Leaders of gender-sensitive legal reform event was held and Minister of Mongolia, Chief Cabinet Secretary, and Deputy Chairman National Committee on Gender D.Amarbayasgalan gave an opening speech. In 2023, Mongolia was ranked 80th out of 146 countries according to the Global Gender Gap report calculated annually by the World Economic Forum since 2006, which is influenced by the participation of women in parliament. The participation of women in the Mongolian parliament is 17.1 percent, which is 9.2 percent lower than the world average.
The Government of Mongolia cooperated with political parties and civil society organizations to create gender balance at the political and decision-making levels and increase the representation of women and amended the Law on Election. Amendments to the law approved on June 16, created the legal basis for the parliamentary election system to be conducted by a combined majoritarian and proportional system, and the gender quota of female candidates was set to at least 30 candidates in the regular elections of 2024 and at least 40 percent in the regular elections of 2028. Also, in the revision of the Law on Political Parties approved on July 7, the issue of working as a political party with a flexible structure in accordance with the principles of ensuring human rights and gender equality was included in the parties’ structure in line with global trends.
These legal reforms were initiated by the National Committee on Gender chaired by the Prime Minister, the Women’s Leadership Network, the Tentsuu media organization, and were organized with the support of UNDP’s “Promoting gender equality in public decision making and women's empowerment in Mongolia” project funded by Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Chief Cabinet Secretary D.Amarbayasgalan said, “For the 48 candidates who will be promoted to the Parliament through the law list, the gender ratio will be 1:1 and the previous 20 percent gender quota was increased to 30 percent. The increase in quota on the Law on Elections was a political decision that came with certain objections.” He noted that this change and reform is an important policy measure that increases the real participation of women in politics and decision-making and is a good international experience.
