| Dr. Sanjaasuren Oyun | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Civil Will Party |
| Profession | Geologist |
Sanjaasuren Oyun (Mongolian: Санжаасүрэнгийн Оюун), also transcribed S. Oyun, is a prominent Mongolian politician. She is the leader of the Civil Will Party, and has been a Member of Parliament of Mongolia (State Great Khural) since 1998. She is also a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and is the current head of the Zorig Foundation. In 2003, Oyun was selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF). She has been an active member of the YGL community since.
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Oyun was born in Ulaanbaatar in 1964. In 1987 she finished her studies in geochemistry at the Charles University of Prague. In 1996 she earned a PhD in geology from the Department of Earth Sciences at University of Cambridge. Afterwards, she began working for a multinational mining company called Rio Tinto.
After the murder of her brother S. Zorig, a Mongolian pro-democracy leader, in November 1998, she entered politics. She won the by-elections in her brother's constituency in Dornod, the birthplace of their father Sanjaasuren. In March 2000, she founded the Civil Will Party (Mongolian: Иргэний Зориг Нам, Irgenii Zorig Nam). The Civil Will Party holds about ten percent of the public's support (as of the 2008 parliamentary elections). She also served as the Vice-Speaker of Parliament (between 2004-2005) and the Minister of Foreign Affairs (between 2007-2008).
Besides Mongolian, Oyun speaks Russian, English, and Czech.
Oyun is head of the Zorig Foundation, which is nonprofit organization with activities that have principle objectives that include spreading democratic values, strengthening human rights, and improving the system of transparency and accountability of the state and government to the public. In order to meet these objectives, the Foundation concentrates on three areas: Youth and Education, Good Governance, and Community Building. The Zorig Foundation has thus far given out over 1000 local scholarships to University students in Mongolia in the past decade.
Oyun is also President of the Mongolian Geological Association and is the Chair of the Downe Syndrome Association of Mongolia.
Oyun's mother, Dorjpalam, is famous for her role as a doctor in a well-known Mongolian movie "Serelt". Dorjpalam's father was the Russian geographer and scientist Simukov, who fell victim to Mongolia's political purges of the 1930s. Oyun is married with three children.[1]
Oyun's father, Sanjaasuren,served as the Dean of the Philosophy Faculty of the National University of Mongolia and as Deputy Minister of Education.[2]