State secret

State secret

The Law on the State Secret

Approved on April 18, 1995

Article 4. Principles followed in defining state secrets

The principles of compliance with laws and timeliness shall be followed in defining state secrets.

Article 5. The area of issues related to state secrets

1. In the area of national security of Mongolia:

1) Confidential parts of the Concept paper on national security, information, documents and other issues related to ensuring economic security.

2) Information of utmost importance on foreign policy and foreign stance, confidential agreements, contracts and their drafts made of Mongolia with foreign countries.

2. In the area of defence:

1) Defence policy, concept, military ideology, confidential parts of documents related to the above.

2) Strategic and operational plans, information on their implementation, military strategy, operative and resource position, documents on management of actions regarding preparation and execution of operations and wars, information on methods of armed fights, documents indicating the extent of readiness for wars and recruitment, recruitment resources and their use.

3) Scientific, experimental and creative works regarding creation of new military equipment, their purchase and improvement, programmes implemented with this purpose, their performance and results.

4) Names and types of secret armament and equipment, technical specifications, their availability and potential.

5) Information on location, purpose and rating of readiness of objects with strategic importance for national defence, their protection, drafts, accompanying documents, budget for expenses, territories assigned for building objects and other related information.

6) Purpose of armed forces, other military troops, technical supplies, secret and special appointed locations, authentic names, number of arms and military force.

7) Recruitment by ministries, agencies, aimags and the capital city, number of annual recruits and plans.

8) Contingency plans for ensuring safety of population during country-wide military recruitment, location of objects of protection, their purpose, information on infrastructure during this period.

9) Organisation, methods and operations of forces of the national borders and border inspection authorities, other information related to them.

3. In the area of economy, science and technology:

1) Research and scientific works, creations, experiments, discoveries, drafts, national and advanced technology of special importance for the national security of Mongolia, its economy and its defence.

2) Capacity for military production and recruitment capacity, actual amount and location of state reserves.

3) Raw materials and other resources of importance for ensuring defence and economic national security, amount of their extraction and supply.

4) Methods and tools to protect state secrets, actions taken with this purpose and information about this.

4. In the area of activities of secret operations and counter-secret operations:

1) Information about execution of secret and counter secret operations, their arms, source of information, number of agents, organisation, documents, archived and database information and financing.

2) Codified system of government communications, documents to connect to the system, its encryption and keys.

3) Information on supply of arms and special equipment of police, secret agents, and prisons, their reserves, plans of operations of secret agents, police and military during times of unrest; information on arms for protection of objects of importance for the state; plans of operation of prisons during war and times of unrest, and other related documents.

4) Activities by corresponding authorities to ensure national security of Mongolia.

5. Procedures on execution of criminals with capital charge, objects defined as state secret related to provision 4 and 5 of paragraph 2 and 1 of paragraph 4 of this Article.

Article 6. The list of state secrets

1. The list of state secrets shall be approved by law.

2. It shall be prohibited to define any information, documents and physical items as confidential without approval by law.

The Criminal Law of Mongolia

Approved on December 5, 1986

Article 71. Disclosure of state secrets

  1. If a person in charge of objects of state secrets, activities, information, documents of physical items, or a person who had access to these in the course of his official duties discloses them, he shall be imprisoned for up to 4 years if the offence is not recognised as treachery of the motherland or spying.
  2. If a person who does not have the right to know state secrets, has searched for them or disclosed them to others, he shall be charged by imprisonment for up to 3 years.
  3. If a serious damage is caused by disclosure of state secrets, the punishment shall be from 3 to 8 years imprisonment.

Article 72. Destruction of state secret information and documents

  1. If a person in charge of objects of state secret, activities, information, documents of physical items, or a person who had access to these in the course of his official duties causes destruction of them due to incompliance with procedures on their handling, he shall be charged with up to 3 years imprisonment.

    (This provision was changed by the law issued on April 1, 1996)

  1. If a serious damage is caused by disclosure of state secrets, the punishment shall be from 2 to 6 years imprisonment.

The Law on Archive

January 2, 1998

Article 25. Use of archived documents

25.7. Documents in the archives relating to State and other secrets and protected by law shall be allowed to be exposed to public 30 years after their origination.

25.8. Documents related to national security and state interests of paramount importance shall be allowed to be exposed to public 50 years after their origination, and documents related to private lives and property of individuals — 70 years after their origination

The Law on Civil Service

December 30, 1994

Article 13. General obligations of civil servants

7) to strictly maintain confidentiality of state secrets, secrets of organisations and private information of individuals during the time of office and in period after completion of the civil service.

The Law on Regulations of the State Ikh Khural Sittings

February 6, 1997

Article 4. General procedures of meetings

9. Meetings of the State Ikh Khural shall be open. Meetings and decisions shall be made public through media.

10. Meetings of the State Ikh Khural sittings and Standing Committees may be closed depending on features of the issue discussed. The following procedures shall be followed while discussing issues on closed meetings:

1) Issues defined as state secrets shall be discussed on closed meetings. Issues that are not part of state secrets may be discussed on closed meetings upon such decision of the majority of attending members.

3) It shall be prohibited to tape, to enter [the venue] with audio recorders, mobile telephones and to talk on the telephone except officially allowed during closed meetings.

5) Notes on closed meetings shall be made only in the register of secrets

6) Information about closed meetings may be made public in accordance with Article 46 of this law.

The Law on Statistics

June 5, 1997

Article 22. Prohibiting illegitimate use of statistical information and disclosure of confidential information

1. Employees of organisation in charge of official statistics shall be prohibited from making public the information on results of research and surveys that are not (yet) to be published officially and information related to state secrets, privacy of organisations and individuals.

The Law on the Cabinet of Mongolia

Approved on May 6, 1993

Article 29. Meetings of the Cabinet

4. The meetings of the Cabinet may be open or closed as decided by the Prime Minister and any decisions other than those defined confidential by laws shall be made public.

The Law on Military Replenishment and Recruitment

Approved on May 15, 1998

Article 34. Maintaining confidentiality of military replenishment and recruitment actions

34.1. The purpose, scope, type of actions to be taken, capacity and methods of military recruitment shall be confidential at the state level.

The Law on Treasury

November 17, 1994

Article 12. Accounting of treasury

2. The central registration of the treasury is a state secret and its copies shall be kept in the government and the Bank of Mongolia.