MINELRES: Minority News Hungary

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Judit Solymosi <solymosij@mail.datanet.hu>


Office for National and Ethnic Minorities
Budapest, Hungary


Selection of news on
national and ethnic minorities in Hungary

November 2003 - January 2004 


Lists of eligible forenames

According to a regulation on registers, marriage contractions and
appellation adopted by the Ministry of the Interior, from January 2004
onwards parents wishing to give a minority forename to their child will
be guided by the corresponding lists of eligible forenames compiled by
the respective national minority self-governments. The National Roma
Self-Government has been working on the compilation since September
2003. The Assembly of the National Self-Government of Germans living in
Hungary approved the list containing some 1,500 first names in November.
The list of Slovak forenames with some 600 names was adopted by the
Presidency of the National Self-Government also in November.


Minorities in Europe

In January, an exhibition and a one-day conference under this title were
organized by the National Foreign Language Library. The exhibition
constitutes the ninth event in a series of programmes launched last
spring under the slogan "Borderless Europe - a meeting-place of
cultures". The exhibition presenting European linguistic and cultural
diversity with the help of books, maps and displaying also documents and
publications on the minority policy of the Council of Europe will be
open for one month. 


Day of German Minority Self-governments 

The Day of German Minority Self-governments was organized the eighth
time in the Budapest Congress Centre on 12 January 2004. Minister of
National Cultural Heritage Istvan Hiller emphasized in his speech the
existence of dual identity among national and ethnic minorities living
in Hungary and welcomed the revival and the strengthening of German
identity, which can be seen at the growing number of German
self-governments as well as - as census data confirm - that of people
professing German affiliation. The highest prize of the German community
was also awarded in the framework of this festivity.


Adoption of a comprehensive law on equal treatment

The Act No 125 of year 2003 on Equal Treatment and the Promotion of
Equal Opportunities was adopted by the Hungarian Parliament on 22
December 2003. The act prohibits discrimination on the grounds of
gender, race, colour, nationality, national or ethnic affiliation,
mother tongue, disability, health state, religion or creed, political
opinion, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, gender
identity, age, social origin, property status, the conditions of
employment (part-time or fixed-term employment), membership in an
interest protecting organization or any other situation or
characteristic feature. Discrimination includes direct and indirect
discrimination, harassment, illegal segregation, victimisation as well
as any instruction to commit any of these actions. Measures aimed at
eliminating the disadvantaged situation of a well-defined social group
(positive action) should not be considered as a violation of the
requirement of equal treatment. The body to monitor the enforcement of
this act will function under the guidance of the Government. The burden
of proof will be reversed or shared: the respondent will have to prove
the application of the principle of equal treatment, but also the person
who considers himself/herself wronged will have to prove the
disadvantage suffered.  Proceedings can be initiated not only by the
private person concerned, but also by civil organizations. This is an
act of general character and its text is not adapted to the specific
needs of any particular social group. It entered into force at the end
of January 2004.


President of the Republic and Minister leading the Prime Minister's
Office met minority leaders

In November Minister of the Prime Minister's Office Mr Peter Kiss met
the presidents of the national minority self-governments. The minority
leaders presented their ideas concerning the relevant items of the 2004
budget and the modification of the minority-related legislation. As 2004
will be a year of severe budgetary restrictions, it has to be noted that
resources meant to support the minority self-government system as well
as the transfer of educational and cultural institutions to them have
not been cut. 

According to the agreement concluded between the Prime Minister and the
minority leaders, the minister responsible for minorities meets minority
leaders at least twice in a year. The previous meeting took place in
April 2003. 

In December, the President of the Republic Mr Ferenc Madl met the
presidents of the national minority self-governments. The discussion
concerned the amendment of the legal provisions related to minorities as
well as the solving of the problem of parliamentary representation. 


Roma pilgrimage to the Vatican

In November, a 180-member Roma delegation including the President of the
Roma National Self-Government Orban Kolompar visited the Vatican, where
they were received at an audience by His Holiness Pope John Paul II. The
Pope blessed the representatives of the Hungarian Roma community and the
cross that they had brought with them. The cross will be erected at the
shrine in Csatka, Hungary. Minister of Equal Opportunities Ms Katalin
Levai, Political State Secretary Laszlo Teleki, the President of the
Office for National and Ethnic Minorities Antal Heizer took also part at
the pilgrimage.


Tolerance Campaign - Call for proposals 

A call for proposals targeting the strengthening of tolerance has been
announced by the Central Financing and Contracting Unit of the Treasury,
under the professional leadership of the Phare Office of the Office for
Roma Issues. Applicants should run a communication campaign in the media
and carry out a corresponding pedagogical programme in schools. Through
informing about Roma culture, customs and history, the campaign should
suggest that changing the negative attitudes against the Roma would also
serve the interests of mainstream society. As far as the pedagogical
programme is concerned, the target group would be the age category
between 6-14 of the primary school. The programme requires the
compilation of a teaching package including books, videos or CDs to be
used by the teachers at school. The application should also contain a
training programme for teachers and a research aimed at assessing the
attitude of the target groups vis-a-vis the Roma before and after the
campaign. A second, local-level part of the tolerance campaign aims at
changing the attitudes of local groups (local authorities, employers,
etc.). The activities of the campaign will start in 2004 and end in
2005.


Representative research on the situation of the Roma population

In 2003, leading sociologists Istvan Kemeny and Bela Janky carried out a
representative research on the situation of the Roma population. This
work constitutes the third national survey after those of 1971 and 1993.
According to the survey, the size of the Roma population is now nine
times higher than it was a bit more than one hundred years ago (1893)
and it numbers between 550,000 and 600,000. However, the number of
births is going down also within the Roma population. The researchers
stated that unemployment constitutes a most serious problem, and, with
regard to undereducation, it cannot be remedied through employment
programmes alone. However, they admitted that improvement in the area of
education is visible. Since the second half of the nineties the number
of Roma children enrolling in secondary education has been continuously
growing. As for housing conditions, parallel with the improvement of
infrastructure and comfort, the number of villages where Roma
inhabitants constitute a majority is growing. Almost 50 per cent of Roma
households can be found in cities. The proportion of Romani-speaking
Roma decreased from 21 to less than 5 % between 1971 and 1993, but since
then it has raised to 8%. In the case of the Beash speaking community,
the decrease has continued (from 8% in 1971 to less than 5% today). The
researchers stated that civic development had started within the Roma
community, and some 13% of Roma households already belong to the stable
middle class where parents work and the education of the children is
higher than the average. 


Government Office for Equal Opportunities

On 1 January 2004, the Office for Equal Opportunities separated from the
Prime Minister's Office and became an autonomous office of state
administration with nation-wide authority, working under the direction
of a President and under the guidance of the Government. The supervision
of the Office is administered by the Minister without portfolio Ms
Katalin Levai, responsible for equal opportunities. The former Office
for Roma Issues has become one of the Directorates of the Government
Office. According to Government Decree 107/2003 on the duties and
competences of the Minister without portfolio for equal opportunities,
the minister shall act in all issues - with the exception of issues
directly concerning the structure, the statutes and the personnel of the
Office - in collaboration with the competent Political State Secretary
of the Prime Minister's Office. The Office shall - as formulated in the
Government Decree - identify and analyse the major causes of social
exclusion, initiate legislation needed to strengthen inclusion,
contribute to the reinforcement of social solidarity and elaborate
programmes, measures and methods in order to diminish the inequality of
chances of different social groups including women, children, the
elderly, the physically handicapped, the Roma and the inhabitants of
disadvantaged regions. 


Hate-speech legislation stiffened

At the beginning of December, the Hungarian Parliament voted an
amendment to the Penal Code tightening legal clauses against hate
speech. The amendment makes it possible to punish perpetrators that will
have been found guilty in public incitement against any nation or any
national, ethnic, racial or religious group or any group of society by
up to three years in prison. Another paragraph included punishes
national, ethnic, racial or religious affiliation based humiliation of
human dignity by up to two years in prison. The President of the
Republic of Hungary asked the Constitutional Court to check the
constitutionality of the amendment. He also observed that the act
concerned only individual rights and did not contain any provisions
concerning the dignity of communities.