ACTIVITY REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT:“COMMUNITY RESEARCH AND
ADVOCACY FOR NATIONAL ACTION PLAN
ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS”

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MARCH 2024

INTRODUCTION
The project was implemented as part of the program activities “Defending Democracy and Civic Space inAsia” implemented by the 6 CSOs based in India, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Thailand with the supportof JANIC. The activities in Mongolia was implemented by the Centre for Human Rights and Development(CHRD) in Arvaikheer soum, centre of Uvurkhangai province1.
The project had the following objectives:
1. Raise awareness of the local community leaders of the UN Guiding Principles on Busi-ness andHuman Rights and National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights;
2. Build capacity of the local community leaders in conducting community lead research on humanrights in general and on business and human rights in particular;
3. Initiate community advocacy for implementation of the National Action Plan on Busi-ness andHuman Rights.
The project has targeted to reach the following beneficiaries:-20 community leaders are primary beneficiaries.

-100 respondents involved in the survey and interviews will get information about the UN Guiding
principles and National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights-CHRD will benefit from this project getting research results for future advocacy work

In order to achieve the objectives, the project team carefully planned implementation of the activities definedin the project proposal. The planned activities are i) organizing 2 days training on Business and Human Rights in
Arvaikheer soum of Uvurkhangai province; ii) conducting Community lead research in Arvaikheer soum ofUvurkhangai province; iii) produce research report; iv) produce infographics on the research results; v) write
project ac>vity and ﬁnance report.

Brief descriptions on the activities implemented
Activity 1: Organizing 2 days training on Business and Human Rights in Arvaikheer soum of Uvurkhangai
province.
The two-days training for our community members and some local NGOs was organized on 13-14
November in Arvaikheer soum of Uvurkhangai province involving 20 participants. The first day of training
was devoted for providing information on the two contents.
Content 1 was information on the SDGs with focus on SDG 8 and CSOs assessment on SDG 8
implementation on the 10 key areas: i) such as national strategy, plan, budget on the SDGs; ii) policies andregulations on theSDGs; iii) institutional support; iv) implementation of the SDGs at national level; v) implementation of theSDGs at local level; vi) monitoring, evaluation and reporting; vii) transparency and accountability; viii)
public1 There are 21 provinces in Mongolia. Uvurkhangai is one of them. Each province has number of soums. Arvaikheer soum is in

the centre of Uvurkhangai province and one of the 330 soums belonging to 21 provinces.
2Opening of the training

awareness, understanding and capacity development; ix) inclusive, participatory, multi-stakeholderpartnership; x) civil society participation. The CSOs assessed the implementation of SDG 8 as regressing
since 2019 as the economy was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, closure of borders with China forexport and import activities as well as Russia-Ukraine war.
Content 2 was about the NAP and the Government resolution 231 on implementation and monitoring
evaluation of the NAP to be implemented for the 5-years period of 2023-2027. The training participants
were given with brief information on the history of drafting and approval of the NAP recommended by thesecond UPR to the Mongolian Government as result of human rights CSOs’ submissions for the first andsecond UPR of Mongolia. The participants also learned and discussed about the NAP objectives committed
by the Government and Business as well as redress mechanism included in the NAP. They received clear
information about the Government resolution 231 which obliges all ministers and governors of provinces
and Ulaanbaatar city to plan implementation of the NAP in their annual action plans, allocate budget, andreport annually about their progress to the National Committee on promotion of Human Rights, which is anew structure in human rights protection mechanism in Mongolia established in 2022 under the Cabinet
Secretariat. This Committee reviews annual reports on human rights situations from all provinces and capitalcity. As for now 2 annual human rights review process took place for 2022 and 2023 reports received fromall 21 provinces and Ulaanbaatar capital city.
The briefing of the NAP and the Government resolution 231 was appreciated by the participants as they have
not heard about them.
Then the training program continued on discussions about the connections between the SDGs and humanrights, human rights issues in business sector. The participants were divided into groups assigned to discuss
on issues in B&HR, questions to include in the research, selection of business sectors to include in theresearch. After the presentation of group discussions the training continued focusing on formulation of thequestions for the survey. We decided to limit number of questions to be 20. In the end of the training theparticipants had a chance to pilot conducting interview with each other used the draft questionnaire with 20questions. In the end of the training the training evaluation forms were distributed to all participants. The3

overall opinion was positive and the participants were satisfied with the training materials, conduct andinspired by the follow-up research activities after the training. The training program is attached in Annex 1.

Activity 2: Conducting Community lead research on Business and human Rights in Arvaikheer soum ofUvurkhangai province.

Research team meetings

Right after the training a research team chat group was established for all communications and exchange
information between the team members. Through this chat group CHRD team provided additional resource
materials for the survey such as Labour law provisions etc.
The survey questionnaire was finalized through messenger chat group call: Sudalgaa group https://www.messenger.com/t/6881486925277525 as well as through Zoom meetings provided by CHRD.
Three groups were set up for conducting survey interview. In addition to the survey questionnaire defined
during the training 3 more questions were included. They are about the business sector where a survey
respondent works, availability of workers’ rights organization in the work place, and awareness of the NAT
on business and human rights.
The three survey interview team started data collection from November 27, and completed the task for 2weeks. The 20 questions simple questionnaire was used for the survey involving 102 respondents working indifferent private entities in Arvaikheer soum.

Activity 3: Producing a survey report
CHRD organized several Zoom meetings for updating on the survey process, analysis of survey data anddrafting survey report. The survey data was analyzed collectively in the Google form. The team produced
the survey report and submitted to CHRD on January 22, 2024.
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The main findings of the survey:
1. There is a lack of awareness about the NAP. 81% of the respondents answered that they have notheard about the approval of NAP on Business and HR.
2. The survey shows that labour contract is not duly practiced in private sector. 20% of the respondents
work without labour contract, 44% signed their labour contract without any comments ornegotiations with employers. The content of labour contract was also problematic. 61% confirmedthat their labor contract included work hour and wage. 52% confirmed about work conditions,however 21% said they had no idea about the content of the labor contract.
3. In terms of extra work hours, 75% of the respondents work extra hours but 30% don’t get payd fortheir extra work hours.
4. When the right entitled by the Labor law violated 60% of the respondents have lack of knowledge
where, whom, to approach for help.
5. On the question about the organizing of workers for protecting their rights, 64% answered “no” forthe question whether they have been organized themselves to protect their rights.

Activity 4: Producing info graphic posters on the research results
Based on the research results 9 info graphic posters were produced and uploaded in social media networks.
The posters include main information on the NAP, government resolution and main findings of the survey
report.

5Conclusion
The project planned activities are implemented fully and achieved all intended objectives. The projecttraining beneficiaries from local communities and NGOs based in Arvaikheer soum of Uvurkhangai
province received necessary information on the national action plan on business and human rights, its
implementation mechanism. They had a chance to conduct a survey on business and human rights and got
own research data for advocacy. The survey results were used to raise the human right issues in private
business during the reporting of the human rights situation of Uvurkhangai province by the province
governor on January 25, 2024 to members of the National Committee for promotion of Human Rights. Asresult a recommendation by a committee member was given to include a section about the human rights
issues in business sector in the next year report of the human rights situation in Uvurkhangai province.

This activity report drafted by Urantsooj Gombosuren

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