During its regular session on March 4, 2026, the Cabinet decided to submit to the State Great Khural a revised draft Law on State Secrets, a draft Law on Approving the List of State Secrets, and related legislative proposals.

The draft proposes renaming the current Law on State and Official Secrets to the Law on State Secrets and establishing a legal framework regulating only matters related to state secrets.

Deputy Minister of Justice and Home Affairs Munkh-Erdene Dembereltseren stated, “There are more than 894 items classified as official secrets. Once the Law on State Secrets is adopted, all of these will become public.”

Although the existing Law on State and Official Secrets stipulates that information must be lawfully and reasonably classified as state or official secrets, in practice, government agencies and officials have unlawfully and unjustifiably classified information as official secrets. This has negatively affected transparency and openness in state operations, undermined citizens’ right to information, and created conditions conducive to corruption and abuse of office.

The draft law therefore seeks to establish a legal environment ensuring that information held by government agencies — except for matters legitimately classified as state secrets — remains open and transparent.

Under the current law, information that could “cause harm to the interests of sectors, government bodies, or other legal entities” may be classified as official secrets. This broad formulation has significantly expanded the scope, type, and content of information that may be kept confidential and has enabled information to be classified based on narrow institutional interests. Accordingly, the draft removes all provisions related to official secrets from the law in their entirety.

Published Date:2026-03-05