative. On this basis concerned Ministry has reported on its implementation as providing a number of training courses or seminars, also a number of organisations nationwide providing services for family welfare is one or 22 in the capital city and many were being set up in local provincial centres. This is only a quantative part, but there was not any indicator which could show a qualitative part of the evaluation. In other words, it means that there is no information on how activities of all involved organisations benefited the people. Following is needed to formulate future programs:

To carry out research and survey at national level and formulate/define detailed policy Define goals, improve interconnection between input, criteria/indicators and output

158

Views and opinions should be sought from sectoral experts, analysts, implementing or financing stakeholders, program end-users when program input activities are defined. To be realistic. Detailed correlation of macro and micro level indicators should be given when criteria is formulated. In other words, it is important to ensure that criteria indicators are expected to match with the quality of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s livelihood. If one indicator is not possible to evaluate for a package of issues it is necessary to develop a set of interrelated indicators. Following is needed when programs are implemented

To develop an integrated management and organization system as a whole; Training of specialists and increase staffing; Define organization and restructuring at relevant agencies according to policy and ensure constant and proactive operations; Implement programs on the basis of locally tailored plan of detailed work; Allocate evenly work of local implementing agencies and set up incentives for them; Delegate some of specific program activities to non-governmental organizations which have professional staff in a particular issue and has an adequate technical capacity Allocate government budget specifically for program activities along with financing from international donor organizations Enhance financing mechanism as to match program goals with government policies and decisions; Reduce phases of financial allocation mechanism and give more authority to implementing agencies at local levels for financing; Set up an efficient oversight mechanism for financial spending; Improve an integrated system and organization for monitoring and evaluation and efficiently integrate monitoring and evaluation mechanism for each phase of program implementation; Set up an integrated data base for reports from implementing agencies and provide access to interested parties and citizens; Ensure access for external evaluation and monitoring by civil society organizations; also ensure that recommendations to be made by civil society organizations are reflected in the follow-up activities of those concerned. Bring into practice monitoring and evaluation as such that there is difference between monitoring and evaluation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; monitoring is made while implementing and evaluation is made after implementation of program; Monitoring and evaluation work costs are reflected in overall program financing; Set up a mechanism of accountability for implementing agencies.

159

MATRIX OF GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS TO SUPPORT MDG-9 National programs that have been selected here do not directly aim to implement MDG-9. However, they are linked to MDG-9 to a certain degree in the context of major steps toward the implementation of Mongolia’s legislation and development goals. In selecting these programs their major goals have been taken into account and targets that are closely related to MDG-9 have been chosen. Target 22: Respect Universal Declaration on Human Rights, ensure the freedom of media and the right of the public to have access to information Title of national program, implementation period, resolution reference number and major goals 1.

Food supply, safety and nutrition program 2014-2010; GoM-2001-242 To provide public with nutritional, quality and safe food in equal and accessible manner, and improve food and nutrition and furthermore improve health

Targets that are linked to MDG-9

Target 6: Conduct training and awareness activity for manufacturers and consumers, ensure wise and conscience consumption and improve the participation of public;

Program financing and inputs

2005 – 7 billion tugrugs 2006 – 2,5 billion tugrugs Financing completed (One year).

160

Rate of program implementation and activities undertaken

57,5 per cent.

Conclusions

Considerable amount of work has been undertaken in conjunction By the Government resolution 339 with target 6. This, however, has been limited to the opening of web of 2007, 2008 was announced as page. But most people affected by the Year for Food Supply and Safety. With the support from WHO malnutrition and food safety including low income people have webpage on food safety and nutrition is now open to the public no access to it. (Information is inaccessible) www.pubprohealth.mn

National program for employment generation 2002-2010; GoM-2002-92 To develop employment generation policy in conjunction with the country’ economic development trends, investment, environment protection, infrastructure policy and regional development concept so that it aims to provide conditions for citizens to freely choose their jobs and professions as they desire and obtain from labor market services and activities and improve their living standards through capacity development

National Program for the Disabled 2006-2012; GoM-2006-283 Improve living conditions for the disabled and create an environment to develop and integrate them into society and uphold their rights with participation of state, civil society and disabled persons.

Target 1. Undertake 5 main activities in order to combine employment generation policy with poverty reduction and growth strategy at macro level

10.4 billion tugrugs from Employment Generation Promotion Fund

Target 2. Undertake 5 activities in order to reduce unemployment and create conditions for further job generation through the intense implementation of labor market policy

Target 1. Assess contribution 15.6 million tugrugs of the disabled into country’s development and positively influence on public’s views towards the disabled through the support of initiatives from public or non-public organizations, entities, families and individuals Target 4. Improve an environment for the disabled for education, information access Target 5. Improve social

161

On average – 90 per cent In 2007 – 100 per cent

Report says this program has positive outcome. However, other official sources report conflicting data as to unemployment increase or reduction.

Unemployment rate stands at 3.3 per cent. In 2006 “Law on Amendments to Employment Generation (information is not complete) Promotion” which was adopted in 2006 has been revised. All public involved works have been changed to contractual basis. Both “Law on Employment Generation Promotion” and “Law on Social Welfare” have been revised and legal framework has been put as labor and welfare management structure to change from its vertical structure into horizontal (local) one.

Average – 16,6 per cent In 2007 – 100 per cent

Though some specific activities have been undertaken, there is no information as to the attainment of the goals of the program. For example, despite the increase of cash benefits for the disabled, it is unclear whether this increase is enough to meet comfortable living environment as envisioned since there is no survey or information

Last year benefits from Social Protection Fund increased from 26.500 to 41.400 tugrugs. All disabled persons in the country have given certificate. “Construction planning norm for disabled persons” BD-31-101-04-т has been developed and this norm will be applied for all new (there is no detailed buildings. Rules for special account, information) its expenditure and audit for

protection for the disabled through capacity development of the disabled

National program for disabled children 2006-2012; GoM-2006-283 To create an environment where disabled children as an individual or member of society can make choice, possess thoughts or values, and be accountable for their actions through development of their skills and capacity

National program for development of youth 2007-2015; GoM -2006-282 To develop skillful, diligent, ethical, intelligent youth and further increase their contribution to development of the country through

Target 1. Increase participation of children in development of national or local social-economic policy and implementation of programs

employment promotion of the disabled have been decreed by the Minister of Social Welfare and Labour and this account has become operational with financing of 83 786.4 thousand tugrugs. This program financing will be covered by program financing for national program for “Support to disabled persons”.

Target 2. Strengthen the institutional capacity for the disabled children to participate

Average – 25 per cent In 2007 – 100 per cent Policy basis for disabled children has been formulated in 2006 when a national forum “Let’s develop together” was organized for the issues related to disabled children.

There is no information as to how activities undertaken have helped to reach goals of the program. No information is available on financing

(there is no detailed In 2006, Minister of Social Welfare information) and Labour adopted and now implements “Welfare services program based on public participation” According to joint decree by Ministers of Education, Health and Social Welfare and Labour ”Program for equal training of disabled children 2004-2008” is under implementation.

Target 1. To create an favourable environment for youth so that it can spread the understanding that knowledge based quality education will improve livelihood and right practices. Target 20. Create favorable social and economic

Average – 7,3 per cent In 2007 – 65,7 per cent Rate of implementation for the following targets are null at this stage. These are - Create favorable social and economic environment so that it can expand participation of youth

162

There is no information as to how activities undertaken have helped to reach goals of the program. No information is available on financing

(there is no detailed

creating favorable environment for improved awareness of their responsibility for youth themselves and society, increased participation in social, political, economic and cultural life, and protection of their rights.

environment so that it can expand participation of youth in the activities that promote human rights. Target 21. To create an favourable environment so that it can increase the participation of youth in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals as well as in transforming positive outcome of the globalization process.

National Program for Young People

Target (Second Phase)

1998-2005; GoM -1998-104 Raise and develop healthy youth, educate them to ideals of patriotism, national unity, humane manner along with Mongolian custom and traditions, and independent living conditions, and create favorable social, economic, political and legal environment for young people so that they can walk together with modern world

This phase will cover the period of 2001-2005 and bring considerable results upon the implementation of wide range activities aimed at solving critical goals of the youth.

in the activities that promote human rights, - To create an favourable environment so that it can increase the participation of youth in the implementation of Millennium Development Goals as well as in transforming positive outcome of the globalization process, - Ensure participation of youth in developing Mongolia specific information and communications technology43 In 2005 - 41.3 million tugrugs

Second phase - 73.4 per cent 44 As of 5 April 2005 - 84.2 per cent45 However, as of 31 December 2005 60 per cent - During second phase 1.5 billion tugrugs have been spent to construct and renovate 73 cultural and arts buildings, 184.3 million tugrugs allocated for purchase of musical instruments and other technical equipment, 2.6 billion spent for the purchase of books for libraries. In 2004 over 300 young people have been covered under skills development training program, over 7000 people for

Evaluation report on the implementation of â&#x20AC;&#x153;National Program for youthâ&#x20AC;?, Ministry of Social Welfare and Labour Evaluation of Government programmes as of 31 December 2004 45 Evaluation of Government programmes as of 5 April 2005 163 44

information) No activities have been undertaken with regard to targets on human rights and Millennium Development Goals.

Program implementation, financing and evaluation part vary in one report and from report to report. Therefore, it is difficult to take which one as official or formal

(information is not complete)

civilization into ХХI century.

National program for gender equality 2003-2015; GoM -2002-274; GoM -2005-05 Ensure equal participation of men and women in development, and eliminate negative trends which have risen in the society and improve life quality of people through creating favorable environment.

literacy training and 8.2 billion tugrugs have been written off from state training fund. - Benefits and deductions for students totaled to 10400.7 million tugrugs. Labour markets provided jobs for 4900 young people with temporary and permanent jobs. Target 3. Ensure equal participation of man and woman in family relationship and improve legal environment to prevent the violation of rights of family members Target 6. Set up a mechanism for ensuring gender equality in economic policy

As 1st phase completes 28,97 million tugrugs from domestic sources, 582,1 million tugrugs from foreign and international projects and programs have been spent. However, a number of professionals in this field are not enough. Since January 2008 branches have opened up in the countryside.

Average – 57,3 per cent In 2007 – 100 per cent Law against domestic violence has been adopted. Activities to set up a mechanism for ensuring gender equality in economic policy are at initial stage.46

Evaluation report of Government programme on Gender equality, Ministry of Social Welfare and Labour, 2008 164

Though specific activities have been undertaken they are not enough to attain program goals and targets. This program could not determine its targets. This could be related to shortage of professionals in the field. (participation is not satisfactory)

National program for improvement of livelihood of the disabled

12,0 million tugrugs

In 2004, 37141 persons have been rehabilitated, 1224906.5 thousand tugrugs spent for 27891 disabled people through 15 social welfare services. - Foreign projects totaled to 378.6 thousand USD have been undertaken to improve the livelihood of disabled.

1998-2004; GoM -1998-202

National program for health and social protection of the elderly people 1999-2008; GoM -1998-130; GoM -2003271 Improve the life quality of the elderly through better health and social protection, and create favorable environment for them to live healthy and active in the society.

90 per cent

Target 3. Improve the quality 10,0 million turgugs and coverage of social welfare services for the elderly, increase awareness, training and publicity, provide educational training for the elderly, encourage their participation and role in public affairs and set up a new mechanism for accountability

165

Average â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 85 per cent In 2007 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 85 per cent On average pension which is paid from the pension fund has doubled as prices and living costs increased, other social benefits have increased by 40 per cent, reimbursement payments for those who have no pensions have reached the minimum pension. By late 2004, 24.3 billion tugrugs have been spent for the increase of pensions.

There is no information as to how activities undertaken have helped to reach goals of the program. No information is available on financing of specific activities. (there is no detailed information)

There is no information as to how activities undertaken have helped to reach goals of the program. For example, though there was an increase of pensions it is not clear if that increase is enough to meet conditions for comfortable living as indicated in program goal. There is no survey on this (there is no detailed information)

10.

National program for child development and protection

2002-2010; GoM -2002-245 To protect the childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights, encourage self-development of children, improve livelihood of children through creating an environment for enabling access for education and training. 11.

National program for ensuring human rights

Target 1. to formulate new legal instruments for childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights in accordance with principles to uphold children Target 6. to create enabling and healthy environment for youth and children to live and develop. Target 16. to promote the rights of children and youth including the freedom of speech. Target 17. Encourage state and public support for children to obtain information, choose, elaborate and use and disseminate them.

88 per cent.

In total 233 targets

In 2007 activities have been undertaken as indicated in 68 targets.

- Since the implementation of the program 413 street children have been returned home. - Detention houses, prison conditions for juvenile have been improved. - Coverage of pre-school age children to kindergartens reached to 43.1 per cent, as of 2004-2005 academic year 537.9 thousand children attended schools.

SGH-2003-41

Based on the target concerning sanitary conditions of detentions, visits have been arranged to detention centers in the capital city to clarify whether rules and standards are followed. Also detentions houses and prisons at the outskirts of the capital city have been checked. Working group is set up to amend law on enforcement of court decisions to include provisions concerning human rights monitoring and evaluation.47

Pursuant to the nature of democracy and market relations, it aims to bring reforms to all social sectors including state institutions, local government structure, cultural and intellectual spheres, through promoting basic human rights and freedom, and broaden state organizational work to ensure human rights and legal guarantees and set up appropriate mechanism.

Evaluation of Government programmes as of end 2007 166

There is no information as to how activities undertaken have helped to reach goals of the program. No information is available on financing of specific activities. (there is no detailed information)

There is no information as to how activities undertaken have helped to reach goals of the program. No reasons given why some goals could not be reached. No rate of implementation has been given. No information is available on financing of specific activities. (there is no detailed information)

12.

National program for distance education 2002-2010; GoM -2002-14 Set up national system for distance learning and improve formal and informal educational services and their effectiveness, and provide an opportunity for life time education for adults.

13.

Target 4.1. Set up policy coordination and management system for distance learning; Target 4.4. Facilitate accessible and quality distance learning and create effective information and technical environment;

In 2004 – 304,0 million turgugs. 48 In 2005 - 89.329 million tugrugs.

National program for informal education

Average – 20 per cent In 2008 – 82 per cent 49 All full secondary schools have computer lab and schools in urban areas have internet connection. 10072 children attended summer mobile kindergartens in 412 bags of 18 provinces. 50 "Healthy food is better than medicine" training was organized in Bulgan province from 15 to 25 May 2005, and 500 citizens has attended.

Program was implemented with positive outcome.

2005.04.05 – 80 percent 51

Program was implemented with positive outcome.

Thanks to the creation of informal education and its legal framework 130.000 people have been on training courses related to legal, economic, health, environment education through life skills, household training. - Project “Let us live while on training” implemented jointly by the Government and UNESCO has been crucial for the success of the program.52

GoM -1996-8; GoM -1997-116 Set up informal education system, develop curriculum and methods, determine technical capacity

Evaluation of Government programs as of 31 December 2004 the same 50 the same 51 Evaluation of Government programs as of 5 April 2005 52 Evaluation of Government programs as of 31 December 2004 49

167

14.

"Electronic Mongolia" national program 2006-2012; GoM -2005-216 To create knowledge based information society in Mongolia since information and communications technology is considered as development key in the ХХI century

15.

Program to promote quality and environment management 2002-2015; GoM -2002-146 Implement integrated policy for quality and environmental management at national level and consolidate management of entities and organizations.

53 54

Target 1. Create legal framework for development and transfer of information and communications technology Target 2. Increase public access for information services Target 3. Set up a state integrated system, and Government institutional memory Target 4. Promote edemocracy proposals and initiatives with the view of protecting human rights Target 5. Set up information security system Target 3.2.

In 2007 “E-business until 2012” concept paper draft has been elaborated.53

10,0 million tugrugs

As of 2004.12.31 – 76 per cent - In order to introduce ISO 9000 standard as national one, 5 standards have been endorsed as national and relevant methodological documents have been developed. - In order to introduce ISO 14000 standard as national one, 6 standards have been endorsed as national (ISO 14000) – environmental management standard.54

Increase competitiveness of products, services quality, safety and sanitary requirements through applying environment and animal friendly technology and developing clean industries;

Implementation of Government programs of action as of the end of 2007 Evaluation of Government programs as of 31 December 2004 168

There is no information as to how activities undertaken have helped to reach goals of the program. No information is available on financing of specific activities. (there is no detailed information)

16.

National program to protect people from human trafficking especially women and children from sexual exploitations

2006-2014; GoM -2005-234 To protect people from human trafficking, especially women and children from sexual exploitations

3.1. to implement Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s obligations as undertaken in international and other conventions regarding human trafficking, especially women and children from sexual exploitations 3.3. To raise awareness and publicity work among civil society, parents, children and youth about consequences and damages of trafficking not only domestically but over borders, especially women and children from sexual exploitations

Average â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 20 per cent In 2007 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 90 per cent

Only rate of implementation has been given in the report. No information is available as to what activities have been undertaken and how they are financed. (no information available)

Target 23: Translate principles and norms of democracy into reality

Title of national program, implementation period, resolution reference number and major goals Program for civil service training and knowledge and skills 1998-2015; GoM -1999-96 Help develop civil administrative structure and be guidelines for creating skills for civil service

Targets that are linked to MDG-9 Target 2.2 - Set up civil administrative structure with operational capacity; - be equipped with civil administrative employees with skills; - every civil administrative organ should become a learning organization as well; ensure the leadership and high participation of civil administrative

Program financing and inputs From state budget 100.000 USD has been spent.

Rate of program Conclusions implementation and activities undertaken 50 per cent Only rate of implementation has been given in the report. No information is available as to what activities have been undertaken and how they are financed. (no information available)

169

organs 2.

Judicial reform program 2002-2010; SGH-2000-39 This program was based on Strategic Plan and Plan of Action for judicial system reform which has been adopted by the State Great Hural in 2000.

Target 1.1. Improve interrelations of all courts through ensuring independent judgment by judges Target 1.2. Create monitoring mechanism for unlawful decisions of executive power organs Target 1.6. Ensure political independence of judicial organs Target 4.1. Employees of judicial organs apply laws with accuracy and abide by them effectively Target 5.4. Make prosecution processes and decisions open, transparent and accessible Target 6.3. Official comments on Mongolian laws will be made timely and published through press and media

GTZ project on “Lawyers training and re-training”, and USAID project on “Judicial system reform” have helped to produce broadcast at 21.30 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday on 19 thematic laws including civil, criminal, land ownership, domestic violence, administrative and etc.,

170

Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legal reforms program State Great Hural -1998-18

All together 56 activities have been reflected

With the view of developing humane, civic and democratic society and in conformity of the Constitutional principles and ideals to create favorable environment and legal basis for ensuring political, economic development and define main priorities of all state organizations and officials 4.

National program to provide support to insolvent citizens 2002-2010; GoM -2006-263

To set up a system that effectively provides legal assistance regardless of their financial standing

3.1.2. within the scope of the program to organize most appropriately how to provide legal assistance for free and organize informal training and awareness work for legal matters, and increase access and effectiveness. To spread legal assistance centers nationally and develop model for state lawyers/advocates for insolvent citizens

200.1 million tugrugs have been allocated to undertake 10 activities

100.000 USD from state budget 57

In principale, legal reform program has been implemented and goals achieved. However, upholding laws has not been fully realised, and law obedience among general public is still low.55

50 per cent 58

Program evaluation report is a 400 page document and most detailed. Main difficulty to do evaluation was a limited access to information56

(information is not open)

Only rate of implementation has been given in the report. No information is available as to what activities have been undertaken, why it was not fully implemented and how effective financing was etc. (no information available)

3.1.7. Increase legal 55

Evaluation report on Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legal reform program, UB, 2008 The same 57 Evaluation of Government programs as of 31 December , 2005 58 The same 56

171

information, data, primary legal advices, and improve quality and effectiveness of training and awareness works in the countryside. 5.

Mid-term program for setting up one stop shop

Human security research centre and Swiss development cooperation agency are working together on how to make changes to relevant laws and legislation and in order to introduce one stop shop in all districts of Ulaanbaatar and provincial centers in mid-term period.

To transform into one stop shop from multi-phase services as to decrease many kinds of state services to citizens

Target 24: Zero tolerance to corruption in all spheres of the society

Title of national program, implementation period, resolution reference number and major goals National Program to fight against corruption 2002-2010; SGH -2002-41; SGH-200670 To create conditions to fight against corruption in Mongolia and precipitate atmosphere for zero tolerance in the society, prevent corruption on the basis of collective action of state, government,

Targets that are linked to MDG-9

Program financing and inputs

Target 1. create new legal environment for the fight against corruption and prevent it, and ensure the implementation of these laws; Target 2. improve institutional set-up for the fight against corruption;

Rate of program implementation and activities undertaken 91,99 per cent Pursuant to the decree No-25 of Minister for Justice and Home Affairs from 2003 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ad hoc Council to fight corruptionâ&#x20AC;? has been operational. This Council has made recommendations on what activities could involve corruption and list of officials

172

Conclusions

civil society and private sector, and furthermore limit and eliminate causes and conditions for corruption

Target 3. increase public auditing along with press and media, non-government organisations and active support and participation of citizens, and disseminate information on the consequences of corruption to citizens in an orderly manner; Target 4. Speed up reforms of legislative, executive and judicial organs at all levels, and clearly define their roles to fight and prevent corruption and integrate their activities

and given them to other relevant authorities.59

Report on evaluation and monitoring related issues to the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs in â&#x20AC;&#x153;National Program to Fight against Corruptionâ&#x20AC;?, 2008 173

Photo by: Pro-Photo agency

PART II. THE STATE OF DEMOCRACY IN MONGOLIA, 2008

174

II.1. COUNTRY INFORMATION NOTE -II Brief report This section marks the second Country Information Note (CIN), the first one conducted in 2005 and published in 2006. The initial CIN was conducted within the scope of the Follow-up to the Fifth International Conference of New or Restored Democracies (ICNRD-5) project, jointly implemented by the Government of Mongolia and United Nations Development Program. CIN provides country information data, and more importantly an assessment of democratic governance by a pool of experts based on position and experience. Through conducting the second generation CIN, it provides insight as to the direction of democratic governance in Mongolia.

The methodological framework is based on the State of Democracy assessment developed by the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and the democracy assessment questionnaire was modified to reflect the national context. The overall CIN score dropped by 0.02 point, with overall improvements made in Citizenship, Law, and Rights; Representative and Accountable Government; and Civil Society and Popular Participation, though some specific indicators show negative changes. The overall score of Democracy beyond the State has decreased. Table 22. Democratic Governance (Expertsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Assessment) AVERAGE SCORE BY MONGOLIAN EXPERTS, 2005

1. Citizenship, Law and Rights 2. Representative and Accountable Government 3.Civil Society and Popular Participation 4. Democracy beyond the State Overall assessment of democratic governance (Average score based on all 24 questions of the expertsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; survey, calculated by Excel)

AVERAGE SCORE BY MONGOLIAN EXPERTS, 2008

2,8 2,64

3.2 2.8

2,84

2.93

3,8 3,02

3.7 3.0

Methodology The CIN assessment was carried out by key national experts. The assessor would give a score ranging from 1 to 5 points in each category, which are summed as averages. The overall assessment is calculated as the following:

175

1. Calculate an average for each indicator:

Ae – Assessment of expert E1n-Assessment of each expert Esn-Sum of the number of experts

2. The overall assessment result is arrived at by summing up average assessment (Ae) of all experts per each category divided by the number of indicators.

Ae-Overall assessment of democratic governance 1Ie-Expert’s assessment of each indicator Isn-Total number of indicators

The 1 through 5 assessment criteria to evaluate democratic governance indicators is described as the following: 1 point- Situation characterized as most undemocratic. Farreaching, alienation from democracy, close to anti-democratic condition. 2 points- Non-democratic characteristics prevail, alienation from democracy is evident but opportunity to reinstate democracy is not lost. 3 points- Democratic and non-democratic characteristics are fairly proportional and situation could turn either way. 4 points- Democratic characteristics prevail but not fully guaranteed. 5 points- Democratic characteristics are apparent and democracy fully guaranteed.

Experts’ assessment Seven key experts were selected on the basis of the following criteria: Profession, specialization Research/academic experience Party and non-partisan representation Based on the above criteria and past study, the research team selected the experts upon their consent. Two experts were added for gender and party representation balance. The following personalities were included in the experts’ group:

176

1. Prominent scholar, Expert on Human Development and Public Administration, Ph.D., Professor, Political Adviser to the President of Mongolia 2. General Academic Secretary of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Academician 3. Director of the School of Social Sciences of the Mongolian National University, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science 4. Prominent lawyer, expert on human rights, Ph.D. 5. Former Prime Minister of Mongolia, Ph.D. in Economics 6. Former Member of Parliament, currently head of a national civil society organization 7. Former Member of Parliament, Ph.D. in History The state of democratic governance in Mongolia was assessed at the overall score of 3.0 points in 2008. This indicates that there was a slight decrease in the democratic governance development in Mongolia; however, governance in Mongolia is still at its crossroads and can turn either way. All scores are in the following table. 1.

Citizenship, Law and Rights AVERAGE SCORE BY MONGOLIAN EXPERTS 2005 2008

INDICATORS 1. Nationhood and Citizenship Is there public agreement on a common citizenship without discrimination? 2. Rule of Law and Access to Justice Are state and society consistently subject to the law? 3. Civil and Political Rights Are civil and political rights equally guaranteed for all? 4. Economic and Social Rights Are economic and social rights equally guaranteed for all? Average Score for Core Indicators SATELLITE INDICATORS -To what extent equality in civil and socio-economic rights is secured for migrants. -To what extent do effects of social traditions and personal interests support the process of ensuring equality of rights? Average Score for Core and Satellite Indicators

Changes

4.0

4.1

0.1

3.0

3.1

0.1

2.2

3.3

1.1

2.6

3.1

0.5

2.95

3.4

0.45

2.6

3.1

0.5

2.4

2.8

3.2

0.4

2. Representative and Accountable Government INDICATORS 5. Free and fair election Do elections give the people control over governments and their policies? 6. Democratic role of political parties Does the party system assist the working of democracy? 7.Government effectiveness and accountability Is government accountable to the people and their

177

2005

2008

Changes

3.2

2.9

-0.3

2.6

2.9

0.3

2.8

3.1

0.3

representatives? 8. Civilian control of the military and policy Are the military and police forces under civilian control? 9. Minimizing corruption Are public officials free from corruption? Average Score for Core Indicators SATELLITE INDICATORS -To what extent does the composition of the election authority have effect on its independence? -To what extent citizens have opportunity to monitor election process? -How is discipline of parliamentary parties regulated legally? -How far internal democracy within parties is open to the public? -To what extent the capacity of the real economy can serve as resource for resolving problems accumulated in the society? -How stable is public service after elections? -To what extent are the true public servants protected from politics? -Are there mechanisms established for reciprocated oversight of activities between the Parliament and Cabinet, local government self-governing bodies and local administration? Average Score For Core and Satellite Indicators

2.4

3.3

0.9

2.8

2.3

-0.5

2.76

2.9

-0.14

3.0

2.9

-0.1

2.2

2.6

0.4

2.4

2.6

0.4

2.8

2.7

-0.1

2.2

2.9

0.7

2.64

2.8

0.16

3. Civil Society and Popular Participation INDICATORS 10. The media in a democratic society Do the media operate in a way that sustains democratic values? 11. Political participation Is there full citizen participation in the public life? 12. Government responsiveness Is government responsive to the concerns of its citizens? 13. Decentralization Are decisions taken at the level of government which is most appropriate for the people affected? Average Score for Core Indicators SATELLITE INDICATORS -How far media instruments, journalists are protected from falling under hidden influence? -Relationship of the government and citizens, and how far do government, public officials and NGOs provide meaningful support to popular participation? -Are there appropriate relations established between the government, local self-government bodies and local administrations? What is its role in decentralization? Average Score For Core and Satellite Indicators

2005

2008

Changes

3.0

2.9

-0.1

2.8

3.4

0.6

3.3

2.9

-0.4

2.8

3.0

0.2

2.98

3.05

2.4

2.7

0.3

3.0

2.7

-0.3

2.6

2.9

0.3

2.84

2.93

0.09

2005

2008

Changes

3.8

3.7

-0.1

3.02

3.0

-0.02

0.07

4. Democracy Beyond the State INDICATOR 14. International dimensions of democracy Are the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s external relations conducted in accordance with democratic norms, and is it itself free from external subordination? OVERALL SCORE FOR DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE

178

Priority issues of democratic governance Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic and social conditions differed in a number of ways in 2005 and 2008, the years the assessment was undertaken. However, due to commitments of high level experts using common methodology, the results are unbiased. The consolidated assessment results show that indicators for Citizenship, Law, and Rights have increased substantially to 3.2 points, indicators on Representative and Accountable Government slightly increased to 2.8 points, Civil Society and Popular Participation also made slight improvements at 2.93; however, Democracy Beyond the State declined by 0.1 point. With the overall score of democratic governance at 3.0, it is a critical moment where democratic and nondemocratic elements are equally combined in the society. The specific challenges to democratic governance are highlighted below: Governing rights of the public are described in a declarative manner in legislation, election law and legislation are insufficiently developed, and monitoring mechanisms by citizens is not in place. The Parliament lacks research and data for effective policymaking and strategy in legislation. This is due to low demand for research information and overall research-based decision making among Parliament members, coupled with their low experience and skills. All negatively impact the quality of law and implementation. Though sound electoral system is in place where citizens exercise their rights to elect and be elected, activities conducted by political parties impair the system. Electorate registration, flowed registration of migrants during election time, vote duplication, unrealistic promises made during campaigns, and efforts to purchase electorate votes all negatively influence election results and threaten democratic elections. The process of fostering a multi-party system has slowed down; moreover, the reverse is observed. The ability to reform political parties as institutions is declining, contributing to the loss of citizen trust to political parties. Citizens possess limited to low knowledge about political education and coupled with low political culture, citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; view on democratic values is based on lofty ideals and is too general. Thus, democratic institutions and the democratic mechanism for citizens to pressure the government do not function properly. Moreover, the government does not take substantial and systematic actions towards increasing public knowledge and political education on democracy. Measures to reform the public sector were taken, and the civil service law was substantially improved. However, implementation and enforcement is slow, and civil service council is not renewed. Thus, civil service skills remain low and its mechanism has not been streamlined.

179

Citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; right to access information is not secured by the law, and the Law on Information Freedom has remained as a draft for the last three years. Therefore, information disparities among social groups exist in Mongolia. Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s judicial reform is stagnated and judicial organizations are losing its credibility among the public. Judicial operation lacks political independency and abnormal cases remain to exist. Though the Parliament and Citizen Representative Hurals are composed as a result of a democratic election, there is no legislation that regulates electorate opinions being heard or reflected upon. Civil society organizations play an important role in democracy development; however, they are still fragile and in their early stage of development. Goals for strengthening democracy To address these challenges, the following measures should be taken: Ensure realistic power distribution, reflecting on the core concept of the constitution, through legislation. Pass a legislation that will increase citizen participation, as well as allowing citizens to monitor legislation process to influence decision making. Improve the election legal framework and systematically reform its procedure and practice. Strengthen national capacity through improving activities of government and non-governmental organizations working to protect human rights and ensuring freedom. Citizen legal knowledge must also be increased. Secure citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; right to access information through the approval of the Law on Information Freedom. In addition, the legal environment for mass media independency and security should be improved. Implement national programs on citizen education to increase their political and democracy knowledge. Regularly conduct nationwide study on the state of human rights, democratic governance, corruption, and make them accessible to all decision makers and public.

180

II.2. SUMMARY REPORT ON CHANGES IN THE STATE OF DEMOCRACY IN MONGOLIA: 2007-2008 Introduction A report on “Democratic Governance Indicators: Assessing the State of Mongolia’s Governance” was produced in 2006 within the framework of a project which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) jointly carried out to support the implementation of the decisions of the Fifth International Conference of New or Restored Democracies (ICNRD5). One of the recommendations in the said report was on periodic assessments of the state of Mongolia’s democratic governance to be done on a regular basis with their findings duly communicated to decisions-makers and the public at large. With a view to facilitating the realization of this recommendation, the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law of the Academy of Sciences (IPSL/AS) established a project ‘Support to the implementation of Mongolia’s Millennium Development Goal 9” (MDG-9) for 2007-2008, in the wake of its succesful participation in a call for project proposals by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). One of the objectives of the project has been to establish the criteria for MDG-9, analyze the dynamics of Mongolia’s democratic governance processes and evaluate the situation through a periodic assessment. The report “Changes in the state of Mongolia’s democratic governance: 2007-08” presents the findings of this assessment carried out under the said project objective. The report “Changes in the state of Mongolia’s democratic governance: 20072008” uses the methodology applied in the previous assessment of 2005-2006 and aims at identifying the changes that have occured in the past two years. In doing so, it confines itself-owing to time factors-to concentrating on the shifts in the legal sphere and in public perceptions. The main units of analysis for the study have been the Mongolian legislation and the findings of a public opinion poll conducted in the spring of 2008. Based on a research methodology developed in 2005, random sampling has been used to conduct questionnare among 1,020 residents, individual interviews with 22 officials and focus group discussions involving 17 persons in 12 soums of Bulgan, Orhon, Umnugovi, Uvs and Khentii aimags as well as Ulaanbaatar districts. The quantitative and qualitative data were collected in January 2008 and their compilation and analysis were done in February 2008. Methodologically, while taking account of the political and governance dynamics in Mongolia at the time of the assessment, the study relied on the

181

basic concepts and procedures of the 2005-06 survey or, in other words, the Democracy Assessment Framework methodology of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). The Mongolian version of the report provides a measurement of democratic governance using 70 core indicators and another 10 satellite indicators that highlight Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s specifics. The report reflects the findings of an evaluation done by a team of experts who applied the methodology of the 2005-2006 assessment.

182

I. CITIZENSHIP, LAW AND RIGHTS NATIONHOOD AND CITIZENSHIP

Are there standard agreements allowing non-discriminatory resolution of citizenship issues? Are all the residents of a given area granted citizenship and what are the levels of their participation in political life?

Article 15.1 of the Constitution of Mongolia stipulates that â&#x20AC;&#x153;The grounds and procedure for Mongolian nationality, acquisition or loss of citizenship shall be defined only by law.â&#x20AC;? The Law on Citizenship regulates these relations by establishing the grounds for Mongolian nationality and the procedures for citizenship applications and handling of such applications. These legal provisions remained intact in 2007-08. In2007, a total of 25 persons acquired Mongolian citizenship and 96 persons relinquished it. In the same year two Mongolian children were adopted by foreign citizens, while in the first two months of 2008 six children were adopted by families from the Federal Republic of Germany, Republic of Korea, the Netherlands and the USA.60 What is the extent of recognition of cultural differences and protection of minority rights?

Mongolia is a party to around 40 international human rights instruments adopted by the UN and its specialized agencies. 61 Compared to some countries, Mongolia is homogenous in terms of language and culture with the Mongols as an ethnic group accounting for 92.2 percent of the total population.62 Kazakhs, who make up 88.7 percent of the Bayan-Ulgii aimag, form the bulk of the remaining population.63 In the past two years, no special policy has been developed or implemented with regard to the Tsaatan, the mountain taiga dwellers in Huvsgul aimag, who are a distinctive group in terms of their lifestyle and culture. No evidence of discrimination of minorities has surfaced in the course of the survey. What is the level of mutual understanding on the national boundaries and the Constitution?

OINFC bulletin. April 1, 2008. http://www.mnimmigration.mn Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, Second Country Report. Ulaanbaatar, 2007, p 88 62 Mongolia Statistical Yearbook 2006, NSO, Ulaanbaatar, 2007. 63 http://gate1.pmis.gov.mn/bayan-ulgii/ 61

183

Article 4 of the Mongolian Constitution states that “the territorial integrity and frontiers of Mongolia shall be inviolable” and “the frontiers of Mongolia shall be safeguarded by law”. There are no territorial claims or border disputes with the neighboring countries. Citizens of Mongolia accept the concept and basic principles of the Constitution on the whole. In the wake of the 2008 general elections, the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party (MPRP) and the Democratic Party (DP) have signed a cooperation agreement and decided “to start a new phase of legal reform and create conditions for public debate on draft laws”. How well does constitutional and political regulation serve the purposes of resolving social differentiation and conflicts?

The Constitution of Mongolia asserts in Article 14.2 that “No person shall be discriminated against on the basis of ethnic origin, language, race, age, sex, social origin and status, property, occupation and post, religion, opinion or education. Everyone shall have the right to act as a legal person.” The answers to the DGI survey question “In which of social sectors is discrimination at its highest?” singled out the government sector in 2005 with 21 percent of the respondents saying it was “very high”, 22 percent saying it was “average” and 8 percent thinking it was “low”, while in 2008 the first indicator has gone down to 18 percent with the other two having grown to 27 and 10 percent respectively. Perceptions with regard to other sectors show the same trend. Respondents believe that discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, gender, party or tribal affiliation has slightly decreased as against some rise in discrimination on the grounds of differences in income status, positions held or urban and rural divide. How independent, fair and participatory is the procedure for constitutional amendment?

Chapter 6 of the country’s Constitution identifies entities with power to initiate constitutional amendments, procedure for a public referendum on constitutional amendments, quota for the parliamentary vote on the amendment and the procedure for repeat deliberations in the case the amendment fails to pass. It also sets the timeframe for parliamentary deliberations on constitutional amendments dealing with general elections. This part of the Constitution has seen no change. Some analysts hold highly critical view of the amendments to the Constitution made in 2000. Compared to the findings of the 2005 DGI survey, the 2008 survey indicates that the level of public knowledge of the Constitution has increased by 4.8 percent as against the preceding year.

184

THE RULE OF LAW AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE Do the government and sosiety as a whole abide by law? How effectively is the legislation implelemented nationwide?

As of November 2008, the legislation effective in Mongolia comprised 383 laws64 and 299 interrnational multilateral instruments the country has ratified or acceded to65. In the 2008 survey, 47 percent of respondents said that “laws are hardly implemented” and 30 percent believed “laws are generally implemented”. Chart 9. Public Perception of Implementation of Laws66, 2008

■ Well implemented ■Generally implemented ■Hardly implemented ■Not implemented ■Don’t know

Unified Legal Information System http://www.legalinfo.mn/pages/1/page1.php www.mfa.gov.mn 66 Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance: 2007-08” study. Ulaanbaatar, 2008. 65

185

Chart 10. Public Perception of Obstructions to Implementation of Law67, 2008

There are no obstructions Decision-making based on cronyism Corruption, bribery rampant Civil servants violate laws People's education level low Country's territory large Legal education of the public low Old practices still prevail Accountability systems inadequate Overisight of law implementation weak 0

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Weak oversight, breach of law by civil servants, cronyism in decision-making and inadequate accountability systems were highlighted as obstacles to the effective implementation of laws in the 2005 DGI survey. These perceptions are reconfirmed in the 2008 DGI survey with the share of respondents pointing to corruption and bribery having increased from 0.2 to 41 percent. What is the extent of civil servants’ adherence to the rule of law and transparency in the discharge of their functions?

Article 1.2 of Chapter 1 of the Mongolian Constitution states that “The supreme principles of the activities of the State shall be ensurance of democracy, justice, freedom, equality and national unity and respect of law”. The Law on Civil Service sets out basic duties and responsibilities of core civil servants. In May 2008, the State Great Hural (SGH) introduced amendments to this law with its Articles 10.2 and 10.4 edited to read respectively as “ethical standards for civil servants” holding political and special “positions shall be determined by law” and “ethical standards for civil servants” in state administration “shall be determined by the Government based on the proposal by the central civil service body”. Respondents in the survey pointed out that it is difficult to have any issue resolved without support from relatives, party cronies or tribal contacts. In the 2005 DGI survey, 27 percent of the respondents replied “cronyism” ” to the question “What is the biggest obstacle in obtaining employment in the civil 67

ibid.

186

service?“, and in the 2008 DGI survey the share of respondents giving the same reply has grown to 70 percent. How independent are the courts and the judiciary of the executive branch and how immune are they to any third-party influence?

The Constitution of Mongolia and other laws uphold the principle of separation of powers and lay the legal basis for prevention of any interference by governmental or non-governmental organizations and individuals in the workings of the courts and the judiciary, and for independent discharge of functions by courts and judges in adherence with only the Constitution and other laws adopted in compliance with the Constitution. In 2007, the operating budget of the courts reached MNT 5,247,987 thousand, up 42.2 percent from the preceding year. Similarly, their investment capital increased 7.8 times from MNT 100 million in 2006 to 780 million in 2007. In the same year of 2007, a proposal to double the judge salary was approved by the State Great Hural, and their monthly pays now range from MNT 500 thousand to 800 thousand.68 The question “What is the most common impediment in having an issue resolved by a court?” has led 28 percent of the respondents to reply that “nothing happens without personal connections”. How equal and assured for citizens are access to justice, due process, redress of judicial error and compensation of damages?

Amendments were made in 2007 to the Criminal Proceedings Law and in 2008 to the Criminal Law for the purpose of strengthening due process. Citizens name red-tape and costliness, personal connections, slowness and heavy bureaucracy as problems in having issues resolved by courts. In the 2005 survey, 68 percent of respondents believed that officials influenced court decisions, and in the 2008 survey the share of people holding the same opinion increased to 75 percent.

The 2007 Activity Report of the General Council of Courts. http://www.gcc.mn/

187

Table 23. Impediments in Having Issues Resolved by Courts,69 2008 Response Red-tape and costliness Nothing happens without personal connections Slowness Processes and decisions difficult to understand Inability to make fair decisions Harsh interpersonal treatment Tendency to solicit bribes Heavily bureaucratic practices There are no impediments Never turned to courts Don’t know Levying of service fees No reply Total

Number of respondents 127 187

Percentage of respondents 12.3 18.2

54 12

5.2 1.2

42 19 36 72 6 67 35 1 376 1030

4.1 1.8 3.5 7.0 0.6 6.5 3.4 0.1 36.1 100.0

The insufficient execution of court decisions is becoming an issue of growing concern. In 2007, the General Office for Execution of Court Decisions managed to recover MNT 26.1 billion of payments from 12,855 writs of execution as against the MNT 35.8 billion due from 19,855 writs of execution.70 To what extent do criminal proceedings and penalties comply with the principle of equality and fairness for all?

Article 16.13 of the Constitution of Mongolia prescribes that “...No person shall be subjected to torture, inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment. …”. Mongolia joined the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2000. In 2007 the State Great Hural introduced amendments to the Law on the Execution of Court Decisions. As of 31 December 2007, 9,799 inmates served time at 23 detention centres in Mongolia.71 As of March 2008, 38-40 percent of the total inmates had been provided with jobs. At 11 penitentiaries, 6-7 metres tall fences meeting international standards had been erected to improve the inmates’ access to fresh air. The overwheliming majority of detainees is males convicted for theft and mugging. The fact that comprehensive studies either have not been undertaken at penitentiaries afilliated to the General Office for Execution of Court Decisions or the existing partial research is classified as a category of state secret, makes it difficult to realistically appraise the situation. 69

ibid. On the execution of court decisions. www.decision.gov.mn 71 Report of the Office of Prosecutor General, Ulaanbaatar, 2007 70

188

How confident is the public in the fairness and effectiveness of the judiciary?

Responses about courts being subservient to wealth and power (45.4 percent) and influenced by officials (41.2 percent), as well as serving the interests of the state (47.7 percent) prevail in the public perceptions poll conducted under the DGI survey, thus indicating the declining confidence of ordinary citizens in the fairness and effectiveness of the courts. Table 24. Peceptions of Participants in the Survey on Court Activities72 Responses

Fully agree

Somewhat agree

Disagree

Don’t know

No reply

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

Courts give preference to the interests of the state Courts better serve the wealthy and the powerful

24.3

16.9

40.2

47.7

9.3

6.3

24.9

29.1

1.3

0.0

53.2

45.4

30.4

35.7

4.0

6.4

11.7

12.4

0.7

0.0

Courts may sidestep law in order to convict a criminal Officials influence court decisions

12.0

11.5

24.5

30.0

29.1

18.3

33.3

40.2

1.1

0.0

30.7

33.3

37.6

41.2

7.5

6.5

23.6

19.0

0.6

0.0

Court decisions can be manipulated

20.4

20.6

30.4

32.9

20.7

14.0

27.8

32.5

0.7

0.0

Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-08” study. Ulaanbaatar, 2008.

189

CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

Are civil and political rights equally guaranteed for all members of society? How free are people from physical violence and from fear of such violence?

The Mongolian Constitution proclaims that a citizen of the country has a “right to personal liberty and safety. No person shall be searched, arrested, detained, persecuted or deprived of liberty save in accordance with procedures and grounds determined by law. No person shall be subjected to torture, inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment. Where a person is arrested he/she, his/her family and counsel shall be notified within a period of time established by law of the reasons for and grounds of the arrest. Privacy of citizens, their families, correspondence and residence shall be protected by law” (Article 16.13). If in 2005, the share of those who responded positively to the question “Have you been victim of a crime or physical assault?” was 46 percent, in 2008 the corresponding indicator went down to 37 percent. The share of the respondents who said “yes” to the question “Have you been victim of illicit actions of the police?” was 47 percent in 2005 and 43 percent in 2008. In Mongolia, there have been cases where law enforcement officers resorted to use of force, pressure or compulsion to obtain guilty pleas, and illegal conviction. Nearly 90 percent of the cases examined by the investigators from the Prosecutor Offices showed a certain extent of illegal actions in breach of human rights.73 Violence against women. In recent years, forcing of young girls and women into prostitution and their trafficking has been acquiring an increasingly organized form. According to court statistics, in last three years, 1 person in 2005 and another in 2006 were convicted on the grounds of Article 15 of the Criminal Law on forcing minors into prostitution. Estimates by law enforcement bodies count around 1,600 women prostituting in the streets, about 1,000 in foreign countries, about 400 at karaoke bars, and over 200 at sauna/massage salons that is, approximately 2,300 in cumulative number. The Ulaanbaatar Police Public Relations Department reported 93 underage girls under summary proceedings, investigation or on police records in 2005, 156 girls in 2006 and 127 girls in the first 9 months of 2007.74 In 2007-08 the police handled 13 cases, dismissing four of these, putting one on hold and submitting six to the courts. Two cases are still under investigation. Public prosecutors drew up indictments for six cases and turned them over to the courts which ruled that one case was of human trafficking and 73

Report of the Office of Prosecutor General, Ulaanbaatar, 2007. NHRCM, ILO-IPEC: Worst Forms of Child Labour in Mongolia, research report. Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 17. 74

190

the other five of mediation of forced prostitution. Public prosecutors note that the inadequacy of the legislation on witness and victim protection, fear of public opinion and absence of mutual legal assistance agreements with other countries (e.g. Macao, Singapore) result in the refusal to testify or reversal of testimonies by victims and witnesses, as well as stalemates in investigation. Violence against children. According to national statistics, the number of crimes against children, family and public morals reached 384 in 2007, up by 12 percent from 2006. Of these, 92.4 percent â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an increase of 0.9 percent - is related to rape.75 Article 121 of the Criminal Law of Mongolia prohibits forced child labour as a criminal offence and prescribes penalties of up to 4 years of imprisonment. To date, no conviction has ever been made based on this Article. The regulatory framework of the Criminal Law does not include debt bondage or serfdom of children. Meanwhile, the current levels of unemployment and poverty make use of children as means of debt repayment an obvious probability.76 How equal and effective is the exercise of freedoms of movement, expression, association and demonstration?

In 2007-08, there have been no changes in the legislation on citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s freedom of movement, expression and demonstration. Recent years have seen rise in domestic migration. One or more changes of residence were reported by 44 percent of the 2005 DGI survey respondents and 37 percent in the 2008 survey. There have been ocassions of a forceful dispersal of meetings and demontsrations at night time . In 2005-07, one demonstration, one rally and one hunger strike that pressed demands on government agencies or officials had been subjected to forceful stoppage or attempts at such. The desire of the protesters to make their cases in the physical presence of the other side, and the latterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s slowness or refusal to respond to the petitions serve to aggravate conflicts. The protest demonstration of 1 July 2008 following the parliamentary elections resulted in a confrontation between protesters and the police, with hundreds of people injured and private and public property destroyed. Ultimately, an emergency situation was declared during which 5 persons lost their lives.

75 76

Mongolia Statistical Yearbook 2007, NSO, Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 42. NHRCM. Report on the Status of Human Rights and Freedoms in Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar,2008, p 44

191

How well is the freedom to exercise one’s religion and use one’s native language and cultural traditions guaranteed?

The Mongolian Constitution affirms the freedom of conscience and religion (16.15). There have been no changes in the legislation in the past 2 years. As of 2007, a total of 249 temples and monasteries were actively working in Mongolia, showing a 1.6 percent increase on 2006. Of these, 21.7 percent were found in Ulaanbaatar77, 55.4 percent were Buddhist, 35.7 percent Christian and 8.0 percent Islamic, with 0.8 percent accounting for other religions. How free are the individuals and organizations working in the field of human rights from pressure and intimidation?

There are around 150 non-governmental organizations which are registered with the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs (MOJHA) and work in the field of human rights protection.78 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS

Are economic and social rights equally guaranteed for all members of society? Are employment and social protection free of discrimination and equally available to all?

Amendments were made to the Law on Child and Mother Benefits and Financial Aid to the Child, Mother and Family in January 2007, and to the Laws on Social Welfare Benefits, on the Protection of Senior Citizens and on Social Protection of Citizens with Special Development Needs in January 2008. The said changes aim mainly at expanding the types, amounts and coverage of the benefits. Research into the impediments in freely obtaining employment showed that while in 2005, 46 percent of the respondents pointed to cronyism as a major obstacle, 36 percent to the employers’ bias towards person’s age and physical appearance, 19 percent to the lack of employment opportunities at places of residence and 14 percent to discrimination on the grounds of party affiliation, in 2008 these shares increased to 72, 56, 30 and 23 percent respectively.

77 78

Mongolia Statistical Yearbook 2007, NSO, Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 336. MOJHA webpage. http://www.mojha.gov.mn

192

Table 25. Impediments in Obtaining Employment79 Response

2005

2008

Discrimination on the grounds of party affiliation Cronyism Solicitation of bribes Gender discrimination Discrimination of the grounds of age and physical appearance Lack of jobs at places of residence Qualifications do not match the demand There are no impediments Don’t know Other

14.2

22.8

45.6 26.8 10.9 36.2

71.6 40.6 15.9 56.4

19.4 10.8 1.1 1.0

30.0 22.8 71.6 40.6 15.9

Social insurance and social care coverage has expanded. Of the 534.1 thousand people insured as of 2007, 90.3 percent are workers of economic entities and private sector and civil society organizations, and 9.7 percent are those of public sector organizations. The number of people paid pensions from the social insurance fund increased by 292.2 thousand in 2007, up by 0.7 percent or 2.1 thousand persons from 2006. In the total payments made in 2007, retirement pensions accounted for 72.7 percent; special development needs pensions for 12.9 percent, bread-winner loss pensions for 9.1 percent and military retirement pensions for 5.6 percent. Table 26. Evaluation by Respondents in the Survey on Social Insurance and Social Welfare Performance, 200880 Organizations

Very good

Good

Mediocre

Poor

Very poor

Don’t know

Social insurance organizations

2.5

23.4

47.3

7.3

2.6

16.9

Social care organizations

2.4

27.0

42.1

9.7

2.6

16.1

The number of people paid social care benefits reached 1,176.6 thousand in 2007, showing an increase of 12.3 percent on 2006. The number of recipients of child care benefits stood at 22.3 thousand in 2006, having decreased by 22 percent as compared to 2006.

Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008. 80 Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008.

193

Table 27. Levels of Discrimination in the Social Protection Sphere81 Response

Very high

High

Average

Little

None

No reply

Don’t know

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

Social care

9.0

6.4

16.1

12.8

27.1

32.8

15.3

15.7

10.6

10.9

1.2

0.0

21.4

Social insurance

7.4

4.7

13.0

9.9

23.9

30.6

15.9

16.3

15.8

13.4

1.1

0.0

25.1

How effectively is the provision of basic necessities such as foodstuffs, housing, portable water guaranteed?

Access to safe and healthy food is one of the basic needs of the population. In 2006, calory intake per capita stood at 2,818.4 kcal.82 Food accessibility is disparate in the urban and rural areas in a direct relationship to people’s incomes and purchasing power. Control over food quality and safety standards is inadequate. Table 28. Survey Respondents’ Replies to the Question “How Often Do You and Your Family Members Encounter the Following?”83 Responses Have insufficient food Unable to get medical care Unable to get the children to school Polluted environment Unable to find a job Other

Always

Sometimes

Never

Don’t know

No reply

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

5.5

5.3

40.0

42.4

47.1

47.5

5.2

4.8

1.8

0.0

8.9

7.6

46.8

43.6

38.6

42.4

4.0

6.4

1.7

0.0

8.4

5.9

25.7

20.7

57.6

62.7

6.6

10.7

1.7

0.0

29.4

34.7

32.4

27.7

31.5

32.6

5.4

5.0

1.3

0.0

26.6

28.7

36.2

31.7

30.5

31.3

5.2

8.3

1.5

0.0

1.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

0.1

0.0

Currently 50.9 percent of the total households is living in ger districts and the remaining 49.1 percent in apartment houses.84. About 40 percent of town and settlement dwellers and 48 pecent of the Ulaanbaatar population live in houses with water and electricity supply as well as bathrooms. Although 90 percent of town and settlement dwellers have electricity, their houses are not connected to the centralized heating systems and they burn coal and wood for heating and cooking. Many carry their water from wells and some households live as far as 1 km away from these wells, with water usage per capita amounting to 481

ibid. Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. Second Country Report. Ulaanbaatar, 2007, p 20. 83 Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008. 84 The Ministry of construction and urban development data, 2008. 82

194

10 litres a day. The cost of well water in ger districts is 20 times higher than in places with centralized supply systems. Ger district dwellers use outhouses and 70 percent of the households have no garbage dump points.85 How well is health protected in all spheres and levels?

As of 2006, there was 1 doctor per every 361 of the population. In 2007, the number of hospital beds was 70, of doctors 28 and of secondary technical staff 59 per 10,000 of the population. The 2007 preliminary estimates showed that the health care expenditures for the year reached MNT 144.4 mln, which was 1.8 times higher than in 2005 and by 40 percent more than in 2006.86 Mongolia has witnessed a dynamic decrease in infant and under-five child mortality rates in the 16 years since 1990. In 2006, under-five child mortality rate per 1,000 live births decreased 3.7 times and reached 23.2 as compared to 88.8 in 1990, and infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births went down 3.3 times to 19.1 as against 64.4 in 1990. Maternal mortality rate has also seen a steady decline in recent years, from 121.6 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 67.2 in 2006.87 Most of the people with serious health conditions seek medical care abroad, thus incurring high financial costs. Access to health care services remains problematic for migrants as well. According to 20 percent of respondents, the health care system is corrupted by small-time bribery which manifests itself in a variety of forms, with money and gifts to the duty-bearing doctors and nurses being the most practiced by the majority of the clients. Chart 11. Discrimination in Health Sector 88, 2005, 2008 2005 No reply 0 Don't know No discrimination Low Medum

0 1.6 7.2

9.7

12.2 23.3

High Very high

2008

11.4

25.9

25.6

22.3

20.2

Implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. Second Country Report. Ulaanbaatar, 2007, p 70 86 Mongolia Statistical Yearbook 2007, NSO, Ulaanbaatar, 2008, pp 345-348. 87 MOH. “Health indicators -2006”, Ulaanbaatar, 2007. 88 Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008.

195

How broad and inclusive is the right to eduction, including education on citizens rights and duties?

According to the 2000 Population and Housing Census, 97.6 percent of Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population over 15 years of age is literate.89. The 99.1 thousand children that were enrolled in the pre-school educational system in the academic year of 2006-07 showed increase of 10 percent on the period of 2004-05 but were 0.3 percent less as compared to 2005-06.90 School drop-out rate reached 2.2 percent in 2006-07, increasing by 0.6 percent as against 200506.91 The overwhelming majority of secondary general school drop-out students are male. Thus, at the elementary school level boys account for 55-56 percent of drop-out students while at the basic, middle level their share rises to 62-64 percent. What is the level of freedom the trade unions and other professional organizations enjoy in organizing workers and representing their interests?

There is official data confirming that about half of the working age population of Mongolia or 400,000 individuals are members of trade unions and other professional associations. Enforcement of health and safety standards at workplace as required by the legislation is erratic. The largely obsolete and ill-maintained industrial equipment and failures in skilled worker training are causes of various industrial accidents that continue resulting in mental and physical damages to people. How exact and transparent are company statutes and how effectively do company activities respond to public interests?

As of end 2007, the Economic Entity and Business Database counted 55.9 thousand economic entities and organizations, of which 32.1 thousand or 57.4 percent conducted business on a regular basis. Of these entities, 80.1 percent employed up to 9 workers, 8.8. percent from 10 to 19 workers, 7.3 percent from 20 to 49 workers and 3.8 percent had 50 and more people on their payrolls. 92 Foreign investment companies receive licenses in accordance with Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s law and are required to abide by the existing regulations. However, some of the companies give rise to issues of legal non-compliance. Violations of technological procedures, failure to carry out environmental restoration and tax evasion are frequent breaches. 89

Mongolia Statistical Yearbook 2007, NSO, Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 37. MECS Statistics, 2008. 91 MECS Statistics, 2008. 92 Mongolia Statistical Yearbook 2007, NSO, Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 44. 90

196

II. REPRESENTATIVE AND ACCOUNTABLE GOVERNMENT FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS

Do elections provide an opportunity for people to exercise control over government policies? How effectively are universal and pluralistic elections used as a means to change the compositions of the government and the legislature? Do elections result in the change of the ruling party and top political leadership?

In December 2005, amendments were introduced to the Law on the Election of the State Great Hural to establish a system of multiple-member districts and relative majority to form the legisltaure. In Janury 2007, amendments were made to the Local Elections Law. General elections to the State Great Hural were held on 29 June 2008 and to the Aimag, Capital City, Soum and Duureg Hurals of Citizen Representatives on 12 October 2008. Repeat voting was required for some electoral districts in the capital city and two soums owing to less than 50 percent turnout of the registered voters in the initial round. Chart 12. Seat Distribution in the SGH, 2008 Elections 2%

Mongolian People's Revolutionery Party

1% 1%

Democratic Party

36% 60%

Civil will Party Civil Coalition Independent

Is there a broad opportunity for citizens to get registered in the voter lists and what is the level of their participation? How free are citizens from control by government and political parties and from threat and pressure?

The 2008 SGH election voter register counted 1,542,617 voters of which 1,179,448 or 76.46 percent cast their ballots.93

197

For these elections, around 100,000 Mongolian citizens had not been entered in the voter register because of problems with their identification documents, lack of identification documents, lack of residential registration, duplicity of residential registration, or residence abroad. Registration of voters, issuance of voter certificates and counting of votes have become matters of confusion and dispute during the last few elections. These were the issues of contention in many electoral districts and between political parties with regard to the 2008 general elections as well. How fair are the processes of candidate and political party registration? Do they have equal access to the mass media and other channels of communication with voters?

Globe International, a Mongolian non-governmental organisation (NGO), conducted media monitoring for the 2008 SGH elections and produced a report on its findings.94 The report noted that â&#x20AC;&#x153;During the 2008 election, the monitored media outlets also had common misconduct and offences such as unbalanced coverage, dominance of paid coverage and escalating hidden advertisement which were commonly observed during the 2004 parliament election. These include the following: - The principle of balanced coverage was not applied. Examples are given below; - MPRP and DP received the most of the airtime and space in monitored broadcast and print media. Although the two big political parties had similar portions of the election coverage (37% of all the monitored airtime devoted to MPRP and 28%-to DP. 41% of all the monitored spaces devoted to DP and 38%-to MPRP.) The airtime portion shared by other parties and independent candidates was relatively smaller than the portion given to either of the two big political parties. Specifically, 28% of the monitored airtime and 13% of the spaces were devoted to the other parties and independent candidates. - During the election campaign all the candidates did not receive the equal airtime and newspaper space as obligated by the election law. - Independent candidates were least presented on the monitored media outlets.â&#x20AC;?95 Do electoral and party systems give voters an opportunity to make effective choices? How fair is the vote counting? To what extent do the compositions of legislative and executive offices reflect the voter choices?

Replies to the 2008 survey questionnaire reveal that 43.9 percent of the respondents do not know which electoral system suits best Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs. 94

Globe International. Final Monitoring Report for Mass Media Throughout the Parliament Elections of 2008. http://globeinter.org.mn/ 95 ibid., page 37.

198

The share of respondents showing trust in the election comission and its local offices has significantly dropped compared to 2005. Table 29. Assessment by Respondents of the Fairness of the Election Commission and Local Offices96 Response 2005 2008 percentage percentage Fair 50.4 25.4 Not fair 49.6 47.8 Don’t know 0.0 26.8 Total 100.0 100.0 Table 30. What Are the Causes of Unfair Conduct?97, 2008 Response Number of Percentage of respondents98 responses Unable to avoid party control 200 20.0 Members of election commission, local 178 17.8 offices are prone to corruption Unable to produce accurate voter lists 150 15.0 Election committee, local office 144 14.4 members unable to do peer monitoring Influenced by government officials 166 16.6 Weak public control 152 15.2 Don’t know 33 3.3 Other 4 0.4 To what extent does the legislature reflect the social setup of the voting population?

The SGH total membership counts 76 persons. The General Election Commission (GEC) presented an agenda item on the recognition of full powers of 66 newly elected members at the first session of the SGH of fifth convocation on 23 July 2008. Of these 66 SGH members “65 have higher education and 1 has secondary special education. Women account for 2 or 3.0 percent of the total members. The youngest SGH member is 33 years old and the senior-most is 67. Of them, 6 or 9.09 percent are lawyers, 13 or 19.70 percent economists, 27 or 40.91 percent engineers, 5 or 7.57 percent teachers, 3 or 4.54 percent medical doctors, 12 or 18.18 percent are people of other occupations. There are 17 persons with academic degrees. Of these SGH members, 50 were employed with government agencies, 8 with political as well as non-

Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008. 97 ibid. 98 ibid., cumulative number.

199

governmental organizations and higher educational establishments, and 8 with private businesses.”99 To what extent do the political forces in the country and outside it recognize the returns of the elections?

The 2008 SGH elections involved around 80 observers and 30 journalists from foreign countries.100 For instance, at the invitation of the Government and GEC of Mongolia, a 16-strong team of representatives of electoral and government offices, civil society and parliament from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Timor Leste, South Korea and USA observed the election processes on 29 June 2008 under the auspices of the Asia-Pacific Democracy Partnership (APDP). They pointed out in the Preliminary Statement of Findings that “In all parts of Ulaanbaatar, as well as in the four outlying Aimags where APDP observers were present, voting stations opened and closed on time, and though turnout was consistently high throughout the day, the voting stations were generally well organized, orderly and efficiently managed. Voters appeared to be confident and disciplined throughout the Election Day, and seemed to have little difficulty understanding the ballot or the requirements of the new, multi-mandate voting system. Observers were sensitive to concerns expressed regarding the accuracy of the voter registration lists, and believe that the voter registration and identification process should be reviewed and improved prior to the next election. However, they did not find evidence to suggest that problems associated with the lists had either been exploited in a systematic manner, or that they had resulted in the disenfranchisement of a significant number of voters.”101 The Civic Movement Party and the Republican Party viewed the elections results as rigged and organized a mass rally in Ulaanbaatar on 1 July 2008. The situation ended up in public disorder and a declaration by the President of the country of an emergency situation in the capital city.

Report by D.Battulga, Chair of the General Election Committee, on the final results of the 2008 SGH elections and on the recognition of full powers of the newly elected SGH members. http://www.parliament.mn 100 http://www.mongolianembassy.us/mon_news_and_events/news2008.07.23.php 101 APDP. Preliminary Statement of Findings. Election observation of the June 29, 2008 Parliamentary Elections, Mongolia. http://www.ambassademongolie.fr/Imprimer/133.html

200

DEMOCRATIC ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES Does the political party system support the democratic process? What is the extent of the freedom to organize a political party, enlist party members and conduct election campaigns?

The legislation on the establishment and registration of a political party, suspension of its activities, its dissolution and other matters pertaining to party structure and activities has not seen any changes in the period of 200608. As of 2008, there are 18 political parties registered with the Mongolia’s Supreme Court. How effective is the political party system with regard to forming and supporting the Government?

In the wake of the 2004 elections, a coalition government was formed owing to the fact that none of the political parties was able to secure a majority in the parliament. In the following period the Cabinet was dissolved twice as a matter of “political solution”. Albeit the Mongolian People’s Revolutuonary Party (MPRP) won the majority seats in the 2008 SGH elections, it carried out its Party Conference decision and formed a unity government together with the Democratic Party. How free are the opposition and participating parties in the legislature in matters of organizing and conducting their activities? How effectively do they participate in the process of overseeing government activities?

The organization, powers and activities of party and party coalition factions in the SGH are regulated by Articles 26-28 of the Law on the State Great Hural. Following the 2004 elections, some of the Democratic Party members in the legislature joined the MPRP faction. As a result of the 2008 elections, the MPRP and the Democratic Party have joined in a coalition government. How fair and effective is the regulation of the discipline of parliamentary parties?

The Constitution of Mongolia states that “A member of the State Great Hural shall be an envoy of the people and shall represent and uphold the interests of all the citizens and the State.” (23.1). The organization and rights and duties of parliamentary parties are determined by the Law of the State Great Hural. Party and party coalition factions have duties to ensure “participation of their members in plenary and standing committee sessions, meeting quorums and strict compliance by their

201

members with meeting procedures” (27.1.8). There are no legal provisions dealing with issues of compliance by SGH members with their party discipline. How active are rank-and-file party members and what is the extent of their influence on the formation of party policies and selection of party candidates to the legislature?

A political party’s own statutes govern the procedures for party decisionmaking and candidate selection. The mass media carry plentiful criticism of the state of intra-party democracy and insufficient participation of rank-and-file members. However, reliable data is harldy available because of the absence of any in-depth study into this subject matter. How well is the party financing protected from the influence of private interest?

The Law on Political Party prescribes that “the central party organ shall produce an integrated financial report on the basis of financial reports by its affiliated organizations” (20.2) and “a political party shall have annual audits of its activities and report the findings to the public” (20.3). These provisions, however, are not being complied with. To this date, no political party has done and reported a financial audit of its activities. How successful are political parties in dealing with issues of ethnicity, religion and language?

So far, Mongolia has not been subject to serious conflicts caused by ethnicity, religion or language. Therefore, this issue has not been a matter of grave concern to political parties.

202

GOVERNMENT RESPONSIVENESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY How accountable is the government to the people and their representatives?

How able is the newly formed government in identifying and addressing primary issues of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wellbeing? Does the government have sufficient resources and information as well as adequate organization to do so?

The relatively high economic growth rates of Mongolia have not been coupled with effective decrease in the poverty rates which stood at 32.2 percent in 2006. Inflation rates showed a significant rise in 2007-08. As of end September 2007, the consumer price index increased by 13.1 percent compared to the same period of the preceding year. In September 2008, the consumer goods and services price index had increased nationwide by 24.6 and 32.2 percent as against the end-year indicators for 2007 and 2006 respectively.102 Chart 13. Governance Matters VII, Mongolia,

102

NSO. Soico-economic status of Mongolia (as of first 9 months of 2008). http://www.nso.mn/v1/index.php

203

The SGH was not able to introduce amendments to the Law on Minerals in 2007-2008 and no progress has been made towards the development of some large-scale mineral deposits. The commencement of financial crises in many countries around the world and the drop in world copper prices are expected to have negative impact on Mongolia’s budget and socio-economic situation in 2009. What is the extent of the trust people have in the impact of government activities and in the political leadership?

The 2008 survey shows that 58.1 percent of respondents have trust in the President, 46.2 percent in the Government and 35 percent in the SGH. People have the least trust in political parties which is evident from the replies of 66.4 percent of respondents who said they did not belive political parties. Table 31. Level of Trust in Political and Other Institutions103, 2008 Generally Hardly Do not Institution Fully trust trust trust trust Presidency Government State Great Hural Judiciary Political parties Civil society organizations Police Local administrations National dailies Yellow press Public Television Private Television National Television FM stations, radio

Don’t know

10.2 5.8 4.3 2.9 1.5 3.6

47.9 40.4 30.7 32.0 18.5 26.7

23.6 33.1 40.5 31.9 42.4 33.2

9.4 11.0 15.0 14.5 24.0 12.7

8.9 9.7 9.6 18.6 13.6 23.8

2.9 3.9 5.0 2.6 16.8 10.5 17.9 5.1

33.6 41.3 44.6 22.6 60.1 50.6 54.1 33.4

37.9 31.5 26.9 38.3 10.4 21.1 10.8 29.7

14.4 8.6 9.9 20.6 3.9 5.2 4.0 8.9

11.3 14.8 13.7 15.8 8.8 12.6 13.3 22.8

How effective and transparent is the oversight by political appointees and ministers of the administrative apparatus and other organizations with executive powers?

In May 2008, the Law on Civil Service was amended by the SGH to impose suspension of political party membership for civil servants in state administration and state services. This provision is to come into effect on 1 January 2009. As of 1 January 2007, Mongolia’s civil service counted 128,088 people of which 46,348 or 36 percent were working at the level of central government and 103

Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008.

204

81,740 or 64 percent in local government organizations. Of the total government workforce, 2,727 people or 2 percent held political appointments, 9,940 or 8 percent civil service positions in state administration, 24,105 or 19 percent special civil service positions, 91,316 or 71 percent held civil service positions in state services.104 The amendments of May 2008 to the aforementioned law changed the status of bagh and khoroo governors from political appointees to executive civil servants, thereby drastically reducing the number and share of political appointment positions. Women account for 60 percent of civil servants and men for 40 percent. Table 32. Share of Women and Men in the Civil Service105 Categories of civil service positions Political Executive Special Administrative Total

Total

Women Number

2727 9940 24105 91316 128,088

590 5329 5455 65445 76,819

Men

Percentage 21.6 53.6 22.6 71.7 60.0

Number

Percentage

2137 4611 18650 25871 51,269

78 46 77 28 40

According to 28.3 percent of the 2008 survey respondents, political party influence permeates all levels of the civil service. How broad and effective are the powers of the legislature to initiate legislation, monitor its implementation and amend laws?

In the past two years, there have been no changes of significance in the relevant legal environment and the status of implementation of laws. How broad and effective is the power of the legislature to exercise oversight of the executive branch and enforce its accountability?

The Constitution of Mongolia sets out the basic standards of the relationship between legislative and executive branches of state power, which are further elaborated in the Laws on the SGH and the Government. These laws give the SGH the power to appoint and dismiss the head and members of the Government and obligate the Government to report its activities to the SGH. How precise is the procedure for the adoption of tax and budget laws and for monitoring their implementation?

The period of 2007-08 has not seen any major changes in the legal environment and in the state of implementation of relevant laws. 104

Civil Service Council . Overview of Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Civil Service. Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 33. http://gate1.pmis.gov.mn/gsc/ispages/isfile/pdf/profilemap-mongol.pdf 105 Ibid, p 36

205

How comprehensive and effective is the legislation that gives citizens the right to obtain information on government decisions and activities?

Making accurate information available to the public is one of the core indicators of a transparent governance. The right of the public to information is specified in Section 17 of Article 16 of Mongolia’s Constitution as follows “to seek and receive information except that which the State and its bodies are legally bound to protect as secret”. Globe International, a Mongolian NGO, undertook a study into the real posibility for ordinary citizens to obtain reliable information from state agencies and disseminated a report on its findings. This report concluded that “the findings of the study have revealed that the right of ordinary citizens to obtain information is extremely limited.106 CIVILIAN CONTROL OF POLICE AND MILITARY Are armed forces and police subject to public oversight? How effective is public oversight of the armed forces? How free is political life of involvement by the military?

Information related to armed forces is closed to the public which impedes oversight by the public at large and civil society organizations of their activities. Similarly, no systematic efforts have been undertaken in recent years to strengthen such oversight and ensure transparency of the military. Is oversight of the police and special agencies open to participation by the public?

The legislation on state secret does not specify which type of information should not be classified. Most of the information concerning the workings of special state agencies is treated as secret information and therefore is inaccessible to the public. This atmosphere of secrecy is reinforced by the lingering interest of state agencies and government officials to conceal information which they deem important but which technically is not secret.

106

The Globe International: “Public’s right to receive information” http://www.globeinter.org.mn/images/upld/1189333442reportm-last.pdf

206

Table 33 Police Performance Assessment by Respondents in the Police Activities Survey107, 2008 Police departments

Very good

Good

Mediocre

Bad

Very bad

Traffic police Criminal police Patrol police Investigator felony/misdemeanor

2.7 1.7 2.3 1.8

17.2 12.3 13.3 11.9

42.5 46.8 43.3 41.4

18.4 17.4 19.7 17.2

7.9 6.6 8.4 8.3

Don’t know 11.3 15.1 12.9 19.4

How well do the structure and organization of military, police and security organizations reflect social structure?

The Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law of the Academy of Sciences conducted in 2008 a survey on the “Present state of police activities and directions for their improvement”. Respondents who were asked to evaluate police staffers with a 5-point scoring system for several performance indicators, showed least appreciation (2.4 points) for police officers’ interpersonal skills and for two other indicators of compliance with the law and fair and ethical conduct, both scoring 2.8 points. However, 28.4 percent of respondents thought that police staffers’ educational levels were good, and 32.1 percent respondents appraised their professional skills also as good.108 The survey thus showed that there is a significant number of police officers who are educationally and professionally fit but fail to be fair in line with the law and lack service-orientation. How free is the country of pressure by armed groups, informal militarized groupings and militarists as well as activities of mafia groups?

There is no data on the existence of organized armed and militarized groups in Mongolia.

107

Percentage of respondents in the said survey. IPSL/AS. Sociological survey “Present state of police activiites and directions for their improvement”, Ulaanbaatar, 2008. 108

207

MINIMIZING CORRUPTION Are government officials prone to corruption? How effective are the mechanisms that protect civil service performance from individual civil servant’s political, private business and family interests?

The Anti-Corruption Law prescribes procedures for disclosure by public sector officials of their assets and incomes, registration, maintenance and verification of these assets and income statements, accountability for mispresentation and public accessibility of the statements. The study done by the Management Academy in 2008 on “Civil servant’s conflict of interest and ways to resolve it” shows that respondents believe that conflict of interest has gained ground in Mongolia and there is a tendency of its proliferation Table 34. Where Do You Think Conflict of Interest is Most Likely to Reveal Itself at Its Fullest?109 Content of information

High

Medium

Low 6.7% 6.9% 26.0% 26.2% 29.4%

Don’t know 5.6% 4.4% 9.8% 9.7% 13.4%

Number of respondents 808 800 782 755 748

Recruitment Promotion Performance assessment Recognition and award Holding accountable for work results Provision of information Distribution of profit and income Enrolment in domestic and international training Distribution of work supplies Supporting a project through corporate policy Supporting employee in having dual jobs Penalization (fines, other payments) Awarding tenders, contracts Issuance or removal of licenses Tax imposition Goods and services procurement for the organization Management of public assets Accountability processes Inspection, monitoring Conduct of private business that directly relates to the civil service job

63.1% 61.9% 21.9% 25.6% 17.4%

24.6% 26.9% 42.3% 38.5% 39.8%

11.0% 43.1% 54.0%

27.1% 29,7% 25.5%

37.1% 13.4% 10.4%

24.9% 13.7% 10.1%

720 751 770

23.8% 14.4%

38.2% 39.9%

24.5% 28.7%

13.5% 17.0%

743 736

12.2%

29.8%

31.7%

26.2%

728

26.6% 69.0% 65.4% 31.8% 23.7%

31.8% 17.7% 21.0% 36.4% 36.1%

25.0% 6.6% 7.5% 20.0% 23.5%

16.6% 6.6% 6.1% 11.8% 16.7%

733 767 765 745 737

33.9% 20.8% 26.9% 37.6%

34.9% 35.5% 36.7% 31.8%

16.0% 28.0% 23.7% 14.8%

15.2% 15.7% 12.7% 15.8%

744 726 733 735

109

Academy of Management. “Civil servant’s conflict of interest and ways to resolve it”. Survey report. Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 50.

208

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) of Mongolia has conducted the collection of civil servantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; assets and income statements second time to date. The law obligates a civil servant to provide correct information on his/her assets and income. Meanwhile, cases of delayed or misrepresented reporting abound. A bi-annual Corruption Benchmarking Survey conducted by the Asia Foundation (TAF), a US non-profit organization, was undertaken for the sixth time in Mongolia in September 2008. The survey has been carried out for the third year now and it shows that respondents consider the Land Management Agency to be the most corrupt of all government agencies.110 Chart 14. Public Perception of the Most Corrupt Sector 111 March 2008 Land management

4.25

Mining sector

4.11

Customs office

4.09

Licensing services

3.86

Judiciary

3.85

Police

3.82

Political parties

3.79

Public Prosecutor

3.78

Parliament

3.68

Health care system

3.63 September 2008

Land management

4.13

Mining sector

3.88

Customs office

3.85

Judiciary

3.77

Public Prosecutor

3.69

Political parties

3.69

Police 3.52

Health care system

3.52

Lawyers

110 111

3.62

Local administrations

3.51

TAF. Mongolia Corrupiton Benchmarking Survey. September 2008. ibid.

209

How relevant and effective are the measures aimed at protecting civil servants and citizens from corruption and bribery?

Amendments introduced by the SGH to the Criminal Proceedings Law (26.2) on 1 February 2008, give the Anti-Corruption Agency power to investigate misdemeanor cases of abuse by government officials of the power or authority inherent in the organization or their positions, abuse of authority by officials of non-governmental organizations or economic entities, mediation in acceptance of bribe and misuse of public resources. The Anti-Corruption Agency was established in January 2007, with its organizational structure, staff and finances securely in place. The AntiCorruption Law has a provision that says the Agency budget shall be approved at levels no lower than in the preceding year. In connection with the established legal basis for investigative powers of the Agency, its budget for 2007 was increased to around MNT 2 billion.112 In 2007, the ACAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Investigation Department looked into 86 criminal cases falling under its jurisdiction. How well do the mechanisms regulating campaign finance and financing of candidates and newly elected representatives protect them from parochial group interests?

The opportunity to analyze the implementation of legal provisions concerning campaign finance was limited owing to the fact that official data on the 2008 campaign finance was yet to be released and relevant information was lacking during the preparation of this report. At the time, the mass media was reporting illegal actions such as hand-out of money and other gifts to voters. How effectively is the issue of preventing unlawful influence by big corporations and commercial interest groups on public policy and decision making being addressed? How effective is the fight against corporate corruption including international bribery?

The scope of ACA activities encompasses all spheres and actors in social life. There is an urgent need to start in-depth study of the state of corruption in the private sector and levels of private businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; influence on public decisionmaking. The conflict of interest in both public and private sector in connection with the development of large-scale mineral deposits is apparent. However, research and other reliable data and information in this regard are lacking. 112

International practice is that of allocating no less than 0.1 percent of the national budget to fighting corruption. For example, a report by Tony Kwok, former Deputy Commissioner of the Hongkong Independent Commission Against Corruption, mentions Hongkongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 0.3-0.4 percent. The 0.01 percent of the budget allocated currently in Mongolia is insufficient.

210

How confident is the public in the integrity of government officials and agencies delivering public services?

In 2008, the Corruption Perceptions Index produced annually by the Transparency International, gave a score of 3.0 to Mongolia and placed her 102nd among the 180 surveyed countries.113 According to the survey on the Changes in the State of Mongolia’s Democratic Governance in 2008, 78.6 percent respondents believe corruption is rampant in Mongolia whereas 19 percent thinks corruption is infrequent and less than 2 percent sees it as nearly non-existent. About 7 percent of the respondents said they gave bribes to public agency officers and 6 percent to workers in the services sector. Those respondents that happened to give bribes identified the amounts as follows: in the health care sector MNT50,000, for recruitment MNT50,001100,000, to avoid taxes in importing or exporting goods MNT1-1.5 mln and to obtain various licenses MNT10 mln and more. Table 35. Levels of Corruption in the Mongolian Society?114 2008 Organization, sector SGH Government Ministries, agencies Local administrations Non-governmental organizations Culture and sports Mass media Other

Very high

High

Medium

Low

None

28.8 26.6 25.7 19.2 12.5

31.2 32.2 29.9 28.7 14.0

16.0 17.1 18.7 26.0 24.3

2.0 1.9 2.4 5.4 11.3

1.8 1.8 1.5 1.9 4.4

Don’t know 20.1 20.3 21.7 18.6 33.6

8.9 8.2 1.1

9.4 11.0 0.2

21.0 21.8 0.2

16.4 15.3 0.0

6.7 6.2 0.0

37.6 37.5 0.0

113

http://www.transparency.org/ Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the State of Democratic Governance: 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008. 114

211

III. CIVIL SOCIETY AND POPULAR PARTICIPATION MEDIA IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY Do the activities of the mass media support democratic values? How independent are the mass media from the government? How diverse is their affiliation? Are they being able to withstand pressure from foreign governments and multinational corporations?

The legislation providing for mass media independence saw no major changes in the period of 2006-08. Although the work on drafting a freedom of information law and putting the draft to public debate started about two years ago, it has not been able to make it to the parliament floor. Certain changes have taken place in the forms and diversity of the mass media ownership. Unfortunately, the relevant official data contains significant controversies. According to the MOJHA statistics, as of 2008 there were 151 operating mass media of which 72 were magazines, 10 TV companies and 69 newspapers.115 Meanwhile, a report published by the National Human Rights Commission in 2008 mentions 1,680 newspapers, 55 magazines and 237 radio and TV companies. 116 In the period from October 2005 to October 2006, Globe International monitored and documented violations of the freedom of individual journalists in retaliation to their publications. During this time, there were 16 criminal cases opened against journalists as well as cases of threat, attempted bribery, beating and rape of a female journalist.117 According to the rating by the international organization Reporters Without Borders118, in 2007 Mongolia placed 74th among 169 countries with a freedom of press index of 23.119 Table 36. Ability of Survey Respondents to Obtain Timely Information from Government Agencies120 Response Yes, obtained easily Obtained after search and inquiries Have not been able to obtain Have no need to obtain information No reply Total 115

2005

2008

25.9 23.5 27.4 22.5 0.7 100.0

15.4 32.7 33.7 18.2 0.0 100.0

www.pmis.gov.mn MOJHA website. The 2007 Activity Report, p.2. NHRCM. Report on the State of Human Rights and Freedoms in Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar 2008, p.33 117 NHRCM. Report on the State of Human Rights and Freedoms in Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar 2008, p.30 118 Reporters Without Borders 119 http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19388 120 Percentage of respondents in the sociological survey done within the framework of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-2008â&#x20AC;? study, Ulaanbaatar,2008. 116

212

The findings of the sociological research under the survey on the “Changes in the state of democratic governance: 2007-08” show that the possibility to obtain information on government agencies has decreased with regard to official sources and, conversely, increased in terms of the mass media coverage. How capable are the mass media to represent pluralism of views and how open and accessible are they to various social strata?

The mass media today meets the requirements of the pluralistic media and are accessible, to the extent of their possibilities, to various social groups. With the introduction of modern information technology alongside the growing radio, television and print media, last two years have witnessed a sharp rise in the number of web-based and other types of information media as well as their users in Mongolia.121 All those web pages and blogs are contributing to the expansion of the opportunity to freely access and share information. Research data show that the level of the public’s trust in the mass media remains as high as in the past.122 Table 37. Level of Trust Shown by Respondents in Various Mass Media123, 2008 Response Public TV Private TV Dailies Yellow press Internet sources Word of mouth

Fully trust 37,0 16,8 13,3 4,6 9,1 3,1

Generally trust 56,8 63,6 60,4 30,8 44,1 26,7

Generally do not trust 5,0 16,1 21,3 53,5 30,1 49,2

Completely distrust 1,2 3,3 4,8 10,9 14,1 19,9

No reply 0,1 0,1 0,2 0,2 2,5 1,0

Don’t know 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1 0,1

How effective are the mass media and other independent organizations and entities work in investigating government and corporate activities?

Legal environment is not in place for investigative journalism. Media carry information on the government and large corporations to the extent reporter’s access it but its verification and validation are oftentimes beyond their capacity. Reporting based on hearsay, talk of the town and assumptions has gained ground in the mass media.

121

Information portal webpages www.olloo.mn; and www.news.mn; show 10-15 thousand hits per day. 122 Percentage of respondents in the sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008. 123 Percentage of respondents in the sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance. 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008.

213

What is the extent of legal limitations on journalist activities and how well are reporters protected from harassment, threat and pressure?

Legal environment conducive to reporter’s freedom from harassment, threat and pressure is yet to materialize. A draft law on freedom of information was developed in 2008 but the SGH is delaying its consideration to take it up together with the information security and information technology bills. There are no legal limitations on reporter’s professional activities but in real life the treatment of journalists by officials creates quite a few problems. How well are citizens protected from the encroachment by the media on their privacy?

There are provisions in Criminal and Civil Laws that prohibit the mass media from violating privacy of individuals. However, in reality these provisions serve more as mechanisms to wrong journalists rather than protect citizens. Reporting on private affairs targets mainly public personages and is done for publicity and marketing purposes. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION What is the extent of people’s participation in social life? What is the number of voluntary associations and how independent are these of government control?

As of April 2007, there were 6,283 non-governmental organizations registered with the NGO Registration Department of the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs.124 The percentage of survey respondents who found NGO activities to be mediocre was 35 in 2005 and 34 in 2008. Non-governmental organizations have an opportunity to be independent of state interference. The financial capacity of these organizations is weak and they operate mostly with the support of donor agencies. How broad is citizen participation in voluntary associations, self-governing organizations and other types of civic initiative?

In 2005, 17 percent of respondents in the sociological survey done within the framework of the DGI study replied they were NGO members whereas in 2008 the indicator stands at 7 percent of respondents who say they belong to this NGO or another. The reasons and goals of people’s participation in NGO 124

http://www.owc.org.mn/index.php?sel=news&f=one&n_id=268

214

activities show a wide spread. For example, if viewed from the perspective of population strata, the needy participate in an activitity with an expectation to get some free hand-outs while those from better-off, middle-income population groups get involved to have their rights protected and to express their civic positions on issues. Table 38. Respondents on their NGO affiliation 125 Response Not a member of NGO No reply Don’t know Total

2005

2008

81.9

85.2

1.0 0.0 100.0

4.4 2.9 100.0

What is women’s participation in political life and government activities of all levels?

SGH Resolution 13 of 31 January 2008 on Revised MDG indicators approved, in an annex, the goal of achieving a 30 percent women’s representation at the political decision-making level by year 2015. A 2007 amendment to the Law on SGH Elections which spelled out a 30 percent quota for women among election nominees had been approved and then annulled before it had a chance of being applied. As of the first quarter of 2008, there were 5 women in the SGH and 2 women in the Cabinet. After the June 2008 elections there are 3 women in the SGH and 2 female Cabinet members. The share of women is relatively high among lowerand mid-level decision-makers and also in the government’s public services organizations. Do all social groups enjoy the right to employment in civil service and what is the level of their representation in civil service?

A new version of the Law on Civil Service was approved in 2007, srengthening the opportunity for all citizens to compete for civil service jobs on the basis of established rules and procedures and free of any kind of discrimination. Thus, civil service is accessible to all from policy and legal perspectives. There are rules and procedures for civil service recruitment and it is the application of these that results in no small breaches and corruption An annual civil service inventory was instituted in 2007 but information on these is not publicly available.

125

ibid.

215

GOVERNMENT RESPONSIVENESS How responsive is the government to the issues of high concern to the public? How inclusive and regular are public consultations in the course of policy- and law-making? Is the opportunity to bring an issue to the attention of the government and to be heard equal for all?

So far, there is no legislation that provides a clear framework for public consultations in the process of making policies and laws. Information and research data on the reflection of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s views in newly approved or amended laws are still insufficient and are not to be found in the bulletins released by the parliament and Cabinet secretariats. SGH members meet with their constituencies during and in-between parliament sessions to hear peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voices but there is no reporting on which suggestions have made it to which laws. How accessible are elected representatives to their constituencies?

SGH member is provided with an opportunity to visit his/her constituency and also to communicate with voters through his/her assistant and personal representative. As for members of aimag, capital city and soum Citizens Representatives Hurals, they live and work in their constituencies but information and research data on their interaction with constituencies is not readily available. Many a voter have never met with their elected representatives. An analysis of annual reports by SGH and local hural members reveals that a member visits his/her constituency from 1 to 2 times a year and meets with an average of 84 voters126. How accessible and well delivered are government services to the recipients, and are the recipients regularly consulted with on the services they need?

The government has made efforts to ensure the delivery of its services to those in need. There are grounds to say that recent years have seen certain improvement in the scope and availability of social welfare services. Open-door-day activities undertaken by government agencies show a tendency towards becoming a regular means of public outreach. New forms such as egovernance and one-stop service centres are also being experimented with. Alongside this, one can hear public criticism that these activities sometimes end up as one-off shows and publicity stunts. 126

http://www.gec.gov.mn/

216

How confident are people in the ability of the government to deal with pressing social issues and in their own ability to influence government decision-mking?

Research findings repeatedly evince that a trend of the past years has been that of a decline of public trust in governance institutions and political parties. For instance, the IPSL/ASc undertook in 2007 a public opinion survey on the effectiveness of government activities with 54.8 percent of respondents not showing particular trust in government. In evaluating government activities, they gave 2.91 points or a “mediocre” rating.127 Chart 15. Issues That Government Needs to Address128 Unemployment

70.0%

Alcoholism

60.0%

Health services

50.0%

Increase the salary and pension

40.0%

Poverty

30.0%

Corruption and Bureacracy of the Public Servants Local accomplishment

20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 2005

2006

2007

Legal implementation and advocacy Support the households and agriculture

Studies of recent years confirm that people believe that unemployment and poverty reduction, job generation, elimination of corruption, ensuring social stability, improving economic growth, establishing justice and accountability are primary social concerns. The studies also show that there is an expectation among people that the government should take main responsibility for the resolution of these issues and a certain trust in its ability to do so. DECENTRALIZATION Does the level at which government decision is made meet people’s expectations? How independent are government agencies at local levels from the central government? How sufficient are their powers and resources to duly discharge their functions?

127

IPSL/ASc. Government Activities and Public Appreciation. Sociological study report. Ulaanbaatar, 2007. p 29. 128 ibid. p 27.

217

Research findings indicate high levels of centralization in budgetary processes and inadequate financial decision-making power at the local level to address local issues. According to the 2005 survey undertaken within the framework of the DGI development project and the 2008 DGI survey, 9 and 78 percent of respondents respectively thought that the state of local finances was “mediocre” or “bad”129. The current taxation system syphons most of the taxes directly to the central budget, leaving only water and firearms user fees and the like for collection to local budgets. As a result, local budget revenues are insignificant. There is almost no citizen participation in local budget planning and the major budget items as approved in the packages managed by line ministers as well as the tight control as exercised through the Treasury Single Account according to the tax law, bind the local administrations to strictly abide by the purposes initially set for budgetary expenditures. How well do the local bodies of state power meet the criteria of being formed as a result of free and fair elections, transparency and accountability to the public?

The local elective bodies of state power and their officials are accountable and report to their electorates as prescribed by law. However, findings of public opinions surveys reveal that these procedures, albeit formally in place, do not always meet the expectations of the voters. Most citizens are dissatisfied with the levels of openness and transparency in the activities of bodies of local self-governance and executive branch. Duties of the bodies of local sef-governance, or hurals of all levels that is, hardly go beyond meeting once or twice a year to pass budgets, hear reports of relevant governors and approve some plans or programs. Because of lack of funds, the presiding members of these hurals have limited possibility to actively work to promote the implementation of the decisions taken. Citizens representatives of all levels are similarly subject to financial and decision-making constraints and the absence of a performance appraisal and reward mechanism results in their failure to show any activitsm save participation in assembly sessions. How broad is the cooperation of local bodies of self-governance and executive power with voluntary associations, population groups and other civil society partners in policy making and service delivery?

Partnerships at the local level prove to be ineffective owing, on the one hand, to the negligence displayed by the bodies of local self-governance and executive 129

The said evaluation by respondents in the sociological survey conducted under the 2007-08 study into the state of democratic governance could have been influenced by the lack of information on the local budgetary processes and non-transparency of local public finances.

218

power in obtaining inputs by civil society organisations to policies and decisions in the making, and, on the other hand, to the propensity of civil society organizations to table general and ill-substantiated demands and claims instead of proposing well-researched and constructive initiatives and solutions. Civil society as such is underdeveloped at local levels and only chapters of larger national civil society organizations undertake sporadic activities in aimags and soums. Contrary to this, the many many civil society organizations based and operating in the capital city could be described as more proactive in their efforts to establish partner relations with the city Hural and Governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office and to participate in service delivery. Chart 16. Citizen Participation in the Decision-Making Process 130 Others

42 28

Participation in the local election

Assiated to the participation for the NGOs Expressing and giving the requests for the local administrations of the Local Citizens Hural Expressing the views on the draft of the bill and other resolution on the Parliament discussion

permanent

sometimes

130

no participation

36 54 62

Participation in the public referndum Exchanging views with Members of Parliament

18 40

Participation in the election of Parliament

70 36

47 63

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Press Institute of Mongolia, Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Parliamentary Journalism and Journalist Responsibility. Research report. Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 12.

219

IV. DEMOCRACY BEYOND THE STATE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF DEMOCRACY Is the foreign policy of the country conducted in accordance with democratic principles and is the country free of external political pressure? How indepedent is the national government of external economic, cultural or political institutions?

Mongolia’s foreign policy concept and its implementation provide conditions for the country’s economic, cultural and political independence of external influence. There have been no changes in the substance of her foreign policy and the legal framework regulating it. Mongolia’s National Security Council annually reports on the state of national security to the SGH and the report is not accessible to the public in line with the Law on the Approval of the List of State Secrets which classifies it as a state secret. Economic independence. In recent years Mongolia’s GDP has been steadily increasing to reach MNT 4.5 trillion in 2007 with a growth rate of 9.9 percent. On the whole, the rate of growth exceeded 7 percent during last 4 years131. The growth of total exports in 2007 to MNT 1.9 billion or 48.5 percent of the GDP is to be attributed primarily to the copper price hikes on international markets. In parallel with this, the volume of imports has gone up to amount to MNT 2.1 billion. Mongolia’s exports heavily relies on the mining sector and therefore export revenues are sensitive to the fluctuations in mineral resource prices. More than 90 percent of Mongolia’s consumption of oil products is met by imports from the Russian Federation, which places total control of our country’s economy in the hands of Russia or Russian132. How well is the relationship between the Government and external donors grounded in the principles of partnership and transparency?

The partnership between Mongolia and donor governments as well as international financial institutions (World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, etc.) encompasses many 131

Bank of Mongolia information bulletin. 2008. Our country meets her needs in oil products through 100percent importation. The imports stood at 563.59 тons in 2005, 607.28 tons in 2006, 639.03 thousand tons in 2007. In terms of percentage share in the period of 2005-07, imports from Russia accounted for 88-94.4 percent, from China for 2-4.5 percent, Kazakhstan for 1.8-9 percent, and others for 0.8-1 percent. http://mrpam.gov.mn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=107 132

220

aspects of development. While Japanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assistance supports the development of institutional and human capacity, infrastructure and environmental protection, aid from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank is targeted at health, education, social protection and infrastructure sectors. Assistance from the UN specialized agencies prioritizes support to the development of civil society organizations, anti-corruption efforts, promotion of democratic governance, and resolution of health and gender issues. In recent years, the Govemment of Mongolia and its donor partners have heightened their attention to the issues of strategic outcomes of official development assistance, both credit and grant aid, bettering coordination between these two forms of assistance and increasing their effectiveness. During the 2005 DGI survey 37 percent of the respondents and 25 percent of respondents in 2008 said that international assistance should be increased. It is linked to the increasingly widespread aspiration of the people towards less foreign loans and aid, and a stronger and better performing national production. What is the level of support and respect accorded by the Government of Mongolia to the UN human rights treaties and conventions and international law as a whole?

Mongolia has committed herself to abiding by 6 UN conventions and 4 optional protocols related to human rights133. Accession to these international instruments requires timely reporting on their implementation. Unfortunately, related information is not publicly accessible and although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs produce their respective reports, the possibility to use these documents for research and public information is limited. How well does the Government of Mongolia respect international standards of treament of refugees and seekers of asylum and how free is its immigration policy of arbitrary discrimination?

The National Security Council has taken up the issue of Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accession to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees a number of times since 1999. The UN Office of High Commissioner for Refugees has repeatedly called upon the Mongolian Government to become party to the Convention and its Protocol but the issue of accession is yet to reach closure. Therefore the legal framework for receiving, accommodating and releasing refugees is not in place.

133

NHRCM. Report on the State of Human Rights and Freedoms in Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar 2008, p 34

221

Conclusions A comparison of the state of democracy and democratic governance in Mongolia with the situation of 3 years ago shows that albeit there are some positive changes, the problems and challenges to address remain daunting. Consolidation of democratic institutions and mechanisms still faces problems that show a tendency towards aggravation. As in the past, objective factors have played their role which has been compounded to a certain extent by policy errors, state of development of political parties and election processes. Some legal acts proclaim the right of people to govern their country in a declarative manner, the election legislation is in want of improvement and the mechanism of its implementation and monitoring is dysfunctional. Limited availability of research data and information for parliamentarians, inadequate planning of law-making processes, underdeveloped demand for use of research data and information in the activities of law makers and their weak skills to do so negatively impact the quality of legislation and the opportunity of its implementation Apart from institutional and legal constraints, the problems stemming from the behavior of political parties are increasingly impeding the right of citizens to elect and to be elected. The confusion with voter registration and tracking of their movement, mishandling and double casting of ballots, unrealistic campaign promises and attempts to buy votes create grave challenges to determining election returns and to the institution of democratic elections. Consolidation of the pluralistic multi-party system is being sluggish to an extent of prompting a conclusion on its retreat. The development of parties as political institutions has slowed down to reaching stagnation and thus losing a large share of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trust in them. The low levels of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s political education and culture, and the mere symbolic nature that democratic values still retain in society render democratic institutions and mechanisms dysfunctional. The lack of a well-thought policy and systematic activities on the part of the government to raise citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political and democracy education levels hinders the creation of the most important guarantee of democracy. Although measures have been taken to speed up the civil service reform and the related law has been significantly improved, results are being slow to manifest themselves. The delayed overhaul of the Civil Service Council and its uninspired activities contribute little to enhancing civil service capacity and performance. Civic right to access to information is not protected by law with the Freedom of Information Law seeing its third year still as a draft. As a result there are disparities in the ability of different individuals and groups of population to obtain and use information.

222

Reform of the judiciary has lost its momentum and public trust in judicial bodies continues going downward. The independence of the judiciary is inadequate and all sorts of distortions persist in judicial activities. A legal framework setting rules and procedures for democratically elected representative bodies such as SGH and Citizens Representative Hurals to obtain and reflect the views of their constituency is still lacking. Civil society organizations that are playing a vital role in democracy consolidation have hardly progressed beyond the nascent stages of their development. SUMMARY OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE SATELLITE INDICATORS CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

Satellite Indicator 1: How equal is the provision of civil and socio-economic rights for migrants?

Looking at migration flows between aimags and the capital city in the period since 1990, one would see that 2004 marks the highest number of 66,808 legal migrants. The reason behind this was the abolition in that year of the Ulaanbaatar residency fee which enabled 27,216 people counted as city residents to legalize their relocation. Recent years have seen a decline in the migration to the capital city and other urban centres. In 2007, 29.1 thousand people legally settled down in Ulaanbaatar and 7.4 thousand people moved between aimags. The net migration coefficient per 1,000 population was highest in 2004 at 74, in 2005 it stood at 29 and then further went down to 24 in 2006 and 22 in 2007, thus showing steady downward dynamics. Chart 17. Net Migration Coefficient for Ulaanbaatar (2000-2007) 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

74.1

46.1 28.8

27.9

23.8

13.5 2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

21.58

2007

The downward trend in the net migration coefficient for the capital city is explained by the relative decrease in the number of in-migrants and an

223

increase in the number people permanently moving out to settle down in rural areas.134 As of end 2007, the number of households in the ger areas of Ulaanbaatar reached 142.4 thousand showing an increase of 5.3 percent or 7,134 households on the indicator for the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of households living in the apartment areas was 92.4 thousand with an increase of 0.8 percent or 695 households. This elucidates a situation where most of the rural in-migrants settle down in ger areas.135 These people moving into the city most typically find residence in the ger areas distanced from basic social services, would not register their relocation with relevant authorities and straighten out their citizen IDs. These and a host of other reasons prevent them from enjoying their primary rights such as access to basic social services or participation in elections. One of the consequences of migration is the widespread violation of child and womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights. This issue is in dire want of in-depth study as well as targeted government intervention. The limited employment opportunity for rural migrants results in loss of incomes and their further impoverishment which, in its turn, entails infringement of their social and economic rights. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS

Satellite Indicator 2: How do social traditions affect the implementation of human rights? Relations of traditional nature have a strong presence in Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social and political life and there is a tendency to apply them in professional and business processes. Since these relations are most commonly rooted in private interest, the two cannot but be considered in their unity. The findings of the DGI survey show that there is no decline in the share of people who believe that implementation of laws and their access to justice, social services, employment and other benefits depends on cronyism and related issues are easier to solve if they have right personal contacts. Hence, people do what the prevailing situation forces them to do. For instance, the majority of survey respondents said that they would turn to relatives,

134

Selected demographic and social indicators and population distribution in Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 6. http://statis.ub.gov.mn/images/download/Sudalgaa/sudalgaa2008pop.pdf 135 ibid., p 12 .

224

friends and use other personal contacts should they need legal advice and assistance.136 The following table illustrates the influence that social traditions and private interest have on relations in political sphere. Table 39. Types of relations and their influence in political sphere as seen by survey respondents137 Response

Very high

High

Medium

Little

None

Don’t know

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

2005

2008

Family connections

27.3

19.8

27.3

21.1

18.2

23.6

27.2

7.4

0.0

6.7

0.0

21.5

Tribal connections

27.3

16.2

36.4

23.4

36.3

24.7

0.0

10.9

0.0

6.0

0.0

18.8

Friends and acquaintances

18.2

17.1

45.4

29.7

27.3

24.3

9.1

8.4

0.0

4.2

0.0

16.3

High-ranking contacts

54.5

23.3

36.4

26.2

0.0

22.7

0.0

6.9

9.1

5.1

0.0

15.7

Economic interests

0.0

25.8

0.0

23.4

0.0

21.7

0.0

6.5

0.0

5.2

0.0

17.3

Other

0.0

0.1

0.0

FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS

Satellite Indicator 3: How does the composition of electoral bodies affect their independence? Is there an opportunity for the public to exercise any control?

The electoral legislation and its specific clauses specify the composition of electoral bodies and measures aimed at ensuring their independence. However, the failure of these bodies themselves to abide by law leads to an increasingly evident trend towards distortion of electoral processes and resultant disputes over election returns. Clause 3 of Article 14 of the Law on State Great Hural Elections sets out the following rules to be followed in determining the composition and conducting the activities of the Central Election Committee and its local branches: prevent the prevalent presence of any one political party participating in the elections in the composition of electoral district, subdistrict and unit committees,

136

Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance: 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008. 137 Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance: 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008.

225

prohibit designation of members of the same political party as heads and secretaries of electoral committees, prohibit the presence of political appointees in the composition of electoral committees, prohibit designation of running candidates as heads, secretaries or members of electoral committees, prohibit heads, secretaries and members of electoral committees from organizing, abetting or otherwise supporting any illegal acts such as advocating for a particular political party, coalition or a candidate, intentionally hindering for these purposes the exercise of voter rights or ballot casting and counting processes, proxy voting, removing or otherwise tampering with the ballot box seal, forging signatures, substituting ballot sheets, using invalid ballots in vote counting, put in place an ethics code for electoral committee members with the ethics code approved by the General Election Committee, prohibit institution of criminal charges against a district, subdistrict or unit electoral committee member or his/her arrest or detention without prior consent of the electoral body of higher instance in cases other than arrest of the member in the process of committing a crime or on the crime scene with valid evidence of the crime committed by him/her, transfer of an electoral committee member to another work without his/her consent and his/her dismissal that is initiated by the administration.

Although the related legislation does not contain clauses limiting public control of electoral processes, the legal provisions for the exercise of such control are not as clear and specific as to allow citizens to take the necessary action. Article 11 of the revised Law on Local Elections (approved on 18 January 2007) sets out rules and procedures similar to the aforementioned ones. The report on the findings of a 2008 study undertaken by the NHRMC, talks of the widespread attempts by the staff of unit electoral committees and election observers to influence voters. It notes the need to put in place an accountability mechanism to deal with observers and electoral committee workers who are in breach of law and to develop and ensure implementation of an electoral committee staff code of ethics. Furthermore, the report highlights the need to give special attention to the issue of prompt response from district and unit electoral committees to the complaints filed by citizens. Presently, members of these committees have inadequate knowledge of the electoral legislation and lack sense of responsibility owing to which the replies they provide are mere formalities in

226

form and substance, or they oftentimes choose not to respond at all, the report says.138 DEMOCRATIC ROLE OF POLITICAL PARTIES

Satellite Indicator 4: Are there legal provisions addressing the issue of parliamentary party discipline? Do party members enjoy the benefits of intraparty democracy?

There have been no changes in the legislation dealing with issues of parliamentary party discipline. It’s been many years since the intention of developing a SGH member code of ethics had been first voiced but the code is still yet to be developed and approved. This absence of legal regulation of parliamentary party discipline and standards of accountable behaviour and performance has a negative effect on the stability and transparency of the parliament’s workings. Of the aimag-level party members involved in the 2007 survey on intra-party democracy, 42.4-56.7 percent said they lost connection to their party organizations of all levels and received no information whatsoever, and 74.5 percent did not believe in their ability to influence the decision-making in their local chapters.139 GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVENESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Satellite Indicator 5: Do the structure and capacity of the real economy have the potential to resolve the problems that have accumulated in the society?

When viewed sectorally, Mongolia’s GDP shows that the share of the mining sector has grown from 17.2 percent in 2004 to 27.5 in 2007140 and this upward trend is likely to continue to reinforce, however, the already big dependence of Mongolia’s economy on the world minerals prices. Although recent years have seen improvements in economic and social indicators including a steady rise in the economic growth rate and Human Development Index since 2004 (am not quite sure if 2004 relates to HDI. Pls check), the most disturbing phenomenon is the poverty rate that has plateauted for over a decade at the 36.3 percent first calculated back in 1995.141

138

NHRCM. The right to elect and be elected: An analysis of the electoral legislation. 2008. http://www.mn-nhrc.org 139 E.Gerelt-Od. Intra-party democracy: Opportunities and entry ways for rank and file members to participate in the party decision-making process. Open Society Forum. Ulaanbaatar, 2009, p 32. 140 Statistical Yearbook 2007, NSO, Ulaanbaatar, 2008: http://www.nso.mn 141 Mongolia Human Development Report 2007. Ulaanbaatar, 2008, p 33.

227

Therefore, one of the serious challenges is the issue of using economic potential for resolving the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pressing problems, in particular that of poverty reduction. Satellite indicator 6: Is the professional civil service able to function in a stable manner after elections take place? How immune are professional civil servants from politics?

In May 2008, the SGH amended the Law on Civil Service for the purpose of ensuring better immunity of civil servants from politics by adding a new article 10.6 that prescribes that â&#x20AC;&#x153;a civil servant other than a political appointee shall refrain from participating in any manner in the activities of any political party or political movement, and if the civil servant is a party member he/she shall suspend the said membership and report the action taken to the management of the employing public organization and the political party in question within 7 days following his/her entry on duty in civil serviceâ&#x20AC;?. This provision became effective on 1 January 2009. The improvements in the legal environment seeking a more stable performance of the civil service do not create guarantees in real life against the firing of the staff by the newly appointed leaders. The situation in the 8 months since the 2008 general elections showed that the appointment of heads of all government agencies was not yet complete with the candidates still waiting to hear the selection results. Of the 42 agency heads only 26 had been selected and of the latter only 10 retained their positions. Satellite indicator 7: How much opportunity is there to exercise checks and balances between the Parliament and the executive Government, and between local assemblies and local administrations?

The share of Cabinet members among parliament members is still high and the related legal framework has seen no changes. An amendment made in May 2008 to the Law on Civil Service prohibits a person from concurrently holding an elective position in aimag, soum and city dictrict Hurals of Citizens Representatives and a core position in an economic entity, political party or any other non-governmental organization (15.1.8), thus putting an end to a situation where local elective public bodies would typically be dominated by people on the payrolls of the aforementioned types of organizations. MEDIA IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

Satellite indicator 8: How well are the media and journalists protected from implicit political pressure?

228

Although there is a law on freedom of the press, its implementation leaves much to desire and certain problems still need resolution. Government pressure on the mass media in one form or another has been obviously reduced but a professionally sound critique of government policies and actions is being accompanied by a rising negative phenomenon of derision, slander and gossip directed at public bodies and officials. The increase in the number of media outlets could be viewed as a positive development which, however, is coupled with a loss in the quality and reliability of the information supplied and the resultant decline in public trust in the media. Unethical aggressiveness of the media against public figures goes as far as to include derision of person’s physique or health condition, tarnishing of person’s reputation, remarks threatening, degrading or implicating person in a crime, or aimed at exerting financial pressure on the person. This attitude can be viewed as being common to both the central and local media. Respondents in the sociological survey undertaken within the framework of the DGI study of 2007-08 believed that the media outlets are dependent either on their founders and owners or financing sources.142 Box 1 The MPRP and DP which are forming a Cabinet with a 60:40 ratio, have stated their intention to apply the same ratio with regard to the appointment of government agency heads. The delays with approving the structure, staffing and managers of the agencies are giving rise to misapprehensions in the civil service. There are even agencies that have two CEOs working simultaneously. Agency staff are in a waiting gear amidst fears of possible dismissals. These fears are prompted by the efforts of newly appointed ministers to push their downsized ministry workers into the agencies. Source: http://www.news.mn/news/section= home/page =index#0.3600507470946267

Table 40. Perception of the Level of the Media’s Political, Economic and Financial Independence, 2008 Response

Politics Finances Economics Founder, owner

Directly dependent 14.6 16.7 16.1 21.0

Generally dependent 39.8 35.3 33.7 27.9

142

Independent 11.8 10.8 10.2 9.9

Don’t know 33.8 37.2 40.0 41.3

Sociological survey done within the framework of the “Changes in the state of democratic governance: 2007-2008” study, Ulaanbaatar, 2008.

229

Mass media outlets have come to widely resort to publishing or broadcasting sponsored communications and programs under the heading of “Business information” as a means of meeting their financial needs and with journalists’ acceptance of such a strategy. When certain limits are exceeded, this approach creates conditions for the media’s and journalists’ dependence from the financial support coming from individual politicians or businessmen. Research done by the Globe International NGO notes the opaqueness around the most media’s ownership which does not allow to identify their true masters and, furthermore, the media’s subservient position with regard to political or corporate interests. The said study also points to the failure of the existing legislation to fully guarantee person’s right to seek and obtain information. GOVERNMENT RESPONSIVENESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Satellite indicator 9: Are government organizations, NGOs and public officials able to provide effective support to the interaction between the state and its citizens and to public participation?

The Mongolian cultural tradition of upholding the state and state officials has had its unique effect on the application of modern-time principles of relations between the state and its citizens, public participation and civil society activities in the country’s conditions. This situation provides the grounds for these principles to make their way into political party platforms and government action programs as specific objectives. SGH Resolution 35 of 21 November 2008 approved the 2008-12 Program of Activities of the Unity Government formed in the wake of the fifth SGH elections (2008) and led by the MPRP Chairperson S.Bayar This Program provides for effective support by government and nongovernmental organizations and officials to the relations betweeen the state and its subjects and to public participation, and sets the objectives of increasing civil society involvement, developing all-round partnership between the state and civil society and mutual trust between the state and its citizens by improving the legislation on civil society organizations with regard to their right to monitor government organizations, influence government decisions, obtain government support and deliver public services on a contractual basis; depeening democracy by strengthening the legal basis for political relations rooted in national unity and fundamental national interests; better protecting the right of individuals to participate in the management of state affairs and to elect and be elected as well as strengthening the institute of free, equal, direct and universal suffrage by revising the content of the legislation on elections of all levels; enhancing the capacity of civil service by heightening the ethics and accountability of civil servants, developing a culture of respect of law and zero

230

tolerance of corruption, and ensuring in every way the guarantees of a civil servant’s tenure; implementing a policy protecting individual’s right to complain and find redress for his/her violated rights by creating a legal framework for public oversight. Year of 2008 saw intensification of the interaction between government and civil society with the creation of a Civil Society Council by the first CSO consultative meeting on 1 February 2008 for the purpose of working with the government and with the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Government and Civil Society Council by the Chief of the Cabinet Secretariat N.Enhbold and Civil Society Council Coordinator G.Undral on 26 March 2008.143 Furthermore, the Government issued Resolution 93 of 12 March 2008 on the involvement of civil society organizations in monitoring the implementation of General Guidelines of Socio-Economic Development and execution of the national budget and on the intensification of government’s cooperation with CSOs. DECENTRALIZATION

Satellite indicator 10: Is there an appropriate balance in the relationships between the central government, local assemblies and local administrations? How much does this contribute to decentralization?

SGH Resolution 13 of 31 January 2008 approved the Comprehensive National Development Strategy of Mongolia for 2020 which was initiated by the President of Mongolia and which lays the basis for a long-term policy on decentralization and strengthening of bodies of local self-governance and administration. The ability of aimag, soum and city district Hurals of Citizens Representatives to represent the interests and aspirations of their constituents has been steadily declining owing to political partisanship that has come to define the process and returns of local elections and the resultant behavior of local assemblies more as political appointments approval boards rather than bodies of local self-governance. Likewise, the system of financing the local arms of education, health, social welfare service delivery, law enforcement organizations such as police and office for the execution of court writs, and environmental protection agency via central transfers channeled through the Line Minister-managed budgets as prescribed by the Law on State Budget and Public Sector Management and Finance Law is not conducive to decentralization. 143

http://www.demo.org.mn/newsdetail.php?NewsID=101

231

Some efforts have been made in recent years to expand the range of sources of local budget revenues and to decrease expenditures financed through central transfers. Box 2 According to the 2009 State Budget Law recently approved by the SGH, 9 aimags of Orhon, Darhan-Uul, Suhbaatar, Selenge, Tuv, Dornogovi, Hentii and Dornod are to retain MNT 11.8 billion in their budgets while the remaining 12 provinces will receive MNT 25.2 billion worth of transfers. In total, with the exception of the capital city, local budgets are to cover 27 percent of expenditures with injections from the national budget. In other words, the national average for the co-efficient measuring the ability of provinces to break even stands at 0.73.

In particular, a decision has been made to retain all personal income taxes in local budgets starting from 2009. Budget resources are obviously insufficient to address local development needs. There is a need to seek and find ways and means to develop government and private sector partnerships, better attract foreign direct investment, boost social responsibility of mining corporations and involve them in local development, and, above all, improve economic and business opportunities to increase local budget revenues. The need to identify a strategy that is internationally proven and tailored to suit Mongoliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development levels and specifics, and to implement it on the basis of well-thought long-term plans and programs for the purposes of decentralization and appropriate balance between local budgets and central transfers remains a pressing call of the day.

232

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS BY MDG-9 PROJECT The publication contains the “Proceedings of the National Consultative Meeting”, a national conference that brought together government, civil society, and academia to discuss the Millennium Development Goals-9 indicators. The meeting contributed to a better understanding of MDG-9 indicators, interventions and recommendations, its monitoring and reporting mechanism, and raised the public awareness of MDG-9.

The “Public Administration and Democratic Governance: Government Serving Citizens” is one of the analytical products emerging from the Global Forum on Reinventing Government. Its aim is to provide interested governments with conceptual and policy tools to understand the complex challenges facing 21 st century public officials and administrators and to select and adapt those ideas that are most appropriate for enhancing their ability to serve citizens effectively. The book was translated into Mongolian with the support of the MDG-9 Project.

This book constitutes the first attempt to link the MDGs to the important concept of governance. It discusses the theoretical and empirical links between policy making and sound governance while at the same time contributing to the debate on democratic governance. The “Governance for the Millennium Development Goals: Core issues and Good Practices” was translated into Mongolian with the support of the MDG-9 Project.

The report “Changes in the State of Democratic Governance in Mongolia, 2007-08” presents the findings of the second state of democracy assessment conducted under the MDG-9 Project. The report contains new data and conclusions on the current state of governance in Mongolia.

236

The training program designed to assist in the implementation of MDG-9 at the local level was produced for use by local governments and governance practitioners for better integration of governance objectives with the local developmental plans and programs.

Disadvantaged groups including the disabled are often marginalized in the country’s decision making process due to their lack of legal knowledge and access to information. The objective of the Human Rights Manual for the Disabled is to raise human rights and legal awareness among the disabled. This publication is part of the MDG-9 Project’s outreach and advocacy campaign.

The booklet describes a methodology to develop the MDG-9 indicators as part of the monitoring and evaluation of Mongolia’s MDGs. The indicators are also designed to contribute to assessing the state of Mongolia’s democratic governance.

237

The publication contains a description of the methodology used to develop the Millennium Development Goal-9 indicators and the baseline for the indicators as of 2008-2009. The publication is in the Mongolian language and intended for researchers and decision-makers.

The publication summarizes the activities of the Government of Mongolia-UNDP project “Support in Achieving the Millennium Development Goal-9 on Democratic Governance and Human Rights, Phase I, 2007-2008”. It includes the methodology and the process to develop the MDG-9 indicators, the description and the baseline of MDG-9 indicators. The publication also contains the second report on “The State of Democracy in Mongolia” based on “core” and “satellite” democratic governance indicators (DGIs).

238

APPENDIX

239

240

241

242

243

244

245

246