Language Research

1. Legislation: Legislation dealing with the use of languages

The Constitution adopted on August 20, 1949, updated through 1996

Act XX of 1949, the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary (hereinafter referred to as "the Constitution"), stipulates the position of national and ethnic minorities in Hungarian society.

The Hungarian Government, with the involvement and cooperation of the minorities, proposed Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (hereinafter referred to as "the Minorities Act") to Parliament. Parliament passed the law in 1993. The Minorities Act, which Parliament passed with a 96% majority, ensured the minorities that are native to Hungary individual and collective minority rights, the right to personal autonomy and the right to establish self-governing bodies.

The most fundamental measures necessary for creating consonance with the Minorities Act were taken with the enactment of Act LXXIX of 1993 On Public Education and its amendment in 1996. The Government issued the National Master Curriculum by Government Decree 130/1995 (X. 26.) in order to modernize the public education system. The exceptional basic principles involved in minority education are now part of the National Master Curriculum. Providing supplementary standard funding for minority education is an important part of government public education funding.

With the amendment of Act IV of 1978 on the Criminal Code by Act XVII of 1996, the Republic of Hungary complied with the requirements stipulated in the International Convention on Fighting and Punishing the Crimes of Apartheid. The United Nations General Assembly had originally adopted the Convention on 30 November 1973. It introduces a new criminal concept so that violent criminal acts against national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups can be condemned if the crimes are committed against persons because they belong to such a group.

Act I of 1996 on Radio and Television Broadcasting made the preparation of programs that depict the culture and lives of minorities a compulsory responsibility of the public service media. Public service programs are obliged to provide information in native languages. Act CXXVII of 1996 on the National News Agency contains provisions that ensure equal opportunity for national and ethnic minorities.

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Updated (January 2002)

The Hungarian Parliament adopted the Law on Hungarians living in Neighboring Countries on June 19, 2001 with a vote of 306 in favor, 17 against and 8 abstentions. It came into force on January 1, 2002 and covers persons of Hungarian nationality residing in Croatia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Ukraine (Austria was excluded).

The law guarantees the following privileges only to ethnic Hungarians, who possess an ID-card: (29 Articles have been compiled) 

• To work in Hungary for a maximum period of three months a year irrespective of the

• To pay taxes and make national insurance contributions on any income earned in Hungary as well as the opportunity to qualify for free health care and pension (set in a separate law decree)

• Benefits for the students and teachers - to take advantage of the improved rights to study, to get scholarship, post-graduate training, or receive prizes and diplomas

• To get financial support - parents of at least two minors attending Hungarian-language school in their home country will receive financial assistance of 20,000 HUF (ca 4,000 SKK, 117 CAD) from Hungary

• Traveling benefits - to use means of domestic, long-distance public transportation in Hungary at 90% discount four times a year (transport will be free for children under six and people over 65, other group benefits once a year)

• To get support for the ethnic Hungarian organizations operating in neighboring countries dealing with preservation and promotion of Hungarian language, literature, culture, and traditions, etc

According to the Treaty of Trianon signed in 1920, Hungary had to cede two-thirds of its territory, including the people living there, to the newly created Czechoslovakia, and to Romania, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. Today, as a result, there are approximately 3.5 million ethnic Hungarians living in the states neighboring Hungary.

Hungary is trying to reassure all its neighbors that Law on Hungarians living in Neighboring Countries (later only "law") is not meant as discriminatory and will help to protect the cultural identity of Hungarian minorities in the lands where they have lived for centuries. However, this endeavor has voiced concern among political representatives of the states involved.

On July 17, 2001, the European Union suggested that the implementation of this legislation could cause some problems if international norms were not respected. They appealed to Hungary to consult with the neighboring countries regarding implementation (EU Commissioner G. Verheugen).

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Updated (January 2003)

A new linguistic law came into force at the beginning of 2003 in Hungary. The Law No. 2001/XCVI, aims at protecting the Hungarian language, because currently more and more texts use the terms from foreign languages, especially from English.

The law respects that the Hungarian language needs new terminology so the use of neologisms already assimilated into Hungarian is recognized only adoption of the new ones still remains a challenge.

The direct use of advertising slogans or texts in foreign languages without a Hungarian version is prohibited. The Act outlines very clearly the linguistic criteria for advertisements and notices of economic nature, as well as texts from some public services. In the press, radio programs and television the texts of the adverts including the slogans must be also in Hungarian.

The law does not contradict the legal rights of national and ethnic minorities allowing them to use their languages in the areas where minority bodies are present (Article 42 of Law LXXVII/1993).

Source: Eurolang News, Brussels, January 21, 2003, by Emese Medgyesi, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4050

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Updated (July 2003)

WORK ON THE AMENDMENT OF LEGAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING MINORITIES LIVING IN HUNGARY

In May and June 2003, representatives of the Hungarian government and national and ethnic minorities strove to prepare concepts for the amendments of two minority-related acts: the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities and the Act on the Election of Minority Self-Governments.

For the talks, minorities set up a six-member delegation, including experts delegated by the Bulgarian, Roma, Croatian, German, Slovak and Serbian minority self-governments. The working group included experts from the Prime Minister's office as well as people from the Ministries of Interior, Justice, Education, National and Cultural Heritage and Finances. Minority Ombudsman Dr. Jeno Kaltenbach and a representative of the Parliamentary Commission of Human Rights, Minority and Religious Affairs were also invited to take part in the work.

Administrative conciliation on the concepts started at the beginning of July. Autumn will be dedicated to the wording of the legal texts, which will be re-discussed in November and December at the consultations involving also parliamentary political parties.

One of the most important objectives of these amendments is to make the cultural autonomy of minorities real and tangible, and to ensure them financial stability for running of their educational and cultural institutions.

Source: Minelres News, July 10, 2003, Office for National and Ethnic Minorities, Budapest, Hungary, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2003-July/002823.html

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Updated (October 2003)

BROADCASTING

According to Article 25 of the 1996 Hungarian Act on Radio and Television Broadcasting, the programs in native languages of national and ethnic minorities and the programs about their life and culture may be sponsored by the state and public program broadcasting.

Article 26 prescribes for public broadcasters to foster the languages and culture of national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary, and to provide information in their native languages on a regular basis.

The Law especially underlines that:

This responsibility shall be fulfilled through national broadcasting or, with regard to the geographical location of the minority, through regional or local broadcasting, by broadcasting programs satisfying the needs of the minorities, by providing subtitles in television programs, or by multi-lingual broadcasting.

It should be mentioned that 98.5 percent of Hungary's present-day population speak Hungarian as their mother tongue. At the same time, national and ethnic minorities comprise about 11 percent of the total population.

Source: Media Legislation, Minority Issues and Implications for Latvia by Leonid Raihman, January 20, 2003, http://www.policy.hu/raihman/PolicyPaper.htm 

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Updated (May 2004)

THE BILL ON THE AMENDMENT OF MINORITY-RELATED LEGAL PROVISIONS APPROVED BY THE GOVERNMENT

On March 3, 2004 the Hungarian Government approved the Bill No. T/9126 on the Election of Minority Self-Government Representatives and the amendment of some other acts related to national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary.

Since March 2004 the bill has been discussed by five different standing commissions of the Parliament. Having assessed the experiences accumulated during the last ten years, the Government is of the opinion that there is no need to adopt a completely new law, but it is sufficient to submit an act amending old regulations.

Compared to the present legal provisions, the bill proposes several important modifications partly required by the accession to the European Union.

The bill contains a definition of national and ethnic minorities, which is different from that one in the 1993 Act No LXXVII on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities with respect to the requirement of Hungarian citizenship.

This Act applies to all persons of Hungarian citizenship living in the Republic of Hungary, to the citizens of other member states of the European Union as well as to other persons having a refugee, immigrant or settled person status who consider themselves as members of any national or ethnic minority and to the communities of these people.

However, since the bill has not eliminated the criterion requiring from a minority community the history of at least one century of living in the Republic of Hungary, the thirteen minority groups, as listed in the 1993 Act, would remain unchanged.

The bill stipulates the right of minorities to set up minority self-governments at local, regional (county and Budapest) and national level, which would mean the introduction of a medium-level representation as it had already been requested by the minorities. The tasks of minority self-governments are specified in the bill.

Some of the most important modifications contained in the bill concern the election of minority self-governments. Direct elections at all levels would allow proportional representation. The position of "a minority spokesperson" and the institution of "the indirectly elected minority self-government" would also be abolished, as they did not meet the expectations. The number of representatives to be elected at local and regional level would be respectively 5 and 9, while at national level, depending on the number of local minority elections held, it would vary between 15 and 39.

Article 68, par. (4) of the Hungarian Constitution stipulates that national and ethnic minorities have the right to establish minority self-governments. In conformity with this and in order to ensure that only members of the given minority can vote and be elected, the bill proposes to introduce another new element, namely the registration of minority voters. Participation at the minority elections would be allowed only to those who got themselves registered on the list of minority voters. One person can be registered only on one list.

Minority elections will be held every four years. Locally they will be organized only in those settlements where a specific registering committee was set up and where at least thirty people were registered. Registering committees will be set up by the national minority self-governments in settlements designated by them. At least ten inhabitants belonging to the given minority and living in a non-designated settlement may initiate the election of a registering committee.

Requests of the persons who want to become registered minority voters should contain the name, the address, the identification number and the signature of the person in question as well as his/her declaration on his/her minority affiliation. This declaration should be supported by other optional statements (language knowledge, knowledge of the culture and traditions of the minority, membership in a minority civil organization or in a minority self-government, voluntary work for the given minority community or other activities that can be related to the minority). The registering committee would decide within eight days on the acceptation of the request. In case of a negative decision an applicant can appeal to the court.

However, it is necessary to add that after the Parliamentary discussions there will certainly be non-negligible changes in the text of the bill.

Source: Minelres News, Office for National and Ethnic Minorities, Budapest, Hungary, Selection of news on national and ethnic minorities in Hungary, March 2004, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2004-March/date.html

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Updated (October 2004)

CHANGES AFFECTING HUNGARIAN MINORITIES

Hungary has recently introduced several changes concerning its minority policy. One of them is that the Ministry of Interior compiled a bilingual birth certificate form so from now on people declaring minority affiliation can apply either for a Hungarian birth certificate with a phonetically written version of their name or for a bilingual one. They can choose a forename for their children from the list of eligible forenames, proposed by the national minority self-governments.

Furthermore, the Hunnish minority is currently striving to gain recognition from the government. If its members succeed to collect 1,000 signatures by the beginning of November, this minority may submit a petition to the Parliament asking for their official recognition. The Parliament will then examine whether the community meets the criteria specified in the 1993 Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities. In case of its recognition, it would be the fourteenth national minority recognized in Hungary.

As regards the other issues within the framework of Hungarian minority policy, the newly elected Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, has introduced personal and structural changes in the government. The Office for National and Ethnic Minorities will be subordinated to the Ministry for Youth, Family and Equal Opportunity Affairs and it shall continue to operate as an autonomous organ of state administration with the nationwide power. Moreover, he has launched a new government program for 2004-2006, which envisages the preservation of traditions, culture and language of national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary.

Source: Mercator News, October 2004, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm

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Updated (July 2005)

A NEW PIECE OF MINORITY LEGISLATION ADOPTED IN HUNGARY 

On the basis of Bill No T/9126 on an election of minority self-government representatives and the amendments to some acts concerning national and ethnic minorities, on June 13, 2005 the Hungarian Parliament adopted a new law that will bring about important changes in the Hungarian legal framework affecting life of national and ethnic minorities¹. 

After more than eight years of deliberations the new law was adopted with the overwhelming majority (95 percent) of votes². Thus the Hungarian Parliament followed the 1993 tradition of consensual decision-making in the area of policies concerning national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary. 

The law was worked out on the basis of Article 71 of the Constitution, with the aim to enforce the right anchored in Article 68 par. (4), according to which the national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary may set up local and national self-governments. The law essentially widens the scope of authorities of minority self-governments and contributes to setting up of bodies elected only by the members of communities concerned. 

THE RIGHTS OF NATIONAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES 

• The law clearly defines what shall be considered as minority public affairs, minority educational and cultural institutions and the media.

• It specifies the scope of authorities and the duties of new medium-level minority self-governments and it changes significantly the legal status of national minority self-governments.

• It regulates the relationship between municipal governments and local minority self-governments³ in a clearer and more definite way.

• It stipulates that the public service media through specific departments (units) using financial means specified in a separate budget, should provide for regular broadcasting of minority programs in accordance with a separate act.

• It changes significantly the legal status of national minority self-governments; instead of being classified as "other economic organizations" they will get the status of "central budgetary organizations", which implies their integration into the system of local authorities and accordingly ensures their state control.

SUBSTANTIVE REGULATIONS OF AN ELECTION OF MINORITY REPRESENTATIVES 

• In addition to the already existing local and national level, minorities will be entitled to set up medium-level (county and capital city) self-governments.

• Only those Hungarian citizens who declare their affiliation to a minority community and are included in the list of minority voters⁴ will be entitled to vote.

• Candidates may be nominated exclusively by minority civil organizations whose statutes specify the objective of representing the given national or ethnic minority. These organizations have to be working for at least three years.

• Medium and national level self-governments will be elected in a system of electoral lists by the members of local minority self-governments (electors) at a subsequent round of elections.  

REGULATIONS OF THE ELECTORAL PROCEDURE 

• Registration on a minority voters' list will be done by the local election office; inclusion in the register is decided by a chief administrator of the Mayor's Office; however, s/he is not entitled to consideration and judgment, s/he may only formally control the application. Denial of the inclusion can be brought before court.

• Voters who want to register on the minority voters' list should fill in a form annexed to the new act. In the form they have to explicitly state that they are members of a given minority community.

• Nominated minority candidates are obliged to state that they are willing to undertake the representation of the minority community and to declare that they speak the language and know the culture and traditions of this community.

• Data protection is observed; only the number of people registered on the minority voters' list will be made public. Access to the list is limited and it will be destroyed immediately after the results of elections are announced.

• The elections to medium and national self-governments will be held only in those settlements where a local minority self-government is operating on the day of the elections.

• The new legal provisions also modify the way in which minority representatives can obtain preferential seats in a local municipal government. By making use of a preferential system, that member of the local minority self-government who obtained the highest number of votes at local minority elections will become a member of the municipal government with full powers. If nobody meets the preferential criteria, the president of the local minority self-government becomes a spokesperson of the minority and will be entitled to take part in the work of the local municipal government with the right of consultation.  

On June 8, 2005 the leaders of twelve (out of thirteen) national and ethnic minorities (with the exception of the Serbian national self-government) issued a common Declaration supporting the legal amendments. Although they made some concrete remarks and expressed their concerns as for the electoral regulations, they welcomed the consensus of the parliamentary parties and stated that the elements concerning operation and financing of minority self-governments and minority educational and cultural institutions would promote greater stability. 

Source: Mercator News, June 2005, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm and Minelres News, June 20, 2005, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2005-June/004055.html, Office for National and Ethnic Minorities, Budapest, Hungary, Selection of news on national and ethnic minorities in Hungary, Special issue - June 2005 

THE ACT ON ELECTIONS OF MINORITY SELF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES SENT TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT 

On June 27, 2005 the President of the Republic of Hungary, Ferenc Madl, sent the Act on Elections of Minority Self-government Representatives to the Constitutional Court and asked for their opinion. 

The Act makes it possible for a member of the minority self-government, who obtained the highest number of votes, to become also the member of the elected municipal government. According to the President, particularly this regulation is raising concerns because the representatives who were not elected by the whole electorate, and who thus do not have the necessary democratic legitimacy, would also obtain a mandate. 

Besides this argument, the head of the state expressed some worries that people belonging to national and ethnic minorities would have more votes at municipal elections than those who do not belong to minorities. However, the regulations in force meet the requirements of the Constitution, as they do not provide people belonging to minorities a multiple right to vote. 

Source: Mercator News, June 27, 2005, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2005-June/004068.html 

The full text of the President's motion can be read on the website: www.keh.hu 

1. Currently the following legislation is still in force:

   • Act No LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities containing both substantive and procedural provisions

   • Act No LXV of 1990 on Local Municipal Governments comprising a separate chapter on minority self-governments

   • Act No LIV of 1990 on the Election of Mayors and Members of Municipal Governments comprising certain provisions on the election of minority self-governments

   • Act No C of 1997 on Electoral Procedures

2. 303 MPs voted for and 10 voted against the law, with 7 abstentions

3. Municipal governments and local minority self-governments created for the enforcement of national and ethnic minority rights are parallel structures in the Hungarian legal system.

4. The list has to contain at least thirty names in the given settlement.

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Updated (February 2007)

THE CLOSURE OF THE OFFICE FOR NATIONAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES 

Government Decree No. 363/2006 on the governmental tasks related to national and ethnic minorities and the reorganization of the relevant institutional structure orders the closedown of the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities. 

The purpose of the Office established in 1990 was to carry out governmental tasks related to national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary. The sixteen-year autonomous existence of the Office ended on 31 January 2007. 

Its tasks are to be taken over by the Department for National and Ethnic Minorities at the Prime Minister's Office. Erika Nemeth, who was a Member of Parliament and the vice-president of the Standing Committee of Human Rights, Minority and Religious Affairs, is in charge of the department. Moreover, the new department will work under State Secretary, Ferenc Gemesi, who is also responsible for policies connected to Hungarian minorities living abroad. 

Source: Minelres Archives, January 30, 2007 http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2007-January/004952.html 

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Updated (June 2008)

ROMA CAN USE THEIR LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION AND ADMINISTRATION

Parliament has recently accepted a bill granting Roma minority the right to use two of their languages, Boyash and Romani, in official matters and education.

As a result of the ruling, all government offices will be required to have a member of staff speaking the minority languages within five years. The changes are expected to cost the state an additional Ft 50 million (€200,000) per year.

Besides education, administration and justice, the two languages will be used in cultural, health-care and social institutions, and a digital radio and television station would operate in Romani.

They also plan to develop elementary school books in these languages, followed by the curricula, the accreditation of faculties and further training for language teachers.

Source: Politics.hu, News, May 19, 2008 http://www.politics.hu/20080519/parliament-approves-roma-languages-for-use-in-education-and-administration

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