Mongolia
The following Justice Initiative projects are underway in, or relevant to, Mongolia:
National Criminal Justice Reform
Mongolia: Legal Aid Reform
The project’s objective is to assist the government to establish an effective legal aid management and delivery structure, and to ensure that the legal needs of indigenous persons in Mongolia are met at reasonable cost. The project is also exploring the benefits of introducing salaried public defenders, to take a prominent role in urban areas, while private lawyers continue in rural areas, under a unified coordination and management system. Read needs assessment study of the legal aid system and National Forum on Access to Justice's recommendations.
Anticorruption
Financing of Mongolian Election Campaigns to be Monitored
May 4, 2004—Campaign financing will come under scrutiny in Mongolia for the first time, following the launch of a new election monitoring initiative last week. Assessing the use of public resources in election campaigns, said R.Burmaa, director of the Ulan Bator-based Voters Education Centre, will level the playing field for all parties, and promote free and fair elections.
Legal Capacity Development
Regional: Clinical Legal Education
Through careful allocation of resources the Justice Initiative will strive to capitalize on progress in countries where clinics have achieved rapid growth, while helping to promote clinical education in places where the idea has yet to take off. High quality clinics have emerged in Armenia, Hungary, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland and Russia, and there have been promising developments in Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania and Romania. Buyan Legal Clinic and Mongolian Women Lawyers' Association (MWLA) are the Justice Initiative's partner institutions in the area of legal capacity development in Mongolia.
Regional: Teacher Training Program
The Justice Initiative presently organizes two teacher-training sessions per year—for Russian-speaking from the former Soviet Union and Mongolia and for English-speaking audiences from central and east Europe. Training sessions in 2003 focus on Challenges of Teaching Trial Advocacy Skills and Professional Ethics. The Russian-language session took place in Yerevan, Armenia, on 2-4 May 2003. Thirty participants took part, mainly from the former Soviet Union and Mongolia.