SPEAKER MEETS UNICEF REPRESENTATIVE

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The Chairman of the State Great Khural (parliament) Z.Enkhbold Tuesday received Mr Roberto Benes, the UNICEF Permanent Representative to Mongolia. The latter emphasized that Mongolia is one of the first countries to sign and ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which became effective in 1990, and that the Mongolian government has been focusing on a well-being of children and youths. Bills on children’s rights and protection have been parliament, "and I thank You, the Speaker, for paying big attention to these draft laws and for putting efforts", Mr Benes said. Mongolia is striving to ensure the rights when children are given good conditions that allow them to study and live in healthy and safe environment, to participate in social life and to be protected. Standard and adequate provision of all essential social services, and an ensuring of the rights, reflected in the CRC, are the responsibilities of Mongolia,"making a donation for the next generations is a key to a development of Mongolia," he said. Mongolia marks this year the 25th anniversary of joining the CRC, Mr Benes noted and said Mongolia gained achievements for children, which proves that Mongolia wants to ensure children’s rights. He pointed out that the UNICEF will pay more attention to provision of drinking water and to providing children all over the world with equal and balanced rights despite a developmental gap in localities and urban areas. In response, the Speaker expressed a satisfaction with meeting the UNICEF Representative and agreed that the works for the next generations of Mongolia are beneficial. Mr Benes's experiences in children’s rights and protection will definitely contribute to Mongolia's actions towards children, the Speaker said and thanked him for supporting Mongolia’s development goals. He also noted that projects and programs implemented by the UNICEF have been significantly contributing to ensuring of children’s rights, forming for them friendly conditions, upgrading essential social services, and to promoting the children’s roles. He said our parliament has a tradition of focusing on matters of children’s rights, and pointed that out some laws on children are currently valid in Mongolia. He added that parliament is going to discuss two bills on children’s rights and protection and that it adopted several laws related to children’s matters. The Speaker went on that all generations have been working for providing children with equal rights despite where they live, Mr Enkhbold underlined and said Mongolia wants to collaborate with the UNICEF in ensuring their rights, especially for the local children. He asked the UNICEF Representative to study a chance to implement projects and programs on protecting children’s rights within online environment and preventing bad habits of youngsters. Present at the meeting was D.Battsogt, a head of the Standing committee on social policy, education, culture and science.