Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

64.5 percent of respondents considered NGO advocacy for the Law Against Domestic Violence to have
been highly effective.
ADVOCACY FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DV LAW
Once the Law Against Domestic Violence was passed and the parliamentary resolution on development
of a national DV program was adopted, NCAV and its CSO partners successfully lobbied the prime
minister’s office to form a task force on the DV program. The task force was headed by the Minister of
Justice and Home Affairs, but also included representatives of the CSOs and various other ministries and
government agencies that had promoted the adoption of the law.
A year later, the Minister of Justice and Home Affairs issued a decree to set up a technical working group
to draft the DV program. The national DV program is expected to provide detailed guidelines and
mechanisms to coordinate enforcement of the DV Law. Recently, members of the technical working
group traveled to Korea to learn about the efficient organization and operation of the services that will be
provided.
In January 2005, the NCAV and parliament’s Social Policy Standing Committee, with funding from the
World Bank, held an open discussion on enforcement of the DV Law. They recommended the promotion
of public awareness of the Law Against Domestic Violence and the need for aimag governors to educate
and guide law enforcement officials on the application of the law. The Standing Committee sent the
recommendations to the Ministries of Justice, Health, and Education, along with members of the
judiciary, law enforcement agencies, aimag khurals and governors’ offices. The NCAV also provided
aimag, soum, and bag governors with the text of the law and educational materials on domestic violence
and the new Law.
The judiciary’s inability to access the legal text has hindered implementation of the DV. For example, the
NCAV had to provide a copy of the law to judges in the Chingeltei district court for them to rule on a
separation order in March 2005. 57
In addition, several technical legal issues have hindered the effective enforcement of the law. This
includes the need for Supreme Court interpretation of key provisions. For example, the NCAV has
proposed that in the case of a separation order, the Supreme Court should clarify that abusers, not their
victims, must leave the family home. The NCAV has also proposed several amendments to the Law
Against Domestic Violence. For example, the law requires a court decision “within 24 hours after receipt
of a domestic violence complaint in order to secure the victim’s safety and health” (Article 17.2). As this
is clearly impractical and often infeasible, the NCAV recommends that individual judges be authorized to
issue such decisions. The Center has secured a verbal commitment from the Legal Affairs Standing
Committee to sponsor such an amendment, although this issue has not yet been addressed by parliament.
Both the successes and the continuing challenges that the NCAV has faced regarding the implementation
of the DV Law indicate the importance of its continued collaboration with public officials and other CSOs
(Findings NCAV 2 and 4).
One of the NCAV’s highest priorities in insuring implementation of the DV Law is to transfer
responsibility for DV shelters to the state. Although GoM has offered some financial assistance officials
57 To date, only one other case has gone to court: in Bayanhongor, where the head of the NCAV branch served as an
attorney for the victim.