Mainly covers the period June 1998 to April 2001 as well as including some earlier information.

  • Population:
    – total: 2,621,000
    – under-18s: 1,110,000
  • Government armed forces:
    – active: 9,100
    – reserves: 140,000
    – paramilitary (active): 7,200
  • Compulsory recruitment age: 18
  • Voluntary recruitment age: unknown
  • Voting age (government elections): 18
  • Child soldiers: unknown
  • CRC-OP-CAC: not signed
  • Other treaties ratified: CRC; GC/API+II; ILO 182
  • It is not known if there are any under-18s in government armed forces due to lack of information on the minimum voluntary recruitment age.

GOVERNMENT

National Recruitment Legislation and Practice

According to Article 11(2) of the 1992 Constitution: "Mongolia shall have armed forces for self-defence. The structure and organisation of the armed forces and the rules of military service shall be determined by law." Article 17(1)(iv) of the Constitution further declares that it is a duty of citizens "to defend the motherland and serve in the army according to the law."1231 Conscription is practised in Mongolia in accordance with the 1993 Universal Military Service Law which set a minimum age of 18 for military service.1232 The government has asserted that the common age for military service is 19-20 years.1233 Minimum age for voluntary recruitment is not known.

According to the 1993 Law on Defence of Mongolia, the Armed Forces are made up of five bodies: General Purpose Troops, Air Defence Forces, Construction Corps, Civil Defence Forces and Mobilisation Reserves. The Border Troops and Internal Troops are defined as "other troops" which, in a state of war, become a part of the Armed Forces.1234 Military service lasts one year and is performed in the Armed Forces, the Border guards, the Internal Security Troops and the Construction Troops.

Modernisation of the military is under way with reforms expected to continue until 2005.1235 In March 1999, an alternative military service was reportedly launched for the first time in Selenge Aymag (province).1236

1231 Blaustein and Flanz op. cit.

1232 Initial State Report of Mongolia submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Doc. CRC/C/3/Add.32, 3/2/95, para. 62.

1233 Ibid., para. 210.

1234 Official web site of the Ministry of Defence: http://www. pmis.gov.mn/mdef/.

1235 Copenhagen Peace Research Institute, "Special issue on Asia", NOD & Conversion, International Research Newsletter, No. 49, 10/99.

1236 "First alternative military service launched in Selenge Aymag", BBC Monitoring Service, 31/3/99.

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