In its report published on Tuesday, the Venice Commission considered the Act on the Rights of Nationalities to be democratic and to serve constitutionality. In the opinion of the Commission, it is the interest of the Hungarian Government to cooperate with nationalities living in Hungary, the new Nationalities Act fulfils international minority protection expectations, yet at the same time it adapts to Hungarian local conditions as well.

The Commission acknowledged that Hungary continues to pay special attention to the protection of nationality rights and that it makes efforts to protect the cultural and language identity, the traditions and cultural heritage of nationalities living in the country. The Commission welcomed that the Nationalities Act acknowledges and guarantees the rights of the nationalities living in Hungary in the most important fields including education, culture, the use of the mother tongue, the media, and the participation in public life.

The Commission noted that minority protection is especially complex and detailed, in particular with regard to nationality self-governments. Indeed, the new Act discusses the operation of nationality self-governments in stressed detail, as it was an explicit expectation during the consultations with nationalities to define the rules concerning them as precisely and detailed as possible.

The report of the Commission raises the issue that an eventual amendment may be difficult due to the legal status of the act which is a cardinal law. However, the fact that the act is cardinal has a significance regarding guarantees, similarly to the case of the previous act of 1993, which was also created by the Parliament as a two-thirds act. It should be underlined that the cardinal clause of the Act only has an informative nature; its amendment does not require a two-thirds majority – it can be amended with the majority of the votes of members of Parliament that are present.

The transitional provisions in the Act – the majority of which, according to the report of the Commission, cannot be considered transitional – are needed because of the gradual entry into force of the given new provisions, so that nationalities’ rights would be ensured also during the period until the entry into force. These transitional regulations lapse simultaneously with the gradual entry into force.

The new regulation – as opposed to the opinion of the Commission – also extends its force from 2014, the date of the scheduling of the next general nationality self-government elections, to persons who are non-Hungarian citizens, live in Hungary, and affiliate with the given nationality both in language and culturally. The only exception to this is the passive franchise exercised during nationality self-government elections.

As for the issues challenged by the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights (the non-profit criterion of the nominator nationality organizations entitled to propose candidates, the collective responsibility of members of nationality self-governments for the consequences of unlawful utilisation of assets, handling nationality self-government assets in case of cessation of the body, as well as the question of the right to use sign language), the Parliament has already decided upon the modification of the law, the proclamation of the amendment is under process. The revision of the legal institution of the forfeiture of honours has also been initiated.

The Parliament passed the Act on the Rights of Nationalities at the end of December 2011, which was preceded by a broad consultation with stakeholders, and which lasted about one and a half year. Thus, it included consultation with the nationality self-governments, NGOs, experts, and individual persons, among others.

(Ministry of Human Resources, Office of the Minister of State for Church, Minority and Non-governmental Relations)