“HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION IS NOT ONLY FOR MNCHR”

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A draft law has been worked out to change the law on Mongolia’s National Commission for Human Rights (MNCHR) into a law on human rights. The draft was openly discussed at the Civil Hall at the President on Wednesday. The previous law--on the MNCHR--was adopted by parliament in 2001. An advisor to the President on human rights and law policy Ch.Onorbayar addressed the discussion’s opening. He said that a programme on judicial reform was approved by the previous cabinet at initiative of the President, and that laws and regulations on court have been altered in frames of this programme. Now, the cabinet for reform is continuing this work within reforms in the system of protecting justice, he said. “Previously, we passed laws on rights for specific organizations, but since these state bodies are and must be dedicated to human rights and freedom protection, the law on MNCHR should be changed into the law on human rights. This bill has been drawn up in frames of the ‘From a Big Government to a Smart Government’ initiative of the President," Mr Onorbayar highlighted. Since adoption in 2001, the law on MNCHR has not been amended. Mongolia has gained some achievements in protecting human rights within the law, but it hardly meets nowadays requirements, and sometimes it takes forms of a declaration or a promise, even the MNCHR comes to the deadlock in abolishing the human rights violation, Onorbayar went on. Duties such as correcting such a situation and protecting the human rights are not imposed upon the MNCHR only, "so the new bill mostly focuses on creating a national system for this and on setting up a mechanism of having state bodies and servants participate in the matter within their functions," he said. Awaiting their approval draft laws on police, on law enforcement and court and other bills must be correlated with the bill on human rights, he added.