Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

Annex 1. Social Accountability and Legal Advocacy:
The National Center Against Violence 53
BRINGING A SOCIAL PROBLEM OUT OF THE SHADOWS
The National Center Against Violence was initially founded in 1995 by three Mongolian women’s
organizations: the Liberal Women’s Brain Pool, Women for Social Progress, and the Women Lawyers’
Association (WLA). At that time it was known as the Center Against Violence (CAV). After CAV
became an autonomous organization, it reregistered with the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs as the
National Center Against Violence in January 1998. During this early period, domestic violence (DV) was
a concept that was unknown in Mongolian society; there was little information about or discussion of the
widespread abuse of Mongolian women and children. The founding of the Center was an important step
to bring DV out of the shadows so that both its symptoms and causes could be legally and socially
addressed.
The NCAV’s initial mission was twofold: to provide legal and psychological counseling and shelter to
victims, and to educate the government and the public on domestic violence. As a result of an internal
reassessment in 2002, the NCAV realized that its fight against DV must include the transformation of
social structures. To achieve its mission, the NCAV attempts to: 1) raise public awareness and shape the
social mindset so that DV is no longer tolerated; 2) build a legal framework that effectively prevents and
ultimately eliminates violence; and 3) develop a social protection system that overcomes the
consequences of violence (NCAV 2005). Whereas the motto of the organization is “a human life free
from violence,” the central message in both their public awareness campaign and legal advocacy has been
that “DV is not just a private issue,” thus requiring the intervention of both Mongolian civil society and
the government.
The NCAV is governed by a seven-member board, which includes representatives from the Ministry of
Social Welfare and Labor (MSWL), the Parliamentary Secretariat, the Ulaanbaatar Citizen
Representatives’ Khural, the UB Police Department, and associations of women, children, and the elderly.
Representatives of elderly Mongolians are included on the NCAV board as one in four Mongolians over
the age of 50 is a victim of DV. This statistic is nearly as high as the number for Mongolian women (one
in three) who suffer from DV (NCAV et al. 2003; NCAV and TAF 2003). 54
More than 20 donors, mostly international, including the embassies and aid agencies of the United States,
the United Kingdom, the European Union, Germany, Sweden, and Australia, have provided financial
assistance to NCAV in its efforts against DV. Four Mongolian donors, both governmental and
nongovernmental, have also contributed to the NCAV: the MSWL, the Poverty Alleviation Program
Office, the Mongolian Women’s Fund, and the National AIDS Foundation. Significant and diverse
international funding has allowed the NCAV to pursue legal advocacy and provide services to victims
that the GoM has not been able to provide (Finding NCAV-1).
53 Research for this case study was conducted primarily by Oyuna Baasanjav, Gender and Participation Specialist,
World Bank-Mongolia.
54 In 1995, a survey involving 5,000 respondents was jointly conducted by the NCAV and the Ministry of
Population Policy and Labor. In 1998, another survey involving 3,000 respondents was jointly conducted by the
NCAV and the Center for Training and Research for the Population at the National University of Mongolia. In 2003,
a survey of 1,000 elderly Mongolians was jointly conducted by the NCAV and the Federation of Senior Citizens
(NCAV and TAF 2003).