Mongolia: UN expert warns against setbacks in rule of law and shrinking space for civil society www.ohchr.org

ULAANBAATAR (13 May 2019) – Mongolia must ensure that reforms to its legal framework promote rather than restrict the work of human rights defenders, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, said today.

While Mongolia has often – and rightly so – been depicted as champion of democracy in East and Central Asia, recent legislative amendments are of concerns and are sending mixed messages, Forst said in a statement at the end of a two-week visit to the country.

“Having carefully considered the information received from the Government, civil society and other stakeholders, I conclude that, Mongolia is a relatively safe country for human rights defenders,” the UN expert said. “Although some cases of attacks and abuses against human rights defenders were reported, I did not observe a pattern of systematic attacks against them.

“However, this relatively safe environment does not translate into a conducive environment for human rights defenders. Obstacles such as stigma, the lack of understanding of who human rights defenders are, and dangerous amendments to several laws instil fear and hinder their work.”

The Special Rapporteur expressed concerns regarding amendments allowing political interference into the judiciary and public prosecution and reforms preventing administrative courts from overseeing Cabinet’s decisions. “These reforms may deter judges and prosecutors from taking action against corruption, and ultimately prevent people from speaking out against discrimination, or from calling for justice.”

“During the visit I heard about cases of intimidation, discrimination, harassment and stigmatization of human rights defenders, including LGBTI rights defenders and children rights defenders,” Forst said. “Environmentalists and investigative journalists who are working on corruption or environmental issues have also faced threats and pressure. Some have died in circumstances that are still to be properly investigated.

“Defenders also mentioned more diffuse strategies of social or economic threats against their relatives - like difficulties to access jobs, scholarships and projects - or rumors that these kinds of reprisals might happen whenever they get more vocal on sensitive issues such as corruption or environmental protection. Given that the community in Mongolia is small and interconnected, these pressures create an environment of suspicion and fear which has a serious adverse deterrent impact on human rights defenders who would like to expose wrongdoings.”

The Special Rapporteur concluded that the adoption of a law on human rights defenders would be critical to promote and recognise the vital and legitimate work of human rights defenders, and to penalize and end impunity for attacks against defenders in a concrete way. He urged Mongolia to become the first country in the region to enact such a law.

Forst met the President of Mongolia, State officials and other authorities, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives from the private sector. He also heard the testimonies of more than 100 defenders in Ulaanbaatar, Airag and Sainshand/Zuumbayan.

The Special Rapporteur will present his final report and recommendations on the official visit to Mongolia to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2020.

ENDS

Background: The UN has a very extensive and broad definition of human rights defenders, which has been enshrined in the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by consensus 20 years ago, in December 1998. Human rights defenders are those who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights, nationally and internationally, in a peaceful manner.

Mr. Michel Forst (France) was appointed by the Human Rights Council as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in 2014. Mr. Forst has extensive experience of human rights issues and specifically of the situation of human rights defenders. He was the Director General of Amnesty International (France) and Secretary General of the first World Summit on Human Rights Defenders in 1998. He is a former UN Independent Expert on the human rights situation in Haiti.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

New economic forum to seek effective ways to solve economic problems www.zgm.mn

The main objects of the New Economic Forum are to identify the challenges of economic development and to seek realistic opportunities in a scale of the national producers of excellence, international organizations, and the private sector developers.

Cardano Taps On Entire Nation Of Mongolia To Develop Blockchain Infrastructure www.investinblockchain.com

IOHK, the blockchain and cryptocurrency development company behind Cardano (ADA), is adamant in their goal to boost adoption of Cardano’s technology in developing nations, and they have recently made big strides in their efforts.

Wheat and potato need to be fully supplied from domestic market www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. This year, 478 thousand hectares of areas will be cultivated for crops, including 387 thousand hectares for grains of which 368 thousand hectares for wheat, 32 thousand hectares for fodder plants, 29 thousand hectares for oil plants, 13.8 thousand hectares for potatoes, 8.9 thousand hectares for vegetables and 7.3 thousand hectares for fruits and berries.

UB’s ecological revolution starts www.news.mn

Ulaanbaatar in wintertime is famous for being the coldest capital city in the world; it is also one of the most polluted. The acrid smog is thickest when people living in the ger (yurt) district shanty towns prepare their evening meals and when they light the stoves in the mornings. About 202 thousand households in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar burn 1.1 million tons of raw coal each winter, which produce around 80 percent of the smog which envelopes the Mongolian capital and fills the hospitals to overflowing.

Historic Siberian mine to become automated www.mining.com

The Siberian Coal Energy Company or SUEK has partnered with Zyfra Group’s subsidiary VIST Group, to develop an unmanned drilling technology at the Tugnuysky coal mine, located on the border between the Buryatia and Chita regions in south-central Siberia.

Officially created in 1989, the open-pit operation has an annual output of approximately 12.5 million tonnes of low-nitrogen hard coal, which is mainly exported to China and Japan.

SUEK, however, has said it has plans to increase the total capacity of Tugnuysky and the neighbouring Nikolsky mine to reach about 13.6 million tonnes a year with the idea of raising deliveries to Asian markets by 50% by 2021.

The system incorporates an on-board computer with independent control software which contains the basic logic of the drill control, I / O controllers for controlling analogue and discrete signals, and a set of environmental scanning sensors.
In the miner’s view, these growth plans require modernizing the way work is done. Thus, management engaged VIST to develop a custom, unmanned drilling technology that only requires direct human interaction once, when the drill operator moves the equipment to the required stack in manual mode. Once this is done, another employee remotely sets a drilling plan for the drill rig and starts the independent operation mode.

According to VIST, the system’s built-in safety algorithms will be responsive to equipment and employees performing auxiliary work in its surroundings, which means that the drill’s movements will vary depending on whether there are nearby elements or not.

If necessary, a remote operator can take control of the equipment during any process operation. “Specialists will be able to remotely control the engines, compressors and controllers, moving, turning, mast raising and lowering mechanisms, assembly of the drilling unit, the braking system, drilling itself, etc. In addition, the dispatcher will deal with security issues such as the admission of equipment and people to the automated site,” the tech firm explained in a media release.

VIST also said that the automated system includes satellite navigation and special drill control programmes that are activated when directly approaching a specific location and that are able to provide pointing accuracy of up to 10 centimetres. Routes for the drill’s movement between the wells can also be developed.

To create such a solution, the Moscow-based company will equip a conventional Epiroc Pit Viper 27 drill with sensors to ensure accuracy and reliability. Then, it will record the entire data set on its operation, and the initial and changing conditions will be compared with the drilling parameters and the driver’s commands. The resulting information will be the input used to configure and optimise the drilling algorithm.

“The newly developed solution will become a part of the Intelligent Mine system, making it possible in the future to centralise control over several drills simultaneously, including simultaneous operation of these rigs in the same stack,” VIST’s press release reads.

Cabinet meeting news in brief www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At its regular meeting on May 12, the Cabinet made the following decisions:

Snowstorm kills 4 in southern Mongolia www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A heavy snowstorm had swept through southern Mongolian province of Umnugovi since Saturday, killing at least four people, the provincial government said on Sunday evening.

India To Sign Pact With Mongolia To Built Its First Petrochemical Refinery www.energyinfrapost.com

NEW DELHI: India and Mongolia are expected to sign an agreement this week for the construction of Mongolia’s first petrochemical refinery that is expected to cut some of its dependence on Russian fuel. When signed, the project will be the largest being undertaken by the government of India under its Lines of Credit programme, two people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

The petrochemical refinery -- near Sainshand in southern Dornogovi province -- is to be built at an approximate cost of $1.25 billion utilising the $1 billion line of credit announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ulan Bator in 2015. It is expected to be completed by 2022.

“As of now the negotiations are on, many issues are resolved and others narrowed down," said one of the people cited above. The decision to use the line of credit offered by India to set up the petrochemical plant was taken by the Mongolian government, a second person cited above said. On India’s part, “this is the largest project being undertaken by the government of India under its line of credit scheme," the second person said.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the petrochemical plant took place in June 2018 during the visit of home minister Rajnath Singh to Mongolia.

“Mongolia has its own oil fields producing enough crude for its requirements. However, almost all of its crude oil is exported and all of its finished petrochemical products are imported. The establishment of this refinery will be a significant step towards reduction of import dependence and will ensure energy security for the country," the second person said.

When built up, the capacity of the refinery will be 1.5 mmtpa (million metric tons per annum), with diesel and gasoline as the primary products and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), fuel oil and jet fuel being produced as secondary products.

According to news reports, products from the Mongolian refinery could be sold to China. Mongolia’s big southern neighbour produces around 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude, and imports more than 9 million bpd, according to official government data. Mongolia produced 7.6 million barrels of oil in 2017, about 21,000 bpd, amounting to 6% of its total export earnings, a Reuters report said.

Besides the petrochemical complex, India will also be taking up work for the construction of 27 kilometres of railway line, 17.5 kilometres of road and 19 kilometres of power transmission line to connect the refinery to existing networks. These are to be completed by September 2019, the second person cited above said.

Ties between India and Mongolia date back centuries with Buddhism seen as a major binding factor between the two countries. In more recent times, the two countries have set up mechanisms like the India-Mongolia Joint Working Group for Defence and the “India-Mongolia Joint Committee on Cooperation (IMJCC)" chaired at ministerial level besides others to cement cooperation.

“For Mongolians, India is one of counter-weights to their neighbours (Russia and China), a “spiritual neighbour," a declared third neighbour and strategic partner and centre for pilgrimage," says a background note on bilateral ties.

New Delhi’s attempts to boost cooperation with Mongolia come against the backdrop of China making inroads into South Asia--Sri Lanka and Nepal besides Myanmar--considered India’s periphery. In recent years, New Delhi has increased interaction with countries like South Korea, Japan and Vietnam--all countries seen as on the periphery of China. Analysts say India’s interaction with Mongolia gives New Delhi much needed diplomatic and strategic leverage vis a vis the big countries in Mongolia’s neighbourhood.

Mongolia aims to raise annual coal exports to 40 million tons www.news.mn

In the first four months of 2019, Mongolia’s coal exports increased by 11.7 percent year-on-year. According to the Mongolian Customs General Administration (MCGA), nearly 11.4 million tons of coal were exported to China during the period, which was worth USD 961 million, posting a year-on-year rise to 21.6 percent.