Discussion on newly amended Criminal Code held
The Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs and Parliament’s Standing Committee on Law last weekend hosted a discussion about the implementation of the new Criminal Code, which entered into force on July 1 last year.
Since 2015, amendments to the Criminal Code were discussed through two legislatures and three cabinets, and Parliament adopted the amendments last year. Although the newly adopted Criminal Code focused on protecting human rights and freedom, public and private property, enhancing safety and security of citizens and society, and the legal system, there have been a lot of complaints from the public and law enforcement agencies.
Nearly 400 representatives from Parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the law enforcement agencies, and human rights non-government organizations participated in the discussion.
In the discussion’s opening remarks, Kh.Nyambaatar, a member of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Law, said, “The main focuses of the discussion is first of all to discuss challenges in the implementation of the newly amended law and consolidate proposed changes about how to improve the law; secondly, present the minister of justice and internal affairs with recommendations from the discussion; and thirdly, the justice minister will draft further amendments to the Criminal Code.”
He added that Cabinet will propose Parliament to review amendments to the Criminal Code, which will be drafted by the minister of justice during the spring session.
The public is pleased with some parts of the amended Criminal Code.
For example, in the amended law, a person who has committed crime in a state of drunkenness or narcotic intoxication will hold criminal liability; a person who was coerced to commit a crime shall not be criminally liable if he reports it to the police and cooperates in the investigation; if an enterprise declares bankrupt or its business is unable to compete with other companies or faces losses due to an illegal decision made by a government official, the government official will be charged depending on the company’s losses (a fine or up to five years in prison).
Deputy Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs B.Enkhbayar noted that after the amended Criminal Code entered into force, revenue from fines increased by 30 billion MNT since 2016, which shows an “advantage” of the amended law.
Scientific Secretary of the Law Enforcement University G.Gantumur stated that law enforcement agencies have faced some challenges as the amended Criminal Code was updated by some practices applied in other countries, especially in Western Europe. He added that lawmakers should think about of the country’s society and citizens’ behavior before making amendments to laws, especially the Criminal Code, and noted that making amendments to a law should focus on improving the legal environment, enhancing the protection of people’s rights and moving society forward, but some new laws and amendments are being copied from laws applied in other countries that have a very different society, culture, religion and economy from Mongolia.
Some attendees pointed out that as many people who engaged in crimes related to fraud could escape punishment due statutes of limitations in the amended law, the Ministry of Justice and Internal Affairs and Parliament should work on closing loopholes related to this problem and tighten the legal environment to address this matter.
...Although the newly adopted Criminal Code focused on protecting human rights and freedom, public and private property, enhancing safety and security of citizens and society, and the legal system, there have been a lot of complaints from the public and law enforcement agencies...