Last year, a total of 444 cases of sexual violence were reported to the Mongolian police. A disturbing development is that 218 of the victims were children – an increase of 26.7 percent on 2018. According to a study by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Mongolia, over 1080 children suffered from sexual abuse between 2012 and 2016.

The Mongolian Women’s Association has implemented a campaign against sexual violence in order to attract public attention. For example, a peaceful demonstration entitled ‘Let us protect together’ took place on Sukhbaatar square on the occasion of the International Day of Girls and Children and distributed stuffed bunnies with brochures containing statistics about child abuse in Mongolia.

Such action as the women’s initiative have played a very positive role in drawing attention to the problem. Subsequently, the Mongolian Parliament has approved tightening the punishment for perpetrators of sexual abuse and violence under the Criminal Law and the Law on Offences. The amendments were approved by parliament yesterday.