The Parliament of Mongolia amended the Constitution of Mongolia on November 14, 2019, according to the second part of Article 6.2 of the Constitution of Mongolia “… By using subsoil resources within the right of citizens to live in a healthy and safe environment have the right to know about the impact on the environment”.
In order to exercise this constitutional right, the Law on Environmental Protection and the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment provide for measures to be taken by citizens to monitor the status of subsoil use, environmental impact, rehabilitation and monitoring by the authorities. The legal regulation of the right to know and the legal regulation of the exercise of constitutional rights are in the process of being approved.
This is very important regulation. There are frequent tripartite disputes between citizens and company using subsoils or project implementer and local authorities such as Governor and Citizens’ Representative Meeting.
Citizens complain that companies using subsoil in local area and project implementers are destroying the environment and failing to rehabilitate it, and demand that action be taken to stop the activity.
The reason for this is that citizens are not given the right to know and the information they want has not been provided. In other words, failure to provide information or access to information on the current status of subsoil use, its impact on the environment, and the process and results of rehabilitation, the lack of access to information has led to a number of negative consequences, such as misinformation and misunderstandings.
On the other hand, due to the failure of the local government to provide the above information to the citizens, the citizens have lost trust in the local governors and the Citizens ‘Representatives’ Meeting and therefore there have been many cases that citizens criticized local government that not protecting their rights and interests instead protecting and serving the interests of the company using subsoil and project implementers.
As a company using subsoil and project implementer, they have spent a certain amount of money and have conducted certain activities, such as employing local people, providing financial support for local development, and conducting regular rehabilitation work. Lack of information or access to information has led to many misunderstandings and conflict among citizens due to a lack of information about their work and investments.
Therefore, it is important to ensure that citizens have access to information and right to know, and that local governments and project implementers are required to report their work and the results of their activities in connection with proving information to citizens.
According to the two laws mentioned above, on the one hand, the law allows a citizen may request information from the aimag, capital city, soum and district governors, project implementer on the condition of natural resource use within the territory, its impact on the environment, rehabilitation process and control measures taken by the state authorities and project implementers.
On the other hand, aimag, capital city, soum and district Citizens ‘Representatives’ Khurals and Governors shall openly inform citizens about the conditions of land use, environmental impact, rehabilitation and control measures within the territory, and provide relevant information upon request, and therefore obliged to report it to the Citizens’ Representatives Meeting.
As a project implementer, they are obliged to provide or provide information on the status of subsoil use, environmental impact, rehabilitation process and results related to its activities at the request of the citizen.