The parliament conducted self-assessment on human rights and gender sensitivity, and its discussion took place between November 22 and 23. Member of the Parliament, Ts.Munkhtsetseg, chaired joint discussion summarizing results and emphasized that two-day discussion on self-assessment resulted in the development of comprehensive proposals and noted that these proposals would lead to weighty progress in the field of human rights and gender equality in Mongolia. A total of eight discussions held for two days which tailored to methods to ensure human rights and gender equality in Mongolia with the presence of international and national consultants and their shared insights. Meg Munn, an international governance consultant with a focus on parliamentary processes, political party development, gender mainstreaming and women's leadership, shared her concurring insights on parliament's self-assessment. She mentioned that there is a need to support those involved in legislative activities, and to craft gender-sensitive laws in compliance with principles entrenched in international conventions. In addition, participants reached consensus upon a lack of detailed and rational methodology for analyzing and evaluating whether specific laws and regulations are gender sensitive or not. In this regard, Meg Munn emphasized the need to focus on improving the gender statistics and indicators used at the policy and decision-making level, to strengthen monitoring and evaluation mechanisms more effective, and increase coordination of organizations. Also, Mariana Duarte, an expert of Gender Partnership Program of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), discussed issues on improving the methodology of communicating current decisions from the parliament to public, considering women and men at equal level without distinction when solving the issue of gender inequality, and determining its causes based on quantitative data. National advisor, D.Gerel emphasized the need for Mongolia to present reports on the fulfillment of human rights treaties to international human rights protection mechanisms or treaty conventions, and to improve parliamentary participation in the implementation of recommendations addressed from those committees. She also said that the participants of the discussion notably emphasized the importance of stability of civil servants in the implementation of international human rights agreements and conventions. A lack of continuity in the system perpetuates a failure in the implementation. Certain proposals were discussed on the operation of a common platform for the distribution of information on international agreements and conventions on human rights and making reports on their implementation transparent and open to public. B.Bolorsaikhan, National Adviser of Parliament's Self-Assessment, emphasized the need to intensify the implementation of policies and decisions on human rights issued by the parliament, as well as the need to actively cooperate with non-governmental organizations working in the field of human rights and support public participation. The report on the state of human rights and freedom in Mongolia issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is discussed annually at the parliament and the parliament passes a resolution accordingly. B.Bolorsaikhan recommended to ensure its implementation. Proposed recommendations include strengthening the structure and capacity of the Office of the Parliament, training staff and advisers in these areas, improving and broadening the legal competence and mandate of NHRC, strengthening its human resources, hard and soft infrastructure, and making the appointment of commissioner transparent. Proposals in relation to improving governmental accountability, increasing parliamentary oversight, and the role of parliament in the UN human rights system are also included. Panelists proposed to take a leading role in implementing the recommendations given by the UN, and strengthen the memory of the legislative body. National consultant, B.Dolgor presented proposal on gender equality. She mentioned to focus on education attainment of men and prolonging men’s life expectancy and recommended proposals to implement policies to eliminate traditional gender stereotypes, as well as to modify internal regulations and codes of conduct in an effort to fight against gender norms and stereotypes. In addition, National Advisor, M.Batbaatar noted the significance of a two-day discussion which resulted in the consensus of multiple stakeholders to way forward with same direction on human rights and gender issues. He proposed to pay special attention to the implementation of the law on gender equality, identify measures and responsibilities to be taken in case of non-implementation, establish gender structure in the parliament in accordance with international standards, and update and improve code of conduct and internal procedures of the members from a gender perspective. Furthermore, he proposed to create human rights database together with all organizations and spoke highly of the effort to protect the rights of female politicians in the online environment.