LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The constitution lists freedom of conscience and religion among the enumerated rights and freedoms guaranteed to citizens. The constitution prohibits discrimination based on religion. It prohibits the state from engaging in religious activity and religious institutions from pursuing political activities. The constitution specifies that the relationship between the state and religious institutions shall be regulated by law. The constitution states that in exercising their rights, persons “shall not infringe on the national security, rights, and freedoms of others or violate public order.” It further provides that the state shall respect all religions, and religions shall honor the state. The law provides that the state shall respect “the dominant position of Buddhism” in the country “in order to respect and uphold the traditions of the unity and civilization of the people.” It further states, “This shall not prevent citizens from following other religions.”

Under the criminal code, it is an offense to use or threaten to use force to hinder the activities or rituals of religious organizations, with penalties that include a fine ranging from 450,000 to 2.7 million tugriks ($132 to $790), a community service obligation of 240 to 720 hours, and a travel ban ranging from one to six months. If a religious organization or religious representative, such as a priest, minister, imam, monk, or shaman, is found to have engaged in proselytization through force, pressure, or deception, or to have spread “cruel” religious ideology, penalties may include a fine of 450,000 to 5.4 million tugriks ($132 to $1,600), a travel ban of six to 12 months, and six to 12 months’ imprisonment. The law does not define what constitutes a “cruel” religious ideology.

The law on petty offenses provides for fines of 100,000 tugriks ($30) for individuals and one million tugriks ($290) for legal entities found to have recruited children under age 16 to convert to or adopt a religion against their will. The law provides for a fine of 100,000 tugriks ($30) for individuals and one million tugriks ($290) for any legal entity for disclosing an individual’s religion on identity documents without that person’s consent or for interfering with the internal affairs of a religious organization unless otherwise allowed by law. The law also provides for a fine of 150,000 tugriks ($44) for individuals and 1.5 million tugriks ($440) for legal religious entities for conducting government or political activity or financing any such activity. The law specifies a fine of 300,000 tugriks ($90) for individuals and three million tugriks ($880) for legal entities for organizing religious training or gatherings on public premises, including schools.

The law forbids the spread of religious views by “force, pressure, material incentives, deception, or means that harm health or morals or are psychologically damaging.” It also prohibits the use of gifts for religious recruitment. The law on children’s rights provides children the freedom to practice their faith. Children under the age of 16 are required to have written parental permission to participate in religious activities if not accompanied by a parent or guardian. The government requires churches to retain this document in their records and furnish it upon request.

The law prohibits religious groups from undertaking activities that “are inhumane or dangerous to the tradition and culture of the people of Mongolia,” although there are no stated standards or legal definitions for what constitutes such activities.

The law prohibits hate speech and hate crimes under the criminal code. Discriminating against persons based on religion is punishable by a fine between 450,000 to 5.4 million tugriks ($132 to $1,600), 240 to 270 hours of community service, or a travel ban of one month to one year.

Religious groups must register with local and provincial authorities as well as with the General Authority for State Registration (General Authority) to function legally. National law provides limited detail on registration procedures and does not stipulate the duration of registration, allowing local and provincial authorities to set their own rules. Religious groups must renew their registrations (in most cases annually) with multiple government institutions across local, provincial, and national levels. Each individual branch (or place of worship) of a religious organization is required to register or renew as an independent legal entity, regardless of any affiliation with a registered parent organization.

A religious group must provide the following documentation to the relevant local provincial or municipal representative assembly when applying for registration: a letter requesting registration, a letter from the lower-level local authority granting approval to conduct religious services, a brief description of the group, the group’s charter, documentation on the group’s founding, a list of leaders, financial information, a declaration of assets (including any real estate owned), a lease or rental agreement (if applicable), brief biographic information on individuals wishing to conduct religious services, and the expected number of worshippers. A religious group must provide the General Authority its approved registration application to receive a certificate for operation.

The renewal process requires a religious group to obtain a reference letter from the lower-level local authority (district/soum level) to be submitted with the required documents (updated as necessary) to the local provincial or municipal representative assembly. During the renewal process, the local provincial or municipal representatives commonly request a safety inspection of the religious organization’s offices and places of worship and will order remediation of any deficiencies found. Upon approval, the relevant provincial or municipal representative assembly issues a resolution granting the religious institution permission to continue operations, and the organization sends a copy of the approved registration renewal to the General Authority, which enters the new validity dates on the religious institution’s certificate for operation.

Public and private educational institutions are entitled to state funding for their secular curricula but are prohibited from using state funding for religious curricula. The education law prohibits all educational institutions from conducting any religious training, rituals, or activities with state-provided funding. A provincial or municipal representative assembly may deny registration renewals for religious groups that violate the ban on using state funding for the provision of religious instruction in educational institutions.

The law regulating civil and military service specifies that all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 must complete one year of compulsory military service. The law provides for alternatives to military service for citizens who submit an objection based on ethical or religious grounds. Alternative service with the Border Forces, National Emergency Management Agency, or a humanitarian organization is available to those who submit an ethical or religious objection. There is also a provision for paying the cost of one year’s training and upkeep for a soldier in lieu of service.

Under the labor law, all legal entities, including religious institutions, must hire a stipulated number of citizens for every foreign employee hired. The government sets an annual quota in the form of a resolution, and this quota changes every year for each labor sector listed in the resolution. Groups not specified in the annual quota list must ensure 95 percent of their employees are citizens and that additional foreign employees are hired only if the 95 percent quota is met and maintained. The annual resolution, however, uniquely stipulates that religious groups may employ one foreign worker if they employ at least five citizens and must meet and maintain no less than this one-to-five hiring ratio.

The law regulating the legal status of foreign nationals prohibits noncitizens from advertising, promoting, or practicing “inhumane” religions that could damage the national culture. The religion law includes a similar prohibition on religious institutions, both foreign and domestic, conducting “inhumane” or culturally damaging activities within the country.

Foreigners seeking to conduct religious activities, including proselytizing, must obtain religious visas, and all foreigners are prohibited from proselytizing, promoting, or practicing any religion that violates the “national culture” and law. Only registered religious groups may sponsor foreigners for religious visas. Foreigners who enter the country on other classes of visas are not allowed to undertake activities that advertise or promote any religion (as distinct from personal worship or other individual religious activity, which is permitted). Under the law, “Engaging in business other than one’s purpose for coming” constitutes grounds for deportation.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

Registration and renewal procedures continued to vary significantly across the country, depending largely on the different practices of local government officials. Some religious groups continued to state the registration and renewal process was arbitrary and that prolonged delays left them without any appeal mechanism during the waiting period. Other groups stated they experienced easier renewal processes with less demands for paperwork and fewer steps. The government began drafting an updated Law on the Relationship between the State and Religious Institutions in 2018, but discontinued efforts the same year. Since beginning work on the law in 2018, the Ulaanbaatar city council stopped issuing new religious activity permits, citing National Security Council (NSC) guidance to delay the issuance of new registrations until parliament amends or passes a new law. There were at least 59 applications pending as of 2022, the most recent statistic provided by the government.

In 2022, following the Ulaanbaatar City Council’s explanation for the lack of new religious activity permits, several religious groups filed letters of complaint with the NHRC. One of the groups reported in April that the NHRC delivered a letter to the city council urging it to implement the existing law and resolve the issues of the complainants. The city council had not taken action at year’s end.

The Ulaanbaatar city council continued to issue renewals valid for one year for existing buildings, though sometimes with prolonged delays in processing applications. Other provincial and municipal representative assemblies issued renewals for either two or three years. An Ulaanbaatar city council official again said Christian groups continued to constitute the majority of applicants for renewals. Christian and other religious groups stated other deterrents to registration included the difficulty and expense of establishing a dedicated, regular worship site and changing government personnel. Groups continued to state that the requirement that each local branch of the organization separately register or renew as an independent legal entity apart from its parent organization created additional bureaucratic burdens.

Government officials again stated that the government used the registration and renewal process to assess the activities of religious groups, monitor the number of places of worship and clergy, determine the ratio of foreigners to nationals conducting religious activities, and determine whether their facilities met safety requirements. City council officials said extended delays in processing and approving applications were due to incomplete documentation, including missing lease agreements, as well as the poor physical condition of the place of worship, such as the lack of an adequate fire exit. In such cases, officials directed the religious organization to correct the deficiencies and resubmit its application.

Some Christian religious leaders said temporary unregistered status could leave their organizations vulnerable to financial audit and possible legal action. Several groups, however, reported they continued to operate normally, despite their renewal applications having remained pending for years.

Unregistered churches lacked official documents establishing themselves as legal entities and as a result could not own or lease land, file tax returns, or formally communicate with the government. Individual members of unregistered churches typically continued to own or lease property for church use in their personal capacity. Some unregistered religious groups said they often could still function, although some reported experiencing frequent visits by local tax officials, police, and representatives from other government agencies.

Jehovah’s Witnesses reported that the religious activity permit renewal applications for its two legal entities in Ulaanbaatar – the Religious Society of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Mongolia (RSJWM) and the Evangelizers of Good News of Holy Scriptures (EGNHS) remained pending with the Ulaanbaatar City Council. The Ulaanbaatar Court of First Instance (trial court) in 2017 struck down the city council’s decision to cancel the EGNHS’s registration, wherein the city council stated its registration posed a potential threat to national security. Although the city council had as a result of the court decision reversed its decision to annul the group’s registration, it took no affirmative action to renew it. The group submitted their renewal application for RSJWM, well in advance of the deadline of December 2022.

Religious groups continued to experience periodic inspections, usually by officers from tax, immigration, local government, intelligence, and other agencies. In some cases, inspection visits followed routine submissions of registration renewal applications, but the pattern varied, with some groups reporting multiple inspections and others none. According to the 2023 Jehovah Witnesses Religious Freedom Report, they received an inspection team from the city council in April, but the inspection did not include review of facilities or documentation; rather the officials “condemned the beliefs and practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses and questioned why the group did not work with other Christian groups to combine their legal entities, simplify the approval process, and reduce the number of religious organizations.” In May, officials informed the Jehovah Witnesses that they sent reports of their inspection related to the group’s two legal entities to the NSC. There were no further developments regarding any NSC review as of year’s end.

According to some Christian groups, the government enforced the legal requirement for groups to retain and produce documents of parental approval of children’s activities with comparatively greater scrutiny on them.

Some foreign nationals continued to face difficulties obtaining religious worker visas. Some religious groups noted that because the law required religious groups to hire at least five local employees for each sponsored foreign worker and the fees related to foreign workers were very costly, some groups could not afford to hire foreign religious staff. Christian groups reported foreign missionaries seeking to enter the country often did so under nonreligious visas (such as student, teacher, or business visas), which legally restricted them from conducting activities otherwise allowed under religious visas. They stated that inconsistent interpretations of the activities in which they could legally engage left them vulnerable to deportation, although there were no known instances of this having occurred for many years.

The validity of religious worker visas remained linked to a religious organization’s registration, which some Christian religious groups said resulted in additional visa processing or renewal difficulties. Foreign citizens could not receive or renew a religious visa unless their religious organization’s registration or renewal was already granted. The visa validity period could not exceed the registration validity of the holder’s sponsoring organization.

While the law allows citizens with ethical or religious objections to military service to carry out alternative civilian service, a representative of Jehovah’s Witnesses stated that this alternative option still required the citizen’s participation in a two-week military drill organized by the military leadership of the relevant locality. The other alternative to mandatory military service was to pay the equivalent of the costs associated with one year’s training and upkeep for one soldier, 11,935,308 tugrik ($3,400), an excessive financial burden that according to the representative was beyond the means of most of its members.