National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia:
Investigating violations of children’s human rights
A complaint was submitted to a Mongolian NGO in regard to the rights of
children living and studying in religious institutions. The complaint was
brought to the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia (NHRC),
which jointly settled it. This complaint led to the NHRC initiating further
investigations into this issue in 2012.
The NHRC surveyed religious institutions throughout the country. This
included 26 Buddhist monasteries in eight districts of the capital Ulaanbaatar,
28 monasteries in 12 provinces, seven Christian institutions and one Islamic
institution. In addition, the NHRC heard from 290 children through interviews
and focus groups. The discussions covered their living conditions, education
and treatment at the institution in question.
Under the Mongolian Law on the Relationship between the State and the
Monastery, enacted on 11 November 1993, religious institutions must
provide children with a general education, in addition to their religious
education.292 According to article 16.7 of the Mongolian Constitution, on the
right to education, “[t]he State shall provide basic general education free of
charge; citizens may establish and operate private schools if these meet the
requirements of the State.” The State is also responsible to provide funding,
staff and monitoring of religious institutions, to ensure that all school-aged
children receive a general education.
Investigations by the NHRC revealed that many children living and studying
in religious institutions were either not receiving a general education at all
or were only receiving a sub-standard general education compared to those
students who attended non-religious schools. These children were being
denied the right to education and, as a result, many were being left behind,
unable to fully participate in modern society.
In addition, the investigations uncovered inadequate living conditions for
many children in religious institutions. Expert reports condemned some
buildings, recommending the demolition of a number of them. Some buildings
were found to have no appropriate lighting, water and/or sanitation. There was
overcrowding in dormitories, limited outside space for sport and recreation,
and inadequate classroom furniture and resources. There was also found to
be inadequate healthcare and limited access to professional medical services.
In the course of focus groups and individual interviews, the children told
the NHRC that they were often insulted and harassed and were punished,
sometimes violently. A number of the children were forced to carry a heavy
domestic workload on top of their studies. In many cases, and of significant
concern to the NHRCM, were the children who had no regular contact with
their families.
The NHRC’s investigations culminated in a report detailing the various
children’s rights that had been violated. It also included a number of
recommendations to the State, including that the State should establish
schools in each district, teaching a national, standardised general curriculum
alongside religious studies. Recommendations from this report were also included in the NHRC’s annual report to the
Parliament, 12th Report on Human Rights and Freedoms in Mongolia, which it submitted on 5
April 2013.
As a result of this investigation, the State has begun to pay more attention to those children
studying in religious institutions, specifically to those who left the general education schools
for religious education. For example, when the Citizens Representatives Council registers the
religious institutions or schools, it also looks to the portion of drop-outs who were left behind
from the general education schools.
***GOOD PRACTICE
NHRIs should have jurisdiction to accept, investigate and attempt to resolve
complaints of human rights violation and to refer to the government or the
parliament or the courts complaints that they are unable to resolve. They
should also have power to reject complaints that are frivolous or trivial so that
they are able to give appropriate attention and priority to complaints of serious
human rights violations.
The complaint jurisdiction should be broad, covering violations of any of the
human rights recognised in domestic or international law. It should not be
limited to particular rights or particular categories of complainant or particular
categories of alleged violator.
Each NHRI should adopt complaint handling procedures appropriate to its
particular legal context and should make the procedures publicly available. It
should also have an effective complaints database to enable:
• categories of complaints and patterns of violation to be monitories and
analysed
• individual complaints to be tracked to ensure effective and efficient case
management.