MINELRES: Hungary: Special issue Minority News

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


Selection of news on
national and ethnic minorities in Hungary


Special issue May 2005

Hungarian Ombudsman proposed for the position of the Commissioner for
Human Rights of the Council of Europe

On 27 April 2005 the Hungarian Government officially proposed dr Jeno
Kaltenbach, Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority
Rights as candidate for the position of the Commissioner for Human
Rights of the Council of Europe.

The setting up of the institution of the Commissioner for Human Rights
was decided upon Finnish initiative at the 1997 Strasbourg summit of the
Council of Europe. The Resolution (99)50 on the Council of Europe
Commissioner for Human rights was adopted by the Committee of Ministers
on 7 May 1999. The Commissioner shall focus his activity on four main
areas: the promotion of the education in, and awareness of, human
rights, support to national human rights structures, the identification
of short-comings in the law and practice with regards to human rights
and the promotion of their effective respect and full enjoyment in all
the member States. Commissioner Mr Alvaro Gil Robles was elected in
1999; according to the resolution his six-year mandate is non-renewable.

In conformity with the decision of the Committee of Ministers, the
election of the new Commissioner will take place in October 2005. Any
member state of the Council of Europe has the right to propose a
candidate. The commissioner will be elected by the Parliamentary
Assembly from a list containing the names of three candidates approved
by the Committee of Ministers.

In his capacity of chief advisor of the Constitutional Court and later
on, Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights,
Dr Jeno Kaltenbach had taken part in the process of political and social
transformation since the beginning. He was first elected to the post of
the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights
in 1995, when the institution was established. His activities cover the
field of non-discrimination and minority issues. His efforts to combat
social exclusion are recognised both by the Government and the civil
society.  

Dr Kaltenbach deserved international recognition in the field of human
and minority rights. Since 1997 he has been the representative of
Hungary in the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance of the
Council of Europe, in which he had fulfilled the duty of first vice
president for several years. Between 1997 and 2003 he was a deputy
member of the Management Board of the European Monitoring Centre on
Racism and Xenophobia of the European Union. In February 2005 he was
elected vice-president of the European Ombudsman Institute. Apart from
the wide range of activities in public affairs, Dr Kaltenbach has been
pursuing a long academic career as a professor of law. He has been the
Head of the Public Administration Department of the Faculty of Law at
the Szeged University for more than a decade. He wrote numerous studies
on anti-discrimination and equal opportunities and delivered a great
number of presentations and public lectures at different national and
international conferences.


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