1203 AD, a single Mongolian state was formed based on nomadic tribal groupings under the leadership of Genghis Khan. He and his immediate successors conquered nearly all of Asia and European Russia and sent armies as far as central Europe and Southeast Asia. Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan, who conquered China and established the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368 AD), gained fame in Europe through the writings of Marco Polo.

Although Mongol-led confederations sometimes exercised wide political power over their conquered territories, their strength declined rapidly after the Mongol dynasty in China was overthrown in 1368. The Manchus, a tribal group which conquered China in 1644 and formed the Qing dynasty, were able to bring Mongolia under Manchu control in 1691 as Outer Mongolia when the Khalkha Mongol nobles swore an oath of allegiance to the Manchu emperor. The Mongol rulers of Outer Mongolia enjoyed considerable autonomy under the Manchus, and all Chinese claims to Outer Mongolia following the establishment of the republic have rested on this oath. In 1727, Russia and Manchu China concluded the Treaty of Khiakta, delimiting the border between China and Mongolia that exists in large part today.

Outer Mongolia was a Chinese province (1691-1911), an autonomous state under Russian protection (1912-19), and again a Chinese province (1919-21). As Manchu authority in China waned, and as Russia and Japan confronted each other, Russia gave arms and diplomatic support to nationalists among the Mongol religious leaders and nobles. The Mongols accepted Russian aid and proclaimed their independence of Chinese rule in 1911, shortly after a successful Chinese revolt against the Manchus. By agreements signed in 1913 and 1915, the Russian Government forced the new Chinese Republican Government to accept Mongolian autonomy under continued Chinese control, presumably to discourage other foreign powers from approaching a newly independent Mongolian state that might seek support from as many foreign sources as possible.

The Russian revolution and civil war afforded Chinese warlords an opportunity to re-establish their rule in Outer Mongolia, and Chinese troops were dispatched there in 1919. Following Soviet military victories over White Russian forces in the early 1920s and the occupation of the Mongolian capital Urga in July 1921, Moscow again became the major outside influence on Mongolia. The Mongolian People's Republic was proclaimed on November 25, 1924.

Between 1925 and 1928, power under the communist regime was consolidated by the Mongolian Peoples Revolutionary Party (MPRP). The MPRP left gradually undermined rightist elements, seizing control of the party and the government. Several factors characterized the country during this period: Tthe society was basically nomadic and illiterate; there was no industrial proletariat; the aristocracy and the religious establishment shared the country's wealth; there was widespread popular obedience to traditional authorities; the party lacked grassroots support; and the government had little organization or experience.

In an effort at swift socioeconomic reform, the leftist government applied extreme measures which attacked the two most dominant institutions in the country--the aristocracy and the religious establishment. Between 1932 and 1945, their excess zeal, intolerance, and inexperience led to anti-communist uprisings. In the late 1930s, purges directed at the religious institution resulted in the desecration of hundreds of Buddhist institutions and imprisonment of more than 10,000 people.

During World War II, because of a growing Japanese threat over the Mongolian-Manchurian border, the Soviet Union reversed the course of Mongolian socialism in favor of a new policy of economic gradualism and buildup of the national defense. The Soviet-Mongolian army defeated Japanese forces that had invaded eastern Mongolia in the summer of 1939, and a truce was signed setting up a commission to define the Mongolian-Manchurian border in the autumn of that year.

Following the war, the Soviet Union reasserted its influence in Mongolia. Secure in its relations with Moscow, the Mongolian Government shifted to postwar development, focusing on civilian enterprise. International ties were expanded, and Mongolia established relations with North Korea and the new communist governments in eastern Europe. It also increased its participation in communist-sponsored conferences and international organizations. Mongolia became a member of the United Nations in 1961.

In the early 1960s, Mongolia attempted to maintain a neutral position amidst increasingly contentious Sino-Soviet polemics; this orientation changed in the middle of the decade. Mongolia and the Soviet Union signed an agreement in 1966 that introduced largescale Soviet ground forces as part of Moscow's general buildup along the Sino-Soviet frontier.

During the period of Sino-Soviet tensions, relations between Mongolia and China deteriorated. In 1983, Mongolia systematically began expelling some of the 7,000 ethnic Chinese in Mongolia to China. Many of them had lived in Mongolia since the 1950s, when they were sent there to assist in construction projects.

The following is a chronology of Mongolia's history from 1921 to the present day:

March 13, 1921: Provisional People's Government declares independence of Mongolia.

May 31, 1924: U.S.S.R. signs agreement with Peking government, referring to Outer Mongolia as an "integral part of the Republic of China," whose "sovereignty" therein the Soviet Union promises to respect.

May-September 16, 1939: Largescale fighting takes place between Japanese and Soviet-Mongolian forces along Khalkhyn Gol on Mongolia-Manchuria border, ending in defeat of the Japanese expeditionary force. Truce negotiated between U.S.S.R. and Japan.

October 6, 1949: Newly established People's Republic of China accepts recognition accorded Mongolia and agrees to establish diplomatic relations.

October 1961: Mongolia becomes a member of the United Nations.

January 27, 1987: Diplomatic relations established with the United States.

December 1989: First popular reform demonstrations. Mongolian Democratic Association organized.

January 1990: Largescale demonstrations demanding democracy held in sub-zero weather.

March 2, 1990: Soviets and Mongolians announce that all Soviet troops will be withdrawn from Mongolia by 1992.

May 1990: Constitution amended to provide for multi-party system and new elections.

July 29, 1990: First democratic elections held.

September 3, 1990: First democratically elected People's Great Hural takes office.

February 12, 1992: New constitution goes into effect.

April 8, 1992: New election law passed.

June 28, 1992: Election for the first unicameral legislature (State Great Hural).

June 6, 1993: First direct presidential election.

June 30, 1996: Election of first noncommunist government.

July 2, 2000: Election of the former communist Mongolian Peoples Revolutionary Party (MPRP); formation of new government by Prime Minister N. Enkhbayar.

In 2001, Mongolia continued its transition from a highly centralized, Communist-led state to a full-fledged, multiparty, parliamentary democracy, although these gains have not yet been consolidated. The Prime Minister is nominated by the majority party and, with the agreement of the President, is approved by the State Great Hural (Parliament), the national legislature. In 2000 the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), which held power from 1921 to 1996, won a sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections, leaving only 4 of 76 seats to opposition members. During the year 2001, the MPRP's presidential candidate was elected to his second and final term. The transition to the new Government occurred in accordance with constitutional procedures, and international observers characterized the elections as free and fair. There are 18 political parties, 4 of which hold seats in the Parliament. The judiciary is constitutionally independent, but low salaries make it vulnerable to corruption.

Despite reforms in the 1990's, the larger economic entities remain under state control; however, the private sector produces over 70 percent of the gross domestic product. The economy continued to expand and strengthen, and inflation stayed below 12 percent. The country's population is 2.37 million with a population growth rate of 1.4 percent. The country remains poor, with a per capita income of approximately $405 per year. It relies heavily on foreign economic assistance. The mainstays of the economy continue to be copper production and other mining, livestock raising (which is done by a majority of the rural population), and related food, wool, and hide processing industries, which produce goods for local consumption and for export. A growing trade and small entrepreneurial sector in the cities provides basic consumer goods. Garment manufacture and minerals, especially copper, constitute the bulk of export earnings. Lack of transportation and other infrastructure, legal and regulatory deficiencies, petty corruption and a small domestic market discourage foreign investment.

Traditional Mongols worshipped heaven (the "clear blue sky") and their ancestors, and they followed ancient northern Asian practices of shamanism, in which human intermediaries went into trance and spoke to and for some of the numberless infinities of spirits responsible for human luck or misfortune. In 1578 Altan Khan, a Mongol military leader with ambitions to unite the Mongols and to emulate the career of Chinggis, invited the head of the rising Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism to a summit. They formed an alliance that gave Altan legitimacy and religious sanction for his imperial pretensions and that provided the Buddhist sect with protection and patronage. Altan gave the Tibetan leader the title of Dalai Lama (Ocean Lama), which his successors still hold. Altan died soon after, but in the next century the Yellow Sect spread throughout Mongolia, aided in part by the efforts of contending Mongol aristocrats to win religious sanction and mass support for their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to unite all Mongols in a single state. Monasteries were built across Mongolia, often sited at the juncture of trade and migration routes or at summer pastures, where large numbers of herders would congregate for shamanistic rituals and sacrifices. Buddhist monks carried out a protracted struggle with the indigenous shamans and succeeded, to some extent, in taking over their functions and fees as healers and diviners, and in pushing the shamans to the religious and cultural fringes of Mongolian culture.

Tibetan Buddhism, which combines elements of the Mahayana and the Tantric schools of Buddhism with traditional Tibetan rituals of curing and exorcism, shares the common Buddhist goal of individual release from suffering and the cycles of rebirth. The religion holds that salvation, in the sense of release from the cycle of rebirth, can be achieved through the intercession of compassionate buddhas (enlightened ones) who have delayed their own entry to the state of selfless bliss (nirvana) to save others. Such buddhas, who are many, are in practice treated more as deities than as enlightened humans and occupy the center of a richly polytheistic universe of subordinate deities, opposing demons, converted and reformed demons, wandering ghosts, and saintly humans that reflects the folk religions of the regions into which Buddhism expanded. Tantrism contributed esoteric techniques of meditation and a repertoire of sacred icons, phrases, and gestures that easily lent themselves to pragmatic (rather than transcendental) and magical interpretation. The religion posits progressive stages of enlightenment and comprehension of the reality underlying the illusions that hamper the understanding and perceptions of those not trained in meditation or Buddhist doctrine, with sacred symbols interpreted in increasingly abstract terms. Thus, a ritual that appears to a common yak herder as a straightforward exorcism of disease demons will be interpreted by a senior monk as a representation of conflicting tendencies in the mind of a meditating ascetic.

In Tibet Buddhism thus became an amalgam, combining colorful popular ceremonies and curing rituals for the masses with the study of esoteric doctrine for the monastic elite. The Yellow Sect, in contrast to competing sects, stressed monastic discipline and the use of logic and formal debates as aids to enlightenment. The basic Buddhist tenet of reincarnation was combined with the Tantric idea that buddhahood could be achieved within a person's lifetime to produce a category of leaders who were considered to have achieved buddhahood and to be the reincarnations of previous leaders. These leaders, referred to as incarnate or living buddhas, held secular power and supervised a body of ordinary monks, or lamas (from a Tibetan title bla-ma, meaning "the revered one)". The monks were supported by the laity, who thereby gained merit and who received from the monks instructions in the rudiments of the faith and monastic services in healing, divination, and funerals.

Buddhism and the Buddhist monkhood always have played significant political roles in Central and Southeast Asia, and the Buddhist church in Mongolia was no exception. Church and state supported each other, and the doctrine of reincarnation made it possible for the reincarnations of living buddhas to be discovered conveniently in the families of powerful Mongol nobles.

Tibetan Buddhism is monastic. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Outer Mongolia had 583 monasteries and temple complexes, which controlled an estimated 20 percent of the country's wealth. Almost all Mongolian cities have grown up on the sites of monasteries. Yihe Huree, as Ulaanbaatar was then known, was the seat of the preeminent living buddha of Mongolia (the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, also known as the Bogdo Gegen and later as Bogdo Khan), who ranked third in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. Two monasteries there contained approximately 13,000 and 7,000 monks, and the prerevolutionary Mongol name of the settlement known to outsiders as Urga, Yihe Huree, means big monastery.

Over the centuries, the monasteries acquired riches and secular dependents; they gradually increased their wealth and power as those of the Mongol nobility declined. Some nobles donated a portion of their dependent families--people, rather than land, were the foundation of wealth and power in old Mongolia--to the monasteries; some herders dedicated themselves and their families to serve the monasteries either from piety or from the desire to escape the arbitrary exactions of the nobility. In some areas, the monasteries and their living buddhas (of whom there were a total of 140 in 1924) also were the secular authorities. In the 1920s, there were about 110,000 monks, including children, who made up about one-third of the male population, although many of these lived outside the monasteries and did not observe their vows. About 250,000 people, more than a third of the total population, either lived in territories administered by monasteries and living buddhas or were hereditary dependents of the monasteries. With the end of Chinese rule in 1911, the Buddhist church and its clergy provided the only political structure available, and the autonomous state thus took the form of a weakly centralized theocracy, headed by the Jebtsundamba khutuktu in Yihe Huree.

By the twentieth century, Buddhism had penetrated deeply into Mongolian culture, and the populace willingly supported the lamas and the monasteries. Foreign observers had a uniformly negative opinion of Mongolian monks, condemning them as lazy, ignorant, corrupt, and debauched, but the Mongolian people did not concur. Ordinary Mongolians apparently combined a cynical and realistic anticlericalism, sensitive to the faults and the human fallibility of individual monks or groups of monks, with a deep and unwavering concern for the transcendent values of the church.

When the revolutionaries--determined to modernize their country and to reform its society--took power, they confronted a massive ecclesiastical structure that enrolled a larger part of the population, monopolized education and medical services, administered justice in a large part of the country, and controlled a great deal of the national wealth. The Buddhist church, moreover, had no interest in reforming itself or in modernizing the country. The result was a protracted political struggle that absorbed the energies and attention of the party and its Soviet advisers for nearly twenty years. As late as 1934, the party counted 843 major Buddhist centers, about 3,000 temples of various sizes, and nearly 6,000 associated buildings, which usually were the only fixed structures in a world of felt tents. The annual income of the church was 31 million tugriks, while that of the state was 37.5 million tugriks. A party source claimed that, in 1935, monks constituted 48 percent of the adult male population. In a campaign marked by shifts of tactics, alternating between conciliation and persecution, and armed uprisings led by monks and abbots, the Buddhist church was removed progressively from public administration, was subjected to confiscatory taxes, was forbidden to teach children, and was prohibited from recruiting new monks or replacing living buddhas. The campaign's timing matched the phases of Josef Stalin's persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1938--amid official fears that the church and monasteries were likely to cooperate with the Japanese, who were promoting a pan-Mongol puppet state--the remaining monasteries were dissolved, their property was seized, and their monks were secularized. The monastic buildings were taken over to serve as local government offices or schools. Only then was the ruling party, which since 1921 gradually had built a cadre of politically reliable and secularly educated administrators, able to destroy the church and to mobilize the country's wealth and population for its program of modernization and social change.

Since at least the early 1970s, one monastery, the Gandan Monastery, with a community of 100 monks, was open in Ulaanbaatar. It was the country's sole functioning monastery. A few of the old monasteries survived as museums, and the Gandan Monastery served as a living museum and a tourist attraction. Its monks included a few young men who had undergone a five-year training period, but whose motives and mode of selection were unknown to Western observers. The party apparently thought that Buddhism no longer posed a challenge to its dominance and that-- because Buddhism had played so large a part in the country's history, traditional arts, and culture, total extirpation of knowledge about the religion and its practices would cut modern Mongols off from much of their past, to the detriment of their national identity. A few aged former monks were employed to translate Tibetan-language handbooks on herbs and traditional medicine. Government spokesmen described the monks of the Gandan Monastery as doing useful work.

Buddhism, furthermore played a role in Mongolia's foreign policy by linking Mongolia with the communist and the noncommunist states of East and Southeast Asia. Ulaanbaatar was the headquarters of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, which has held conferences for Buddhists from such countries as Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan; published a journal for international circulation; and maintained contacts with such groups as the Christian Peace Conference, the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization, and the Russian Orthodox Church. It sponsored the visits of the Dalai Lama to Mongolia in 1979 and 1982. The organization, headed by the abbot of the Gandan Monastery, advances the foreign policy goals of the Mongolian government, which are in accord with those of the Soviet Union.

Buddhism survives among the elderly, who pray and attend services at the Gandan Monastery; in the speech of the people, which is rich in Buddhist expressions and proverbs; and in the common practice of including statues or images of the Buddha on families' special shelves with photographs of relatives and other domestic memorabilia. Mongolian Buddhism, which restricted full participation in the ritual to monks and kept Tibetan as the language of ritual and sacred texts, was more vulnerable to persecution than a religion more widely dispersed among the populace would have been. Studies done among the Buryat Mongols of Siberia by Soviet ethnographers in the 1960s and the 1970s found that elimination of the complex and conceptually sophisticated culture of Tibetan Buddhism had led to a growth of the decentralized and flexible folk practice of shamanism. Similar survival or adaptation of folk religion in Mongolia would be possible, although Mongolians have published no comparable studies of religion at the local level. Approximately 4 percent of Mongolians, primarily those living in the southwest, are Muslims, as are many of their kin across the border in China. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the 1960 Constitution.

The Mongol legal heritage, based on a nomadic pastoral culture, first was unified and codified in the yasaq. The yasaq, promulgated in 1229, contained directives on state administration and military discipline, criminal law, private law, and special customs for the steppe region. It served as a basis for a more extensive legal code during the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368).

With the breakup of the Mongol empire, Mongol tribes returned to earlier customs. In 1640 an alliance of Mongol princes drafted the Mongol-Oirad Regulations, characterized by the strong influence of Lamaism and by considerably milder punishments than foreign codes of the time or previous Mongol codes. Under Qing Dynasty rule, Mongol laws and customs were combined with Chinese law.

In an effort to improve on some of the harsher aspects of the criminal justice system, the Mongolian government, in 1922, abolished various investigative tortures and corporal punishments left over from the Qing period. A November 1925 law on judicial reform provided that courts were to be guided by new laws and that punishment should be to protect public order and to reeducate criminals. The old system remained in effect, however, except when superseded by the new regulations.

The first criminal code of the Mongolian People's Republic, adopted on October 21, 1926, established a statutory basis for the control of crime and disorder. It consisted of 227 articles in 31 chapters, and it applied extensive criminal regulations and sanctions to citizens and foreigners. That code was replaced on September 23, 1929, by a new criminal code with modifications reflecting the political struggle taking place in Mongolia at that time. The 1929 code remained in effect for five years. It was replaced by the 1934 criminal code, which was adopted in two stages--the general part, confirmed on May 24, 1934, and a special part, confirmed on October 8, 1934, that expanded the scope of "counterrevolutionary" crimes and added a chapter on military crimes. The 1934 code was in turn replaced on January 17, 1942, by a code reflecting the changes in society and the influences of World War II. The 1942 code remained in effect, with numerous amendments, until January 31, 1961, when the code still in use in 1989 was confirmed.

Mongolia's first constitution, adopted by the National Great Hural on November 26, 1924, established a state structure, including courts and procuraturates, based on the Soviet system. The 1924 constitution was replaced by the 1940 constitution, closely modeled on the 1936 Soviet constitution. The 1940 constitution was replaced by the Constitution adopted on July 6, 1960. Later amendments to the 1960 Constitution increased the terms of Supreme Court members and procurators from three to four years and the terms of the members of city and people's courts from two to three years.

According to the 1961 Criminal Code, a crime was a socially dangerous act or failure to act. Insignificant acts that did not present a "social danger" were not considered crimes, even though they may have violated the letter of the law. Crimes committed against the state and socialist ownership were considered more serious than crimes against private persons. Crimes against the state included treason, espionage, terrorism, sabotage, and smuggling. Crimes against socialist ownership included theft, misappropriation, or embezzlement of state property; and intentional or negligent destruction of state property. Other crimes listed in the criminal code included murder; deliberate crippling; mayhem; impairing the health of others; rape; theft; banditry; vagrancy; destruction of state, communal, or individual property; slander; insult; misuse of guardianship; false imprisonment; forgery; hindering people in voting; illegal search of homes; violation of the privacy of correspondence, of labor laws, or of the separation of church and state, or church and school; and interference with religious freedom.

Generally, any crimes committed by military personnel and active-duty reservists were treated as military crimes. Specific military crimes included insubordination, desertion, unwarranted absence or abandonment of a duty station, evading military service through self-mutilation, violations of guard-duty rules, and mistreatment of prisoners of war.

Close attention was given to equal rights for women. According to the 1961 Criminal Code, it was a crime to force a woman to marry or to prevent her marriage, to violate the equal rights of women (for example, by preventing them from studying in a school or working in a state agency or in industry), and to refuse jobs to pregnant women or to mothers.

People sixteen and older were considered legal adults. Those between the ages of fourteen and sixteen were treated as juveniles, except in the most serious cases. Courts were encouraged to apply "compulsory measures of education" rather than criminal penalties to people younger than eighteen who had committed crimes, unless doing so would risk a serious danger to society.

According to the criminal code, punishment was intended to reeducate and correct the offender's behavior rather than to inflict bodily harm or humiliation. If court sentences were reversed, the official responsible for wrongly imposing punishment was liable to criminal court or disciplinary action.

Punishments consisted of confinement in prisons or correctional labor colonies, assignment of correctional tasks without deprivation of freedom, deportation from the country, prohibition from holding public executive or managerial jobs, fines, public reprimands, confiscation of private property, expulsion from one's native aymag, and loss of the right to hold public office. For treason, espionage, public subversion (which covers a variety of antistate crimes), murder, and armed banditry, the death penalty could be imposed. Women were exempt from the death penalty, as were men younger than eighteen or older than sixty.

Prison sentences generally were limited to terms of six months to ten years, but repeated criminal acts could be punished by prison terms as long as fifteen years. Minor theft and embezzlement usually were punished by imprisonment of up to one year, plus eighteen months of correctional tasks to be served at the convicted person's place of work or residence; repeat offenders could receive sentences of one to five years in prison.

Stricter punishments could be imposed on those who misappropriated, plundered, or stole state and public property. They could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison, and repeat offenders could be sentenced to six to fifteen years, in some cases accompanied by full or partial confiscation of property. Stealing private property could be punished by terms of up to five years in jail or by eighteen months of correctional tasks without deprivation of freedom; repeat offenders could receive five to ten years in prison. Robbery with the use or threat of force could be punished by imprisonment for ten years, and repeat offenders could be imprisoned eight to fifteen years. Malicious embezzlement and squandering of state property were punishable by death by a firing squad and confiscation of private property. A sentence of death, ten to fifteen years in prison, or property confiscation was meted out to persons using force in robbery or banditry; misappropriating funds and property, or dissipating them by illegal consumption; abusing their official positions; swindling; extorting; or showing carelessness or negligence in the discharge of official duties. Terms spent in jail awaiting trial counted toward completion of the sentence, and probation was permissible after one to five years in prison had been served. There were statutes of limitation for most crimes, and pardons occasionally were granted. Penalties against violators of public order consisted of warnings, public rebukes, fines, imprisonment, and compulsory labor for five to thirty days.

In the late 1980s, the most common crimes were theft and embezzlement of state property, black-marketing, juvenile delinquency, misappropriation of materials (food and drugs, for example), and speculation (such as selling automobiles). To combat these crimes, the authorities called for better enforcement of laws, harsher punishment for criminals, and additional public involvement in fighting crime.

Hooliganism and vandalism by juvenile delinquents in the towns and cities also caused the authorities grave concern. Much of this activity was attributed to the rising rate of divorce and to broken homes. To combat this situation, the authorities called for efforts to strengthen the family structure; to ensure better compliance with family and marriage laws; to improve the laws on family, marriage, child adoption, and guardianship; and to better integrate schools with the job market, in order to discourage idleness among students more effectively.

In 1989 Mongolian government and party leaders, now less fearful of foreign threat, were taking steps to reduce the size of the armed forces and to make further use of the skills of demobilized military personnel in support of the civilian economy. The leaders were more concerned with the threats of corruption and of incompetence in law enforcement that allowed for an increase in crime, especially economic crimes. To remedy this situation, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party called for renewed efforts to reform law-enforcement organizations by enhancing the role of the Ministry of Justice, to ensure the independence of prosecutors, and to improve the training and evaluation of judicial cadre.

With the important exception of murder, the crime rate in Mongolia is low compared to more industrialized countries. An analysis was done using INTERPOL data for Mongolia. For purpose of comparison, data were drawn for the seven offenses used to compute the United States FBI's index of crime. Index offenses include murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. The combined total of these offenses constitutes the Index used for trend calculation purposes. Mongolia will be compared with Japan (country with a low crime rate) and USA (country with a high crime rate). According to the INTERPOL data, for murder, the rate in 2000 was 31.98 per 100,000 population for Mongolia, 1.10 for Japan, and 5.51 for USA. For rape, the rate in 2000 was 16.51 for Mongolia, compared with 1.78 for Japan and 32.05 for USA. For robbery, the rate in 2000 was 17.78 for Mongolia, 4.08 for Japan, and 144.92 for USA. For aggravated assault, the rate in 2000 was 68.42 for Mongolia, 23.78 for Japan, and 323.62 for USA. For burglary, the rate in 2000 was 475.33 for Mongolia, 233.60 for Japan, and 728.42 for USA. The rate of larceny for 2000 was 209.37 for Mongolia, 1401.26 for Japan, and 2475.27 for USA. The rate for motor vehicle theft in 2000 was 1.81 for Mongolia, compared with 44.28 for Japan and 414.17 for USA. The rate for all index offenses combined was 821.2 for Mongolia, compared with 1709.88 for Japan and 4123.97 for USA. (Note that in the above data, data for rape and larceny were missing from the year 2000 report, so data for 1998 and 1996 - nearest years reported - were substituted.)

Between 1995 and 2000, according to INTERPOL data, the rate of murder increased from 18.01 to 31.98 per 100,000 population, an increase of 77.6%. The rate for rape increased from 14.87 to 16.51, an increase of 11%. The rate of robbery decreased from 23.49 to 17.78, a decrease of 24.3%. The rate for aggravated assault increased from 40.84 to 68.42, an increase of 67.5%. The rate for burglary increased from 324.88 to 475.33, an increase of 46.3%. The rate of larceny increased from 174.75 to 209.37, an increase of 19.8%. The rate of motor vehicle theft decreased from 4.91 to 1.81, a decrease of 63.1%. The rate of total index offenses increased from 601.75 to 821.2, an increase of 36.5%.

The people of Mongolia were subject to the control of a variety of political, economic, and social organizations inside and outside the government. The entire system was guided by the party, which directed the overall policies of the government agencies; other political groups, such as the youth and labor organizations; and the network of herding and agricultural cooperatives that extended to include the lowliest arad. Through this hierarchy of formal control and the dynamics of its politico-social activities, the central government extended its general, and often extremely particular, direction over the entire population.

In the government structure itself, the security system comprised the Ministry of Public Security under which were the central Militia Office and the network of police departments, called militia departments; the State Security Administration; the Fire Prevention Administration; the Border and Internal Troops Administration; and the offices handling correctional organizations. In addition, both governmental and public auxiliary law-enforcement groups helped these agencies to maintain public order and safety.

The national police apparatus, commonly called the militia, had a department in each aymag and a militia office in each district. The militia was responsible for the registration and supervision of the internal passports that all citizens aged sixteen and older were required to carry, and for enforcement of the passport regulations at the national and local levels. A passport was necessary for internal travel, and persons wishing to travel first had to obtain permission from the militia. After arriving at their destination, they had to register with the militia. The militia collected the passports of those entering military service. The passports of persons under criminal investigation and detention were held by the investigative organ, but those who were sentenced to prison surrendered their passports to the militia. A system of tight control was imposed upon the movements of all citizens. The militia also had been designated as the organ of criminal investigation--giving central direction to police work and combining the functions of criminal investigation and criminal arrest. The procurators supervised the militia's crime-detection work. Militia investigators were expected to have strong political convictions, a knowledge of jurisprudence, extensive working experience, loyalty, and honesty.

Militia organs, together with local assemblies administered compulsory labor sentences of convicted criminals. Militiamen, as well as the executive committees of local governments, had authority to put intoxicated persons into detention houses for twenty-four hours or less and to fine them.

Each militia office had a motor-vehicle inspection bureau, which regulated vehicular traffic, investigated accidents, issued licenses, and could impose fines on operators guilty of minor law infractions. Detectives attached to motor vehicle inspection bureaus also investigated vehicular accidents. Militia members directed motor traffic, and they were stationed along the railroads.

The Ministry of Public Security also was responsible for the Fire Prevention Administration and the State Security Administration. The Fire Prevention Administration supervised all fire-prevention and fire-fighting activities. The State Security Administration was a counterintelligence organization thought to oversee anti-espionage, antisubversion, and anti-sabotage activities.

The Border and Internal Troops Administration was in charge of 15,000 troops responsible for border patrol, for guard duties, and for immigration control. Border defense troops were equipped with fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, tanks, motor vehicles and motorcycles, radio communications equipment, engineering equipment, and automatic weapons.

Various governmental and public organizations assisted the regular law-enforcement agencies in keeping order. Public brigades had been organized as auxiliaries to help the militia in crime detection and prevention, in gathering evidence, in observing public gatherings, in finding stolen goods, and in tracking escaped criminals. In addition, there were mass social organizations, including block and district committees, and parents' committees in schools. These citizens' groups were used to help fight such crimes as murder, burglary, theft, and arson. They also could function as deputies or special police, as the occasion demanded. In addition, there were administrative committees, special police courts, committees of public-spirited citizens to deal with juvenile delinquents, and anticrime commissions in the larger cities and towns.

The most important of these bodies were the Crime Fighting and Crime Prevention Councils, which were voluntary and informal party organizations operating without paid staffs at all levels of the party-government structure. These councils were strictly advisory bodies, and they had no authority to replace judicial or law-enforcement agencies in any way. Their function was to discuss in general terms the problems of crime and how best to combat it.

Security forces are under civilian control. The Minister of Defense is a civilian (who retired from the military to accept the position). The security forces are divided among the Ministry of Defense (MOD), the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs (MOJHA), and the General Intelligence Agency (GIA). Military forces under the MOD are responsible for external security, but border security forces are under MOJHA control during peacetime. Civil defense is subordinate to the MOD, giving the MOD a role in internal security. National police, with primary responsibility for law enforcement, fall under the MOJHA. The GIA, formerly the State Security Agency, is responsible for internal security; its civilian head has ministerial status and reports directly to the Prime Minister. Reduced Government spending continued to force downsizing of the military forces and all security forces operate on a minimal budget. Police have on occasion, committed human rights abuses.

There were no reports of the arbitrary or unlawful deprivations of life committed by the Government or its agents; however, it is suspected that the killing of the Minister of Infrastructure in October 1998 was politically motivated. Although the investigation is ongoing, the inability to solve this case continues to be a major problem for the Government.

The Constitution prohibits such practices; however, while reports of such actions diminished, the police in rural areas occasionally beat prisoners and detainees, and the use of unnecessary force in the arrest process is not uncommon. During the year 2001, it was alleged that five persons accused of killing a shopkeeper in 1999 were tortured during the last 2 years while in detention centers in order to get them to confess. One of the five died of tuberculosis in pretrial detention and the other four reported being subjected to severe abuse such as electrical shocks, being forced to drink their own blood, and threats to family members. A joint monitoring commission from the central police and the state prosecutor's office claimed its investigation found no basis for the allegations of torture. However, the Supreme Court ordered the case reinvestigated in view of questions raised concerning evidence presented at the trial by the prosecution and the absence of legal counsel for the defendants during the early months of their detention.

The Constitution prohibits such actions, and the Government generally respected these provisions in practice. The head of the GIA may, with the knowledge and consent of the Prime Minister, direct the monitoring and recording of telephone conversations. The extent of such monitoring is unknown. Police wiretaps must be approved by the Prosecutor's Office and are authorized for only 2 weeks at a time.

The Constitution provides that no person shall be searched, arrested, detained, or deprived of liberty except by law, and these protections have been incorporated into the criminal code; however, arbitrary arrest and detention remain problems. Furthermore, general public awareness of basic rights and judicial procedures is limited. Under the criminal code, police may arrest those caught committing or suspected of a crime and hold them for up to 72 hours before the decision is made to prosecute or release. A prosecutor must issue a warrant for incarceration of longer duration or when the actual crime was not witnessed. A detainee has the right to a defense attorney during this period and during any subsequent stage of the legal process. If a defendant cannot afford a private attorney, the Government appoints an attorney. Detainees may be released on bail with the agreement of the prosecutor.

Citizens are not always aware of their rights in regard to arrest and detention procedures. In 2000 a one-time amnesty law affected 1,000 inmates and detainees by reducing the sentences of inmates and releasing detainees held on insufficient evidence. The criminal system can legally detain a suspect for up to 3 years. The police may detain a suspect for up to 10 months, and the prosecutor can authorize up to an additional 26 months of pretrial detention. For example, in 2000 of 6,300 detainees, 7 persons were held in pretrial detention for more than 9 months, 19 were held longer than 5 months and 37 were held more than 2 months; numbers through October were 2, 19 and 40 respectively. There were no political detainees.

According to administrative regulation, if a person was wrongly charged with a crime, the Government will restore the person's rights and reputation and compensate him.

The Government does not use forced exile.

The legal system of Mongolia is a blend of Russian, Chinese, Turkish, and Western systems of law that combines aspects of a parliamentary system with some aspects of a presidential system.

The new constitution empowered a General Council of Courts (GCC) to select all judges and protect their rights. The Supreme Court is the highest judicial body. Justices are nominated by the GCC and confirmed by the SGH and president. The court is constitutionally empowered to examine all lower court decisions--excluding specialized court rulings--upon appeal and provide official interpretations on all laws except the constitution.

Specialized civil, criminal, and administrative courts exist at all levels and are not subject to Supreme Court supervision. Local authorities--district and city governors--ensure that these courts abide by presidential decrees and SGH decisions. At the apex of the judicial system is the Constitutional Court, which consists of nine members, including a chairman, appointed for 6-year terms, whose jurisdiction extends solely over the interpretation of the constitution.

The Supreme Court is described in the Constitution as "the highest judicial authority" that directs "all...judicial agencies and also establishes supervision over their judicial activity." It is elected for a four-year term by the People's Great Hural, and it presides over the lower structure made up of eighteen aymag courts and local somon courts. Members of the local court structure were elected locally, and the judges for these courts served three-year terms. Elected in May 1986, the chairman of the Supreme Court, Lubsandorjiyn Renchin, had a first deputy and two other deputies, including the chairmen of the criminal affairs and the military affairs collegia.

The Procurator of the Republic exercises "supreme supervision over the precise observance of laws by all ministries and other central agencies of administrations, institutions and organizations." The procurator was appointed by the People's Great Hural for a term of four years.

The law and the legal system were described officially as being solidly grounded in the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. The purpose was to ensure that the socioeconomic order produced and shaped a distinctive political, economic, and legal superstructure. Within this context, the principal function of law was to regulate the economy and to contribute to the building of socialism. As of 1989, there still was a limited role for custom in the area of socialist law, but only those considered compatible with prevailing legal norms persisted. There also was a new emphasis on equal rights for women. For the most part, the law functioned as a body of prescriptive regulations that guided social relationships and interpreted the duties of citizens in ways that the party found to be in the best interests of society and development. In general, regulations and codes controlled more areas of life than ever before.

Two separate legal codes form the basis of Mongolian law--the Civil Code and the Criminal Code. The Civil Code, which went into effect in April 1963, was modeled closely on the code adopted by the Soviet Union in 1963. This code regulates personal relations more carefully than had been the case before its enactment. It extends certain rights, including protecting the honor and the dignity of citizens. The code enlarges the discussion of obligations to include contracts of delivery and carriage-- matters essential to efficient business operations. There also are law codes that apply to the family and to the workplace.

Formal training in law was given under the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Mongolian State University. Beginning in 1980, 100 full-time students per year were enrolled at this institution. Although the Constitution contains no channel of appeal, the law does provide for appeals of all verdicts except those of the Supreme Court.

The Constitution charges the courts with administering justice in accordance with the laws of the state; with upholding the Constitution; with protecting the rights and interests of the state; with protecting state, public, and cooperative property; and with safeguarding the personal, political, and property rights of the citizens. Courts try cases of treason; sabotage; embezzlement of state, cooperative, and public property; theft; robbery; swindling; and other crimes based on the criminal code. They also try cases involving losses inflicted on private citizens, on the state, and on cooperative and public enterprises and organizations according to the civil code.

Courts punish persons convicted of crimes, but they also serve as educative and political agencies. They correct, reeducate, and reform criminals. They are called on to train citizens in the spirit of "dedication to the fatherland" and in the cause of "socialist democracy"; to uphold the strict and undeviating observance of the law; to train citizens in the careful treatment of state, cooperative, and other public property; and to support the observation of labor discipline, the honoring of state and public duty, and respect for the rules of communal life. The courts are expected to promote popular attitudes of loyalty, patriotism, peaceful behavior, and enthusiasm for socialism; to uphold conformity with the laws and respect for public property and labor discipline; and to involve citizens in state and civic affairs.

The court system consists of the Supreme Court, aymag courts, city courts, and special courts. Except in special cases for which provisions are made by law, all cases in all courts are tried by permanent judges in the presence of assessors, who are elected representatives sitting on the bench with the judges. The assessors hear the evidence, may question witnesses and the accused, examine the case as presented by the procurator, and participate in findings and sentences. When a question of law or its interpretation arises, however, the judge's opinion rules. An assessor may serve for no more than twenty days per year, unless the nature of a case or crime requires the period to be extended. Citizens twenty-three years or older who have never been convicted by a court are eligible for election as judges and assessors.

According to the Constitution, the Supreme Court is the highest judicial body. It is elected by the People's Great Hural for a term of four years, and it is responsible and accountable to the People's Great Hural and its presidium (Article 66 of the Constitution as amended). It consists of a chairman, a deputy chairman, members, and assessors, as may be determined by the People's Great Hural. The Plenum of the Supreme Court consists of the chairman, the deputy chairman, and all members meeting together in a general session. The Presidium of the Supreme Court consists of a committee of selected members. There is a judicial chamber in charge of criminal cases, another in charge of civil cases, and a third in charge of overseeing the work of all the judicial organs of the state.

The Supreme Court directs, inspects, and reviews the work of all the lower courts. It supervises all judicial work in the state, and it formulates national legal policies. The court holds a general session at least once a month, that is attended by the procurator or the procurator's deputy. Decisions at general sessions are adopted by voice majority of the membership. Such sessions may change previous interpretations of the laws, but not the Constitution. Only the Presidium of the People's Great Hural has the right to examine and change decisions reached in the Supreme Court's general sessions or in court cases. The Presidium of the Supreme Court reviews the work of all lower courts and investigates the general causes of crime in the country. The Supreme Court also may take jurisdiction over certain cases, presumably those posing serious difficulties, problems of legal procedure or jurisprudence, or serious dangers to the state that ordinarily would be tried by military or by railroad courts.

In 1989 there were about 100 circuit courts throughout the country--5 to 7 in each aymag. Circuit courts serve about 340 counties, or somons, and towns. Each circuit court has jurisdiction over several somons in dealing with citizen complaints and with criminal and civil cases. Judges and jurors are elected for three-year terms--the judges by the regular session of the aymag assemblies, the jurors by direct elections. The courts promote knowledge of the laws, and they work for crime prevention.

Each aymag and city court consists of a chairman, a deputy chairman, members, and assessors. Judges and assessors are elected for two-year terms by the local assemblies of people's deputies. These courts can try all criminal cases except those that fall under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the special courts, and the state arbitration organs. These courts also engage in crime prevention propaganda and the popularization of the law. They report on their own work to aymag and municipal assemblies.

There also are special military and railroad transport courts. Each is staffed by a chairman, a deputy chairman, members, and assessors; all are elected by the People's Great Hural to three-year terms. Military courts try cases involving military personnel, fire fighters, and militia members. Railroad courts try cases connected with the operation of railroad lines and with criminal and civil offenses committed by railroad workers. A trial is carried out under the chairmanship of one judge, assisted by two assessors.

The Constitution establishes the Office of the Procurator of the Republic. It vests the position with supreme supervisory power over the strict observance of the laws by all ministries and other central administrative bodies, and by the institutions and organizations subordinate to them; by local bodies; by all public and cooperative organizations; by all officials; and by all citizens. The procurator is appointed by the People's Great Hural to a four-year term and is responsible and accountable to the People's Great Hural and its presidium. The procurator appoints aymag, somon, and municipal procurators for three-year terms. These local procurators are subordinate only to the procurator of higher rank.

Thus the procuratorial system parallels that of the courts, and its chain of command extends unbroken from top to bottom. The Office of the Procurator serves as a check on the entire court system, as well as on the government apparatus. As such it wields enormous power and is a strong arm of the party for enforcing its national policies.

The procurator is authorized to review the activities of the Ministry of State Security and its field organizations, all organizations of inquiry, all militia units, and all judicial organizations. The procurator's staff reviews all cases, takes account of sentences, and checks on the legality of detentions and on prison conditions. It supports public prosecution work in each locality, issues arrest warrants and confirms indictments, protests against laws it considers illegal or unconstitutional, checks the legality of resolutions, ensures that state orders and regulations are properly issued, and supervises all public prosecutors and the investigative apparatus.

The deputy procurator is appointed by the procurator for a three-year term, subject to confirmation by the Presidium of the People's Great Hural. The incumbent is charged with reviewing the investigative organs of the Ministry of State Security and the militia; with checking prison conditions and the legality of detentions; with reviewing legal judgments, rulings, and decisions of regular and special courts; and with participating in Supreme Court preparatory and judicial sessions as the procurator's representative.

The assistant procurator is appointed by the procurator and confirmed by the Presidium of the People's Great Hural. The assistant procurator supervises the coroners, the Office of the Military Procurator, and the border guards; is responsible for prompt action on all statements and complaints from state and public institutions and private citizens; and supervises the legal personnel on the procurator's staff and legal training in the country.

At the local level, aymag and municipal procurators issue arrest warrants, direct coroners and militia organs in crime investigations, and review the investigative activity of the organs under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Coroners, under direction of the procurators, are required to make prompt inquiry into all criminal cases. They appear in court in criminal cases as expert witnesses and in civil cases as defenders for workers and the state. They may be members of the medical bureaus that are attached to all courts in order to examine victims injured in crimes, to perform autopsies, and to conduct scientific investigations. Bailiffs at each level are appointed by the court chairman. They see that the decisions and sentences imposed by the courts are carried out.

All persons charged with a violation can be handed over, together with the evidence against them, to the courts of local assemblies by official and public organizations, local authorities, procurators, militia members, or citizens. An accused person has the right to be tried within one month of arrest or is automatically absolved.

Court proceedings are conducted in Mongol, but a person not speaking the language has the right both to an interpreter and to use his or her own language in court. Accused people are guaranteed the right to defend themselves. All cases are heard in public, except for special cases in which the law provides for closed courts.

Verdicts, decrees, and decisions of all courts except the Supreme Court may be appealed by the defense or by the prosecution. Decisions and sentences legally in force can be protested only by the chairman of the Supreme Court, by the state procurator, or by the minister of state security.

Mongolia maintained both prison camps and correctional or educational colonies in the 1980s. There also were detention camps for minor offenders, designed to rehabilitate them by "socially useful labor." Such labor included town-improvement projects: cleaning the street, and repairing buildings. Those performing this labor received neither wages nor food; they purchased their food or depended on their families to provide it. Local jails existed for brief detentions (twenty-four hours or less) of intoxicated persons and those awaiting indictment.

However, overall prison conditions improved while conditions in detention centers remained the same. Different authorities administer the pretrial detention system and the prison system, which creates tensions between the two and limits management improvements.

Many inmates entered prison already infected with tuberculosis or contracted it in prison. During the year 2001, the Government, with the aid of foreign donors, concluded a program begun in 1997 for surveying and determining methods of treatment of tuberculosis among inmates. As a result of the program, the Government established a tuberculosis hospital that provides treatment for a considerably larger number of prisoners and better isolates infected persons from the general prison population. The percentage of inmates who die of the disease continued to decline from previous years, decreasing by 50 percent to under 50 deaths. Conditions in pretrial detention facilities, where suspects can be held for up to 36 months, often are worse than in the prisons and contribute significantly to the tuberculosis problem.

Although the number of inmates remained fairly constant, the seriousness of crimes allegedly committed by those detained increased. Overcrowding in prisons is declining while overcrowding in detention centers is common. The detention center population continues to exceed capacity by approximately 25 percent, aggravating management, health, and funding problems. To address these problems under the continuing reform process, prison inmates in the capital were divided into smaller groups managed by trained personnel and provided health and hygiene instructions.

Outside Ulaanbaatar, juveniles between the ages of 14 and 18 who are charged with crimes are kept in the same detention centers as adults and are not segregated from the adult population. During the year 2001, a separate facility for juveniles was established in Ulaanbaatar and designated a training center. Improvements in detention and prison conditions outside of the capital are significantly less or nonexistent because of lack of funding. Families continue to gain better access to inmates, alleviating some of the hardship in obtaining food and clothing. At least two national and six foreign NGO's are working to improve conditions in prisons and detention centers, distributing clothing, food, books, and textbooks, and providing English-language instruction and training in computers and trades.

The Government permits prison visits by human rights monitors, but visits to pretrial detention centers are more difficult to arrange. Nonetheless, Amnesty International (AI) has on occasion visited prisons and detention centers.

The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary, and the courts are independent in practice, although corruption is a problem.

The judiciary consists of local courts, provincial courts, and the Supreme Court. The 17-member Supreme Court is the court of final appeal, hearing appeals from lower courts and cases involving alleged misconduct by high-level officials. Local courts hear mostly routine criminal and civil cases; provincial courts hear more serious cases such as rape, murder, and grand larceny and also serve as the appeals court for lower court decisions. The Constitutional Court, separate from the criminal court system, has sole jurisdiction over constitutional questions. The General Council of Courts, an administrative body within the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, nominates candidates for vacancies on both the Supreme and lower courts; the President has the power to approve or refuse such nominations. The Council also is charged with ensuring the rights of judges and providing for the independence of the judiciary. During the year 2001, a human rights course became mandatory for all law students.

All accused persons are provided due process, legal defense, and a public trial, although closed proceedings are permitted in cases involving state secrets, rape cases involving minors, and other cases provided by law. Defendants do not enjoy a presumption of innocence. Defendants may question witnesses and appeal decisions. The number of complaints made to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) representatives about the legal system have not increased during the year 2001, but these complaints are being referred to the NCHR. The UNHCHR closed its separate office in March. A smaller operation functions under the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). However, the UNHCHR established local representatives in every province.

There were no reports of political prisoners. Each September, the Government pays public respects to the memory of victims of political repression from 1922 through the 1960s. Since 1991, more than 30,000 persons have been absolved of accusations leveled against them. In 1991 the Government began giving apartments and monetary compensation to surviving victims or to the victims' spouses. Since 1991, the Government has provided over 400 apartments and gers (a traditional nomadic dwelling of the Mongols), including 54 in the first half of the year. In 1998 the State Rehabilitation Commission began providing compensation to other family members of victims in the form of cash grants of $500 and $1000 (between 500,000 and one million tugrik). The program subsequently was halted due to a budget shortfall but is scheduled to resume as soon as budget problems are resolved. Since the inception of the program, more than 14,000 persons have received more than $11 million (11 billion tugrik) in compensation. The program, scheduled to end in 2000, was extended for an additional 3 years. Some 16,000 petitions remain to be processed.

Rape and domestic abuse are illegal, and offenders can be prosecuted after formal charges have been filed. There is no law specifically prohibiting spousal rape. Domestic violence against women is a serious problem. There are no reliable or exact statistics regarding the extent of such abuse but a wide range of qualified observers believe that it is common, and could affect as much as one-third of the female population. In 2000 over 30 percent of those who received administrative punishment were involved in domestic violence, and 49.1 percent of them were charged with spousal abuse. Approximately 98.5 percent of those who commit violent crimes in the home are male. In 1998 crimes involving violence against women were 20.6 percent of all household crimes while in 2000 the number increased to 25.2 percent. Further, domestic abuse is becoming more violent; different statistical sources state that between 10 and 24 percent of murders occur in the home. In the last 3 years 206 murder cases were registered in the capital city; 13 percent of them involved the murder of females in the home. In 1998 murders of females were 8 percent of all murder cases; in 1999 and 2000 the number almost doubled to 14.1 and 16.6 percent respectively. After many years of government and societal denial, there is increasing public and media discussion of domestic violence, including spousal and child abuse. However, a common perception is that domestic abuse is either a family issue or not a problem at all. The large economic and societal changes underway have created new stresses on families, including loss of jobs, inflation, and lowered spending on social and educational programs. Some statistics show that over 70 percent of the cases of family abuse are related to alcohol abuse. The high rate of alcohol abuse has contributed to increased instances of family abuse and abandonment, and has added to the number of single-parent families, most of which are headed by women. Although women's groups advocate new statutes to cope with domestic violence, there is no known police or government intervention in cases involving violence against women beyond prosecution under existing criminal laws after formal charges have been filed. However, women are hesitant to prosecute because of likely long-term detention of spouses in detention centers and the resulting loss of household income.

There are reports that some women and teens work in the sex trade in Asia and Eastern Europe; an unknown number of them may have been trafficked.

The society has a long tradition of support for communal raising of children. The Government is more willing to admit the extent of the problem of orphaned children, but it lacks the resources to improve the welfare of children who have become the victims of larger societal and familial changes. NGO's continued to assist orphaned and abandoned children. The Government does not publish statistics on street children; however, the 2000 census numbered homeless youths between 7 and 19 years of age at approximately 1,300. NGO's place street children in three categories: those who are homeless, those who have homes but left because of abuse or poverty, and those who beg or scavenge and return home at night. NGO's provide limited services to all three categories of street children. Groups working in the field disagree on the number of street children but estimate that it is as high as 3,000. Although evidence is limited, there are reports that female street children sometimes face sexual abuse. The Government supports two private shelters, one for children from birth to age 3, and the other for children from 3 to 16 years of age. A number of charities and NGO's operate private shelters. While government facilities receive government funding, finances are inadequate and the Government uses foreign aid to help sustain the orphanages. The law stipulates the obligations regarding divorce, custody, and alimony to the benefit of the parent caring for children. It provides for more speedy resolution of divorce cases where the relevant agencies have determined that domestic violence is involved.

There is growing awareness that child abuse, often associated with parental alcoholism, is a problem. In conjunction with efforts to counter violence against women, NGO's have begun to address the issue. The Ministry of Social Welfare and Labor has added a Department for Women and Youth Issues. Awareness of child labor as a problem is growing. In October 2000, the Parliament ratified ILO Convention 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labor. In November the Government ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

The law does not specifically prohibit trafficking in persons, and there is evidence that women and teenagers are working in the sex trade in Asia and Eastern Europe and may have been the victims of trafficking rings. The country is both a source and transit point for trafficking.

Although most officials and NGO's find it difficult to estimate the extent of the trafficking, increasing attention is being focused on the issue. It is believed that the primary targets of trafficking schemes are young women, ranging in age from 14 years to the mid-20s, who come from the middle class. These girls and women are lured abroad by offers to study or work. It is not difficult to traffic persons across the country's borders. Some NGO experts believe that members of the police sometimes are involved in trafficking young women and helping facilitate their movement across the border. During the year 2001, an NGO began providing training and education with respect to trafficking for police officials.

Drug trafficking and abuse is not widespread in Mongolia. Since Mongolia opened its border to China, however, it has become vulnerable to illegal trade of all sorts, including drug trafficking. We believe that an increasing number of illegal migrants who transit Mongolia, usually going from China to Russia or Europe, transport or traffic in narcotics. Police and government observers suspect that the increase in prostitution, trafficking in women, and government-sponsored casino gambling in Mongolia means drug-related activities also will increase. Wedged between China and Russia with borders that are not tightly protected, Mongolia could become an alternate transit route for drug traffickers stymied by more stringent border controls and counternarcotics efforts elsewhere. Although Mongolia is a party to the 1961 Single Convention and its 1972 Protocol, Mongolia is not a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, since many of its provisions are not applicable to circumstances in Mongolia. The USG has concluded a Customs Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement (CMAA) with the government of Mongolia.

Poor and underdeveloped, Mongolia is ill equipped to address the reported increased availability and use of marijuana, heroin, amphetamines, and over-the-counter drugs by all generations. Mongolian internal corruption and financial crimes are unrelated to narcotics activities. The weakness of the legal system and financial structure leave Mongolia vulnerable to exploitation by drug traffickers and international criminal organizations, particularly those operating in China and Russia.

Internet research assisted by Laura Curtis