First day of National Consultation: Human Rights Defenders Network on Protection Mechanisms 2017
2017/09/02
From 2-6 September, FORUM-ASIA will be in Mongolia for a range of meetings, hosted together with its members the Centre for Human Rights and Development (CHRD) and Globe International to support the promotion and protection of human rights. On 2-3 September, the series of meetings started with the 3rd Human Rights Defenders Consultation on National Protection Mechanisms.
The first day started with welcome addresses by Urantsooj Gombosuren, Chairperson of CHRD and FORUM-ASIA, Khashkhuu Naranjargal, President of GI, and Benny Agus Prima from the Human Rights Defenders Programme of FORUM-ASIA. They each welcomed the participants, highlighted the importance of strengthening the human rights defenders network and the underscored the significance of protection mechanisms in the country.
The first session of the day focussed on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Mongolia. Naranjargal started by sharing about the UN Human Rights Council session held on between 3-28 July 2017 in Geneva. Mongolia was discussed on 6-7 July. Issues discussed included: the LGBT community; the National Human Rights Commission; Freedom of Expression; and the Right to Food. Some of the steps taken on by the Government since have been: the criminal procedure code; domestic violence law; the law on children’s right and protection; and the Signed Optional Protocol. The next periodic report will be submitted by July 2022.
Ms. Khishigsaikhan, OSF, was the second speaker of the session. She highlighted the importance of organising the meeting of the Human Rights NGO Forum in March 2017 and the Government Working Group in April 2017. There were several key issues that came out of the meetings: the implication of the international covenant; the role of the National Human Rights Commission; domestic violence; freedom from torture; the rights of detainees; human trafficking; the right to a fair trial; right to adequate housing; right to freedom of expression; the rights of indigenous people’s; and elections.
Next D. Sukhgerel from OT Watch presented the case of Mr. Batsinghe, a Mongolian herder, and his struggle living in a mining area. He and the rest of his community have experienced daily harassments. Unfortunately, he has not been able to get justice just yet.
B.Nyamjav, director of “Land Owners — Bayanzurkh” Partnership, talked about the lack of a protection mechanism for human rights defenders in the country. She shared about the challenges land owners face in their struggle with construction companies, who are benefitting from their collaboration with the Government. She specifically emphasised the need for business ethics for construction companies and public officials.
N. Unurtsetseg, a journalist for the Zarig.mn website, talked about her work covering politics in the country. She shared about the difficulties she faced stemming from: the lack of transparency of Members of Parliament; cases of alleged corruption; and harassment and intimidation of reporters. Particularly young journalists are being oppressed, and those that do try to raise their voices, find their access being limited.
The second session of the day focussed on human rights, businesses and development projects. Benny Agus Prima presented on the overall urgency for human rights defenders to address the often destructive relation between businesses and human rights. In response to this the UN set up the Working Group on Business and Human Rights.
FORUM-ASIA started working on the issues, together with CHRD, in 2012. Later in the same year, the UN Working Group visited the country, their findings where similar to those of FA and CHRD, including:
- Business and politics go hand-in-hand in Mongolia, e.g. mining companies working with local governments,
- Limited access to remedies. There is limited access for lawyers and if human rights defenders attempt to do so, it quickly becomes very expensive. There is no legal aid provided to them.
- Lack of public participation and involvement of local communities in development projects.
The working group gave many recommendations, including first one to translate the report into Mongolia. As far as it is known this has still not been done. This is symptomatic of the efforts of the Mongolian Government on the issue: while there seems to be interested in and recognition of the importance of the issues, but very little implementation.
The second speaker, D. Sukhgerel, echoed many of the points made by the previous speaker, and reflected on these from the perspective of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and their impact on human rights, including the World Bank and the IMF.
The final part of the session gave the floor to three community human rights defenders who are each struggling to protect their communities from different large scale business projects. E.Tuul, representative of an NGO from Baganuur district, discussed the challenges that her community have faced since a Chinese company was granted the rights to engage on a mining project. It has resulted in serious health and environmental challenges. More so, the company has been exempted from taxes, assuring that the project generates very little income. ‘While we cannot stop the project, we can make sure that the people know what is going on’, she closed.
The first day started with welcome addresses by Urantsooj Gombosuren, Chairperson of CHRD and FORUM-ASIA, Khashkhuu Naranjargal, President of GI, and Benny Agus Prima from the Human Rights Defenders Programme of FORUM-ASIA. They each welcomed the participants, highlighted the importance of strengthening the human rights defenders network and the underscored the significance of protection mechanisms in the country.
The first session of the day focussed on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Mongolia. Naranjargal started by sharing about the UN Human Rights Council session held on between 3-28 July 2017 in Geneva. Mongolia was discussed on 6-7 July. Issues discussed included: the LGBT community; the National Human Rights Commission; Freedom of Expression; and the Right to Food. Some of the steps taken on by the Government since have been: the criminal procedure code; domestic violence law; the law on children’s right and protection; and the Signed Optional Protocol. The next periodic report will be submitted by July 2022.
Ms. Khishigsaikhan, OSF, was the second speaker of the session. She highlighted the importance of organising the meeting of the Human Rights NGO Forum in March 2017 and the Government Working Group in April 2017. There were several key issues that came out of the meetings: the implication of the international covenant; the role of the National Human Rights Commission; domestic violence; freedom from torture; the rights of detainees; human trafficking; the right to a fair trial; right to adequate housing; right to freedom of expression; the rights of indigenous people’s; and elections.
Next D. Sukhgerel from OT Watch presented the case of Mr. Batsinghe, a Mongolian herder, and his struggle living in a mining area. He and the rest of his community have experienced daily harassments. Unfortunately, he has not been able to get justice just yet.
B.Nyamjav, director of “Land Owners — Bayanzurkh” Partnership, talked about the lack of a protection mechanism for human rights defenders in the country. She shared about the challenges land owners face in their struggle with construction companies, who are benefitting from their collaboration with the Government. She specifically emphasised the need for business ethics for construction companies and public officials.
N. Unurtsetseg, a journalist for the Zarig.mn website, talked about her work covering politics in the country. She shared about the difficulties she faced stemming from: the lack of transparency of Members of Parliament; cases of alleged corruption; and harassment and intimidation of reporters. Particularly young journalists are being oppressed, and those that do try to raise their voices, find their access being limited.
The second session of the day focussed on human rights, businesses and development projects. Benny Agus Prima presented on the overall urgency for human rights defenders to address the often destructive relation between businesses and human rights. In response to this the UN set up the Working Group on Business and Human Rights.
FORUM-ASIA started working on the issues, together with CHRD, in 2012. Later in the same year, the UN Working Group visited the country, their findings where similar to those of FA and CHRD, including:
- Business and politics go hand-in-hand in Mongolia, e.g. mining companies working with local governments,
- Limited access to remedies. There is limited access for lawyers and if human rights defenders attempt to do so, it quickly becomes very expensive. There is no legal aid provided to them.
- Lack of public participation and involvement of local communities in development projects.
The working group gave many recommendations, including first one to translate the report into Mongolia. As far as it is known this has still not been done. This is symptomatic of the efforts of the Mongolian Government on the issue: while there seems to be interested in and recognition of the importance of the issues, but very little implementation.
The second speaker, D. Sukhgerel, echoed many of the points made by the previous speaker, and reflected on these from the perspective of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and their impact on human rights, including the World Bank and the IMF.
The final part of the session gave the floor to three community human rights defenders who are each struggling to protect their communities from different large scale business projects. E.Tuul, representative of an NGO from Baganuur district, discussed the challenges that her community have faced since a Chinese company was granted the rights to engage on a mining project. It has resulted in serious health and environmental challenges. More so, the company has been exempted from taxes, assuring that the project generates very little income. ‘While we cannot stop the project, we can make sure that the people know what is going on’, she closed.
B.Tsendee, director of “Tuul Khar Shugui” NGO, discussed a development project by the river, which is resulted in serious waste and pollution, among other through a power plant and a cement construction site. The health repercussions for the communities have been critical.
The last speaker of the session was Kh. Enkh-Amgalan, a local council member of Ulaanbadrakh soum of Dornogobi province. He himself is a herder, however, a mining project that has been operating since 2012 and is funded by a French company. Local activists tried to oppose the project, but this saw them arrested. There has been an ongoing struggle between local herders, company workers and the police. Since the herders have learned that they can submitted concerns through national human rights mechanisms, show casing how important it is for local human rights defenders to gain knowledge of their rights, specifically on how to file complaints.
The second part of the day focused on public awareness raising. Starting with presentation by Marte Hellema, FORUM-ASIA’s Programme Manager Communication and Media. She discussed the different steps that need to be taken to develop a public awareness campaign: objectives and goals; target audiences; brand and identity; messages; strategies and activities; and monitoring and evaluation.
The final session of the day saw the participants of the consultation working in groups to come up with proposals for a public awareness raising strategy for human rights defenders in Mongolia.