Preventing Domestic Violence in Mongolia Through Legal Reform

By Aaron Hoover

The Mongolian government has taken many steps over the last two decades to decrease the prevalence of domestic violence and to provide services to victims.[1] UN Women reports that, as of 2018, in Mongolia the Lifetime Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence rate was 31.2 percent with violence occurring within the last twelve months at a rate of 12.7%.[2] These rates compare to its neighbor, Kazakhstan, with rates of 16.5% and 4.7% respectively.[3] Neither of Mongolia’s other neighbors, China and Russia, provide the UN with official data regarding domestic violence.[4] Due to the high rate of domestic violence, the Mongolia government has attempted legal reforms and has implemented social programs to address this problem.[5] Outside funding has also supported the Mongolian parliament’s goal of combating domestic violence (e.g., countries like Japan has provided $4 million for shelters and training).[6]

The Law to Combat Domestic Violence is the primary law currently addressing domestic violence in Mongolia.[7] This law was amended in 2017 to make the original 2004 law more effective and eliminate conflicts with other laws.[8] Prior to the amended 2017 law, domestic violence could not incur criminal punishment.[9] According to The Asia Foundation, the current scheme under the amended law provides that the first act of domestic violence evokes fines and administrative action such as a warning, but a second offense carries criminal sanctions.[10] The studies finding the incidence rates cited above were conducted soon after the amended law was implemented, but much of the updated data is not available in English. The only newer information available in English is found in a Joint Statement of the United Nations stating that “[i]n the first seven months of 2022, 6,263 domestic violence cases were reported to the police, a 19 per cent increase from the previous year.”[11] The Joint Statement suggests an upturn in domestic violence cases during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.[12] Based on this limited data, it is difficult to determine the efficacy of the legal reforms alone.

The amended Law to Combat Domestic Violence contains forty-seven articles, which create a framework of duties for varied officials and specific actions to ensure the safety of victims.[13] The law does not directly provide for criminal or civil liabilities, but Art. 46.2 states that “[a]ny person or legal entity that violates this law shall be charged with the responsibility specified in the Criminal Law or the Law of Violations.”[14] Following this, Criminal Law, Article 11.7 controls domestic violence.[15] The Article provides that:

It shall be punishable by penalty of limitation of free travel right from six months to one year, or imprisonment for a term from six months to one year, if a person in family relationship is systematically: beaten; treated with heightened brutality, cruelty causing sufferings; or whose right to possess, use and dispose separate and communal property is violated.

Art. 11.7.1.

The Article continues with heightened penalties for violence that occur against children, pregnant women, elders, or employees that conduct caretaking services.[16] Art. 10.4.1 provides the legal meaning of "a family-oriented relationship" as specified in the criminal code.[17]

Based on these 2018 data, the Lifetime Non-Partner Sexual Violence rate in Mongolia was fourteen percent. Courtesy Pexels.

With the specified duties placed on police and government officials, domestic violence is now seen as criminal conduct rather than a purely domestic affair.[18] Some of these provisions, however, lack on their face. For example, Article 17 delineates the duties of the Prosecutor’s Office, requiring a “thorough analysis and investigation for each case of human’s life occurred due to domestic violence.”[19] Although certainly not the intent of the law, this only requires a higher burden on the prosecutor if there is loss of life, rather than in all domestic violence cases. On the other hand, the law takes a community-based approach, obligating officials related to education (e.g., teachers), health, or local administration to report cases of domestic violence, or the threat of future violence.[20] Additionally, police forces are to incorporate psychologists, social workers, and officers for children’s rights to provide services and ensure the safety of victims and children.[21]

Despite the continued presumable high rate of domestic violence and soft sanctions for violation, action is being taken and victims are receiving increased support.[22] Although dated 2021, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls issued a statement after visiting Mongolia.[23] In her report, Reem Alsalem pointed out that “services for victims, like shelters, one-stop service centres and multidisciplinary teams, have been progressively expanded.”[24] On the other hand, Alsalem noted that education and awareness campaigns are needed to address alcoholism because alcohol is often a triggering factor to violence. Additionally, the services currently available need to be expanded to rural areas.[25] In particular, Ansalam raised the fact that domestic violence is not the only type of violence women face.[26] The Global Database on Violence against Women affirms her statement with pointed accuracy in the case of Mongolia.[27] Based on these 2018 data, the Lifetime Non-Partner Sexual Violence rate in Mongolia was fourteen percent.[28] Although it is difficult to untangle what portions of this new reform scheme are working most effectively, it is clear that the goal of drastically reducing domestic violence and violence against women has yet to be seen in Mongolia.

[1] Mongolia: Time to accelerate translation of laws on violence against women into reality – UN expert, UN Hum. Rts. Off. of the High Comm’r (Dec. 08, 2021), https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2021/12/mongolia-time-accelerate-translation-laws-violence-against-women-reality-un.

[2] Mongolia, UN Women Glob. Database on Violence against Women, https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/en/countries/asia/mongolia (last visited Jan. 22, 2023).

[3] Kazakhstan, UN Women Glob. Database on Violence against Women, https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/en/countries/asia/kazakhstan (last visited Jan. 22, 2023).

[4] China, UN Women Glob. Database on Violence against Women, https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/en/countries/asia/china (last visited Jan. 22, 2023); Russia, UN Women Glob. Database on Violence against Women https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/en/countries/europe/russian-federation (last visited Jan. 22, 2023).

[5] Ashleigh Griffiths, Mongolia’s Amended Law Makes Domestic Violence a Criminal Offence, Asia Found. (Feb. 8, 2017), https://asiafoundation.org/2017/02/08/mongolias-amended-law-makes-domestic-violence-criminal-offence/.

[6] Mongolia: Combating Domestic Violence Against Women and Children, Asian Dev. Bank, https://www.adb.org/projects/51217-001/main (last visited Jan. 21, 2023).

[7] On Combatting Domestic Violence [unofficial English translation] (approved by the Great Hural on May 13, 2016; in force Feb. 1, 2017), https://legalinfo.mn/mn/detail/12393.

[8] Mongolia: Domestic Violence Made a Criminal Offense, Libr. of Congress (Apr. 12, 2017), https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2017-04-12/mongolia-domestic-violence-made-a-criminal-offense/.

[9] Id.

[10] Griffiths, supra note 5.

[11] Joint Statement of the United Nations in Mongolia on the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, UN Dev. Programme (Nov. 25, 2022), https://www.undp.org/mongolia/press-releases/joint-statement-united-nations-mongolia-16-days-activism-against-gender-based-violence.

[12] Id.

[13] On Combatting Domestic Violence [unofficial English translation] (approved by the Great Hural on May 13, 2016; in force Feb. 1, 2017), https://legalinfo.mn/mn/detail/12393.

[14] Id. at art. 46.2.

[15] Criminal Code of Mongolia [unofficial English translation], art. 11.7.1 (updated Dec. 3, 2015), https://legalinfo.mn/mn/detail/11634.

[16] Id. at art. 11.7.2.

[17]Criminal Code of Mongolia [unofficial English translation], art. 11.7.2 (updated Dec. 3, 2015), https://legalinfo.mn/mn/detail/11634 (The definition provided is “relationships among members of a family, partners who are living together for other reasons, porced [sic] person, a person, who discontinued living together for other reasons, guardian, a person that delivers caretaking service, persons, who are under the care,”).

[18] Grace Brown, Mongolia domestic violence: ‘I screamed for help, but nobody came,’ BBC News (Nov. 25, 2017), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42050602.

[19] On Combatting Domestic Violence at art. 17.1.

[20] Id. at art. 23.1.

[21] Id. at art. 25.3.

[22] UN Hum. Rts. Off. of the High Comm’r, supra note 1.

[23] Id.

[24] Id.

[25] Id.

[26] Id.

[27] UN Women Glob. Database on Violence against Women, supra note 2.

[28]  Id.