Law

1. Citizenship Law

a. Jus sanguinis Provisions

The nationality law in Mongolia operates on a jus sanguinis basis. The Law of Mongolia on Citizenship stipulates that regardless of birthplace, a child born to two Mongolian citizen parents will be a citizen. A child born in the territory of Mongolia to one citizen parent and one foreign citizen parent will be a citizen. However, if the child is born outside the territory, the child will only gain citizenship upon written agreement from the parents. There is also no definition of a stateless person included in the citizenship legislation of Mongolia.

b. Naturalized Citizenship

A naturalization process is available to foreign citizens and stateless persons alike in Mongolia. To be eligible, one must permanently reside in the country for five years and understand the customs and official language of Mongolia, among other requirements. In order to gain citizenship by naturalization, a foreign citizen must first renounce their prior citizenship unless the other nation’s legislation stipulates the loss of citizenship upon acquisition elsewhere. There is no simplified or expedited process for stateless persons or refugees.

c. Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship is not recognized in Mongolia, as per the Law of Mongolia on Citizenship. However, applicants in the process of naturalization are still at the risk of statelessness due to the fact that one must first renounce prior citizenship in order to gain citizenship of Mongolia by naturalization. A lack of legal safeguards around renunciation of nationality, and the bar on dual nationality has left many ethnic Kazakhs stateless. Some individuals relinquished their Mongolian nationality to gain Kazakh nationality but were unsuccessful. Others who were successful in gaining Kazakh nationality have subsequently returned to Mongolia, renouncing their Kazakh nationality and have been unsuccessful in having their Mongolia nationality reinstated.

2. Treaty Ratification Status

While Mongolia has yet to ratify the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and the 1951 Refugee Convention (and its 1967 Protocol), it has ratified all of the relevant core treaty bodies with no relevant reservations.

In 2022 concluding observations, the CESCR Committee expressed concerns regarding the ongoing discrimination towards asylum-seekers, refugees, and stateless persons. In previous follow-up to concluding observations, Mongolia provided that it had enacted a new law which protects these groups from discrimination; however, in practice discrimination still persists. The Committee further mentioned the failure of anti-discrimination law to cover all groups and a need to make it more robust such that it covers all grounds for discrimination and all groups that are marginalized or disadvantaged. The concern regarding discrimination towards stateless persons and other groups was also touched on in 2019 concluding observations by the CERD Committee, particularly pertaining to difficulties faced by stateless persons and other persons of foreign origin in accessing State-provided services including health care, social security and education. As a party to ICESCR and ICERD, Mongolia is bound to ensure non-discrimination, including on the grounds of nationality or legal status. The issue of lack of data collection on specific groups including stateless persons was also raised in the CERD Committee’s 2019 concluding observations. The Committee requested that Mongolia provide such data in its next periodic report on socioeconomic indicators.

While commending Mongolia’s high birth registration rate, the CRC Committee recommended that Mongolia ensure a legal identity through birth registration for “Kazakh children, those who migrate within the territory of the State party and those who were born at home or without midwife support” as well as grant citizenship to all children in the territory who would otherwise be stateless.

Status of Accession of International Human Rights Treaties in East Asia

Country	Stateless 1	Stateless 2	Refugee	ICCPR	ICESCR	ICERD	CRC	CEDAW
Mongolia

Signifies that the country is a party to the convention

Stateless 1 – 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons

Signifies that the country is not a party to the convention

Stateless 2 – 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

Population

1. Reported Stateless Persons

Mongolia reported a population of 17 stateless persons to UNHCR in 2019, and 2021, 2022. In 2020, Mongolia did not report any figures of their stateless population to UNHCR. However, Mongolia’s 2020 Census results showed 37 stateless persons permanently residing in the country. UNHCR stated in a 2010 UPR submission for Mongolia that there have been widely differing estimates available for the number of stateless persons in Mongolia of up to “several tens of thousands of persons, while official statistics count very few stateless persons on the territory of Mongolia”. As such, there is a lack of reliable data in the country.

Reported stateless persons to the UNHCR

Country	2019 (year start)	2020 (year end)	2021 (year end)	2022 (year end)
Mangolia	17	–	17	17

2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness

Mongolia hosts a strict policy against dual nationality, and foreign citizens aspiring to become Mongolian citizens are obligated to renounce their existing citizenships. This legal framework poses a risk of statelessness for those who renounce their previous nationality but do not acquire Mongolian citizenship. Also at risk are children born to foreign parents in Mongolia who may not be eligible for citizenship in the foreign country of their parents.

3. Undetermined Nationalities

There is minimal research available on the composition of the stateless populations in Mongolia. However, UNHCR and the CRC have both drawn attention to the situation of ethnic Kazakhs in the country. After the USSR dissolved in the early 1990s and Kazakhstan became an independent state, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Kazakhs left Mongolia for Kazakhstan. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many ethnic Kazakhs wanted to return to Mongolia. However, they were unsuccessful in their attempt and were left stateless as they had previously renounced their Mongolian nationality to acquire Kazakh nationality. Many have since returned to Mongolia and may have the right to reacquire citizenship yet have faced administrative barriers to doing so.

Causes of Statelessness

1. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness

Mongolia’s citizenship laws provide some safeguards against statelessness and protections for foundling children. A child born to one Mongolian citizen and one stateless parent will be a citizen of Mongolia regardless of birthplace. Children born to stateless parents permanently residing in Mongolia can only access Mongolian citizenship after reaching 16 years of age. This is problematic as stateless children often are denied the right to education, healthcare, and an adequate standard of living. Foundling children born in Mongolia are automatically considered Mongolian nationals. There are, however, no legislative safeguards protecting children born outside of the territory from becoming stateless in the event that the parents fail to provide the required written agreement in order to gain citizenship.

2. Administrative Barriers

A 2010 stateless survey showed that a lack of knowledge of the administrative process and information only being available in Mongolian fundamentally limited the ability of the largely stateless Kazakh ethnic minority population from gaining citizenship.

The CRC has noted that while Mongolia has a high rate of recorded birth registration (reported to the UN Statistical Department to be 100% in 2021), additional efforts are needed to ensure that children of Kazakh ethnicity whose parents have either returned to Mongolia or internally migrated have access to birth registration and citizenship. Births are registered immediately in Mongolia, and failure to register a birth could cause a person to be denied public services. Further, one must have a birth certificate in order to receive a passport, as stipulated by the Law of Mongolia on Citizenship.

Mongolia

Overview

Law