Chapter 5. Other Stakeholders’ Contribution to anti-trafficking in Mongolia
5.3. One NGO’s influence on domestic change
5.3. One NGO’s influence on domestic change
HSPSC’s achievements mentioned above provide evidence that a UN comprehensive approach to fight human trafficking can make a lasting impact at the domestic level. The NGO aspired to create and implement effective government policy in each programmatic area, which proved necessary for the ownership of anti-trafficking efforts by the government to sustain a lasting impact. The Director of the NGO had first-hand knowledge of the high-level decision-making processes, which was instrumental in influencing policy changes.
The Mongolian Government acceded to the United Nations Palermo Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, in 2008. HSPSC played a key role in this event by persuading political elites through awareness-raising and lobby activities. (HSPSC 2008)
Using the opportunity of the change in government in June 2008, HSPSC lobbied for the inclusion of human trafficking as a new crime within the Government Action Plan of 2008-2012. The detailed plan called for a dedicated unit to work on such organized crimes as human trafficking, and mentions the Ministry of Justice as the head agency and NGOs as the stakeholders. (HSPSC 2008)
MOUs, agreements • No international agreements signed with destination countries
• Agreement signed with Macau and opened discussions with Hong Kong to cooperate on preventing and combating HT
• MOUs of cooperation signed between police departments of border cities of Mongolia and China (Erlian and Zamyn-Uud) Law enforcement • No formal responsible for human
trafficking cases
• “Institutionalized anti-trafficking work into law enforcement agencies in all 9 districts of the Capital city and 3 provinces in rural Mongolia” (HSPSC, 2012)
• Anti-trafficking unit established at the State Investigation Department
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In June 2009, the human trafficking crime was incorporated in the national Human Rights Report submitted to the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Parliament as a direct result of the work of HSPSC. It was acknowledged as an important step to bring the topic of human trafficking to the top level policy-makers. (HSPSC, 2009)
To ensure increased awareness about the HT Project and the need for effective measures against human trafficking in key high-level policy makers, the HSPSC worked with the Research Center of the Parliament through the signing of an MOU to collaborate with the Center of Policy Analysis, Research and Public Relations of the Parliament’s Secretariat. (HSPSC, 2009)
“In November 2010, HSPSC participated in the Universal Periodic Review of Mongolia at the United Nations. Through the UN Human Rights Council, the project team was able to lobby national delegates to attain on-the-record recommendations on key anti-trafficking measures to the Mongolian national delegation in Geneva. Out of 129 recommendations made by 43 UN Council Members, 13 specifically addressed human trafficking, while more than 20 other recommendations addressed HT related issues.” (HSPSC 2010)
“The UPR process proved a groundbreaking opportunity to raise the HT issue at the UN level, committing the National Government of Mongolia to accepting all 13 HT recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council.” (HSPSC 2010)
Likewise, effective cooperation with relevant Ministers of Education, Justice, and Social Welfare helped achieve successful results in prevention of human trafficking, protection of victims, and capacity building of various law enforcement officials (lawyers, prosecutors, investigators, police, etc.).
A comprehensive approach applying the ‘3Ps’ of the UN Trafficking Protocol helped HSPSC to create a solid foundation for future efforts to effectively eradicate the human trafficking
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70 crime and provided an opportunity to make a lasting impact in the future.
However, the fight against human trafficking in Mongolia is still in its initial phase and HSPSC recommended that more programmatic efforts use a comprehensive and long-term approach to further combat human trafficking and make a lasting impact. They emphasized the importance of the full enforcement of the Law on Human Trafficking and improved mechanisms in fulfilling the Government's obligations to the Palermo Protocol and establishing processes to steer political actors towards improving the battle against human trafficking. (HSPSC, 2012, p.
17)
Since the end of the HT Project, HSPSC has conducted smaller, short-term projects on anti-trafficking, which established a network of anti-trafficking NGOs. Although they preferred to continue with a comprehensive approach, donors are unwilling to invest such time and money on anti-trafficking efforts in Mongolia at this time. It is important to note, however, the progress they’ve made with the HT Project. Future anti-trafficking projects by NGOs and IOs need to learn from the good experiences of a comprehensive approach to tackle this problem.
5.4. Chapter review
This chapter explores the work of the local NGOs, IOs, and donor agencies, which have been actively engaged in anti-trafficking work since the year 2000. It identifies the main actors in local civil society and the international organizations, who have continued anti-trafficking efforts and are considered experts in the field in Mongolia; and their cooperation with the Government and government agencies.
Anti-trafficking efforts were implemented from the year 2000 and continue today. The pioneers in the field were two local NGOs – the Center for Human Rights and Development (CHRD), which focused on making changes in relevant laws, providing legal services to victims of
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trafficking and organizing trainings for law enforcement officials, and the Mongolian Gender Equality Center (MGEC), which initiated the services for the protection of victims of trafficking through shelters and psychological and social care. (CHRD 2000) The first donor agencies to contribute to the early efforts to fight against human trafficking included The Asia Foundation (TAF), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and World Vision.
(MGEC 2006)
Gradually new NGOs started to emerge and contribute to anti-trafficking efforts in Mongolia.
Some endeavors were one-time actions implemented with funding from donor agencies and others were continuous efforts by local organizations focusing on one area, e.g. assistance to child victims of trafficking, capacity-building of social workers, awareness-raising activities to vulnerable communities and the general public, etc.
Majority of the work implemented by these actors were in the form of developmental aid projects, which were mostly small-scale projects. The only project large enough in scope to include all relevant anti-trafficking measures was the comprehensive project implemented by HSPSC – the “Project to Combat Human Trafficking in Mongolia” (2008-2012), which was funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). This project is the first to implement the UN approach on a nation-wide scale applying the ‘3Ps’ and the 4th P of Partnership. The Director of the NGO and the project is viewed here as the ‘norm entrepreneur’
who influenced change in the political sector. For this reason, the bulk of this chapter will focus on the work of the HSPSC and the comprehensive project.
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