It became possible for Mongolians to exercise the right of association since the adoption of the democratic Constitution of 1992. Subsequently, the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations (the Law on NGOs) was adopted 5 years later with an aim to regulate the civil society organizations separately. Mongolians have been annually celebrating the Civil Society Day on January 31 for the last 10 years. Currently, over 20,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in various areas are registered.
The main goals of civil society organizations are to evaluate the governmental decision-making process; to express evidence-based opinions before the bill is passed; and to protect democracy, social development, and human rights. The CIVICUS, an international non-profit organization, conducted a study on the state of civil society organizations in Mongolia and concluded that it is unsatisfactory.
Civil Society Today
Both the government and NGOs strongly agree that the weak Mongolian civil society needs to be fixed, improved, and developed. Moreover, both sides are on the same page regarding the first step – to amend the Law on NGOs enabling active support to the NGOs.
The Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs (MoJHA) formulated an NGO bill, “The Law on Non-Profit Legal Entities”. The MoJHA, a side that proposed the legislation, and the representatives of civil society organizations have been holding a series of discussions concerning the NGO bill.
The representatives of NGOs address that the public benefit NGOs must not be treated in the same manner with professional or economic associations which simply protect their own interests. For instance, the women and youth associations of political parties are registered as NGOs. On one hand, those associations are indeed similar to NGOs on the basis that they associate voluntarily and independently from the government and do not generate any profits through their activities. On the other hand, they can be distinguished in terms of who they are serving or why they are carrying activities.
The civil society is a mechanism capable of monitoring the government independently and, certainly, an inseparable part of democracy. In several countries, the government enters into contractual agreements to delegate part of the public services to NGOs. Therefore, governments offer support to civil society organizations through tax relief in many countries. Also, the governments of South Korea, New Zealand, and Germany allocate funding to NGOs. In Mongolia, the NGOs do not receive any governmental or local support and the government funding constitutes merely 2% of the total NGO funding. Public benefit organizations and their employees do not enjoy any relief on social insurance premiums.
Bill without Policy
A number of things including the definition of civil society are unclear. The government claims that it will grant funding to civil society organizations by all means. Unfortunately, a substantial change has not been achieved in relation to state funding and the legal terminologies remain vague.
The Cabinet of Su. Batbold and civil society organizations jointly set up a working group that prepared the first policy draft, “The State Policy Concept on Civil Society Development”. The working group discussions were held in the Government Palace soon after conducting a hearing with NGOs in all provinces. However, the draft policy went down the drain as a new Cabinet was formed after the election of 2012.
Before proposing a new NGO bill to parliament it is critical to review and renew the state policy on civil society. The development of civil society can be achieved only if we hold a parliamentary debate over the NGO bill upon approval of the state policy.
The FATF, an inter-governmental organization that has added Mongolia to its grey list recently, demands the states to “prevent terrorists, terrorist organizations, contributors from transferring, collecting, and using funds through non-profit organizations”. Hence, to meet this requirement, the NGO bill, “The Law on Non-Profit Legal Entities”, is about to be proposed in the parliament in no time. If the NGOs are in fact vulnerable to money laundering or terrorist financing the problem must be solved through separate regulations, not through the NGO bill. In reality, Mongolia has been placed on the FATF’s grey list not because of the lack of regulation but lack of law enforcement.
The legislators point out that there are excessive numbers of NGOs and political parties in Mongolia. Nonetheless, both numbers are relatively lower than post-communist countries such as Hungary and Poland. This was revealed in the study, “Comparative Analysis of Institutional Environments of Non-Governmental Organizations in Mongolia, Hungary and Poland”, carried by the Defacto Institute. The number per se is not an obstacle but an advantage.
The efforts of all citizens are vital in developing one of the pillars of democracy, civil society.
2019.10.31
Trans. by Riya.T and Ariunzaya.M