Preliminary standing committees’ and other related sessions of the 142nd IPU Assembly are taking place in this month of May. The first part of the virtual 31st Women Parliamentarians' Forum was organized and moderated by the IPU headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday (May 10, 2021) on a digital platform between 20:00-23:00 Ulaanbaatar time. Mrs. M.Oyunchimeg, a member of the State Great Hural (Parliament) and Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Policy, has represented the Mongolian Parliament at the Forum.

The meeting was opened by the IPU president Mr. Duarte Pacheco, a Portuguese parliamentarian, which was attended by over 60 parliamentarians and secretaries from member countries. In his speech, he noted that the role and responsibilities of women parliamentarians are very important as the women's participation in politics are increasing. 

The 142nd Assembly will be organized under general topic of “Overcoming the pandemic today and building a better tomorrow: role of parliaments”, and the Forum briefed the participants on the IPU's recent efforts to promote gender equality. Participants then generated an interactive discussion on gender-sensitive post-COVID-19 recover, pandemic impact on women, and debated how to prioritize parliamentary action for gender-sensitive recover and to ensure gender equality in the draft resolutions to be discussed in both 142nd and 143rd Assemblies.

During the discussions, Mrs. M.Oyunchimeg, a member of the State Great Hural, informed the participants on the successful immunization programs of the Mongolian parliament and government. According to the Prime Minister, 94 percent of the population of the capital city Ulaanbaatar has been vaccinated with the first dose, 63 percent with the second doses, and more than 60 percent of the rural population inoculated with the first dose as of today. If everything goes as planned with these active measures, it has a goal to fully cover the target population by 1 July. 

She also said that the government is implementing a 10 trillion MNT program to target women entrepreneurs, as the negative effects of the pandemic and lockdown measures are leading to job losses and reducing incomes.

She added that in order to prevent the increase in various forms of violence against women and children due to the pandemic and lockdown measures, the parliament of Mongolia pays special attention by amending and implementing relevant laws to ensure human rights are not violated while paying attention to the health service to finance funding of the public purchase of medicines at a discounted price and payment of high-cost surgery and treatment for infections.

She noted that Mongolia is willing not only to learn from the best practices of other countries but also ready to share its experiences on combating the pandemic.