Women's Rights in Mongolia
Ms. Baigalmaa Purevsuren (Mongolia)
According to the statistics, women constitute 50% of the Mongolian population; 51.4%of the employable population; 49.4% of all workers; 73% of students; 79.2% of allteachers and 82.3% of health care service workers. It is evident that women play bigrole in social life, and have obligations towards national development. Contrary to this,the violation of women's rights has increased; the rate women's representatives isinsufficient at the decision making level; and poverty among women has also increased.
All of these situations entail severe effects for women with many children, elderly,
single mothers and disabled women.
The Mongolian Human Rights Commission is implementing the “Promotion ofWomen's Rights Implementation” project. This project is aimed at increasing theparticipation of women at the decision making level; raising consciousness about
women'srights

aswellasimproving

thepotentialofgovernmental

andnon-governmental organizations working for women related issues.
In the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995, the “National Program on
Improvement of Women's Status” and “National Program on Gender Equity” wereapproved in order to foster the common goal of improving each country's development.
As signatory to this declaration, the Mongolian Government released its national
program of action for women's issues.
During 1994-2000, poverty deepened; income inequity increased and poverty
fluctuations did not occur. According to one survey, 12-13% of all families; 24.6% of ultra
poor families; 18.3% of the poor families are headed by women. Due to economic reform,
the employment rate of women has changed. Opportunities were also given to thewomen to work in different types of economic entities; run businesses; and improvetheir economic rights and potential.
It is regrettable that domestic violence, crime, alcohol addiction and depression has
increased in social life due to unemployment and absence of economic guarantees. The
law against domestic violence was approved in 2004 by the Parliament and enacted in
2005. This was due to the diligent and constant actions of civic social organizations andfighting against women's suffering. After the law's enactment, the public as well asgovernmental and non governmental organizations became involved actions aimed toprevent domestic violence; protect the rights of humiliated people and make theoffender responsible.
With the transition from socialism to a market economy, Mongolians have had to copewith a period of health care services change. Due to health care improvements, theaverage life expectancy of women which was 65.43 (1995), increased by 1.07 years(2003) and for men the average life expectancy which was 62.1, increased by 1.31.
Thanks to the increase in quality of reproductive health care services and women'sincreased knowledge about reproductive health, maternal mortality was reduced by 1.7
times from 186.9 in 1995 to 109.5 in 100.000 births in 2003. Infant mortality wasdecreased. This shows the possibility of accomplishing the Millennium Development
Goals which focus on the reduction of maternal and infant mortality rates.
Women's representatives in the Parliament declined from 10.5% in 1996 and 11.8 in
2000's elections to 6.6 in 2004's elections. Nowadays, just 1 woman respectively works
as a member of cabinet; advisor to the Prime Minister; State Secretary of ministry; andgovernor of a district. In order to increase the number of women working at the decision
making level, we need to prepare women for leadership and increase public awareness.
Although some surveys show positive indices concerning women's rights and issues,
problems still arise as family violations are becoming more secret; teen-age prostitution
is increasing and sex violations continue to occur in the workplace.
It is a pleasure to emphasize Mongolian NGO efforts for and participation in theprotection of women's rights, but also for human rights in general. The National Center
against Violence, a NGO founded by Liberal Women's Brain Pool (LEOS), works, forexample, against domestic violence and played a big role in the approval of the Law
against Domestic Violence. Finally, Mongolian NGOs have even further potential tocontribute to the development of women's rights