Mr. Byambadorj Jamsran, Chief Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia, has hosted a meeting with Mr. Léo Heller, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, on 17 April 2018.
At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Léo Heller introduced himself and his mandate as "I have been appointed by the United Nations with a fact-finding mission to identify whether Mongolian citizens are enjoying their right to safe drinking water and sanitation. I will collect evidences and information about availability, accessibility and quality of institutional framework of the water and sanitation sector in the country. In addition, I will seek to identify what are the obstacles and challenges for fulfilling this right for people in Mongolia. In other words, my duty is to make an assessment on safe water and sanitation from the human rights perspectives. I have visited ger districts in Mongolia as well as rural areas to see the current condition of safe water and sanitation issues.”
The National Human Rights
Commission of Mongolia has submitted its 17th annual report on
situation of human rights and freedoms in Mongolia to the Parliament on 30thMarch 2018. The first chapter of the report has covered the "Right to healthy
and safe environment: Implementation of environmental laws and public
participation” and has raised an issue of shortage of surface water as well as
water pollution.
The 17th annual report has covered an implementation status of policies and activities aimed at protecting environment, fighting environmental pollution and decreasing adverse effects and has raised concerns about mining exploitation and transportation, land and grazing erosion, and air, soil and water pollutions that are taking place in rural areas as well as in Ulaanbaatar capital city. The Commission has included recommendations in relation to the above-mentioned issues in the report for the Government consideration and necessary action. Chief Commissioner J. Byambadorj has expressed that the Commission is available to cooperate on the right to safe water and sanitation with the Special Rapporteur Mr. Heller.
Special Rapporteur Mr. Heller will release his fact-finding mission report along with his recommendations and comments based on collated data and evidences, and will present the report to the Human Rights Council during its 39th plenary session, which will take place in September 2018.
