The Criminal Code: Room for Improvement

The UN, via the UB Post, provides a bit more news that not all is sweetness and light in the land of the eternal sky.

Law enforcement agencies in Mongolia are largely known for their less exemplary behavior. Even local Mongolians know that the last people to call when a crime takes place are the police. Corruption, a problem in many official spheres in the country, is also a huge problem among the police, and justice isn't something that they serve up as reliably as one might hope.

[The UN rapporteur] was also concerned with the secrecy surrounding the application of the death penalty, especially the absence of any official data. The deplorable conditions on death row and the failure to notify families, amounted to cruelty, according to Nowak. He also noted that the treatment of prisoners serving 30-year terms in isolation is inhumane. However, the ‘ordinary’ prison regime was found generally to be in line with international standards.

Mr. Nowak highlighted that impunity in Mongolia for violations of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment goes unimpeded because of the absence in the Criminal Code of a definition of torture in line with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He also noted a lack of effective mechanisms to receive and investigate allegations of ill-treatment and a basic lack of awareness primarily on behalf of prosecutors, lawyers and the judiciary of the international standards relating to the prohibition of torture. There is consequently no recourse of compensation and rehabilitation for torture and other forms of ill treatment.

The more reports like this get out, the better for Mongolia in the long run. Let's hope that Mongolian law enforcement sheds the habits acquired during the era of totalitarian police-statism and adopts a new--and enforced--crimial code.