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APF supports Mongolian Commission's regional officers

Graphic: APF course on the role and functions of NHRIs

National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia representatives have come together for a week-long APF course on the role and functions of NHRIs.


Officers representing the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia in each of the country's 21 provinces (or aimags) have come together for a week-long course on the role and functions of national human rights institutions.

The program, led by APF senior consultant and NHRI expert Chris Sidoti, examined the essential attributes of NHRIs, such as independence and pluralism, and what these mean in practice for how NHRIs should operate.

Other topics covered during the workshop included the core activities of NHRIs – including human rights education and promotion, investigations, human rights monitoring and intervention in court proceedings – and the critical need to focus on groups who are particularly vulnerable to violations of their human rights, including women and children.

Commission officers highlighted a range of issues that they regularly encounter in their work,, including violence against women; the human rights challenges facing children, including child jockeys; the impact of mining on the environment, individuals and communities; and the treatment of people held in places of detention

Commissioner Oyunchimeg Purev described the Commission's work in investigating and monitoring torture and places of detention across Mongolia, which draws strongly on the outcomes from the Commission's ground-breaking national inquiry into torture and its anticipated role as the National Preventive Mechanism under the OPCAT. Mongolia deposited its instrument of OPCAT ratification to the United Nations in February 2015.

The APF training program, held from 9-13 March 2015, also included discussion of how NHRIs can engage with the international human rights system, such as the human rights treaty bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, to strengthen their work at the national and regional level.

APF Master Trainer Jaideep Singh Koccher, the Head of Education and Training from the National Human Rights Commission of India, helped facilitate the training course, in conjunction with APF Regional Training Manager Suraina Pasha.

The aim of the course was to support the work of the Commission's regional officers, who took up their positions from 2014 onwards following additional funding provided to the Commission by the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia.

Expanding the Commission's presence within each of Mongolia's 21 aimags was a key recommendation of the capacity assessment project conducted with the support of the APF, UNDP and OHCHR in August 2011.

Date: 19 March 2015


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  1. APF course on the role and functions of NHRIs - APF, Suraina Pasha