On November 24, 2023, Chairman of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia G.Zandanshatar received a delegation led by former member of the UK Parliament Margaret (Meg) Munn.
At the beginning of meeting Chairman G.Zandanshatar thanked the delegation and the IPU for support on the first Human Rights and Gender Sensitive Self-Assessment conducted on the State Great Hural. He noted, it was a historical milestone for Mongolian Parliament to become the first of all parliaments in the world to conduct a self-assessment of human rights and became the 13th parliament to conduct a self-assessment of gender equality. Also, the recommendation and Plan of Action of this self-assessment will help us to improve our parliamentary efforts towards being a human rights and gender sensitive parliament. We will be happy to share our experiences with other countries, he added.
Mrs. Meg Munn thanked the Speaker for a warm welcome and appreciated for the message that he sent to the opening ceremony. She said, since 2015, I've been doing a lot of working on the gender sensitive assessment with the IPU in a number of countries. But as you are probably aware, this is a new toolkit for a human rights. And it's therefore historic for the IPU as well, the first time the toolkit has been used. And wherever the toolkit goes next, it will always be mentioned that Mongolia and the Mongolian parliament was the first parliament to use this toolkit. And therefore, you have indeed made history.
Chairman G.Zandanshatar acknowledged that ensuring human rights and gender equality is top priority for Mongolian parliament and introduced the recent digitalized improvements themed on 3D as the digital, deliberative and democratic participation.
For instances, the D-petition system to receive e-petitions launched two months ago, where if the petition collects at least 30,000 e-signatures a working group is established, with 70,000 e-signatures a Standing Committee to review the petition and the issue will be discussed through the parliamentary plenary session with more than 100,000 e-signatures, respectively.
Parties exchanged views on the Trans-Altai Sustainability Dialogue with Stanford University and the Ban Ki-moon Foundation, under the theme of Gender Equality co-organized in Ulaanbaatar last June and the next Trans-Altai Sustainability Dialogue on peace, governance and partnerships to take place in April 2024, and the SDGs, which are the common value and priority of the IPU and the State Great Hural of Mongolia.
Chairman G.Zandanshatar extended his invitation to the IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong and the IPU team to this Dialogue and requested a support in inviting parliamentary delegations from Central Asian countries to this Dialogue, and to cooperate with Mongolian parliament.