ARMENIANIN HUNGARY

through the lenses of the

European Charterfor

Regional or Minority Languages

“the right to use a regional or minority languagein private and public life is an inalienable right”

Preamble of the European Charter forRegional or Minority Languages

Public Foundation for

European Comparative Minority Research2006-2007

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© 2006-2007 Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research

The Project‘Database for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages’has been made possible by the generous grant of the Council of Europe.

All Council of Europe documents are copyrighted by the Council of Europe.© Council of Europe

The sources used in compiling the present document are the following:

1st monitoring cycle:State Party Report: MIN-LANG/PR (99) 6Evaluation report of the Committee of Experts: ECRML (2001) 4Comments of the State Party: ECRML (2001) 4Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers: Recommendation RecChL (2001) 4

2nd monitoring cycle:State Party Report: MIN-LANG/PR (2002) 6Evaluation report of the Committee of Experts: ECRML (2004) 5Comments of the State Party: ECRML (2004) 5Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers: Recommendation RecChL (2004) 4

3rd monitoring cycle:State Party Report: MIN-LANG/PR (2005) 6Evaluation report of the Committee of Experts: ECRML (2007) 5Comments of the State Party: ECRML (2007) 5Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers: Recommendation RecChL (2007) 5

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CONTENTS

THE EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES AS APPLIED TO ARMENIAN IN HUNGARY 4

DOCUMENTS OF THE MONITORING PROCESS 51st monitoring cycle 5

State Party Report [MIN-LANG/PR (99) 6] 5Evaluation Report of the Committee of Experts [ECRML (2001) 4] 19Comments by the State Party [ECRML (2001) 4] 27Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers [RecChL (2001) 4] 28

2nd monitoring cycle 29State Party Report [MIN-LANG/PR (2002) 6] 29Evaluation Report of the Committee of Experts [ECRML (2004) 5] 51Comments by the State Party [ECRML (2004) 5] 56Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers [RecChL (2004) 4] 58

3rd monitoring cycle 60State Party Report [MIN-LANG/PR (2005) 6] 60Evaluation Report of the Committee of Experts [ECRML (2007) 5] 83Comments by the State Party [ECRML (2007) 5] 90Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers [RecChL (2007) 5] 90

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THE EUROPEAN CHARTERFOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES1

As applied to Armenian in Hungary

[…]PART II

OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLESPURSUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH ARTICLE 2, PARAGRAPH 1

Article 7 – Objectives and principles

1 In respect of Armenian, within the territories in which Armenian is used and according to the situation of Armenian, Hungary shall base its policies, legislation and practice on the following objectives and principles:a the recognition of Armenian as an expression of cultural wealth;b the respect of the geographical area of Armenian in order to ensure that existing or

new administrative divisions do not constitute an obstacle to the promotion of Armenian;

c the need for resolute action to promote Armenian in order to safeguard it;d the facilitation and/or encouragement of the use of Armenian, in speech and writing,

in public and private life;e the maintenance and development of links, in the fields covered by this Charter,

between groups using Armenian and other groups in the State employing a language used in identical or similar form, as well as the establishment of cultural relations with other groups in the State using different languages;

f the provision of appropriate forms and means for the teaching and study of Armenian at all appropriate stages;

g the provision of facilities enabling non-speakers of Armenian living in the area where it is used to learn it if they so desire;

h the promotion of study and research on Armenian at universities or equivalent institutions;

i the promotion of appropriate types of transnational exchanges, in the fields covered by this Charter, for Armenian used in identical or similar form in two or more States.

2 Hungary undertakes to eliminate, if it has not yet done so, any unjustified distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference relating to the use of Armenian and intended to discourage or endanger the maintenance or development of it. The adoption of special measures in favour of Armenian aimed at promoting equality between the users of Armenian and the rest of the population or which take due account of their specific conditions is not considered to be an act of discrimination against the users of more widely-used languages.

3 Hungary undertakes to promote, by appropriate measures, mutual understanding between all the linguistic groups of the country and in particular the inclusion of respect, understanding and tolerance in relation to Armenian among the objectives of education and training provided within the country and encouragement of the mass media to pursue the same objective.

4 In determining its policy with regard to Armenian, Hungary shall take into consideration the needs and wishes expressed by the groups which use Armenian. It is encouraged to establish bodies, if necessary, for the purpose of advising the authorities on all matters pertaining to Armenian.

1 CETS no. 148. The Charter was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on 5 November 1992. Entry into force for Hungary: 1 March 1998. The provisions of the Charter adopted by Hungary for Armenian as a non-territorial language are applicable without territorial restrictions.

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5 Hungary undertakes to apply, mutatis mutandis, the principles listed in paragraphs 1 to 4 above to Armenian as a non-territorial language. However, as far as Armenian is concerned, the nature and scope of the measures to be taken to give effect to this Charter shall be determined in a flexible manner, bearing in mind the needs and wishes, and respecting the traditions and characteristics, of the groups which use Armenian.

[…]

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DOCUMENTS OF THE MONITORING PROCESS

1st monitoring cycleState Party Report [MIN-LANG/PR (99) 6]

Background informationThe Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe accepted the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereafter: Charter) on 22 June 1992. Eleven states – among them Hungary – signed the document on 5 November 1992.The Charter includes the provisions undertaken by the signatories on the use of the languages of the minorities in education, in the courts, in public administration, in the mass media, economic, cultural and social life, and the strengthening of the role played by the languages of the minorities in the above areas.At its session on 7 January 1993 the Hungarian government agreed that, in order to prepare for the ratification of the Charter, the foreign minister and the minister without portfolio charged with overseeing minority affairs would establish an expert committee with the participation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Culture and Education, and representatives of the National and Ethnic Minorities Office and the Office of Hungarians Living Abroad.The expert committee explored all those more important facts and data which could serve as the basis for the government submission on the proposed ratification.The government submission was completed in May 1994. However, with attention focused on the coming general elections the document was ratified in April 1995.With the acceptance of Parliamentary Resolution 35/1995 (IV. 7) OGY on 7 April 1995, the Hungarian Parliament was among the first to ratify the Charter. The legal code in Hungary starts from the basic principles worded in the Charter’s preamble, but as regards implementation the following characteristics have to be considered in the case of Hungary:

1. Even though certain of Hungary’s minorities live in larger concentrations in particular counties and regions, their situation is better characterized by geographical fragmentation. As regards a single language, it is not possible to speak of one area in which the regional language is spoken exclusively.2. Identical legal regulations guarantee the protection of languages spoken by the 13 minorities listed in the Hungarian legal code. Hungarian law does not provide separate special protection or provisions which would differentiate any of the languages.3. Identical legal provisions also assist in the teaching and use of the six languages highlighted in Part III. Thus in our report we will outline the regulations regarding the use of language of all the minorities in the same chapter, and to avoid a six-fold repetition we will not set down the otherwise identical legal background regarding each language and related to the commitments made in Part III.

In the sense of the definition given to regional or minority languages in the Charter, the languages of all 13 legally recognized national and ethnic minorities in Hungary are qualified as minority languages. This is absolutely clear if we compare the definition of regional or minority language in the Charter with the definition of minority in Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities:

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages:Preamble“As regards the present Charter:a. the expression “regional or minority languages” is understood to mean languages

i. which are traditionally used in the territory of the given state by those citizens of the state who form a numerically smaller group than the balance of the population of the state, and

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ii. which differ from the official language/languages of the given state, but which neither include the dialects of the official language/languages of the state, nor the languages of immigrants.”

Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities Chapter 1 (2)“In accordance with this act, national and ethnic minorities (hereafter: minorities) are all groups of people that have lived in the territory of the Republic of Hungary for at least one century; they represent a numerical minority in the country's population; their members are Hungarian citizens; they are distinguished from the rest of the population by their own languages, cultures, and traditions; they demonstrate a consciousness of an affinity that is aimed at preserving all of these and expressing and protecting the interests of their historical communities.”In accordance with this it is not the definition “a person speaking a regional or minority language” which forms the basis for the establishment of the subject of language rights in Hungarian regulations, but rather belonging to “a national and ethnic minority”.The most important acts protecting the languages of minoritiesSection 68 of the Constitution (Act XX of 1949) (hereafter: the Constitution) stipulates the position of national and ethnic minorities in Hungarian society, stating that the national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary share the people's power: they are part of the state. The Constitution guarantees the minorities collective participation in public life, the establishment of local and national self-governments, the nurturing of their own cultures, the use of their native languages, education in their native languages, and the right to use their names in their own languages.Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (hereafter: the minorities act) passed by Parliament with a 96% majority on 7 July 1993, ensures the 13 minorities that are native to Hungary individual and collective minority rights, the right to personal autonomy and the right to establish self-government bodies. Subsection (2) of Section 32/B of the Constitution created the institution of Parliamentary commissioner for national and ethnic minority rights to protect the constitutional rights of minorities. Parliament elected a Parliamentary commissioner for national and ethnic minority rights (hereafter: the minorities ombudsman) on 6 July 1995. Citizens are able to turn to the minorities ombudsman in those cases in which, in their judgement, they have suffered injury due to the infringement of their constitutional rights as a result of the proceedings or measures of any authority, or in cases in which they consider there is a danger that their constitutional rights may be violated. 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 (hereafter: the public education act), and its amendment in 1996. Act I of 1996 on Radio and Television Broadcasting made the preparation of programmes that depict the culture and lives of minorities a compulsory responsibility of the public service media. Public service programmes are obliged to provide information in native languages.Act CXL of 1997 on the Protection of Cultural Goods and Museum Institutions, the Supply of Public Libraries and Public Education defines the preservation of the national and ethnic minorities’ cultural traditions, their continuation in a worthy manner, the improvement of personal, spiritual and economic conditions of community and individual education, the promotion of activities which improve the quality of life of citizens, and the operation of institutions and organizations established to realize all of these points as the common tasks of society as a whole.Similarly, other acts include provisions regarding the rights of minorities and within this the use of language; the provisions on the use of language in the minority act agree with these or are more favourable.

* * *The following summary refers to the most important elements in legal regulations regarding the use of languages.1. The Constitution of the Republic of HungaryAct XX of 1949Section 68 (1) The national and ethnic minorities living in the Republic of Hungary share the people's power: they are part of the state.

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(2) National and ethnic minorities are protected by the Republic of Hungary. They are guaranteed collective participation in public life, the nurturing of their own cultures, the use of their native languages, education in their native languages, and the right to use their names in their own languages.(3) The laws of the Republic of Hungary guarantee representation to the national and ethnic minorities living in the territory of the country.(4) National and ethnic minorities may establish their own local and national self-governments.Section 70/A (1) The Republic of Hungary guarantees the human rights and civil liberties of all of the people who are in its territory, regardless of race, colour, gender, language, religion, political or other creed, national or social origin, or differences deriving from property, birth, or any other conditions. (2) The law strictly punishes anyone who discriminates against another person on the basis of Subsection (1).(3) The Republic of Hungary helps to implement equality before the law with measures that eliminate inequality of opportunity. 2. Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic MinoritiesIndividual minority rightsSection 11 Individuals belonging to a minority have the right to respect the minority traditions concerning the family, to nurture their family ties, to continue family celebrations in the native language, and to conduct religious services related to these events in their native language.Section 12 (1) Individuals belonging to a minority have the right to freely choose their own and their children's first names, to register their family and first names in line with the rules of their native language and, within the framework defined in the legal regulations, to have them appear in official documents. In the case of registration not occurring in the Latin alphabet, the phonetic Latin-style alphabet must be used at the same time.(2) It is also possible to request issuance of registration and other personal documents in two languages – according to the definitions in Subsection (1).Section 13 Individuals belonging to a minority have the right to:

a) recognize, nurture, expand and continue their native language, history, culture, and traditions;b) participate in native language education and culture;c) protection of personal data related to an individual’s minority status is prescribed in a separate law.

Community minority rightsSection 18 (1) Public service radio and television ensure – according to provisions in a separate law – the regular preparation and broadcasting of national or ethnic minority programmes.(2) The state – also on the basis of international conventions – promotes the transmission of radio and television programmes from the mother country in those areas inhabited by minorities.(3) Minority communities have the right to:

a) initiate the establishment of the conditions for pre-school instruction, primary, secondary and higher education in the native language, or instruction of their native language (in the native language as well as in the Hungarian language);b) establish, within the framework of the law, their own instructional, educational, cultural and scientific national network of institutions.

(4) The Republic of Hungary ensures, within the framework of the law, the peaceful and uninterrupted holding of events and celebrations of the minority communities, the right to the preservation, nurturing and handing down of their architectural, cultural and religious monuments, and traditions, and the use of their emblems.Cultural and educational self-administration of the minoritiesSection 42 According to the act, the languages used by minorities in Hungary are Armenian, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Gypsy (Romany and Bea), Greek, Polish, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian and Ukrainian.Section 43 (1) The state recognizes that the native language is a cohesive force in keeping minority communities living in Hungary together, and supports its teaching – where there is demand for such –

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in educational institutions which do not belong to the minority settlement self-governments, according to Subsections (2)-(4) and Sections 44-49.(2) Children belonging to a minority participate, respectively may participate in education in their native language, or of their native language (in their native language and in Hungarian) or in the Hungarian language, according to the decision of the child’s parents or the child’s guardian.(3) Education in the minority native language or of the minority native language can be carried out in minority pre-school, at school, in school classes or in groups according to local circumstances and demand.(4) Upon the request of the parents or legal representatives of at least eight school children of one and the same minority, it is mandatory to organize and maintain a minority class or study group. Section 44 The additional costs incurred in providing education in the minority native language or of the minority native language according to Section 43 are to be borne by the state or by the respective local self-government, as prescribed in the act.Section 45 (1) In respect of the legal regulation of public education and higher education, when determining the structure and content of educational-instructional activities and concerning the supervision of such, the specific cultural and educational interests appropriate to the cultural autonomy of minorities need to be enforced in accordance with the act. (3) It is mandatory for educational-instructional institutions established for the minorities according to Section 43, Subsections (3)-(4) to provide an understanding of the minority folk identity, to teach the history of the minority and the mother country, and to present the minority cultural traditions and values.Section 46 (1) Local and minority self-governments cooperate in determining the demand for minority education and in organizing teaching.(2) Training native language teachers for the education of minorities in their native language or of their native language is the state's responsibility. (3) The state is also bound by international conventions to provide for minority populations to take part in educational and culture heritage courses in their respective minority languages offered by foreign institutions, either on full-time or part-time basis or in the form of further or scientific training. (4) In order to achieve the condition set down in Subsection (2) the state provides support for the employment of teachers coming from the minorities’ mother or language country as guest teachers in Hungary.(5) In respect of any person of any minority group studying in a foreign country in a university, college, other educational institution or an institute of cultural heritage in his/her native language, the diploma or graduation degree earned in such institutions shall, with due regard to the relevant acts and international conventions, be considered equivalent as if awarded in the Republic of Hungary.Section 47 A minority settlement self-government or local minority self-government can take over an educational institution from another organization only on condition that the standard of education can be guaranteed to be maintained. The level of state support provided to the transferred institution may not be reduced because of the transfer.Section 48 (1) The minority educational institution can be used by those who do not belong to the concerned minority only if the institution still has available places after meeting all the demands of the given minority. Admission (registration) is conducted on the basis of the previously detailed regulations.(2) Hungarian language classes have to be provided in minority educational institutions, with the number of hours and to the level necessary to ensure mastery of the language.(3) In settlements where the local Hungarian native language population, or any other national or ethnic group, is a numerical minority, the local self-government is required to ensure education in the native or of the native language for the Hungarian native language, respectively other native language children, as prescribed in the act.Section 49 (1) Minority organizations are entitled to conduct public education activities and to establish, within legal frameworks, institutions for this purpose, which institutions are allowed to maintain international relationships.

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(2) The national self-government is entitled to establish and run minority theatres, museum exhibitions, public collections with nation-wide coverage, libraries, publishing houses, nation-wide cultural, art and scientific institutions. It may apply for budgetary support for such purposes. (3) A network of minority libraries supplies minorities with literature in their native languages. (4) In settlements which do not have a minority settlement self-government, the settlement self-government is responsible for supplying the minority population with native language literature.(5) Minority public collection rights do not extend to those documents which, according to the relevant archive regulations, have to be passed to archives for safekeeping.Section 50 (1) The state ensures the publication of textbooks and the production of teaching equipment for minority education.(2) The state supports

a) the collection of objects related to the cultures of the minorities, and the establishment and expansion of public collections;b) the publishing of books and periodicals by minorities;c) the promulgation of laws and any announcements of public interest in the minority native languages;d) the arrangement of religious ceremonies related to minority family events in the native languages of the minorities, respectively religious activities of the churches conducted in the native languages of the minorities.

Use of languageSection 51 (1) In the Republic of Hungary everyone may use freely, at any time and anywhere, his/her native language. The state is obliged to ensure, in cases stipulated in a separate act, the conditions for the use of the languages of the minorities.(2) During civil and criminal procedure, as well as in public administrative procedure, the use of the native language is guaranteed by the relevant laws on procedural rights.Section 52 (1) Representatives belonging to the minorities may also use their native language in Parliament. (2) Minority representatives in the local self-government representative bodies may also use their native languages. If a statement is made in a minority language, then the Hungarian-language text of the speech or summary of the statement must be attached to the minutes of the meeting.(3) If a settlement includes individuals belonging to a minority, the minutes and resolutions of the representative body can be formulated or conducted in the given minority language, in addition to Hungarian. In disputes over interpretation the Hungarian-language version is considered definitive.Section 53 The settlement self-government is obliged, in compliance with the demands of the local minority self-government operating in the relevant territory, to guarantee that

a) the announcement of its decrees and the posting of announcements take place in the native language of the minority in addition to Hungarian;b) official forms used in the course of the public administration procedure are also made available in the minority native language;c) writing on signs indicating place and street names, public offices, and the name of bodies carrying out public services or communications related to their operation can be read, in addition to the Hungarian language text, with the same content and form in the minority language as well.

Section 54 When filling public official and public employee job vacancies in those settlements inhabited by minorities, the employment of individuals with a knowledge of the native language of the given minority, in addition to observing the general professional qualifications, should be guaranteed.Section 55 (1) In order to enforce the rights of minorities living in Hungary the state provides financial support according to Subsections (2)-(4).(2) The state provides, to the level defined in the prevailing budget act,

a) supplementary normative subsidies for instruction in minority pre-schools, respectively school education in the native language (of the native language);

(3) A public foundation must be established in order to receive support for activities that serve to protect the identity of the minorities living in Hungary, preserve and pass on their traditions, nurture

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and develop the native language, maintain their spiritual and material heritage, and lessen the cultural and political disadvantages that stem from existence as a minority3. Parliamentary Decree 46/1994 (IX. 30) OGY on the Rules of the House of the Parliament of the Republic of HungaryLanguage of debateSection 40 (1) Hungarian is the language of debate used in parliamentary sessions.(2) If a representative’s native language is not Hungarian, then he/she may speak in his/her native language. Notification of the intention to do so must be made one day prior to the session in which he/she wishes to speak. The Office of the National Assembly provides interpreting facilities.(3) Representatives who do not have Hungarian as their native language must, at their request, be provided with continuous interpreting facilities.(4) The Office of the National Assembly has the official documents of Parliament translated into the native languages of representatives who do not have Hungarian as their native language, at their request.4. Regulations governing the use of language in state administration,4.1 Act IV of 1957 on the General Rules of State Administrative ProcedureSection 2 (5) … In state administrative procedure everybody is entitled to use his/her native language - both orally and in writing. Nobody may suffer any disadvantage because of the lack of command of the Hungarian language.4.2 Act LXIV of 1990 on the Election of Local Self-government Representatives and MayorsSection 48 (1) In appointing and electing national and ethnic minority self-government representatives, the minorities act and the provisions of this act have to be implemented in full accordance with the divergences and supplements prescribed within this chapter.4.3 Law-Decree 17 of 1982 on Registration, Marriage Procedures and Name BearingSection 22 (1) Marriage partners may use their native languages at the wedding ceremony. (2) If either the wedding partner or the witness, or both, do not speak Hungarian, furthermore if the registrar does not understand the foreign language spoken by the marriage partner or the witness, or both, an interpreter must be employed. The wedding couple must arrange for the interpreter.Section 27 (1) Hungarian citizens have a family and a given name(4) The family and the given name which the individual concerned bears at the time of birth, marriage or death should be registered in the Register. It is allowed to enter into the Register, in the order determined by the parents, a maximum of two, unless otherwise stipulated by legal regulations, given names appropriate to the sex of the child and listed in the Hungarian Book of Given Names complemented by nationality given names. Nationalities, respectively those with a nationality native language, living in Hungary – without verification of belonging to a nationality – can bear given names appropriate to their nationality.5. Administration of justice, criminal procedure5.1 Act I of 1973 on Criminal ProcedureUse of the native languageSection 8 (1) Criminal procedure is conducted in Hungarian. Nobody may suffer any disadvantage because of the lack of command of the Hungarian language.(2) In criminal procedure everybody is entitled to use his/her native language - both orally and in writing.Section 47 The participation of a defence counsel in criminal procedure is compulsory if

c) the accused is deaf, dumb, blind, mentally disabled or does not have a command of the Hungarian language;

Section 80 (1) If a non-native Hungarian speaker wishes to use his/her native language during criminal procedure, an interpreter must be made available;Section 150 (1) Instead of minutes, a report may be drafted

a) on the hearing conducted during the detailing of the charge

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b) on the questioning of witnesses, visit to the scene of the incident, examination of evidence, the seizure and the body search.

(2) Subsection (1) is not applicable if during the questioning or in the course of the confrontation the non-native Hungarian speaker wishes to use his/her native language.Section 218 (1) The state (.) also bears those cost arising from the inability of the accused to understand Hungarian, and those which, on the basis of Section 217 Subsections (2)-(3) the court rules as being costs which the accused does not have to bear.Section 375 (4) The prosecutor and interested parties have to be kept informed of the proceedings; if the interested parties are unknown or cannot be located, or if they do not understand Hungarian, the court orders a representative on their behalf.5.2 Act III of 1952 on Civil ProcedureEnsuring the use of the native languageSection 8 (1) Court procedure is conducted in Hungarian. Nobody may suffer any disadvantage because of the lack of command of the Hungarian language.(2) In court procedure everybody is entitled to use his/her native language.5.3 Law-Decree 11 of 1979 on the Implementation of Punishments and MeasuresSection 2 (1) Only legal penalties stipulated in the sentence of the law may be employed against a convicted individual.(2) A convicted individual has the right

a) to learn the provisions concerning his/her rights and obligations in the native language or other language that he/she knows; nobody may suffer any disadvantage because of the lack of command of the Hungarian language; b) to use his/her native language in the course of the implementation of punishment.

(3) Discrimination between convicted individuals according to their national or ethnic affiliation, religious or political conviction, social origin, gender, or financial situation is strictly forbidden.6. Armed services6.1 Act CX of 1993 on National DefenceSection 56 (2) Soldiers – depending on the legal status of their service – may practice the basic rights listed below within the restrictions defined in the act on military legal status:

(.)g) the right to the use of and teaching of the native language;

6.2 Act XLIV of 1996 on the Conditions of National Military ServiceSection 20 (1) During national military service everybody is entitled to use his/her native language.6.3 Act XLIII of 1996 on the Conditions of Service for Members of the Regular Armed ForcesSection 22 (1) Members of the regular armed forces may freely use their native language.7. Public education7.1 Act LXXIX of 1993 on Public EducationSection 5 The language to be used in pre-school instruction, in school instruction and education and residential hall instruction is Hungarian, respectively the language of national and ethnic minorities. Based on the choice set forth in the law on the rights of national and ethnic minorities, children and students from national and ethnic minorities have the right to pre-school instruction, school instruction and education and residential hall instruction in their native language, respectively in their native language and Hungarian, or Hungarian. Instruction and teaching can be conducted – partly or wholly – in another language.Section 9 (5) Students are required to take school-leaving examinations in obligatory and optional subjects. The following are compulsory subjects: Hungarian language and literature, history, and additionally for those participating in a national or ethnic minority education programme, native language and literature, furthermore, if there are no regulations to the contrary, mathematics and – with the exception of those participating in a national or ethnic minority education programme – a foreign language. The individual subjects making up the school-leaving examination can be taken at two different levels.

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Section 48 (1) The school pedagogical programme defines:a) the objectives of the instruction and teaching conducted in schoolsb) the school’s local curriculum, and within this

- the subjects taught during the school year, the obligatory and optional classes and their duration, prescribed teaching material and requirements,- the principles to be followed when selecting textbooks, teaching aids and teaching equipment, - the conditions under which a student may move up a class,- the requirements and ways of conducting school examinations, the conditions for the assessment and grading of the conduct and diligence of pupils, and, within the frames of the legal regulations, the ways of assessing and grading the performance, conduct and diligence of pupils,- as regards instruction and education in national and ethnic minority schools, the national and ethnic minority native language, historical, geographical, cultural and folk identity study material to be employed,- as regards those pupils receiving instruction and education in national and ethnic minority schools, the study material which can provide mastery of the Hungarian language and an understanding of Hungarian culture; as regards those pupils not of a national or ethnic minority background, the study material which serves to provide an understanding of the culture of the national or ethnic minority living in the settlement,

7.2 Government Decree 130/1995 (X. 26) Korm. on the National Master CurriculumThe cultural areas of the National Master Curriculum (hereafter: NMC)1. Native language and literatureThe distinctive elements of national and ethnic minority education:The education of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary functions as an integral part of the Hungarian educational system. Consequently, it shall provide equal opportunities and a basic education with fundamentally the same content and value and which is suitable to serve as a basis for further education. Therefore, the requirements set forth in the NMC shall apply to the education of national and ethnic minorities as well.The distinctive objective of minority education is to preserve and strengthen the identity of the various minorities. As such, it strives to:

- promote mastery of the native language of the minority as it is spoken, written and generally used at an educated level,- present and nurture folk-poetry, music, arts, customs and traditions,- teach historical heritage, native language culture, and national and ethnographic characteristics,- encourage tolerance, and develop an understanding and respect for differences by emphasizing the values of the various cultures,- provide instruction on the life, culture and history of the mother country,

Any of the thirteen native languages of the minorities living in Hungary may be employed in minority education as a language for teaching and can be taught as a second language.Instruction and teaching of the national minorities has to allow for a period of language tuition – appropriate to individual pedagogical periods and educational types – in which by teaching the language of the minorities as a second language such a standard can be achieved on which dual-language, respectively native language education can be built.Folk identity as a subject comprises educational material containing the most important information on the culture, history and traditions of each minority, and interlinked to the general fields of studies prescribed in the NMC. Language studies, dual-language, native language and intercultural education programmes and special school programmes for the academic improvement of ethnic Gypsies must contain elements of minority folk identity studies. Minority folk identity studies may be built into the general fields described in the NMC, or integrated into intercultural education programmes or into special school programmes for the academic improvement of ethnic Gypsies, or may be taught as independent subjects.

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The objective of native language education is to provide complete and balanced minority education. The language used in this type of education is the native language of the minority. It is important to ensure that in native language minority education Hungarian is taught as the second language.The objective of bilingual minority education is to develop linguistic abilities in two languages in a balanced fashion. Classes in bilingual minority education are taught in the native language of the minority and in Hungarian. Participating schools are to designate the general fields of education instructed in the minority language in their local curricula. At least half of the general subjects prescribed in the NMC are required to be taught in the minority languages as well.The objective of minority language training instruction is to teach predominantly Hungarian-speaking minority students their native language as a second language. The language used in this particular type of schooling is the Hungarian language, while the minority language is taught from the 1st grade, bearing in mind the requirements set forth in the NMC for the teaching of spoken foreign languages. Schools may also include other spoken foreign languages in their pedagogical programme, in addition to the minority native language.Minority schools have to teach the national native language and literature in the appropriate native language on the basis of a separate decree (guidelines for the pre-school instruction of national and ethnic minorities and guidelines for the school education of national and ethnic minorities) approved by the minister for culture and education, and the Hungarian language and literature as a foreign language according to the directions of the NMC.8. Public education8.1 Act CXL of 1997 on the Protection of Cultural Goods, Museum Institutions, the Supply of Public Libraries, and Public EducationThe preservation of the national and ethnic minorities’ cultural traditions, their continuation in a worthy manner, the improvement of personal, spiritual and economic conditions of community and individual education, the promotion of activities which improve the quality of life of citizens, and the operation of institutions and organizations established to realize all of these points is in the common interest of the entire community.Section 4 Everybody has the right

a) to learn of his/her cultural heritage and its significance in shaping history and in the formation of national, nationality and ethnic minority self-awareness, as well as to gain an understanding – through the activities of museum institutions and library services, education, the press and mass media – related to the protection of all these,b) to take advantage of the services offered by the public library supply system and museum and public education institutions,c) to enrich his/her education and skills in every area of life, to establish a community to realize public education rights, and to form and operate an organization in compliance with regulations contained in a separate act,d) to receive organizational and substantive assistance in the public education community sphere (hereafter: community sphere) for the realization of cultural aims specified in the act.

Section 66 The county library, functioning across the county as a whole,b) organizes cooperation between the libraries operating in its areac) conducts or organizes the library supply for national or ethnic minorities living in the county.

Public education tasks of the settlement self-governmentSection 76 (1) The settlement self-government is obliged to provide support for local public education activities.(2) In particular: (…)

c) to acquaint and foster an understanding and encourage acceptance of the cultural values of universal and national cultures as well as the cultures of the nationalities and other minorities, and to preserve the cultures of feast days and celebrations,

9. The media9.1 Act I of 1996 on Radio and Television BroadcastingSection 25 Only the following programmes may receive support in public service broadcasting and public broadcasting:

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a) programmes with a religious and spiritual content,b) programmes which present and broadcast artistic and cultural events,c) programmes in the native language of a national or ethnic minority, or programmes which present the life and culture of national and ethnic minorities,d) programmes designed for the elderly, the mentally handicapped or physically disabled, and socially disadvantaged groups.

Section 26 (1) Public service broadcasters are obliged to assist in looking after the culture and native language of the national and ethnic minorities in Hungary and to provide regular information in their native languages. This duty is carried out in national, or (taking account of the geographical location of the minority) regional or local broadcasting, by programmes, by subtitles on television where necessary or by transmission in several languages corresponding to the demands of the minority. The duration of the nationality programmes, both as regards its national and its regional content, may not be less than the amount specified in the act at the time it came into force. (2) The national self-governments – and where these are not available national organizations – of the national and ethnic minorities independently decide on the principles of use of the programme time available for public service broadcasting. Public service broadcasters are obliged to take account of these decisions – which, however, may not influence the content and editing of the programmes.Section 29 (2) As regards public service broadcast regulations and broadcast regulations, it is mandatory to regulate:

d) the form for the presentation of the culture and life of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary, with reference to Subsection (2) of Section 26 of the act,e) the system for the objective presentation of culture, science and the diversity of world views and faiths,

Section 95 (5) … with regard to the rights of the national and ethnic minorities prescribed in other acts the National Radio and Television Commission guarantees without resort to tender at least four and at most eight hours of broadcast time per week to a public utility company in the exclusive ownership of a national or ethnic minority self-government, as a non-profit broadcaster licensed to broadcast programmes, if in the broadcast region defined in the invitation to tender there is no other opportunity to fulfil the demands for national and ethnic minority native language broadcasting.

***Minority languages in HungaryThe following text appears in the introduction to the minorities act: “The language, the material and intellectual culture, the historical traditions and other characteristics of national and ethnic minorities living as Hungarian citizens in the territory of the Republic of Hungary form a part of their personal and collective identity. “The preservation, nurturing and expansion of all these special values is not only the fundamental right of the national and ethnic minorities, but it is in the interest of the Hungarian nation and, in the final analysis, of that of the community of states and nations.”According to the minorities act languages used by minorities in Hungary are as follows: Armenian, Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Gypsy (Romany and Bea), Greek, Polish, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian and Ukrainian. These nationalities or ethnic minorities are scattered right across the country. The decisive majority live in settlements where even on a local level they represent a minority of the inhabitants of the community. There is virtually no demand on the part of minorities living in Hungary in relatively small numbers – the Bulgarians, Greeks, Poles, Armenians, Ruthenians and Ukrainians – related to the use of their languages and cultures, but even so the minorities act also guarantees their language rights even though their dispersal makes it impossible to define a geographical area or region where the spoken language is used. The Republic of Hungary only undertakes commitments defined in Part III of the Charter regarding the languages of those minorities who live in sufficient concentrations in well defined regions of the country (Romanians, Slovenians), or who although scattered in several regions or counties have, because of their numbers, a developed structure for native language education and cultural life (Croatians, Germans, Serbians, Slovakians).The Bulgarians live scattered throughout the country. They are to be found in significant numbers in Budapest and settlements around the capital, and in Miskolc and in Pécs.

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Gypsies are also found across the entire territory of Hungary. In their case, it is important to highlight that from the point of view of language the vast majority speak Hungarian as the native language, while it is difficult to define geographically those areas where the two Gypsy languages are used.The majority of Greeks living in Hungary are found in Budapest, Miskolc, Pécs and Tatabánya. The Hungarian government settled Greeks fleeing the civil war after the Second World War in the village of Beloiannisz in Fejér county. A sizeable Greek community still lives there.The traditional settlements of Croatians living in Hungary lie in the south and western border regions of the country (the southern parts of Bacs-Kiskun and Baranya counties, along the river Dráva, in Zala county, Vas and Győr-Sopron counties). Sizeable Croatian communities are also found around Budapest.Poles living in Hungary are centred in a few settlements in the north-east of the country, as well as in the larger industrial towns.Large numbers of Germans live in Baranya county, Budapest, in Győr-Moson-Sopron, Tolna, Pest, Komárom-Esztergom and Bács-Kiskun counties.Armenians are to be found living primarily in Budapest and the major towns. Their numbers are relatively small.The largest communities of Romanians living in Hungary are settled in Békés county, but one can also find significant numbers of Romanians in communities in the other two counties on the Romanian border (Hajdú-Bihar and Csongrád counties) as well as in Budapest.Two larger communities of Ruthenians are to be found in the north-east of Hungary, in Komlóska and Múcsony. Besides these settlements we know of smaller Ruthenian communities in Sárospatak and the capital.Significant numbers of Serbians living in Hungary reside in Budapest and the outskirts, on the Hungary-Yugoslav border (Csongrád county) and in Baranya and Békés counties.Slovakians can be found living in three larger regions of Hungary. Some 60% are in Békés and Csongrád counties, and besides this in Nógrád, Pest and Komárom-Esztergom counties, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties.Slovenians living in Hungary are found in a closely defined area on the Hungarian-Austrian border, in seven adjacent settlements south of Szentgotthárd. In addition, Slovenian communities can be found in a few larger towns and cities (Budapest, Mosonmagyaróvár and Szombathely).Ukrainians resident in Hungary live in relatively limited numbers in Budapest and county towns.The following figures were recorded in the 1980 and 1990 censuses according to the "native language" and "nationality" of the national and ethnic minorities in Hungary.Population of Hungary in 1980: 10,709,463Population of Hungary in 1990: 10,374,823

According to Native LanguageMinorities Number of People Percentage of the

Population in 19901980 1990

Slovakian 16,054 12,745 0.1228Romanian 10,141 8,730 0.0841Croatian 20,484 17,577 0.1694Serbian 3,426 2,953 0.0285Slovenian, Wend 3,142 2,627 0.0253German 31,231 37,511 0.3616Gypsy 27,915 48,072 0.4634Armenian - 37 0.0004Greek - 1,640 0.0158Bulgarian - 1,370 0.0132

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Polish - 3,788 0.0365Ukrainian, Ruthenian - 674 0.0065Total 112,393 137,724 1.3275

Source: MAPSTAT Central Statistical Office software, Budapest, 1992

 According to Nationality

Minorities Number of People Percentage of the Population in 1990

1980 1990Slovakian 9,101 10,459 0.1008Romanian 8,874 10,740 0.1035Croatian 13,895 13,570 0.1308Serbian 2,805 2,905 0.0280Slovenian, Wend 1,731 1,930 0.0186German 11,310 30,824 0.2971Gypsy 6,404 142,683 1.3753Other minorities 16,369 19,640 0.1893Total 70,489 232,751 2.2434

Source: MAPSTAT Central Statistical Office software, Budapest, 1992

The figures of the 1990 census indicate an interesting duality compared to those of 1980. While the number of native-speaking minorities continued to decline (with the exception of the Germans and Gypsies), the number of people who declared themselves not of Hungarian nationality increased (with the exception of the Croatians).When reviewing age distribution, we can see a steady decline in several minorities (the Slovenians and Croatians, for example) as we move towards the younger generations. The lack of young people is reflected primarily in the native language figures. The earlier multi-children families have been replaced by ageing households. (For example, 33.5% of the Serbian nationality is above the age of 60 and only 9.1% below the age of 15.)Full and natural integration and the freedom to choose identity might reduce the chances of perpetuation: some 40%-60% of the adult minority population lives in ethnically mixed marriages – the percentage is highest among the Slovakian minority community. Obviously, many of the children born of such marriages are "lost" to their ethnic minorities, thus reducing the minority's already weakened ability to perpetuate itself. In 1990, 20.5% of the total Hungarian population was children, and 18.9% was over the age of 60. In the German minority, the percentage of children under the age of 15 decreased from 26% in 1941 to 12%, while the percentage of people over the age of 60 increased from 13% to 28%. The percentage of children in the Slovakian minority is 7%, and 9% in the Serbian minority.Estimated figures:The 1990 figures based on the estimates of the minority organizations and self-governments show a significant difference from the official statistics.

Minorities Estimated NumberGypsy 400,000-600,000German 200,000-220,000Slovakian 100,000-110,000Croatian 80,000-90,000Romanian 25,000Polish 10,000Serbian 5,000-10,000

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Slovenian 5,000Bulgarian 3,000-3,500Greek 4,000-4,500Armenian 3,500-10,000Ukrainian 2000Ruthenian 6000,Total: 835,000-1,083,955

Source: minority organizations

Communities of national and ethnic minorities exist in approximately 1,500 settlements in Hungary. This situation is unique because they are geographically scattered, usually as a minority even within a settlement, forming the community of the given settlement together with the Hungarians and other minorities. For example, Slovakians, most of whom have dual identities, live in 105 settlements in 11 counties. Only the Ruthenians, and the Slovenians who live in seven adjacent settlements in western Hungary, live in relative concentrations in the same sub-region. Although most of the Romanians living in Hungary are settled along the Hungarian-Romanian border, they also have communities with centuries-old traditions in Budapest as well.The actual population with minority identity and commitment is somewhere between the census figures and the estimated figures. The great difference between the estimated and declared figures can best be explained by bitter historical experience: for instance, in the case of the German minority, census data from 1941 served as the basis for deportation after the Second World War, and as a basis for collective disenfranchisement.

***Definition of an individual speaking a regional or minority languageIn Hungarian law language rights are not established on the basis of the definition of “an individual speaking a regional or minority language” but on belonging to a “national or ethnic minority”. The minorities act includes the following definition of “national or ethnic minority”: “national and ethnic minorities (…) are all groups of people that have lived in the territory of the Republic of Hungary for at least one century; they represent a numerical minority in the country's population; their members are Hungarian citizens; they are distinguished from the rest of the population by their own languages, cultures, and traditions; they demonstrate a consciousness of an affinity that is aimed at preserving all of these and expressing and protecting the interests of their historical communities .” (Section 1, minorities act.)Thus the law guarantees language rights to those persons and communities which belong to minorities in Hungary and which meet the above definition.

***The organizational background to the protection of regional or minority languagesDue to the consistent and continuous minorities policy conducted by the Republic of Hungary the necessary legislative background has been established to ensure minority protection in Hungary, and within this the protection of minority languages. A considerable proportion of the activities of several state organizations (including the minority self-governments) and civil organizations go to ensuring the protection of languages and minority protection. The Hungarian Parliament’s Committee on Human Rights, Minorities, and Religious Affairs oversees the drafting of legal regulations at the highest legislative level to ensure that the principles of the protection of the minorities, and within this the protection of the languages of the minorities, are not contravened. The institution of the Parliamentary Committee for the Rights of Minorities stands at the next level; this body examines complaints lodged with it, including cases where rights to the use of language have been contravened, and it formulates recommendations for the resolution of such cases. The National and Ethnic Minorities Office can also play a role in the observation of the implementation of the language rights of minorities.The duty undertaken by the national minority self-governments is to protect the interests of the given minority. Aside from this the self-governments are the highest mediators at local, regional and national level ensuring compliance of rights related to the use of language by the minorities.

***

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Organizations involved in the drafting of the reportIn drawing up the report the National and Ethnic Minorities Office involved the national self-governments of the affected minorities – Croatians, Germans, Romanians, Serbians, Slovakians and Slovenians living in Hungary – and the competent divisions of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage. In the frame of administrative harmonization the draft report was despatched to all the portfolios, the Central Statistical Office and the Attorney General for comment.

***Following ratification the Charter was published in full in the government’s official gazette, the Hungarian Gazette, with a list of the commitments accepted by the Republic of Hungary. In addition, the information was passed on to the minority national self-governments with the assistance of the National and Ethnic Minorities Office. The minority and Hungarian press also carried features about the Charter.

Part IIArticle 7 – Objectives and principles

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, 2, 3, 4

The general minority policy of the Republic of Hungary, with specific reference to the points in Chapter II of the CharterThe role played by the national and ethnic minorities in Hungarian society is established in the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary. The Constitution states that the national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary share the people's power: they are part of the state. The Constitution guarantees the minorities collective participation in public life, the establishment of local and national self-governments, the nurturing of their own cultures, the use of their native languages, education in their native languages, and the right to use their names in their own languages.The programmes of successive governments since the change of regime in 1990 have clearly undertaken to fully ensure the rights of minorities in accordance with European norms.Hungary strives to develop a social atmosphere in which none of the minorities has to suffer any discrimination. In the course of implementing our policy on the minorities, we rely on the active cooperation of the national and ethnic minorities and the activities of their legitimate and elected bodies. Accordingly, the Hungarian government, with the involvement and cooperation of the minorities, presented the minorities act to Parliament, which then passed the law in 1993.The minorities act, which Parliament passed with a 96% majority, ensures the minorities that are native to Hungary individual and collective minority rights, the right to personal autonomy and the right to establish self-government bodies.In connection with this, there is an independent chapter in Act LXIV of 1990 on Local Self-governments concerning minority self-governments. The act, amended in 1994, stipulates the legal framework for electing minority self-government representatives.The amendment of Act XXXVIII of 1992 on the State Budget legally ensured the financial and economic autonomy of local minority self-governments.On the basis of the relevant provisions of the Constitution, Parliament elected the Parliamentary commissioner for the rights of national and ethnic minorities (hereafter: the minorities ombudsman). The minorities ombudsman is responsible for investigating/having investigated any kind of abuse of the rights of national or ethnic minorities that comes to his/her attention and initiating general and individual measures in order to remedy it. Act LIXX of 1993 on the Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil Rights stipulates in detail the tasks of the parliamentary commissioner for the rights of national and ethnic minorities. Citizens are able to turn to the minorities ombudsman in those cases in which, in their judgement, they have suffered injury due to the infringement of their constitutional rights as a consequence of the proceedings or measures of some authority or public service organization or their failure to take measures, as well as in those cases in which there is a danger that their constitutional rights may be violated. The minorities ombudsman reports to Parliament on an annual basis.In accordance with the Constitution, Parliament promulgated Act LXIII of 1992 on the Protection of Personal Data and the Public Disclosure of Public Data, which contains the fundamental regulations for enforcing the right to the protection of personal data and of access to public data.

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The most fundamental measures necessary for creating consonance with the minorities act were taken with the enactment of the public education act, and its amendment in 1996. As a first step toward modernizing public education, the National Master Curriculum defines the special basic principles of minority education. Providing supplementary standard funding for minority education is an important element of government funding of public education.With the amendment of Act IV of 1978 on the Criminal Code (hereafter: 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”, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 30 November 1973. The amendment creates the potential for fighting criminal forms of racial discrimination. It introduces a new criminal concept so that violent criminal acts against national, ethnic, racial, or religious groups can be condemned even if the crimes are committed against persons solely because they belong to such a group.Act I of 1996 on Radio and Television Broadcasting (hereafter: the broadcasting act) made the preparation of programmes that depict the culture and lives of minorities a compulsory responsibility of the public service media. Public service programmes 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.The system of minority self-government, which is gradually developing in Hungary on the basis of the appropriate legal regulation and is in fact already functioning, fulfils an increasingly important role in helping minorities organize their own affairs.Regarding the protection of national identity, the responsibility of the minority self-governments and social organizations is increased within the actual limits of minority autonomy, backed by guarantees of complete legal equality and appropriate emphasis to compensate for the objective disadvantages of existence as a minority.The government is responsible for informing people that coexistence with national and ethnic minorities is natural and has been going on for many centuries. It is also the task of the government to make people aware of the ways in which the various national and ethnic groups enrich the common culture. In this respect, the government does not view minorities as groups engaged in a struggle against the majority for their rights. Rather, it conceives of minorities as aggregates of individuals who, together with the majority, bear responsibility for common virtues and faults and share the same destiny as the majority.The government supports the minorities in strengthening their identities, and it endeavours to make people aware of the common values of the past and a sense of joint responsibility for the future. The government would like to improve the minority self-government system and achieve the cultural autonomy of minorities.The Hungarian minority policy of the past decade has attracted enormous international attention. Our immediate neighbours pay close attention to any developments in the situation of minorities in Hungary. Beyond the neighbouring countries, West European democracies and international organizations also continuously evaluate our minority-related measures and their impact.The report prepared in 1997 by the European Commission concerning Hungary's application to the European Union determines, among other things, that minority rights are secured and protected in Hungary. Key laws that guarantee the rights of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary and which are continuously being harmonized serve as the background for the findings of the European Union, the Council of Europe and other international organizations concerning Hungarian minority policy.

Evaluation Report of the Committee of Experts [ECRML (2001) 4]Background information

Chapter 1 Background information1. The Republic of Hungary signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereafter referred to as the Charter) on 5 November 1992 and deposited its instrument of ratification on 26 April 1995. The Charter entered into force for Hungary on 1 March 1998. The Hungarian authorities published the text of the Charter in the Official Gazette in Volume 1999, N°. 34.

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2. In accordance with Article 15.1 of the Charter, Hungary presented its initial periodical report to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on 7 September 1999. The Hungarian report was not made accessible to the general public in written form by the authorities in accordance with the requirement in Article 15.2. However, at the time of adoption of this report, the Government made it accessible to the public on its official website. 3. This report was adopted by the Committee of Experts on 6 February 2001.1.1 The work of the Committee of Experts4. After the Committee of Experts had made its preliminary examination of the Hungarian report, a questionnaire was drawn up and addressed to the Hungarian authorities. The Committee received the replies shortly before its “on-the-spot visit” organised in Hungary in April 2000. During the “on-the-spot visit”, the Committee met the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Rights of Minorities, the representatives of regional or minority language associations, members of Parliamentary Committee of Human Rights, Religious Freedom and Minorities, representatives of minority self-governments and the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities. On the same occasion the Committee had the opportunity to consult with representatives of relevant Ministries. The Committee travelled to various municipalities in Pest County and visited schools where regional or minority languages are used, local administrations and cultural institutions.5. On the basis of the information gathered from the initial periodical report, the questionnaires and the “on-the-spot-visit”, the Committee of Experts was better able to prepare its evaluation of the application of the Charter in the Republic of Hungary. 6. The Committee has established a list of general proposals for the preparation of recommendations of the Committee of Ministers to Hungary, as provided in Article 16.4 (Chapter 3.2 of this report). Furthermore, where necessary, the Committee has made in the body of the report more detailed observations which it encourages the Hungarian authorities to take into consideration when developing their policy with regard to regional or minority languages. 7. This report is based on the political and legal situation at the time when the Charter was ratified by Hungary and at the time when Hungary presented its initial periodical report to the Council of Europe. The Committee is aware of the fact that changes in legislation and practice may have taken place at a later stage. These changes will be taken into account in the next report of the Committee of Experts concerning Hungary.1.2 Presentation of the regional or minority language situation in Hungary8. In its instrument of ratification Hungary has identified the following languages as protected under Part III: Croatian, German, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovene. The instrument of ratification, which is reproduced in Appendix I to this report, has been drawn up in such a manner as to provide the exact same level of protection for each of these six languages. The Charter, however, is constructed in such a way that the State can adapt the protection of the various languages to the real situation of each language. That is indeed the principal justification for the right accorded to each State Party in Article 2.2 to choose among the provisions of Part III.9. The last population census was carried out in Hungary in 1990. Two figures are provided for each language, one identifying the number of persons belonging to the minority and the second identifying the number of mother tongue speakers. The number of mother tongue speakers identified in the 1990 census is presented below and not the number of persons belonging to the specific minority. The Committee is aware of the fact that the number of persons having command of a regional or minority language can be higher than those that consider it a mother tongue.

Language Mother tongue speakers

(minorities)

Regions with significant concentrations of minority

language speakersCroatian 17.577 Baranya and Bács-Kiskun Counties

Györ-Moson-Sopron, Vas and Zala Counties

German 37.511 BudapestBaranya County

Pest CountyGyör-Moson-Sopron, Komárom-

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Esztergom and Veszprém CountiesBács-Kiskun and Tolna Counties

Romanian 8.730 Békés CountyHajdú-Bihar and Csongrád Counties

Budapest

Serbian 2.953 Budapest and surrounding Pest County

Bács-Kiskun, Baranya and Csongrád Counties

Slovak 12.745 Békés CountyPest and Komárom-Esztergom

CountiesSlovene 2.627 Vas County

Roma/Gypsies 48.072 The various languages of the Roma/Gypsy communities are used

on the whole of the territory of Hungary

10. Besides these larger communities of regional or minority language users there exist several small communities of users of minority languages traditionally spoken in Hungary. The official statistics list them as Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian, Polish, Ukrainian and Ruthenian. Except for the Polish community, for which the official number of native speakers exceeds 3.000, these communities are rather small, with not much more than 1.000 speakers (or even less in the case of the Armenians, Ukrainians and Ruthenians). The small communities seem to be rather scattered, with concentrations only in Budapest. Only the Polish and Ruthenian communities have sizeable settlements, both situated in the north-east of Hungary.11. The numbers of minority-language speakers in general are rather disputed. Owing to the historical situation of minority languages during the last few decades, it is evident that users of such languages are reluctant to declare officially that they are mother-tongue speakers of a minority language. The official census thus systematically underestimated the number of users of regional or minority languages. On the other hand, estimates given by the minority associations themselves are not necessarily reliable. It is obvious, however, that the numbers of minority language users are higher than the figures in the 1990 census, even if one looks into the differences of official statistics. The official numbers (counted in 1990) of people having command of the minority languages are much higher than the numbers of native speakers counted in the census of 1990, in case of German at least five times as high as the official number of native speakers. Estimates run up to more than 500.000 Roma/Gypsies (with some 150.000 speaking a minority language), more than 200.000 German-speakers, some 100.000 Slovaks speakers and 80.000-90.000 Croatians-speakers In the case of the other languages, differences in numbers are not as extreme, lying mostly below 10.000 (with the exception of Romanian – 25.000 – and Polish – some 10.000).12. The socio-linguistic situation makes it extremely difficult (if not impossible) to come to reliable numbers. Minority language communities are well integrated (with the exception of Roma/Gypsies). Large segments of them are in a process of wholesale assimilation. Practically all the speakers of minority languages live in a situation of “diglossia”, speaking Hungarian like a mother tongue and using it daily as the main medium of communication. Some 40%-60% of the adult minority population lives in ethnically mixed marriages, in which the minority language often will not be transferred to the following generation. As a consequence, the number of native speakers of minority languages steadily declines, with two important exceptions: the Gypsy and German languages, which have experienced a revival during the last ten years.13. The situation of Roma/Gypsies is of particular complexity. The majority of Roma/Gypsies have lost their native language, speaking only Hungarian as mother tongue (although often with severe deficiencies in linguistic skills). Only some 20% of people of Roma/Gypsy origin still speak Romani. An additional 10% of Roma/Gypsies still use ´Beas´, an archaic version of the Romanian language. For the purpose of the Charter, only these some 30% of minority-language-speaking Roma/Gypsies are

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relevant, not the large majority of Hungarian-speaking Roma/Gypsies whose main problems are social exclusion and discrimination.1.3 Particular issues arising in the evaluation of the application of the Charter in Hungary14. The Committee recognises that the Hungarian instrument of ratification promises protection that is far-reaching on a normative scale. It undertakes to protect the users of regional or minority languages in all the places where they are living, extending the protection over the entire territory of the Republic. Such an approach has some justification bearing in mind the drastic changes in the social and economic situation and the demographic changes, which have territorially uprooted significant numbers of users of regional or minority languages. The instrument of ratification is based on internal minority legislation developed during the past ten years. The Committee recognises that Hungary has undertaken an ambitious effort in drafting a form of a model legislation on the protection of minorities, resulting in a scheme of functional autonomy of minorities that has found wide recognition. The legislation is directed towards the rights of minorities including the protection and promotion of regional or minority languages. Bearing in mind the recent origin of such legislation, as well as its experimental character and the lack of material resources typical for a country in transition, one should not be astonished that there still exist severe difficulties in implementing the ambitious scheme developed by Hungarian legislation. The Committee learned during its “on-the-spot visit” and its evaluation of the Hungarian situation that there continue to exist severe deficiencies in the practical implementation of the minority legislation. The competent Hungarian authorities very frankly admitted that such deficiencies still exist and thus showed a consciousness of the existing problems and a willingness to overcome them in the future. The Committee acknowledges this positive atmosphere. 15. At the time of the presentation of the initial periodical report to the Council of Europe, the following legal acts and provisions were relevant to the application of the Charter:

- The Constitution of the Republic of Hungary, specifically Articles 68 and 70/A;- The Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities.

These two basic instruments prescribe the use of regional or minority languages in Hungary, with reference in detail to other legal instruments that are to implement these provisions. These instruments include, inter alia, Act LXIV of 1990 on the Election of Local Self-Government Representatives and Mayors, Act I of 1973 on Criminal Procedure, Act LXXIX of 1993 on Public Education, Act CXL of 1997 on the Protection of Cultural Goods, Museum Institutions, the Supply of Public Libraries, and Public Education, as well as Act I of 1996 on Radio and Television Broadcasting. On the legislative scale, protection of minorities and regional or minority languages is rather elaborate and has the potential to serve as a model for future development of minority protection in Europe. 16. Due to the specific socio-linguistic situation in Hungary, however, implementation of such ambitious legislation has to cope with important obstacles. The extension of linguistic rights to the entire territory of Hungary, irrespective of any demographic concentration of minority-language speakers, makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the authorities to take the necessary organisational measures in advance which are needed to make linguistic rights operational. This is less of a problem in education, where the existence of certain minimum numbers of minority-language-speaking pupils makes it possible to organise education in the minority language in public schools. To implement linguistic rights in public administration and the judiciary, however, specific organisational measures are needed in advance. Public authorities have to adopt certain modifications of routine administrative procedures and have to hire administrative personnel qualified in minority languages. If such measures are not taken in advance, speakers of minority languages that insist on the use of their language when dealing with public authorities are easily perceived as “trouble-makers". This is particularly true in a “diglossia” situation like the Hungarian one, where practically all the users of minority languages master the Hungarian language as a second mother tongue. Deficiencies in the organisational adaptation to linguistic rights will usually create a social climate hostile to any public use of minority languages, which – as can be seen in Hungary – makes the elaborate legislative scheme on the use of minority languages largely inoperational in practice. It also creates a danger of undermining the credibility of the legislation itself. It is obvious that overcoming such a situation is not a mere question of political will, but is linked to questions of public resources and to the general reform of structures of public administration. Accordingly, it will take considerable time to overcome these difficulties.

EvaluationChapter 2 The Committee’s evaluation in respect of Part II and Part III of the Charter

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17. The text of the Charter, when read in conjunction with the instrument of ratification, indicates in some detail the exact undertakings that apply in respect of the different languages in the areas covered by the Charter. The Committee has therefore evaluated how Hungary has fulfilled each undertaking in Article 7 for Part II and in Articles 8-14 for Part III, using the paragraphs and sub-paragraphs specified in the instrument of ratification.

Part II2.1 The evaluation in respect of Part II of the Charter18. Part II of the Charter sets out a number of general objectives and principles that a Party is obliged to apply to all the regional or minority languages on its territory. Hungary did not specify explicitly in its instrument of ratification or its initial periodical report or in its replies to the Committee’s questions, which languages besides those identified for Part III are considered as regional or minority languages in accordance with the definition in the Charter.19. Chapter 1(2) of Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (hereafter referred to as the Minorities Act) gives an abstract definition of the notion of ´minorities´. According to the same act, the autochthonous minorities of Hungary comprise the communities of Armenians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Germans, Roma/Gypsies (speaking Romany and Beas), Greek, Polish, Romanians, Ruthenians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Ukrainians. There are no indications that other linguistic communities fulfilling the requirements of Art.1 (a) of the Charter exist in Hungary. Minority languages within the meaning of the Charter which are not covered by Part III are thus Armenian, Bulgarian, Romany, Beas, Greek, Polish, Ruthenian and Ukrainian. The number of users of these languages is rather diverse. By far the largest of these communities is the group of Romany-speaking Roma/Gypsies, speaking a variety called Lovari, estimated at some 100.000 speakers. The other large minority-language community is the Beas-speaking Roma/Gypsies (Beas being an archaic version of Romanian taken over by an important group of South-Eastern European Roma/Gypsies some centuries ago). The size of this community is estimated at some 50.000 speakers. All the other linguistic minorities not covered by Part III are rather small in numbers. Two of these small communities probably have to be qualified as having a territorial base, since both communities historically settled in the north-east of Hungary in (still existing) distinct settlements. The few Ruthenian villages have some thousands of inhabitants (with minority-language speakers ranging from several hundreds counted in the census of 1990 up to 6.000 according to unofficial estimates). The Polish community is larger, with nearly 4.000 native Polish-speakers according to the official census of 1990 and an estimated number of up to 10.000. The Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek and Ukrainian communities are scattered throughout the country, living mostly in urban centres, particularly Budapest. The size of these communities is rather small, encompassing some 2.000-4.000 members at the most, with only parts of them still speaking the minority language. Some of these communities, like the Armenians and Greek, however, have a long tradition of preserving their cultural and linguistic identity in expatriate colonies with an intensive community life and an elaborate system of community education.

Article 7 – Objectives and principlesArticle 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph a

20. The Committee of Experts considered that the languages specified in the instrument of ratification have been recognised by the Hungarian State in accordance with this obligation, i.e. the Croatian, German, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovene languages. As for the other languages, the Minorities Act of 1993 in its Section 42 recognises these linguistic groups also as autochthonous minorities protected by Hungarian legislation. They are included in the system of minority self-governments and receive funding from the State. The initial periodical report states that there is virtually no demand on the part of the speakers of six of the eight languages not included in Part III with respect to the use of their languages and seems to deduce from this fact that the members of these communities are not interested in preserving their language and culture. Given the practical impossibility to use these languages (Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Polish, Ruthenian and Ukrainian) in education and before public authorities, such reluctance by the speakers of these languages to insist on language rights is understandable. But one should not deduce from such reluctance a lack of will on their part to preserve their cultural and linguistic identity. Indeed, the Committee has noted that the speakers of these languages have made use of the possibility to form minority self-governments and use State funding received through that system for educational and cultural purposes.

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Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph b

22. Although there seems to be no explicit mechanisms ensuring the respect of the geographical area of each regional or minority language, there are no indications that any problem has arisen in that regard in recent years. Bearing in mind the geographical dispersion of users of minority languages in Hungary, the determination of territorial divisions for administrative purposes will probably affect the promotion of minority languages only on the level of the division of local self-government units. The general legislative schemes ensuring participation of the local communities concerned seem to protect minority languages adequately.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph c

23. Hungary has taken important initiatives that raise the awareness of the need to protect and promote regional or minority languages, both by the establishment of the Governmental Office for National and Ethnic Minorities and by the work of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights, Minorities and Religions. Of particular significance has been the creation of the office of Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights (Minorities Ombudsman) and the development of the scheme of minority self-governments instituted by the Minorities Act of 1993. The office of Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights (Minorities Ombudsman) was legally instituted by Subsection (2) of Section 32/B of the Constitution; the first Ombudsman (a member of a linguistic minority) was elected by Parliament in July 1995. The Ombudsman deals with all complaints linked to alleged infringements of minority rights and has successfully mediated in a series of cases where minority rights had been violated. Although only two cases have dealt with linguistic issues, the Ombudsman’s activities have raised awareness of the need for resolute action in favour of minority languages. The creation of the system of minority self-governments has also raised public attention for minority issues in general and could further help to develop a public consciousness of the needs of minority languages.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph d

24. The users of all regional or minority languages in Hungary have the possibility of using their language in public life. The term “public life” is fairly wide and could include the use of the language in education, justice, administration, economic and social life and cultural life as well as in transfrontier exchanges. This is developed in the next chapter in respect of the Part III languages. As for the other languages, the Committee did not receive sufficient information to permit it to evaluate how the use of the other languages in public life is facilitated or encouraged. The Minorities Act of 1993 as well as the specific minority language provisions in other acts cover also these languages and on paper guarantee the right of the users of these minority languages to use the language in public life, such as in relations with the administration and before the courts as well as in economic and social life. Since no organisational measures have been taken to enable the administration, the judiciary and public services to deal with the public in such languages, the guarantees are by and large inoperational in practice. The Government Office for National and Ethnic Minorities finances programmes of minority self-governments and associations that promote some of these minority languages and cultures. For the Polish and Ruthenian communities that are territorially rooted in distinct settlements, the Hungarian Government could develop certain active programmes in order to foster the use of their languages in public life. As far as the other minority languages are concerned, the promotion of their public use will meet severe difficulties, due to the dispersion of these communities.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph e

25. The multi-level system of minority self-governments ensures that users of the same minority language inside Hungary have close links with each other since they form altogether an upper level of self-administration in the form of a national self-government. This national body serves as a spokesperson towards the national government and enables the local and regional levels of self-government to co-ordinate their activities. Links between the various groups using regional or minority languages also seem to be quite close, with an intense co-operation of minority associations and self-governments on local and regional level, and also on the national level.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph f

26. The Committee has found that the legislative framework for the teaching of the regional or minority languages in Hungary is well developed and endeavours to solve the problems of minority education. Practical implementation of this legislative framework, however, still has to cope with serious difficulties. The comments on the Part III languages are set out in the next section of this chapter. As for the Part II languages, the Act on Public Education provides – as for the Part III

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languages - that on the initiative of at least eight parents an independent school class or study group has to be established. In so far as such a demand is apparent, the local self-government that is responsible for primary schooling is obliged to organise and maintain education in the minority language, in a form which meets the demands of the parents. For secondary and other higher education, comparable rules exist. The organisational details have to be fixed by the responsible authorities, which leaves room for considerable variations. Since the Hungarian Government has not given detailed information concerning minority language education in the languages not covered by Part III, it is difficult for the Committee to judge whether the Hungarian authorities have directed their policies and practice towards the objective of providing appropriate forms and means for the teaching and study of the relevant minority languages at all appropriate stages. At least for the two Part II languages having a territorial base, Polish and Ruthenian, educational policies should lead to an appropriate scheme of minority language education at public schools in the respective minority settlements. For both languages, education seems to be based purely on Sunday schools up to now. In addition, the importance of the availability of appropriate teaching materials, as a foundation of good teaching in and of the language, has to be stressed. This is particularly true for native language training in Romani and Beas. There exist practically no textbooks and manuals. If at all, higher education offers only some courses in “Roma studies”, but almost no language education in Romani, and none in Beas. To change this situation in the short or medium term will be extremely difficult, since there is hardly any professional training of teachers in Romani and Beas, which in turn makes it practically impossible to introduce education in these languages in the curriculum on an organised basis. The first step to improve this situation of the languages would be to train teachers and produce teaching materials.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph g

27. The Committee found that no provisions exist that promote the teaching of minority languages to non-speakers of the language living inside the area where it is mostly used. The organisation of such classes is allowed on the initiative of private organisers. The scheme of minority language education at public schools is also in principle open for pupils from other linguistic groups. In the case of the German schools, there is a significant proportion of Hungarian-speaking children attending these schools. If resources are scarce, this might lead, however, to shortages in minority language education for children of the minority itself. In general, there seems to be no measure that specifically facilitates the learning of a regional or minority language by non-speakers in the area where they reside and the language is used. Such endeavour would be a positive step in furthering tolerance on the part of those that speak the official language and should be actively encouraged by the State.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph h

28. Government funds exist to finance research on the various regional or minority languages. This is a good initiative on the part of the authorities and should be continued and enlarged in scope. In particular the study and research on the Romani and Beas languages should be intensified and the funds devoted to this purpose increased, bearing in mind the high numbers of speakers of these languages and the severity of the problems they experience.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph i

29. The Hungarian authorities have taken initiatives to encourage and promote different types of transnational exchanges for their regional or minority languages in the various fields covered by the Charter. The Committee considers that these initiatives are both a significant means of promoting regional or minority languages and an important element of European integration. They should therefore be continued for the benefit of the protection of the regional or minority languages that exist on the Hungarian territory.

Article 7, paragraph 2

30. There is no indication that any unjustified distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference relating to the use of a regional or minority language has persisted in Hungarian legislation. In order to fight the social practices of discrimination, Hungary included already in 1978, according to the general practice of anti-discrimination legislation, a penal provision in its Criminal Code covering all forms of racial discrimination. Since the international legal notion of ´racial discrimination´ is rather wide, this covers also open forms of ethnic and linguistic discrimination. Other laws also contain provisions against discrimination on ethnic and linguistic grounds. With the office of the Minorities Ombudsman, Hungary has also created an institutional mechanism to combat practices of discrimination against ethnic and linguistic minorities. This does not mean that all practices of discrimination in social life have come to an end; the Gypsy population, in particular, still suffers considerably under phenomena of social and

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economic discrimination. The Hungarian state, however, is investing considerable efforts in combating such discrimination.

Article 7, paragraph 3

31. The National Basic Curriculum that fixes the basic goals of education contains a whole series of educational goals advocating understanding, tolerance and respect for other nations´ values. The detailed requirements set up in the curriculum for the various educational fields, such as ´knowledge of the country and the nation´, Hungarian language and literature, social and economic studies, include information about the minorities, their literature, music and cultural traditions as well as their organisation. Moreover, the legislative guidelines for the media contain comparative goals. In addition, the Minorities Ombudsman and the minority self-governments play a valuable role in furthering understanding of the complex situation of linguistic minorities and in educating the general public towards the aims of tolerance in relation to minority languages.

Article 7, paragraph 4

32. The whole system of minority self-governments created by Hungarian legislation during the last decade secures participation of the minorities in the formulation of minority-related policies. These self-governments have the possibility to take over responsibilities in education and culture from the local and central governments, and could thus decide on their own administrative policies. Moreover, also in the other fields that remain in the competence of the municipalities or the State, the legal framework guarantees a far-reaching participation of the representatives of the minorities in determining the policies with regard to the minorities. In addition, the administrative staff of the Government Office for National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary is by and large drawn from the minorities themselves, which also secures involvement of the minorities in their affairs.

Article 7, paragraph 5

33. Most of the minority languages that are not covered under Part III of the Charter are non-territorial languages within the meaning of Article 7.5 of the Charter (with the possible exception of Polish and Ruthenian). As far as the rather small and scattered linguistic groups – Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians and Ukrainians – are concerned, the necessary adaptation of the measures envisaged under Part II to the needs and wishes of such groups allows only limited measures. By applying the system of minority self-governments also to these groups, Hungary has demonstrated its willingness to take into consideration their needs and wishes.

Conclusions/FindingsChapter 3 Findings The Committee of Experts hereby presents its general findings on the application of the Charter in Hungary. A. Hungarian legislation on the protection of minorities has gone through an exploratory phase during the last ten years. Hungary has experimented with innovative concepts of minority protection, in order to ameliorate the legislative, administrative and organisational framework in which the minorities have to live and to develop their cultural identity. This development has had an important impact on the status of minority languages and has created a basis for protecting and promoting these languages. B. The most original feature of Hungarian minority legislation is the system of minority self-governments, which gives the minorities a decisive say in decision-making on the regulatory and administrative details of language policy. This innovative scheme of functional autonomy through the institutional network of minority self-governments has the potential of serving as a model and a frame of reference for the future development of minority legislation in Europe. Hungary deserves high credit for the development of this model.C. The establishment of the model of minority self-governments does not mean, however, that all difficulties in the protection and promotion of minority languages are solved automatically. The model has not yet been implemented completely, as can be seen in the slow pace of transfers of competences to the newly created minority self-governments, a problem linked to delicate issues of allocation of resources. There are fields of minority protection where the Hungarian record is excellent, like the fostering of minority culture and the media. There are other fields where inherited structural problems create difficulties for the practice of minority protection, such as education and the use of minority languages before judicial and administrative authorities. The record in implementing the

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Charter is thus mixed, although one cannot doubt the good will of the Hungarian legislation and administration.

Comments by the State Party [ECRML (2001) 4]The Government of the Republic of Hungary fundamentally agrees with the findings of the specialists' report on Hungary's implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. We thank the Committee of Experts for its appreciation of the accomplishments we have gained so far, the innovative measures we have introduced - particularly the comments which bear on the model Hungary has put into execution of minority self-governments. The words of appreciation further strengthen our commitment to develop the system.In the immensely thorough and objective report, the Committee does not merely list our shortcomings but also points to the reasons for them, recognizing the efforts made by Hungary to overcome these, and making proposals as to the future.In the period that has elapsed since the submission of the Report, several government decisions have been made which have brought progress in the field of the protection of minority languages and the development of minority culture and education. In our comments, we make only a brief mention of these positive changes, since - as was indicated by the authors of the Report themselves - a fuller discussion of these will be provided in the forthcoming report.It is a piece of relevant new information that, in February of this year, a census was carried out in Hungary. It is hoped that the data of the census will further strengthen the well-founded nature of our minority policy, bringing us closer to obtaining dependable statistics on the size of minority communities. The first data of the census are expected to be published in the latter half of this year.In what follows, we will make our comments in connection with the particular findings of the evaluation of the Committee of Experts, referring to the relevant points of the Report.Point 20:The Republic of Hungary ensures, in the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic minorities, the language rights of numerically small minorities living in areas hard to delimit geographically. The Government itself endeavours to revive and strengthen the demands of these minorities concerning use of their languages through funding for successful applicants selected in a competitive bidding process. Good examples of this are the regular funding furnished by the Ministry of Education to Sunday Schools teaching minority languages and ethnic studies, and the funding provided for the organization of language camps and for the publication of literary works of art in minority languages by the Public Foundation for the National and Ethnic Minorities of Hungary. Summing up:The Government of the Republic of Hungary fundamentally agrees with the contents of the Report of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages on Hungary's record on implementing the Charter. Our intention above has been to correct and to add some details to some of the findings of the Committee. In the few cases where we did not agree with the evaluation or conclusion, we have tried to present and support our arguments.As was indicated in the introduction, a detailed exposition of several new positive measures that have been taken to advance our fulfilment of our undertakings relating to the Charter will be provided in our next Periodic Report. Only where we believed that a knowledge of the relevant new initiatives could help one form a more accurate picture did we include any reference to these measures.One of the major insights we have gained is that, while, in our Country Report, we tended to concentrate mainly on those of our minorities concerning which we have fulfilled our undertakings under Part III of the Charter, the Report of the Committee of Experts has clearly enjoined upon us the need to accord, in our next Report, greater emphasis to the general measures arising from Part II of the Charter and applying to all the minorities living in the Republic of Hungary - the more especially since Act No.LXXVII/1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities also does not make any difference between the minorities featuring in our undertakings concerning the Charter and the rest of the minorities of Hungary.We welcome the recommendations voiced by the Committee of Experts. Each and every one of these accords with the goals of Hungary's consensual minority policy - a policy commanding the support of

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all the relevant political forces - and the main directions of the minority policy of all our successive governments.

Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers [RecChL (2001) 4]The Committee of Ministers, Recommends that the Republic of Hungary:2. strengthen the institutional infrastructure for teaching in and of the minority languages, and develop further the possibilities of bilingual education and provide sufficient teacher training;4. continue to develop the potential of its newly established system of minority self-governments in view of the valuable contribution it can make to the promotion of the minority languages.

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2nd monitoring cycleState Party Report [MIN-LANG/PR (2002) 6]

Background informationThe policy of the Republic of Hungary concerning regional or minority languages has not changed over the recent period. Essentially, the fundamental laws guaranteeing the protection of minority languages did not change, but (due exactly to the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe and the obligations Hungary assumed under the Charter) a number of amendments extending the possibilities for the use of these languages were adopted and regulations further clarifying the understanding of the rights related to the use of minority languages in certain areas of public life were also issued.

I. IntroductionFor centuries, numerous national communities have been coexisting on the territory of the Republic of Hungary. In modern times, the ethnic and language composition of this part of the Carpathian Basin was greatly marked by an extensive loss and restructuring of the population during the Ottoman-Turkish occupation, and the subsequent large scale spontaneous migrations and organised settlements during the 17th – 18th centuries.A common feature of most national and ethnic minorities living on the territory of today’s Hungary is that they have been living within the framework of the Hungarian state for centuries. Except for the autochthonous Slovene inhabitants of the southwestern part of the country around Szentgotthárd, minorities arrived to the current territory of Hungary in several waves over the past centuries. A key component of their historic, social and ethnic character is that they mostly left behind the original territory of their ethnic group prior to the birth of a regulated standard language and for this reason their currently spoken languages and dialects generally tend to be archaic language variants.The integration and then the assimilation of the minorities settled on the current territory of Hungary into the majority nation was sometimes fast and aggressive, sometimes slower and less forcible over the passing centuries. The forced population transfers and voluntary translocations after World War II strongly eroded minority communities. These processes resulted in a weakened identity, cultural ties and educational base for almost all minorities in Hungary, as well as the acceleration of their assimilation. Although minority policy prior to the change of political system in 1989 recognised a few minority communities (all of which currently fall under the force of the Charter) and supposedly supported the bequeath of minority cultures and the establishment of the relevant educational bases yet, instead of pro-active measures, the cultural assimilation, the decreasing role of minority languages and the elimination of the identity of the minorities basically continued.As a result, most of the minorities living within the territory of the Republic of Hungary have dual or multiple cultural ties. Their ties to Hungarian language and culture are nearly as strong as (sometimes even stronger than) their bonds with their original national minority language and culture.Nonetheless, the change of the political system brought about an increasing activity among the minority language communities. Minorities that had been earlier officially regarded “non-existent” (the Roma/Gypsies, the Bulgarians, the Greeks, the Polish, the Armenians, the Ruthenians and the Ukrainians) created their organisations and associations and were soon actively participating in the development of the principles of a democratic minority policy. It is to a large extent due to the active role of the minorities that the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities was in place already by 1993. To date, this same law lays down the minority policy of the Republic of Hungary. Considering the fact that its text specially emphasises minorities’ linguistic rights, the Act can be regarded as the first systematic wording of Hungary’s policy with regard to minority languages.The recognition of the common history and the historic co-existence is an important element of the definition given in the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, providing the basis of Hungary’s minority policy. The law defines the notion of national or ethnic minority by integrating the so-called Capotorti definition and the elements of the Council of Europe’s minority concept. According to that, "a national or ethnic minority”, recognised in Hungary as a constituent part of the state, "is an ethnic group with a history of at least one century of living in the Republic of Hungary, which represents a numerical minority among the citizens of the state, the members of which are Hungarian citizens, and are distinguished from the rest of the citizens by their own language, culture and traditions, and at the same time demonstrate a sense of belonging together, which is aimed at the

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preservation of all these, and the expression and protection of the interests of their communities, which have been formed in the course of history.”It should be noted that this definition concerns minority communities and not individuals belonging to a group, many of whom speak hardly, if at all, the language.

* * *The latest census in the Republic of Hungary was carried out in 2001. According to the data gathered, the total population of the country was 10 198 000 at the turn of the millennium. Within that, the portion of men was 47.6% and that of the women 52.4 %. The portion of children (0–14 years) was 16.6 %, that of the middle-aged (15–59 years) was 63.0% and the portion of senior citizens (above 60 years) was 20.4%. (At the time of the previous census in 1990 the portion of the population declaring themselves to be of Hungarian nationality was 98.5 %. The 2001 data are not yet available). The population of minority language communities, as well as their portion within the total population is very low. When evaluating the data, however, one could not ignore the fact that it was not compulsory to respond to the questions about belonging to a minority and that negative historic experience of minorities still casts a shadow over the willingness to confess one’s minority identity.The age composition of Hungary’s national/ethnic minority population – with the exception of the Roma/Gypsies – is generally unfavourable even compared to the country’s overall ageing population. Taking the distribution by age groups we find a steady decrease of the numbers towards the younger generations. The previously characteristic families with several children have been replaced by ageing households.According to the 1990 census data, the schooling indicators of the minority population are less advantageous than those for the population as a whole. This might be explained first of all by the high portion of older people, that is, of those who obtained only a lower level of schooling over the past decades. This is further confirmed by the fact that schooling indicators of the school-age groups of the national and ethnic minorities tend to be generally better than those of the total population. A survey conducted by the Ministry of Education shows that the schooling indicators of Roma pupils have now become close to the overall country average, i.e. some 90% graduate from primary school and about 85% of them continue in secondary school.The economy of the Republic of Hungary has been growing dynamically in recent years. Over the past three years the rate of growth exceeded the average rate of the EU member states. The geographical distribution of economic growth, however, is uneven, as it is mainly concentrated around the capital and the western part of the country. The government has made serious efforts in recent years to include also the eastern part in the economic growth, but the results so far are quite limited. Hungary’s economy is a functioning market economy presenting all the relevant characteristics this implies. The main trading partners of the Hungarian economy are the member states of the European Union.The economic and social integration of the minorities in Hungary – with the exception of the Roma minority – can be considered complete. Their schooling, employment and income indicators generally do not differ from those of the majority population living within the same region and under the same conditions.Parliamentary democracy and the rule of law in the Republic of Hungary are supported by a stable institutional framework, as the annual reports of the European Union equally ascertain. The legislative, executive and judicial powers function independently from one another and co-operate suitably.The development of the public administration and the decentralisation of administrative tasks are in progress. Over the recent years the Government has paid a special attention to the development and strengthening of regional public administration, and to the evolution of public services as well as civil servants’ career opportunities.

I.1. Definition of the term “user of a regional or minority language” Besides the Constitution, an important political instrument of the Republic of Hungary concerning minority languages is the amended Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (hereafter referred to as the Minorities Act), which, among others, defines the language rights of the minority communities. In the preamble of the Minorities Act, the following wording is used: “The mother tongue, the intellectual and material culture, the historical traditions of the national and ethnic minorities who are Hungarian citizens and live in Hungary, and other characteristic qualities, which support their minority status are considered aspects of their identity as individuals and as a community. All these are special values, the preservation, cultivation and augmentation of which is not

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only a basic right of the national and ethnic minorities, but also in the interest of the Hungarian nation, and ultimately in that of the community of states and nations.”In Hungarian law, the subject of linguistic rights is not identified on the basis of the definition of a “ user of a regional or minority language” but on the fact of a person’s belonging to “a national or ethnic minority.”Thus, the subjects of the linguistic rights guaranteed by law are the persons and communities belonging to the minorities living in Hungary and meeting the above definition.According to Article 42 of the Minorities Act, the languages used by minorities living in Hungary are the following: Bulgarian, Gypsy (Romani and Beas), Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene and Ukrainian.The national or ethnic minorities speaking the above-enumerated languages are scattered throughout the country’s whole territory. In the majority of the cases they live at settlements where they form a numerical minority of the local population. There is scarcely any demand on the part of minorities living in Hungary in relatively small numbers (such as the Bulgarians, the Greeks, the Polish, the Armenians, the Ruthenians and the Ukrainians) related to the use of their languages and cultures, but even in their case the language rights are guaranteed by the Minorities Act, even though their dispersion makes it impossible to define a geographical area or region where their languages are used. The standardisation of dialects spoken by the Roma/Gypsies of Hungary (the Romani and the Beas) has begun and it is expected that when the process will be complete these languages shall appear in Hungary’s public life.As far as Part III of the Charter is concerned, the Republic of Hungary assumed commitments only in connection with the languages of minorities living in more concentrated groups, generally in well definable regions of the country (Romanians, Slovenians) or of those who, due to their numbers, have established educational and cultural structures in their mother tongue despite being scattered across several regions or counties (Croatians, Germans, Serbs and Slovaks).In view of the foregoing, when preparing for the signature of the Charter and relying on the suggestion of the expert committee responsible for the preparation, the Government of the Republic of Hungary decided that under the given conditions it shall commit itself to protect the languages of six of the above enumerated thirteen minorities: the Croatian, the German, the Romanian, the Serbian, the Slovak and the Slovene minority languages.Naturally, this does not mean that the Government does not take actions to protect the rest of the minority languages. It merely means that it shall implement such measures outside the framework of the Charter. The Government is making constant efforts for the development of the Romani and the Beas languages independently of the fact that it has not yet assumed specific commitments in connection with these languages within the framework of the Charter.The six national minority languages mentioned have undergone various changes over the past centuries. Their independent development followed only partially the mother nations’ language reform movements. As a result, the everyday language spoken by the minorities has conserved archaic dialects that differ from the standard languages sometimes to a smaller, sometimes to a larger extent. Today we are witnessing that since minority education is administered in the standard languages already incorporating the results of language reforms, the standard languages supplant local regional minority dialects.

* * *As it was already mentioned above, it is difficult to define the exact geographical locations of the minorities living in Hungary. In the next part those geographical regions are listed that can be directly linked to a particular minority. However, relevant information will also be provided for each minority as to the number of their minority self-governments in each county, since that kind of information allows a more accurate understanding of the presence of the minorities. (In the capital Budapest, the minorities can elect local self-governments in each district and the members of such district level minority self-governments can create capital level minority self-governments, too. In this way, each minority may elect a total of 24 minority self-governments within the capital.)

* * *In Hungary, the legal framework provides much broader possibilities for the use of the languages of the minorities than is actually utilised. At 64 settlements the local government is in fact a minority self-government (a so-called transformed minority local government) because most of the local representatives were elected as minority candidates. At such settlements it is possible to pass local

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decrees (on the basis of national legislation) that ensure a high level use of the minority languages in public administration and public life at a local level. Still, the minorities utilise only part of the given possibilities.

I.2. Data concerning minority populations in Hungary based on the 1990 and 2001 year census data and according to minorities’ estimates

Minority Population (1990) (according to mother tongue)1)

Population (1990) (according to belonging to a minority)1)

Estimated population2)

Croatian 17,577 13,570 80,000 – 90,000German 37,511 30,824 200,000 – 220,000Romanian 8,730 10,740 25,000Serbian 2,953 2,905 5,000 – 10,000Slovak 12,745 10,459 100,000 – 110,000Slovene 2,627 1,930 5,000Source: 1) Central Statistical Office

2) National minority self-governments

A great majority of the Croatians in Hungary (a total of almost 16 thousand people) live in the southern and western counties of Baranya, Zala, Vas, Győr-Moson-Sopron and Bács-Kiskun, and most of them reside at smaller settlements. The number of persons declaring their Croatian cultural ties is a little more than that, while the number of those stating that Croatian is their mother tongue or that they use it for communication within the family is somewhat less.At the 1998 minority elections (the next elections are due in October 2002) a total of 75 Croatian minority self-governments were formed in the country, 15 of those in Budapest, 10 in Bács-Kiskun County, 18 in Baranya County, 5 in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, 3 in Pest County, 5 in Somogy County, 10 in Vas County and in 9 Zala County. The number of the transformed Croatian local governments is 18.The greatest numbers of the population declaring themselves to be of German nationality (a total of 62 thousand people) live in Baranya County, Pest County, in Budapest, in Tolna and in Komárom-Esztergom Counties (in descending order), distributed more or less evenly among the urban and rural populations. The same applies to people declaring their ties with the cultural values and traditions of the German minority. The latter are more numerous (88 thousand) than those who declare their nationality. In the case of the declared mother tongue (34 thousand) a 10% decrease has been registered since 1990, but significantly more people (53 thousand) stated that they used the German language for communication within the family and with friends.The Germans living in Hungary created a total of 271 local minority self-governments in 1998 – 24 of them in Budapest, 17 in Bács-Kiskun County, 56 in Baranya County, 7 in Békés County, 8 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, 2 in Csongrád County, 15 in Fejér County, 10 in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, 16 in Komárom-Esztergom County, 2 in Nógrád County, 33 in Pest County, 3 in Somogy County, 4 in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, 26 in Tolna County, 10 in Vas County, 36 in Veszprém County and 2 in Zala County. From this list it is clear that the German minority is spread all across Hungary’s territory since from the total 19 counties there are only three without any local German minority self-government. The elected local bodies were transformed into German minority local governments at 30 settlements.The most significant population of the Romanian national minority in Hungary (of a total population of 8000) live in Békés and Hajdú-Bihar Counties, close to the Romanian border, as well as in Budapest an in Csongrád County. Compared to the previous census, their number has reduced both in terms of declaring their nationality and their mother tongue.At the time of the 1998 minority elections 31 so-called Romanian minority self-governments were set up. 13 of those were formulated in Budapest, 8 in Békés County, 1 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, 2 in Csongrád County and 7 in Hajdú-Bihar County. At three settlements the local bodies were transformed into minority local governments.

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Half of the Serbs (nearly 4000 people) live in or around Budapest, while the other half lives mainly in the cities of the southern part of the country, in Csongrád, Baranya, Békés and Bács-Kiskun Counties. In their case the data again show that less of them declared Serbian as their mother tongue, while more people use it with the family and also more declared cultural ties.The total number of Serbian minority self-governments following the 1998 elections is 36, of which 15 are in Budapest, 2 in Bács-Kiskun County, 2 in Baranya County, 1 in Békés County, 4 in Fejér County, 9 in Pest County and 1 was created in Tolna County.The Slovaks living in Hungary (nearly 18 thousand people) are mostly concentrated in the cities of Békés County and in the villages of Pest and Komárom-Esztergom Counties. In the case of the Slovakian minority the number of people declaring their cultural ties is pleasingly high (nearly 27 thousand people did so) and less than half of that (12 thousand people) speak Slovak as their mother tongue. The number of those declaring the use of Slovak among family and friends is about as many as the number of people declaring themselves to belong to the Slovakian minority.The Slovaks living in Hungary created minority self-governments in 11 of the 19 counties and in the capital after the last minority elections. Of a total of 75 minority self-governments, 9 are in Budapest, 3 in Bács-Kiskun County, 13 in Békés County, 10 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, 2 in Csongrád County, 1 in Fejér County, 2 in Heves County, 8 in Komárom-Esztergom County, 13 in Nógrád County, 12 in Pest County, 1 in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County and 1 in Tolna County. These numbers show that the Slovaks represent the second most scattered minority language community after the Germans. The number of the transformed minority local governments is 8.The number of people declaring themselves as belonging to the Slovene minority (3000 people) has significantly increased compared to the data of the previous census and the numbers concerning the related criteria also tend to be similar. The major part of them live in Vas County, while smaller communities live in Budapest and Pest County.Slovene self-governments were set up in Budapest (1), in Győr-Moson-Sopron County (1) and in Vas County (8) after the 1998 elections.

* * *At the time of the 2001 census an important consideration was given to reduce the gaps between census and estimation data. For this reason the national self-governments of the minorities were closely involved in the preparation of the census. As a result of several rounds of consultations, the census data sheet (translated to all minority languages and distributed by the Central Statistical Office to the census-takers) contained four questions (as opposed to an earlier two in 1990) that specifically asked information about the identity, the mother tongue, the cultural ties and the language used in the family and with friends of interviewees belonging to minorities. The four questions that the interviewee could answer optionally, in line with the stipulations of the Act on the Protection of Personal Data, were as follows:

- To what nationality do you feel you belong?- Which nationality’s cultural values and traditions do you identify with?- What is your mother tongue?- What language do you use within the family and with friends in general?

At the suggestion of organisations and researchers dealing with minority issues, several answers could be given, in view of the potentially existing multiple ties. Representatives of the minorities had also been involved in wording the questions, agreed with their final formulation and were also actively involved in the preparation of the census. Above all, they tried to explain to members of their own respective communities the importance of the census and also worked in order to achieve that the highest possible number of local minority people are involved in the taking of the census.Besides the above questions directly investigating minority affiliations, further indirect information could be gained from the answers given to the question concerning the interviewee’s religious ties. The data for this question, however, are not yet available.The official summary report of the data concerning the minorities obtained in the 2001 census is not yet available. According to preliminary unofficial summary data provided by the experts of the Central Statistical Office, the figures derived from the answers concerning people’s ties with minorities, languages and culture for the total population included in the census (and not just for Hungarian citizens) are as follows:

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Minority

Number of people belonging to a particular minority according to answers given to the question concerning

the mother tonguebelonging tothe minority

ties with nationalcultural

values, traditions

the languageused in the family

and withfriends

Croatian 14,345 15,620 19,715 14,788

German 33,792 62,233 88,416 53,040

Romanian 8,482 7,995 9,162 8,215

Serbian 3,388 3,816 5,279 4,186

Slovak 11,816 17,692 26,631 18,056

Slovene 3,187 3,040 3,442 3,119

The questions of the 2001 census further refined the understanding of the Charter’s term for “user of a regional or minority language” for Hungary. As opposed to the data so far obtained on the basis of the free and voluntary declaration of belonging to a particular minority (which is essentially in the spirit of the Minorities Act), it is now possible to obtain a much more precise picture about the number and location of the people identifying themselves with the language and cultural traditions of specific minorities. In the future, these figures and their regional breakdown will allow us to see which regions should the government concentrate on when formulating and developing its minority policy.

I.3. Minorities "speaking non-territorial languages" in the Republic of HungaryThe Minorities Act recognises 13 native minorities living on the territory of the Republic of Hungary. The individual minorities live rather scattered, and their communities are essentially present across the whole country. However, these communities differ in terms of numbers, language and cultural possibilities as well as their needs. Considering the traditions, languages, cultural and identity situation of the minorities, when signing the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, as far as Article 3 was concerned, the Republic of Hungary assumed commitments for the above discussed six minorities out of the thirteen.Naturally, this does not mean that in the medium-term these commitments could not be extended to the other national and ethnic minorities. The Government’s minority, educational and cultural policies are all formulated in a manner so as to enable the minorities which are not covered by the commitments related to the Charter to develop their languages, to strengthen their cultural identity and to make it also possible for Hungary to extend its commitments to the languages of these minorities.In the light of the aforementioned, the minorities speaking a “non-territorial” language are the Bulgarian, the Roma/Gypsy, the Greek, the Polish, the Armenian, the Ruthenian and the Ukrainian minorities. Their numbers have been evaluating over the last two censuses (1990 and 2001) as follows:

MinorityPopulation (1990) according to mother tongue1)

Population (1990) according to belonging to a minority)1)

Population (estimation)2)

Roma/Gypsy 48,072 142,683 400,000 – 600,000Bulgarian 1,370 No data 3,000 – 3,500Greek 1,640 No data 4,000 – 4,500 Polish 3,788 No data 10,000Armenian 37 No data 3,500 – 10,000 Ruthenian 674

together with the Ukrainians

No data 6,000

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Ukrainian 674together with the

Ruthenians

No data 2,000

Source: 1) Central Statistical Office, 1990 census

2) National minority self-governments

As indicated above, the official summary of the 2001 census minority figures has not yet been published until the preparation of the present report. For this reason the data in the table below are preliminary and unofficial.

Minority

Number of people belonging to a particular minority according to answers given to the question concerning

the mother tonguebelonging tothe minority

ties with nationalcultural

values, traditions

the languageused in the family

and withfriends

Roma/Gypsy 48,689 190,046 129,259 53,323

Bulgarian 1,299 1,358 1,693 1,118

Greek 1,921 2,509 6,140 1,974

Polish 2,580 2,962 3,983 2,659

Armenian 294 620 836 300

Ruthenian 1,113 1,098 1,292 1,068

Ukrainian 4,885 5,070 4,779 4,519

The largest minority living in Hungary continues to be the Roma/Gypsy community (190 thousand people, according to the 2001 declarations). The largest Roma/Gypsy community lives in the less developed northeastern region, i.e. in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County (45 thousand people) and in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County (26 thousand), but their numbers exceed 10 thousand even in Budapest and in Heves, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, Pest and Hajdú-Bihar Counties. Their communities also form a couple of thousand strong populations in all other counties. Nearly 50 thousand declared to use Roma/Gypsy dialects (Beas and Romani), both as a mother tongue and as the language used for communication within the family, while a much higher number declared their affinity to the Roma/Gypsy culture (almost 130 thousand people).According to the 1998 minority self-government election data, the geographical location of the Roma/Gypsy minority practically covers the whole territory of Hungary. As a result of the elections, a large number of Roma minority self-governments were created in all counties, in total 766 local bodies were set up. By far the largest number of Roma minority self-governments was established in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County (129) but at least 10 local Roma minority self-governments were set up in almost every county.The largest population of the Bulgarian minority (1400 people) lives in and around Budapest. Bulgarian minority self-governments were set up in Budapest (9), one in each of the following counties: Baranya, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Hajdú-Bihar, and two in Pest County.The population of the Greek minority (2500 people) also tend to concentrate in and around Budapest, but there is also a community of a couple of hundred people living in Fejér County. Greek minority self-governments were set up in Budapest (10) and one in each of eight counties around the country.Half of the population of the Polish minority (3000 people) live in the capital. This community created a total of 33 minority self-governments, 10 of which are in Budapest, 11 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, while the remaining twelve self-governments operate in ten other counties.Two-third of the total Armenian minority (620 people) live in Budapest and Pest County. They have 25 self-governments, 16 of which in the capital, and the rest operate in eight counties.

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Some half of the total Ruthenian minority (1100 people) lives in Budapest and in Pest County. A total of 10 Ruthenian minority self-governments were set up, six of which are in Budapest, 3 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County and 1 in Pest County.The largest communities of Ukrainians (5100 people) also live in Budapest and in Pest County, but their groups are also present in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County. Only 5 Ukrainian minority self-governments came into being, three of that in Budapest, and the remaining two in two rural cities.It is true for the Bulgarians, the Greeks, the Polish and especially the Armenians that their cultural affinity tends to be stronger than regarding themselves as belonging to a specific minority, at the same time the knowledge and use of the minority language is less general among them.It is not a precondition for the creation of a minority self-government that either the voters or the elected members should actually speak the particular minority language. For this reason, there are a number of minority self-governments whose officials do not speak the given minority language.

* * *Since the submission of the previous report, Hungary’s intention of safeguarding regional or minority languages has been integrated into several laws and law amendments, which have been elaborated and published in the last three years. The Committee for Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Hungarian Parliament set up an ad hoc committee with a view to review the legislation on minority issues. Upon the ad hoc committee’s suggestion, work has begun to modify the most important piece of legislation with a general scope that is the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities. In the course of this work an important emphasis was given to further precise minority language rights, primarily in the fields of education and public administration but also in the area of realising the minorities’ cultural autonomy and providing the necessary conditions for minority institutions. Minorities were invited several times to give their opinions on the draft amendment, which was then submitted to Parliament by the Committee for Human Rights. However, the draft could not be discussed in Parliament before the April 2002 general elections.Another draft law has been prepared on the election of members of minority self-governments, also as part of the review of the minority related legislation, and partly in the light of experience gained during the previous minority elections. The objective of the bill coincides with the wish to strengthen and improve minority self-governance and is in line with Recommendation No. 4 of the Committee of Ministers. The draft law was elaborated by experts of the Ministry of the Interior, and then submitted to Parliament by the Committee for Human Rights. The discussion of the proposal was not yet started before the general elections.The amendment in 1999 of Act LXXIX of 1993 on Public Education (hereafter referred to as the Public Education Act) had similar importance in the field of the teaching of minority languages, since it further refined the conditions of minority education, the minority self-governments’ scope of authority in education as well as the legal framework of the teaching of non-regional languages.Act XCVI of 2001 on the Publication of Business Advertisements, Shop Signs and Certain Announcements of Public Interest in the Hungarian language was passed in the last year with an objective to protect the Hungarian language. According to the stipulations of this law, all signs having an economic nature and/or being of public interest must be published in the Hungarian language, which (as stated by paragraph (4) of Article 6 of the Act) does not concern minority language economic promotions and signs published, in line with the stipulations of Article 42 of the Minorities Act, at settlements where the minority speaking the concerned language has its own minority self-government.

II.1. Key acts and other regulations protecting the languages of minoritiesThe role played by the national and ethnic minorities within Hungarian society is clearly defined in the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary (Act XX of 1949, hereafter referred to as the Constitution). Paragraph (1) of Article 68 declares that “the national and ethnic minorities living in the Republic of Hungary participate in the sovereign power of the people: they represent a constituent part of the State.” The Constitution guarantees for the minorities their collective participation in public affairs, their right to create local and national self-governments, the fostering of their cultures, the use of their native languages, education in their native languages and the use of names in their native languages.The Minorities Act provides individual and collective rights (pertaining to personal autonomy and the creation of self-governments) for the 13 native minorities. The Act devotes a separate section to the

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minorities’ linguistic, educational and cultural rights, and ensures the right of using names in their own languages. By defining the educational and cultural rights as collective rights, it establishes the basis for all minorities to create their own systems of education and cultural life.In the section on the rights of minority self-government of the Minorities Act, a broad sphere of authority is ensured for the minority self-governments in the field of education and culture. Besides defining the minority language as a language of tuition, it also enables the minority self-governments to participate in the definition of tasks for the local educational institutions, in the appointment of the head of the educational institution and in the evaluation of the tuition work.By passing and later amending the Act on Public Education in 1996, the most important steps were taken to harmonize the field with the Minorities Act. Referring to the relevant section of the Minorities Act, the Act on Public Education declared that, besides Hungarian, the language of the education in kindergarten and elementary school tuition, as well as in boarding schools should be the language of the national and ethnic minorities. The relevant sphere of authority defined by the Minorities Act for minority self-governments was similarly adopted, thus allowing for them to make effective use of the possibility to influence the development, contents and form of minority education. The same amendment created the National Committee for Minorities that operates as the minister’s advisory board in the field of minority education and consists of the delegates of all minorities.The Act on Radio and Television Broadcasting (Act I of 1996, hereafter referred to as the Act on Media) made it an obligation for public service media to produce programmes presenting the life and culture of the minorities. Service providers performing public service functions are obliged to provide regular information in the native languages of the minorities.Act CXL of 1997 on the Protection of Cultural Goods, Museum Institutions, the Supply of Public Libraries, and General Cultural and Educational Activities defines the preservation of the national and ethnic minorities’ cultural traditions, their continuation in a worthy manner, the improvement of personal, intellectual and economic conditions of community and individual education, the promotion of activities which improve the quality of life of citizens, and the operation of institutions and organisations established to realise all of these points as common tasks of society as a whole.Similarly, other acts include provisions regarding the rights of minorities and within this the use of language, the Minorities Act’s provisions on the use of language being the same or more favourable as these.

II.2. New measures taken by the State to foster the use of regional or minority languages The primary objective of the planned amendment of the Minorities Act is to strengthen cultural autonomy, to further develop the system of minority self-governments, to encourage them to take over minority institutions and to provide the framework of state guarantees necessary for the transfer. The draft amendment covers special rules pertaining to the transfer of public educational and minority cultural institutions from state management into the hands of minority self-governments. The mentioned state guarantees would primarily ensure that financial resources required for the continuous operation of the minority institutions taken over by the minority self-governments are always available.Provisions defining the rules of preparing the minutes of minority self-government sessions are intended to give a more precise understanding of the rights of minorities related to language use. The draft amendment declares that "the minutes shall be either in the language of the minority and in Hungarian or in Hungarian language. Of the minutes prepared in two languages, the document in the minority language shall be considered authentic.”The amendment wishes to stress the support for minority language education when, instead of Article 43 of the Act currently in force, it proposes the following wording: ”the State recognises the language of the minorities in Hungary to be a cohesive factor of communities. The State encourages the use of the minority languages in the minority education and instruction regardless of who is the maintainer of the educational institutions.”The draft law on the election of members of minority self-governments aims to strengthen minority self-governance as well as the foundations of cultural autonomy. Its main objective is to refine the rules of local minority elections, the conditions of eligibility and the conditions of creating national bodies, i.e. national minority self-governments.

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A new element in this draft law is the possibility to create medium level minority self-governments. In terms of the draft law, the county minority self-government would operate as the partner of the county government, within the scope of authority and responsibility determined by the Act.

* * *The Public Education Act was further amended in 1999. This amendment refined the scope of authority of the National Committee for Minorities as the advisory body to the minister of education concerning issues of minority education. The Committee has the right of consent concerning all aspects of minority education in the course of developing legal regulations such as ministerial decrees, decisions and orders and also assumes official authority tasks concerning the publication of minority textbooks.Also, the amendment refined the requirement criteria concerning the qualifications of teachers employed in minority education and the contents of the educational programmes and curricula, which provide the framework for minority institutions to implement their tasks. According to the new provisions, the educational programmes of minority kindergartens must include tasks related to minority education, just as schools and boarding schools providing minority education have to integrate their relevant tasks in their documents.The modified Act fulfils an old wish of teachers working in the field of minority education by stipulating a 10 per cent raise of the time devoted to minority education. The extension of the timeframe was needed because of the amount of the curriculum.The amendment provided further details concerning the sphere of authority of the national minority self-governments in the field of education, by stipulating that the consent of the relevant minority self-governments must be obtained prior to the adoption of minority educational curricula.The possibility introduced by the amendment for organising complementary minority education is a step forward primarily for those minorities of small population who are not concerned by the present Hungarian commitments assumed under the Charter. According to Paragraph (5) of Article 86 of the amended Act, ”If the number of pupils belonging to a given national or ethnic minority is not sufficient for setting up minority education within the settlement, the concerned national minority self-government may initiate that the capital city or county level self-governments organise the education of the given minority language and related minority nation studies subjects (hereafter referred to as complementary minority education), linked to the requirements of elementary education providing the bases of general knowledge. Complementary minority education may be organised by introducing a special class within a school, by setting up a school providing minority language instruction or by employing commuting teachers."The detailed regulation of complementary minority education is laid down by Article 39 (B) of the Decree No. 11/1994. (VI.8.) of the Minister of Culture and Public Education on the Operation of Educational Institutions.One of the most important documents for the teaching of minority languages is Decree No. 32/1997 (XI. 5.) of the Minister of Culture and Public Education on Issuing the “Guidelines on pre-school instruction of national and ethnic minorities” and the “Guidelines on academic education of national and ethnic minorities”.Besides two types of pre-school education for national minorities, the decree defines the “kindergarten providing Gypsy cultural education” form.During the reporting period, the Decree No. 28/2000 (IX. 21.) of the Minister of Education on Issuing, Introducing and Applying Framework Curricula came into force. The decree also concerns the way of elaborating the minority education curricula. According to that, "The framework curricula of the education of national and ethnic minorities – including the framework curricula for mother tongue (minority language), literature and minority nation studies, and the lesson plans – are included in Appendix 2 to this Decree. The framework curricula for the education of national and ethnic minorities set forth the requirements of mother tongue (minority language) and literature, and of minority nation studies for each grade up to the end of the 12 th grade. Framework curricula may depart from the provisions of the Guidelines on the academic education of national and ethnic minorities issued in Decree No. 32/1997 (XI. 5.) of the Minister of Culture and Public Education on Issuing, Introducing and Applying the Guidelines on pre-school instruction of national and ethnic minorities and the Guidelines on academic education of national and ethnic minorities, which define the requirement criteria to be fulfilled at the end of the fourth, sixth, eighth and twelfth grades, when breaking down these requirements for each year.”

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Government Decree No. 1073/2001 (VII.13.) amending Government Decree No. 1047/1999 (V.5.) on the medium term package of measures to improve the social position and living conditions of the Roma specifically deals with the Roma/Gypsy minority education, by saying that in the amendments of the Minorities and Public Education Acts and other legal measures special emphasis should be given ”to the development of the contents of Roma minority education, the elaboration of framework curricula, the creation of proper conditions for evaluation and quality assurance, the provision of school equipment and methodological material needed for the education and, subject to confirmation with the National Roma Self-Government, the elaboration of a system of requirements for the teaching of the Gypsy languages".Government Decree No. 72/1998 (IV.10.) on the funding of higher education on the basis of training and maintenance normative assistance helped to ease financial problems experienced by minority higher education by introducing a 15 per cent raise in the normative funding for training and maintenance of minority language majors. The subsequent Government Decree No. 120/2000 (VII.7.) mitigated the financing problems even further by classifying nationality majors into a category of majors receiving more important funding.The potential language difficulties of students with a minority mother tongue applying to higher education institutions are to be bridged by Government Decree No. 269/2000 (XII.26.) on the General Rules of Entrance Procedure to Institutions of Higher Education, which stipulates in Article 9 Paragraph (11) that “students belonging to national minorities may take the entrance examination in their mother language, provided that they are applying for admission to a nationality major and that they indicated their wish in the admittance request form.”The higher education of minority languages is further promoted by the fact that, in line with the stipulations of the Act on Higher Education, Government Decree No. 129/2001 (VII.13.) published the qualification criteria for basic higher level education in Arts and certain social sciences, including for nationality majors at the college and university level.In connection with higher education, the already mentioned Government Decree No. 1073/2001 (VII.13.) deals with the promotion of Roma/Gypsy Studies (“romology”), as well as with the support given to post-graduate courses organised for teachers working in Roma/Gypsy education.The adoption of Government Decree No. 71/1998 (IV.8.) on the new rules of language examinations proved to be a serious problem for minority languages, since it stipulates that language examination centres have to be accredited. Due to a determined intervention on behalf of the Ministry of Education after the entry into force of the decree and the efforts of the National Foreign Language Centre, however, it is once again possible to obtain state language certificates in Bulgarian, Croatian, Polish, Roma/Gypsy (both Beas and Lovari), German, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovene languages. The elaboration of requirement criteria and the accreditation of examination centres for Modern Greek, Ruthenian and Armenian languages are in progress. The majority of the examination centres are currently located in the capital, but in recent months several towns (Pécs, Szeged, Békéscsaba) created new facilities for organising language exams for the minorities living in the given region.Parliament passed the Act CI of 2001 on Adult Education in December 2001. The Act provides a legal framework for providing adult and continuing education in regional or minority languages, should the need come up.

* * *Act I of 2002 amending the Act XIX of 1998 on Criminal Procedure, which will come into force on 1 January 2003, brings the criminal procedure into line with the stipulations of the Charter. According to Article 9 paragraph (2) of the Act, “in criminal proceedings, everyone may use, both in oral and in writing, their own mother tongue or a regional or minority language specified by an international treaty enacted by Hungarian law and falling within the scope defined by the said treaty or, in the lack of command of the Hungarian language, another language specified by the person in question.”The amendment also makes it clear that the translation of a decision to be delivered to the interested parties and of other official documents shall be arranged by the court, the prosecutor’s office or other investigating authority issuing the decision.Article 114 of the new Act defines the obligation to provide interpretation as follows: “During the proceedings, an interpreter shall be employed if the person whose mother tongue is other than the Hungarian language wishes to use his/her own mother tongue or regional or minority language specified by an international treaty enacted by Hungarian law and falling within the scope defined by the said treaty.”

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Similarly, Article 219 of the Act clearly stipulates the obligation of having the bill of indictment translated: “If the accused does not have command of the Hungarian language, those parts of the bill of indictment that directly concern him/her shall be translated into the mother tongue, regional or minority language used by the accused or, on his/her request, into a language he/she declares to have command of and which had previously been used in the proceedings, and it shall then be submitted to the court in such form.”Paragraph (6) of Article 262 stipulates the translation of that part of the court decision that concerns an accused who does not have command of the Hungarian language into a language specified by him/her: "For the accused not having command of the Hungarian language, those parts of the verdict or final decision that concern him/her shall be translated (after the announcement of the verdict) into his/her mother tongue, regional or minority language or, upon request, into another language specified by the accused and which had previously been used in the proceedings; and the resulting document shall be delivered to the accused."The amendment clarifies the question of who has to bear the burden of financing the implementation of the above-described linguistic rights. Paragraph (2) of Article 339 stipulates that “the State shall equally assume the costs arising from to the fact that the accused (…) does not have command of the Hungarian language or that s/he had used his/her regional or minority language in the proceedings."

* * *In order to provide increased support for Roma/Gypsies and in the spirit of the aforementioned Government Decree No. 1073/2001 (VII.13.), the National Radio and Television Commission (ORTT) adopted its Decision No. 1064/2001 (VII.19.) concerning the elaboration of a Roma/Gypsy media strategy. The project is supervised by the Service Provider Fund.By adopting Decision No. 337/2000 (IV.18.), the National Radio and Television Commission launched a call for tenders via the Service Provider Fund for the production of public service programmes. Among the tender criteria, programmes to the attention of minorities were given priority.In view of promoting Roma/Gypsy culture, Government Decree No. 1073/2001 (VII.13.) amending Government Decree No. 1047/1999 (V.5.) stipulates that “services, books, methodological handbooks and textbooks in the field of education, culture and general information should be made available for the Roma/Gypsies also in their mother tongue, in line with actual needs. Financial resources available for supporting the vernacular culture and the means of further developing them should be assessed.”

* * *In the field of economic life, Act XVI of 2002 modified Article 5 of Act XXII of 1992 on the Labour Code concerning the prohibition of discrimination. The amendment extended the prohibition of negative discrimination to regulations, measures, conditions and practices preceding and facilitating the employment. In addition, the notion of indirect negative discrimination was introduced into the text of the law. A measure is regarded as such if the employees concerned form an overwhelmingly homogeneous group (on the basis of their nationality, ethnicity, etc.) for whom the regulations, measures, conditions and practices applied concerning a particular job, even though formally in a uniform manner or apparently ensuring equal opportunities, turn out to be disproportionately disadvantageous.

* * *The following section presents the agreements including stipulations concerning minority protection signed within the framework of bilateral co-operation with the States whose official languages are here concerned, as well as the planned agreements.On the basis of the Treaty between the Republic of Hungary and the Slovak Republic on Good-neighbourly Relations and Friendly Co-operation, a total of 12 joint committees were created to provide the framework for the co-operation of the two countries in different areas of economic and social life. As far as the implementation of the Charter is concerned, the recommendations of the Joint Committees on Minorities, Culture and Education and the concerning government decrees are of particular interest.The Joint Committee on Minorities basically co-ordinates minority-related problems arising in any of the other specialist joint committees. For this reason, the government decrees most relevant from the present Report’s point of view are those adopted on the basis of the recommendations of that committee.Hence, Government Decree No. 2121/1999 (V.28.) drawn up according to the suggestions by the Joint Committee on Minorities obliges the Ministry of Education “to make sure that the appropriate

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conditions for teaching the Slovak language are in place in the minority schools of Hungary.” Similarly, in order to foster the language skill development of the Slovaks living in Hungary, the Committee suggested that the Parties “promote the reception of the Slovakian public television broadcasts in those areas of Hungary where a significant number of the Slovakian minority population lives." The recommendations made at the subsequent second session were integrated into Decision No. 2112/2000 (V.31.), which declares that “the scheme for providing regular post-graduate education to the teachers teaching in Slovak language within the Republic of Hungary shall be elaborated and approved” and that “the activities of the regional cultural centres of the Slovakian national minority of Hungary shall be ensured.”The following recommendations made at the third and insofar last session of the Committee are significant for the purposes of the present Report: “the Hungarian Party shall ensure the material, financial and professional conditions required for the efficient operation of the schools of Slovak language tuition, the publication of the text-books and methodological material (…)” and “the Hungarian Party shall modify in an appropriate manner the time schedules of Slovakian programmes of the Hungarian public television and radio, ensure the technical possibilities for reception all over the country and improve working conditions of the Slovak editorial staff.” The above-mentioned two recommendations are covered by Government Decree No. 2292/2001 (X.11.), which also indicates those responsible for the implementation and the deadline to be respected.On 23 April 2001 the Government of the Republic of Hungary and the Government of the Slovak Republic signed in Budapest an Agreement on the Cross-border Co-operation of Local Self-governments and Public Administration Organs. The agreement enables the promotion of national minority language education, the nurturing of the minority cultures, the support to the co-operation among twin-schools and the formulation of partnerships between those local and regional municipalities in the territory of which a significant population of Hungarian or Slovakian national minorities are established.In terms of the agreement, a joint committee shall be set up to support cross-border regional co-operation. As the twelfth in the line of similar bodies, the new joint committee shall be part of the mechanism set up to promote the implementation of the Hungarian-Slovakian Basic Treaty. The creation of the joint committee is underway.As far as the relations with Romania are concerned, following a several years’ long break the Committee on national minorities of the Hungarian-Romanian Intergovernmental Joint Commission for Active Co-operation and Partnership held its 4th session on 19 October 2001. The co-chairmen of the committee signed a Protocol and Recommendations concerning the respective situation and unresolved problems of the Romanian minority in Hungary and the Hungarian minority in Romania, and agreed to issue, as soon as possible, government decrees ensuring the conditions indispensable for the implementation of their commitments. According to paragraph II/2 of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of Hungary and the Government of Romania, the aforementioned "recommendations made in the Protocol (…) will be approved by the two Governments, who will take the necessary measures for implementation.” On 1 February 2002 the Hungarian Government appointed in its Decree No. 2023/2002 (II.1.) those responsible for the implementation of the recommendations and set a deadline for implementation.On 22 December 2001 the Government of the Republic of Hungary and the Government of Romania signed in Budapest a Memorandum of Understanding on the Law on the Hungarians Living in Neighbouring Countries and issues of bilateral co-operation.In the Memorandum of Understanding the Parties, besides agreeing upon the still open issues concerning the Act LXII of 2001 on the Hungarians Living in Neighbouring Countries (hereafter referred to as the Act on Preferential Treatment), also agreed that they “shall start the negotiations in the frame of the Committee on national minorities of the Hungarian–Romanian Intergovernmental Joint Commission of an Agreement on the preferential treatment of the Romanian minority living on the territory of the Republic of Hungary and of the Hungarian minority on the territory of Romania , in order to preserve their cultural identity (…).”Government Decree No. 2305/2001 (X.26.), elaborated on the basis of the recommendations of the Hungarian–Slovene Joint Committee on Minorities, invites the concerned ministries to "make increased efforts to effectively implement the (…) rights related to the use of languages, with special regard to bilingual documents, according to the needs of the minority communities.”

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Similarly, the recommendations of the Hungarian–Croatian Joint Committee on Minorities also refer to measures to be taken in order to protect the language of Croatians living in Hungary. Government Decree No. 2179/2001 (VII. 13.), based on those recommendations, for instance, invites government bodies “to strive to ensure that in regions where minorities live in greater numbers, members of the minorities are employed in state administration bodies as well as at state owned enterprises in higher numbers, reflecting the proportions existing within the local population.”The same decree invites the concerned bodies “to ensure, on the initiative of the minority, that if there is a justified demand, the place and street names, as well as the inscriptions of public offices and announcements concerning their activities should be indicated in both the language of the given minority and the official language, in line with the legislation in force.”The Hungarian–Ukrainian Joint Committee on Minorities also operates within a framework similar to the above discussed. Following the sessions of the Committee the Hungarian party integrates the recommendations made in a government decree. Likewise, based on the recommendations accepted at the last session of the Joint Committee, Government Decree No. 2292/2001 (X. 11.) specifically refers to the recording of the names of members of the Ukrainian minority in the personal identification documents in their mother tongue, to the support given to the culture of the Ukrainians living in Hungary and to the support for the Ukrainian language newspaper published in Hungary.

II.3. Organisational framework of the protection of regional or minority languagesAs the result of the consistent and continuous minority policy of the Republic of Hungary, the legal framework required for the protection of minorities and, within that, the protection of minority languages is already established. Several public bodies (including the self-governments of the minorities) and NGOs exist, whose activities are devoted in great part to the protection of the languages and minorities here concerned. The Committee on Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Hungarian Parliament oversees at the highest, legislative level that the principles of protecting the minorities and, within that, minorities’ languages are respected in the course of legislation. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Rights of Minorities reports solely to the Parliament; the Commissioner investigates the complaints addressed to him/her concerning the violation of linguistic rights and makes recommendations as to how to remedy the situation. Monitoring the respect of the language rights of minorities is also part of the sphere of responsibility of the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities.On several occasions over the recent years the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights initiated investigations that specifically concentrated on the enforcement of the minorities' rights to the use of their languages. The results of the investigations, together with the relatively limited number of complaints concerning language use that are filed every year have proved that the minorities hardly know their rights concerning the use of their languages and that they rarely come forward with demands of that nature. If, however, collective language rights are exercised at local level, the relevant laws allow for their satisfaction. As far as individual rights to the use a language are concerned (such as the selection of a surname, its registration and use in official documents), it has to be said that despite of an increasing effort to inform the officials, they are still not aware of the linguistic rights of the minorities. However, in the cases when members of minority communities wish to exercise their individual language rights, it usually turns out that they are much better informed than before or than concerning their collective rights.A task assumed by the national and local self-government of minorities is the protection of the interests of the given minorities. Within that, the self-governments are the main advocates of enforcing the minority language rights at local, regional and national levels. Recently, the issue of ensuring the collective exercise of language rights by minorities has been also included in bilateral documents of the of the joint committees on minorities.The following is a list of the organisations actively involved (also) in the field of protection of minority languages:Committee for Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Hungarian Parliament

1054 Budapest, Széchenyi rakpart 19.

Chairperson: László Szászfalvi (MDF)

Tel: (361) 268-5031 Fax: (361) 268-5986

Internet: www.mkogy.hu/biz/index.htm

Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Minority Rights 1051 Budapest, Nádor u. 22.

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Parliamentary Commissioner: Dr. Jenő Kaltenbach

Tel: (361) 475-7149, Fax: (361) 269-3542

Internet: www.obh.hu

Office for National and Ethnic Minorities 1133 Budapest, Pozsonyi út 56.

President: Antal Heizer

Tel: (361) 359-2120, Fax: (361) 239-0009

Internet: www.meh.hu./nekh

National Croatian Self-Government1089 Budapest, Bíró Lajos u. 24.

President: Mihály Karagics

Tel: (361) 303-5630, Fax: (361) 303-5636

National Self-Government of Germans in Hungary1026 Budapest, Júlia u. 9.

President: Ottó Heinek

Tel: (361) 212-9151, Fax: (361) 212-9153

Internet: www.ldu.hu

National Self-Government of Romanians in Hungary5700 Gyula, Eminescu u. 1.

President: Traján Kreszta

Tel/Fax: (36 66) 463-951

Serbian National Self-Government1055 Budapest, Falk Miksa u. 3.

President: Péró Lásztity

Tel/Fax: (361) 331-5345

National Slovak Self-Government1114 Budapest, Fadrusz u. 11/a

President: János Fuzik

Tel/Fax: (361) 466-9463

National Slovene Self-Government9985 Felsőszölnök, Fő u. 5.

President: Márton Ropos

Tel/Fax: (36 94) 434-032

Internet: www.slovenpages.hu

Bulgarian National Self-Government1093 Budapest, Lónyay u. 41.

President: Dimiter Czuczumanov

Tel: (361)216-4210; Fax: (361) 215-5184

National Roma Self-Government 1076 Budapest, Dohány u. 76.

President: Flórián Farkas

Tel: (361) 322-8963; Fax: (361) 322-8501.

Greek National Self-Government1054 Budapest, Vécsey u. 5.

President: Jorgosz Dzindzisz

Tel: (361) 302-7275; Fax: (361) 302-7277

National Polish Minority Self-Government1102 Budapest, Állomás u. 10.

President: Konrad Sutarski

Tel/Fax: (361) 261-1798

National Armenian Self-Government1052 Budapest, Deák F. u. 17.

President: Alex Avanesian

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Tel: (361) 267-6203; Fax: (361) 267-3181

National Ruthenian Minority Self-Government1147 Budapest, Gyarmat u. 85/B

President: Gábor Hattinger

Tel: (361) 468-2636; Fax: (361) 468-2637

National Ukrainian Self-Government1066 Budapest, Zichy J. u. 10.

President: Jaroszlava Hartyányi

Tel/Fax: (361) 302-5842

Internet: www.ukrajinci.hu

II.4. Organisations involved in the preparation of the ReportThe Office for National and Ethnic Minorities invited the national self-governments of the concerned minorities, the competent departments of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of National Cultural Heritage to take part in the drawing up of the present report. For the compilation of the final material, the Office also requested the contributions of the county offices of public administration, the county courts as well as of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and of the National Radio and Television Board. Within the framework of the central administration’s harmonisation procedure, the draft report was sent for comments to all ministries, to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and to the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights. The opinions of the presidents of the national minority self-governments were equally solicited concerning the draft report.The Office for National and Ethnic Minorities provided for all of the above organisations the full text of the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. At an even earlier stage, at the time when these recommendations had been accepted, the Office also submitted them to the Hungarian media, to the Hungarian News Agency, to the editors of the minority information website Etnonet and to the Roma Press Centre.

II.5. Information provided about the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The Government of the Republic of Hungary and the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities have made serious efforts over the period that elapsed since the submission of the previous report to provide information about the commitments assumed by Hungary, especially for the representatives of the minorities living in Hungary but also for the officials of the central, regional and municipal public authorities and the judiciary. The primary channel was the printed media, but the officials of the Office also gave presentations at several minority events. In May 2000 the president of the Office held a presentation entitled “Minority Languages in the Public Administration” at the Ministry of the Interior for the heads of county offices of public administration. The text of the presentation was later published in the Review of the Ministry of the Interior.Counting on the fast spreading use of the Internet, the text of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the full text of the first periodical report submitted by Hungary, the opinion of the Expert Committee and the text of the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers were made accessible on the website of the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities, both in Hungarian and in English.Some county offices of public administration published the full text of the Charter in their respective information periodicals, highlighting the specific Hungarian commitments.In June 2002, the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities organised a conference so as to raise public awareness about the Charter. The presentations partly gave information about the document itself, partly evaluated the implementation of Hungary’s obligations from the point of view of a minority falling within and one falling outside of the force of the Charter, as well as from the point of view of the Roma/Gypsy community.At international level, the representative of the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities gave an informative presentation at the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) on the implementation of Hungary’s commitments assumed in connection with the cultural and media stipulations of the Charter.

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II.6. Measures related to the Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers Taking note of the suggestions of the Expert Committee, the Committee of Ministers addressed four recommendations to the Republic of Hungary, which were as follows:The Committee of the Ministers recommends that the Republic of Hungary1. establish a policy for developing the Romani and Beas languages, with the aim of facilitating their use in public life, and respond to the needs of the users of these languages, in particular in education;2. strengthen the institutional infrastructure for teaching in and of the minority languages, and develop further the possibilities of bilingual education and provide sufficient teacher training;3. strengthen the possibilities of speakers of minority languages to use their language before the courts and in relations with the administration, by taking organisational and other appropriate measures to ensure that the existing legal mechanisms can be utilised in practice;4. continue to develop the potential of its newly established system of minority self-governments in view of the valuable contribution it can make to the promotion of the minority languages.(A brief summary is given here of the first measures taken in relation with the recommendations adopted in October 2001, while a more detailed description is provided below under the policy areas concerned.)Recommendation No. 1: Developing the Romani and Beas languages The Government does wish to develop both Roma/Gypsy languages, but at present does not wish or, better say, cannot change its commitments under the Charter since it does not wish to undertake obligations that it is not in a position to fulfil.As a first step of development, the elaboration of language standards, equally suitable for use in education, has been undertaken. Native speaker experts of the Romani and Beas languages take part in this work. Curricula and language requirements based upon these standards are expected to be ready by the second half of the year.Recommendation No. 2: Strengthening the infrastructure of minority education1. Primary and secondary schools

- The Government provides special financial support (for operational and development expenses) for institutions playing a key role in the education of particular minorities (Hercegszántó – Croatian; Szarvas, Békéscsaba – Slovak);- When defining the supplementary normative funding which is aimed at supporting minority education, the Government expresses its preference for bilingual or vernacular education. The different kinds of normative funding are continuously differentiated.

2. Higher education- The current teacher training capacity seems to be sufficient as far as the needs of the schools, the interest of the students and the number of graduates are concerned. The arising problems have to do with the contents, since in the current minority teacher training system only minority language and literature teachers’ training is assured in the minority languages. For this reason, the Hungarian Government aims to conclude bilateral agreements with the mother countries of the minorities, allowing for students who are interested to pursue their studies entirely or in part in the mother country.

Recommendation No. 3: Measures taken to promote the use of minority languages before the courts and in relations with the administration The use of language before the courts (as distinguished from its use in relation with the administration) is not linked to the Minorities Act but to the right of the individual to the administration of justice in his/her mother tongue. In the Hungarian justice system languages other than Hungarian are used, and not just the languages of the minorities but also, for instance, Chinese, Arabic, and so on. In asylum procedures several languages are used with interpreters.In the field of public administration, such use of languages is rather rare and is mostly limited to oral communications. The preconditions of use of languages in the written form are in place; only the citizens do not require it. No complaint has been recorded concerning this particular issue.Recommendation No. 4: Strengthening of the system of minority self-governments

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The aim of Hungarian minority policy is to strengthen minority self-governance. In this respect, the amendment of the Minorities Act refines the scope of authority and responsibility of the minority self-governments, creates the insofar non-existent medium level minority self-governments and provides financial guarantees for the development of the minorities’ cultural autonomy, for the creation and operation of minority institutions.

III.1. Minority policy measures taken by the Republic of HungaryThe role played by national and ethnic minorities in Hungarian society is laid down in the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary. The supreme law declares that the national and ethnic minorities living in Hungary share the sovereign power of the people: they are a constituent part of the state. The Constitution guarantees minorities collective participation in public life, the establishment of local and national self-governments, the nurturing of their own cultures, the use of their native languages, education in their native languages, and the right to use their names in their own languages.The Minorities Act, accepted by Parliament with a 96% majority in 1993, gives individual and collective minority rights (rights to a personal autonomy and to the establishment of self-governments) for the minorities native in Hungary. Since the adoption of the Minorities Act, Hungary had two elections of minority self-governments. During the two election cycles it has been proven that the system of minority self-governments is successful; nevertheless, it has become apparent that, unless the Act is modified, certain inaccuracies in the provisions of the Act as it stands today, the lack of certain guarantees and imprecise wording of the provisions effectively hinder the full realisation of the system. Therefore, legislators began to work out an amendment of the Minorities Act under the supervision of an ad hoc parliamentary committee. The proposal to modify the Act has been drafted, yet it was not accepted before the end of the previous parliamentary cycle.Based upon the provisions of the Constitution, Parliament has elected in 1995, then re-elected in 2001 the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights (hereafter referred to as the Minorities Ombudsman). The task of the Minorities Ombudsman is to investigate (or have investigated) all reported problems related to minority rights, and to initiate general or individual measures for their solution. The detailed tasks of the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights are defined in the Act LIX of 1993 on the Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil Rights. Citizens may turn to the Minorities Ombudsman in every case when, in their judgement, the procedures, the measures or the failure to act of any authority or organ providing public services resulted in an infringement upon their constitutional rights, or constitutes a danger to these rights. The Minorities Ombudsman reports to Parliament on his/her work annually. Among others, the process of exercising minority language rights can be traced by light of the annual reports prepared by the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights. It is the minority self-governments that typically lodge the highest number of complaints, in cases when the local self-government or the county office of public administration fails to recognise the validity of documents drawn up in minority languages. As it was indicated above, the proposals by the Ombudsman have been incorporated into the draft amendment of the Minorities Act, with a view to define more accurately the minority language rights, as well as the regulations in respect of the official status of documents drawn up in minority languages.Another frequent complaint is connected to the use of personal names in minority languages, and the issuance of personal identity documents in minority languages. The concerning legislation defines the rights of minorities and the responsibilities of the administration very accurately, but it has proven difficult to enforce it at the local level. The Government strives to provide information for both parties, that is, both at events organised for the attention of public administration officials and at minority events, in oral as well as in written form, in relation to all relevant legal and practical measures.In line with the Constitution, Parliament adopted Act LXIII of 1992 on the Protection of Personal Data and the Disclosure of Data of Public Interest, which ensures the protection of personal data and contains the basic rules of promoting the exercise of the right to access to information of public interest.With the Act on Public Education and its modifications in 1996 and 1999, the basic steps towards bringing the concerning legislation in line with the Minorities Act were taken. The specific principles of minority education, information on minorities and the curriculum requirements for those who take part in minority education appeared in the National Core Curriculum, which was the first step towards the modernisation of public education, then in the requirements for subjects of minority education, as well

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as in the framework curricula. Within state support provided for public education, a special emphasis has been given to guarantee supplementary normative funding for minority education. In recent years, the total sum of these normative subsidies has been increasing at a rate which exceeded the rate of inflation.The Act on Media has made the production of programmes presenting the life and cultures of minorities an obligatory task for public service media. Service providers who perform public service tasks must ensure to provide regular information to the minorities in their own languages.Act CXXVII of 1996 on the National News Agency also contains provisions on ensuring equal opportunities to national and ethnic minorities.The system of minority self-governments, which has been gradually established in Hungary on the basis of appropriate regulations, and which is today operational, fulfils an ever-growing role in the self-organisation of minorities. If full equality before the law is guaranteed and objective disadvantages of minority existence are appropriately counterbalanced, the responsibility of minority self-governments and other civil organisations as regards the preservation of national identity will increase greatly within the framework of a real autonomy of minorities which is to be achieved in the future.It is the task of the Government to provide information on the natural and traditional forms of centuries’ old coexistence of majority and minority populations in Hungary, as well as to increase awareness of how various national and ethnic groups contribute to our shared culture. In this respect, the Government does not view minorities as groups engaged in fighting for their rights against the majority, but rather as a sum of individuals bearing joint responsibility for common virtues and faults with the majority, with which they share the same destiny.The Government supports minorities in strengthening their identities, and it strives to raise the awareness as to common values of the past and our joint responsibility for the future. The Government wishes to further develop the minority self-government system and to extend the cultural autonomy of minorities.

* * *Conditions for minority education were further refined with the modification of the “Guidelines on academic education of national and ethnic minorities”. The aim of the modification was to put into words what is precisely meant by one or another specific form of minority education, in a format understandable for everyone.

Native language educationThe so-called native-language pre-school, or a school with native language tuition organises pre-school instruction in the minority language, or, in the case of schools, all subjects apart from Hungarian Language and Literature are taught in the minority language. There are only few such institutions in the country.

Dual-language minority educationThe “dual-language model” provides pre-school instruction in two languages, and, in the case of schools, subjects other than the minority language are also taught in the minority language. The Guidelines stipulate that 50% of the weekly obligatory classes shall be in the native minority language.

Language teaching educationIn the so-called “school providing minority language teaching” model education takes place in Hungarian, but the minority language is studied by pupils in the frame of a minimum of four classes per week. This is the form most prevalent in the Hungarian educational system, since (due to historical and social reasons, and to the advanced stages of assimilation) children entering school hardly know their minority’s language, or do not know it at all. Since the introduction of the Guidelines, schools providing minority language teaching have to provide at least four classes per week for minority language and literature classes, and five classes in the case of German.

Roma minority educationIn addition to cultural and, if desired, native language education, the so-called Roma minority education aims to provide children belonging to the Roma minority equal opportunities and talent development. Within the framework of this programme, if parents wish so, it is possible to teach the languages spoken by the Roma (Romani and Beás) in school. At present, these languages are taught in one

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kindergarten, three secondary schools and one secondary boarding school within the educational system.With the purpose of developing minority education and further refining the general context of education, the Ministry of Education issued Decree No. 28/2000 (IX. 21) on Issuing, Introducing and Applying the Framework Curricula was issued. In connection with minority education, the Decree says the following:(5) "The framework curricula of the education of national and ethnic minorities – including the framework curricula for mother tongue (minority language), literature and minority nation studies, and the lesson plans – are included in Appendix 2 to this Decree. The framework curricula for the education of national and ethnic minorities set forth the requirements of mother tongue (minority language) and literature, and of minority nation studies for each grade up to the end of the 12 th grade. Framework curricula may depart from the provisions of the Guidelines on the academic education of national and ethnic minorities issued in Decree No. 32/1997 (XI. 5.) of the Minister of Culture and Public Education on Issuing, Introducing and Applying the Guidelines on pre-school instruction of national and ethnic minorities and the Guidelines on academic education of national and ethnic minorities, which define the requirement criteria to be fulfilled at the end of the fourth, sixth, eighth and twelfth grades, when breaking down these requirements for each year.”One recommendation by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for the Republic of Hungary was that it should establish a policy for developing the Romani and Beas languages, with the aim of facilitating their use in public life, and respond to the needs of the users of these languages, in particular in education. The Ministry of Education had already started to work out the conditions for the instruction of Roma dialects at schools even before that recommendation was formulated.In the past decades, two major research projects examined the situation of the Roma/Gypsies as regards the use of their languages, with over twenty years passed between the two surveys (1971 and 1993). Already the first one found (and then the 1993 findings confirmed these findings) that a decisive majority of Gypsies spoke Hungarian as their native language, while only a very few of those polled said that either of the two Roma languages were his/her native tongue.

Distribution of the Roma/Gypsies by native tongue in 1971 and 1993 (%)

Hungarian Beas Gypsy (Romani) Other Total

1971 71.0 7.6 21.2 0.2 1001993 89.5 5.5 4.4 0.6 100

Source: I. Kemény: “The structure of the Roma community of Hungary in the mirror of linguistic changes”. In: Regio, 1999/1; p10

Distribution by language spoken in 1993 (%)Hungarian Beás Gypsy (Romani) Other

77.0 11.3 11.1 0.6Source: I. Kemény: op. cit., p11

The two surveys also showed that Roma with either Beas or Romani mother tongue were bilingual already in 1971, speaking their respective native language as well as Hungarian.In accordance with the Minorities Act, the Act on Pubic Education states that pupils belonging to minorities have the right to learn about their mother tongue, culture and traditions, and to participate in education in and about their native language. In accordance with the law, when regulating the contents of minority education, Decree No. 32/1997 (XI. 5) of the Ministry of Education and Culture, which contains the Guidelines on pre-school instruction of national and ethnic minorities and the Guidelines on academic education of national and ethnic minorities, includes the following provision:„Roma minority education shall provide Roma students with knowledge about the cultural values, history, literature, arts, musical and dance culture and traditions of the Roma.” Learning the languages spoken by the Roma is not a mandatory element of such a programme, however, upon the parents’ request, the instruction of the Roma language variant they speak should be provided. The legal and financial conditions to satisfy these needs are given.

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The work endeavouring to create the professional and personal conditions of the school teaching of the languages spoken by the Roma/Gypsies needs a considerable length of time. The process aiming to lay the professional foundations of the basic documents required for the teaching of Roma/Gypsy languages in school was started in 1999. In the initial preparatory phase, the Ministry of Education called on experts, including those of the Institute of Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, to contribute, in the framework of an opening conference, to the formulation of the most fundamental principles. In phase one, for each language a working group was created, the members of which were the most renowned experts of the given language. The groups collected and compiled the information concerning Romani and Beas, which they deemed necessary for the teaching of these languages. Both working documents were then analysed by further experts, but even after several changes, there are still important questions that need to be agreed upon. Standardising the languages spoken by the Roma/Gypsies is a long working process, the length of which is impossible to predict, and can only bear fruit when all major professionals come to a consensus as far as issues still unresolved are concerned. A set of requirements accepted in this way can serve as a basis for elaborating the framework curricula for the Romani and the Beas languages. Textbooks and teaching manuals based on these established requirements might then be added to already existing teaching material.But even until that is achieved, it is possible to support every kind of individual initiative regarding the teaching of Roma/Gypsy languages. Institutions providing native language education or dual-language minority education may only be established as a result of long term professional efforts, depending upon the needs and the possibilities. The Guidelines regulating the academic education of national and ethnic minorities spell out the necessary conditions for organising the Roma minority education, while the Appendix to the Guidelines contains the curriculum requirements of Roma minority education.Roma minority education has a special educational programme to provide children belonging to the Roma minority with equal opportunities, talent development, in addition to cultural education and, if desired, native language education. Roma minority education has been – and still is – raising many questions. Nevertheless, it is a fact that roughly 250 kindergartens and roughly 650 primary schools offer Roma/Gypsy minority education, with estimates putting the number of those instructed to 25 thousand for children attending kindergarten and 55 thousand for pupils at school. It is also a fact that today a significant majority of Roma/Gypsy children do complete primary school. It might also be considered a success that a general change of attitudes can be observed in connection with this form of education on the part of the maintainers of schools [NB: local governments] and of school administration. The Ministry of Education is of the opinion that educating disadvantaged Roma children would require more teachers with adequate knowledge of the Roma culture. This is why it is a pleasure to see that the past decade has seen institutions of higher education establish departments for Roma/Gypsy Studies (“Romology”), and offer special courses in the subject. It is to be hoped that, in addition to the Faculty of Sciences of Pécs, the Apor Vilmos Catholic Teachers’ Training College at Zsámbék, the Faculty of Teachers’ Training College at the University of Kaposvár, and the Wesley János School of Divinities, more and more institutions of higher education will offer the possibility for students to study Romology, and offer courses of the Roma languages. With the establishment of the university-level studies in Roma/Gypsy Studies, and with the definition of the requirements in a Government Decree, Bachelors of Arts are educated at the University of Sciences of Pécs who can acquire comprehensive theoretical and practical knowledge of the entire field of Roma/Gypsy Studies. They are familiar with the social, political, legal, cultural, demographic, and labour market situation of Hungary’s Roma/Gypsy population, as well as with the relevant international opinions and recommendations aimed at helping to improve the condition of the Roma. With this knowledge in their possession, they will be able to do research and analyse the history and culture of Roma/Gypsy communities, to analyse their situation, and to perform Roma-related functions at local or minority self-governments, their institutions, and other relevant organisations.Teaching of Roma/Gypsy Studies at university level started in September 2000. Requirements of qualification are defined in the above-cited Government Decree No. 129/2001 (VII. 13).There exists special further training in Roma society studies for teachers who graduated from teacher training colleges, and the qualification requirements of which have been defined in Government Decree No. 21/2000 (VIII. 3).Those who participate in the training will be able to offer education and care of an integrating nature for children coming from within a minority community and entering pre-school or school education of a

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different culture, while preserving the children’s minority identity. They will be prepared to help socially disadvantaged children who frequently have to cope with language problems to catch up, just as they will be prepared to communicate with families and parents effectively and to co-operate efficiently with child-care experts and the representatives of civil organisations.The training may be organised by teacher training colleges in their own competence. In September 2002 courses will start at the following institutions: University of Kaposvár, Kölcsey Ferenc Protestant Teacher Training College, Tessedik József College, Apor Vilmos Catholic College and Eötvös József College. With the entry into force of Decree No. 20/2001 (VI. 30.) of the Ministry of Education, which modified Decree No. 41/1999 (X. 13) of the same ministry, an increased time devoted for the training will allow for students to fulfil not only the qualification requirements of their specialist education, but those of a specialist examination for teachers as well.The Eötvös Lóránt University of Sciences of Budapest [hereafter also referred to as ELTE] and the University of Sciences of Szeged offer special courses in Roma/Gypsy Studies within their teacher training faculties.The teaching of the Roma/Gypsy languages (Lovari and Beas) is necessary partly for the basic and specialised further training, and partly for the preservation of the Roma/Gypsy identity. Such language courses are offered at the Department for Roma/Gypsy Studies at the University of Sciences of Pécs, at Wesley János School of Divinities, at the Bárczi Gusztáv Faculty of Special Education of ELTE, and at the Csokonai Vitéz Mihály Teacher Training College of the University of Kaposvár.It is undoubtedly an important step forward that it is already possible to take state language examinations in either Lovari or Beas at the Centre of Foreign Language Graduate Training and at the Language Examination Centre of the University of Sciences of Pécs.Further training for teachers is regulated by Government Decree No. 277/1997 (XII. 22). In terms of the Act on Public Education, holding certain functions, such as head of institution, expert or senior lecturer, requires that, in addition to being graduated as a teacher, the person has passed the specialist examination for teachers. This examination may be taken in the frame of further training, and the requirements of qualification are defined in Government Decree No. 41/1999 (X. 13) of the Ministry of Education. Institutions of higher education publish their offers in specialist examination within the programme of further teacher training in the National Bulletin of Education of March every year.In March 2002 further training programmes related to Roma/Gypsy studies were offered by the following institutions:

- Illyés Gyula College of Education of the University of Sciences of Pécs: “Knowledge necessary for pre-school teachers, and primary school teachers to fulfil tasks related to the Roma/Gypsy ethnic minority”,- The Teacher Training Institute of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Sciences of Pécs: “Roma/Gypsies ethnic studies and pedagogy for teachers”,- Tessedik Sámuel College: “Preparing to special tasks in the education of Roma children”,- Eötvös Lóránt University of Sciences, Budapest: “Schooling in minority environment”.

Institutions of higher education training Roma teachers:- Department of Scientific Education, Faculty of Arts of ELTE – Budapest (Roma/Gypsy Sub-Section)- Department of Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts of ELTE – Budapest (programme)- Department of Roma/Gypsy Studies, Faculty of Arts of the University of Sciences of Pécs - Pécs- College of Nyíregyháza – Nyíregyháza (special seminar)- University of Kaposvár – Kaposvár (postgraduate training in Roma/Gypsy Studies)- Apor Vilmos Catholic College – Zsámbék (Roma/Gypsy Department)- ELTE Faculty of Teacher Training – Budapest (special seminar)- Comenius Teacher Training College of the University of Miskolc – Sárospatak (special seminar)- Department of Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts of the University of Miskolc – Miskolc (special seminar)- Kölcsey Ferenc Protestant Teacher Training College – Debrecen (post-graduate training in Roma/Gypsy Studies)

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- Brunszvik Teréz Faculty of Pre-school Teacher Training, Tessedik Sámuel College – Szarvas (special seminar)- Eötvös József Teacher Training College – Baja (special seminar)- Wargha István College of Education, University of Debrecen – Hajdúböszörmény (special seminar).

Evaluation Report of the Committee of Experts [ECRML (2004) 5]Chapter 1 Background information1.1 The ratification of the Charter by Hungary1. The Republic of Hungary signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereafter referred to as “the Charter”) on 5 November 1992 and deposited its instrument of ratification on 26 April 1995. The Charter entered into force in Hungary on 1st March 1998. The Hungarian authorities published the text of the Charter in the Official Gazette, Volume 1999, N°. 34.2. Article 15, paragraph 1 of the Charter requires States Parties to submit three-yearly reports in a form prescribed by the Committee of Ministers2. The Hungarian authorities presented their second periodical report to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on 11 September 2002. 3. In its previous evaluation report on Hungary (ECRML (2001) 4), the Committee of Experts of the Charter (hereinafter referred to as “the Committee”) outlined particular areas where the legal framework, policy and practice could be improved. The Committee of Ministers took note of the report presented by the Committee of Experts and adopted recommendations (RecChL (2001) 4), which were addressed to the Hungarian authorities. 1.2 The work of the Committee of Experts4. This second evaluation report is based on the information obtained by the Committee of Experts from the second periodical report of Hungary and through interviews held with representatives of some of the regional or minority languages in Hungary and the Hungarian authorities during the “on-the-spot visit” which took place on 31 March-2 April 2003. No further information was submitted pursuant to Article 16 para. 2 of the Charter. 5. The present report focuses on the issues raised and on the related observations made by the Committee of Experts in its first evaluation report, as well as on the measures taken by the Hungarian authorities to respond to the findings of the Committee of Experts and to the recommendations addressed to the Hungarian Government by the Committee of Ministers. The present report also aims at highlighting new issues detected by the Committee during the second monitoring round. 6. The present report contains detailed observations that the Hungarian authorities are urged to take into account in order to develop their policy on regional or minority languages, with a view to dealing with the problematical aspects highlighted in the report by the Committee of Experts . The Committee of Experts has, on the basis of its detailed observations, also established a list of general proposals for preparing a second set of recommendations to be addressed to Hungary by the Committee of Ministers , as provided in Article 16 para. 4 of the Charter (Chapter 4.2 of this report).7. The present report is based on the political and legal situation prevailing at the time of the Committee’s second “on-the-spot visit” to Hungary (31st March-2nd April 2003). The Committee is aware that changes in legislation and practice may have taken place since their visit. These changes will be taken into account in the next report of the Committee of Experts concerning Hungary.8. The present second report was adopted by the Committee of Experts on 29 August 2003.Chapter 2 Presentation of the regional or minority language situation in Hungary: up-date9. The second periodical report (see pp. 6-11) refers to the unofficial data resulting from the 2001 census (at the time the second periodical report was drafted the official data were not yet available). 10. With regard to languages additionally covered by Part III, the figures show a general decline in the number of mother-tongue speakers (with the exception of Serbian and Slovenian), coupled with an increase in the number of persons belonging to the corresponding minority (with the sole exception of the Romanian-speaking minority). Thus:

- Croatian mother-tongue speakers have decreased from 17,577 in 1990 to 14,345 in 2001, while the number of persons declaring they belong to the minority has increased from 13,570 to 15,620;

2 MIN-LANG (2002) 1 Outline for 3-yearly periodical reports as adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

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- German mother-tongue speakers have decreased from 37,511 to 33,792 (while the number of persons declaring they belong to the minority has increased from 30,824 to 62,233);- Romanian mother-tongue speakers have decreased from 8,730 to 8,482 (the number of persons declaring they belong to the minority has also decreased, from 8,730 to 7,995);- Serbian mother-tongue speakers have increased from 2,953 to 3,388 (the number of persons declaring they belong to the minority has also increased from 2,905 to 3,816);- Slovak mother-tongue speakers have decreased from 12,745 to 11,816 (while the number of persons declaring they belong to the minority has increased from 10,459 to 17,692);- Slovenian mother-tongue speakers have increased from 2,627 to 3,187 (the number of persons declaring they belong to the minority has also increased from 1,930 to 3,040).

11. The Committee of Experts has not received any new figures or estimates from the minority self-governments. It therefore confines itself to recalling the considerations made in the first evaluation report, according to which past official census figures had underestimated the number of users of regional or minority languages, although estimates given by the minority associations themselves are not necessarily reliable (see para. 11 of the first evaluation report). 12. With regard to languages covered only by Part II, the situation is more complex.In its first evaluation report (see paras. 10 and 33) the Committee noted that only Polish and Ruthenian had a territorial base. If the situation of Polish seems to have worsened as far as the language is concerned (from 3,788 native speakers in 1990 to 2,580 in 2001), Ruthenian seems to have progressed (from 674 native speakers in 1990, including Ukrainians, to 1,113,not including Ukrainians, in 2001; during the present second monitoring round representatives from the Ruthenian self-governments referred to 5,000 people still using the language). 13. As regards other non-territorial languages (excepting Romany):

- Native speakers of Armenian increased from 37 in 1990 to 294 in 2001 (620 people declaring they belonged to the minority);- Native speakers of Bulgarian decreased from 1,370 in 1990 to 1,299 in 2001 (1,358 people declaring they belonged to the minority);- Native speakers of Greek increased from 1,640 in 1990 to 1,921 in 2001 (2,509 people declaring they belonged to the minority);- Native speakers of Ukrainian increased from 674 – together with the Ruthenian speakers - in 1990 to 4,885 in 2001 (5,020 people declaring that they belong to the minority).

14. In this regard too it must be noted that with the exception of Ruthenian, no additional figures were provided by the minority self-governments. In any event, some of the increases may be due to the changing general climate which encouraged more people than in 1990 to declare their minority language (and/or their belonging to the corresponding minority).15. Finally, as far as Romany is concerned the situation appears to be particularly complex. The number of native speakers appears to be relatively stable (48 072 in 1990 and 48 689 in 2001). However, other sources (including Government sources) state that 20/25% of the total Roma population (between 600,000 and 800 000 people) speak Romany, i.e. approximately between 120 000 and 150 000 people. Furthermore, the number of persons declaring themselves as belonging to the minority has increased from 142 683 to 190 046 persons.

EvaluationChapter 3 The Committee of Experts' evaluation 3.1 General remarks16. The Committee of Experts underlines in the first instance the continued excellent level of co-operation with the Hungarian authorities. The Committee of Experts must also stress the very high level of awareness shown by the Hungarian authorities in relation to the various issues surrounding the protection and promotion of regional and minority languages in Hungary, as noted by the Committee of Experts in the first periodical report (see para. 14). 17. The situation of regional or minority languages in Hungary is still characterised by a constant process of assimilation (see also para. 12 of the first evaluation report), as appears to be confirmed by the general decrease in the number of mother-tongue speakers of regional or minority languages (see paras. 10-13 above). There is also very little awareness: following the long-time assimilation process - which has affected all regional or minority languages in Hungary to varying degrees - very little value

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is attached in Hungary to learning or revivingregional or minority languages. Generally speaking, many families tend to consider Hungarian and most known Western languages to be really useful but this is not the case for minority languages. Amongst regional or minority languages spoken in Hungary, only German benefits to a certain extent from this situation. As a rule of thumb, bilingualism is still perceived as something rather negative.18. A further general aspect of the Hungarian ratification, i.e. its theoretical coverage of the whole national territory, still raises a number of problems, particularly in specific fields of protection, such as Articles 9 and 10. These problems will be dealt with in detail in the evaluation carried out under Part III of the Charter.19. A last general issue concerns the role of minority self-governments. As the Committee of Experts observed in its first evaluation report (see in particular paras. 20, 23-25, 31, 32, and findings B., C. and G.), minority self-governments constitute a useful instrument for ensuring minority participation in the drafting of minority language-related policies. The system of minority self-governments is putting down deep roots. However, the effective ability of minority self-governments to contribute to the implementation of the Charter seems to be linked to the transferral of bodies and institutions directly responsible for implementing some of the Charter’s provisions, particularly in the field of education and culture. During the “on-the-spot visit” several minority self-governments expressed the wish for progress to be made in the transferral process - currently being debated in the Hungarian Parliament. It appeared that the issue is also of a financial nature and it was expressed that the transferral should be accompanied by the allocation of earmarked funds.

Part II3.2 The Committee of Experts’ evaluation of the issues arising under Part II of the Charter3.2.1 Preliminary remarks on the approach of the Committee of Experts in respect of Part II in the context of the second report20. The Committee of Experts will focus on the provisions of Part II which were singled out in the first report as raising particular problems. It will evaluate in particular how the Hungarian authorities have reacted to the observations made by the Committee of Experts and, where relevant, to the recommendations made by the Committee of Ministers. In the present report, the Committee of Experts will firstly recall the key elements of each issue. It will then refer to the paragraphs in the first report which set out the Committee of Experts’ reasoning, before evaluating how the Hungarian authorities reacted. The Committee of Experts will also look at new issues detected during the second monitoring round.21. Whilst confining its remarks in the present report to Article 7 para 1.g for the languages additionally covered by Part III, as this still appears to be giving rise to implementation difficulties, the Committee of Experts will nonetheless reserve the right to carry out at a later stage a new, comprehensive evaluation of implementation of Part II of the Charter in respect of these languages.22. With regard to languages covered by Part II only, the Committee of Experts will not comment in the present report on provisions where no major issues were raised in the first report and for which the Committee of Experts did not receive any new elements requiring it to reassess or to present differently their implementation. The provisions are as follows: - Article 7 para. 1.a (except for Ruthenian and Polish; para. 20 of the first report);- Article 7 para. 1.e (para. 25 of the first report);- Article 7 para. 1.i (para. 29 of the first report);- Article 7 paras 2-4 (paras. 30-32 of the first report).The Committee of Experts therefore refers to the conclusions reached in its first report, but reserves the right to evaluate the situation again at a later stage.

Article 7 – Objectives and principlesArticle 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph a

No comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph bThis provision is not applicable for non-territorial languages.

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Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph cNo comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph dNo comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph eNo comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph fNo comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph gNo comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph hNo comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph iNo comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 2No comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 3No comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 4No comments by the Committee.

Article 7, paragraph 5

51. In its first evaluation report (see para. 33) the Committee of Experts observed that most of the languages not covered by Part III of the Charter are non-territorial languages because of their scattered presence throughout the country. Other non-territorial languages are as follows: Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek and Ukrainian. For Greek it must be added that a significant section of the Greek-speaking community seems to be of recent origin, owing to the influx of refugees who arrived in Hungary from Greece following the 1948/1949 civil war.52. During the second monitoring round the Committee of Experts received no information from representatives of the Armenian and Ukrainian languages. Despite this, the Committee of Experts considers that a general problem in this area is the restricting of education in these languages to ‘Sunday School’ education (with the exception of Bulgarian in Budapest, which can rely on a Bulgarian school)) The effectiveness of these Sunday Schools is doubtful, given that pupils are required to study in addition to the normal school-week. Although teaching in and of Greek seems to benefit considerably from the support of the Governments of Greece and Cyprus, the Committee of Experts still considers that an effort could be made to include at least some classes as part of the normal curriculum. As for the media, the Committee of Experts recalls the remarks it made in respect of Ruthenian and Polish (see paras. 25 and 33 above) and refers also to the observations which will be made below, in the findings.

Conclusions/FindingsChapter 4 ConclusionsRecommendation no. 2:“strengthen the institutional infrastructure for teaching in and of the minority languages, and develop further the possibilities of bilingual education and provide sufficient teacher training;”The efforts made by the Hungarian authorities in this area still appear to be insufficient compared to the standard fixed by the Committee of Ministers. In particular, as far as Part III languages are concerned, there has been no significant progress towards more systematic development of forms of bilingual education. An additional, serious problem is the closing or merging of a number of schools in

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small settlements, taking account in particular that most speakers of regional or minority languages in Hungary live precisely in small settlements. This can have negative effects on the use of a regional or minority language in the community, given the crucial importance of schools in maintaining a minority language as a living language (see paras. 56-57 above).Recommendation no. 4:“continue to develop the potential of its newly established system of minority self-governments in view of the valuable contribution it can make to the promotion of the minority languages.”The strengthening of the system of minority self-governments is an on-going process which is being pursued by the Hungarian authorities. One issue which has not yet found a solution is the transfer to minority self-governments of the management of bodies or institutions, in particular in the field of education. There are current discussions in the Parliament on how to facilitate this process through the clarification of the financial conditions (see para. 19 above).4.2 Findings of the Committee in the second monitoring roundA. Hungary has a complex and rich framework for the protection of regional and minority languages, based on advanced legislation and on the system of minority self-governments. However, regional and minority languages in Hungary have been affected by a long assimilation process and amongst the minorities themselves, let alone the majority population, there is little awareness as to the importance of protecting and promoting regional and minority languages. The provision of educational opportunities , for example, may not succeed in saving minority languages in Hungary if the majority society relegates them to an inferior position, thus strengthening even among the speakers of the minority languages the perception that learning and using them in public is of little value. There is, as a consequence, an urgent need to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining minority languages and to attach a positive value to both bilingualism and the knowledge of a second language, including when that concerns regional or minority languages.C. As regards other minority languages, the features of the present educational system are essentially the result of the long assimilation process, since in many cases (with the exception of the German language) the learning of regional and minority languages is not perceived as having any added value. In order to reverse the assimilatory trend, of which the Hungarian authorities are fully aware, a more determined approach seems necessary in the field of education. The Committee of Experts would consider appropriate a development of the following kind: for Part III languages the Hungarian authorities should start implementing models of bilingual education on a more systematic scale; for Part II languages education should start shifting from the present system of language classes on Sundays to the model currently used for Part III languages ; the Ruthenian and Polish languages, having a certain territorial base, should be dealt with as a priority. Teacher training remains a critical area for the entire attempt to improve minority language education, since the further development of such education depends on the availability of sufficient numbers of teachers trained in minority languages. In this respect it must be said that the need to develop forms of bilingual education (including subjects taught in the language) makes it necessary to draw up a comprehensive approach to teacher training, which at this stage hardly exists.D. An additional problem in the field of education is linked to the present trend towards closing or merging small schools. This is particularly worrying since, given the scattered presence of minority languages throughout the country, small settlements are precisely the places where minority languages are most alive. A particularly careful approach would therefore seem necessary in this area. First of all, when a small school where a minority language is taught merges with another school, it must be ensured that the teaching of and in the minority language will continue in the new school, or, in the case where a school is closed down, continue in the next school to which pupils must turn. Secondly, when such situations occur, it must be ensured that pupils will have reasonable commuting options to reach the new school easily. Thirdly, if it is not possible to arrange such commuting possibilities the small school should simply not be closed and the authorities should rely on a criterion of fixed costs instead of referring to the number of pupils as the decisive yardstick for financing such schools.F. The supply of minority language programmes on public television seems to meet the minimum needs for the regional or minority languages, although the time-slot and the duration of broadcasting could be improved. However, serious measures regarding private radio and television channels have yet to be taken for encouraging the broadcasting of programmes in minority languages. The situation in the field of radio programmes is not satisfactory, due to the obsolete frequencies in use. These frequencies are mostly of a purely local reach and are difficult to obtain on modern radio sets. Hungary

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should take urgent measures to ensure that ordinary radio sets can receive programmes in minority languages.G. Finally, the system of minority self-governments, which the Committee of Experts has already recognised as constituting a useful instrument for securing minority participation in the formulation and implementation of minority language-related policies, is consolidating itself, although its effectiveness is closely linked to resolving the issue of transferring bodies and institutions to minority self-governments, particularly in the field of education and culture, currently under discussion in the Parliament.

Comments by the State Party [ECRML (2004) 5]The Government of the Republic of Hungary does really appreciate what the Committee of Experts’ Report on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Hungary contains in professional terms. Remarks, notes and proposals of the Committee of Experts may be an important contribution to the way we are going to follow in an approach to our minority policies. We set high value on the positive attitude of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages shows towards the minority self-government system established in Hungary. We are fully aware that this system is far from being brought to perfection; it is so much the more essential for its continuous improvement to evaluate and process not only Hungarian experience but what external experts’ can see and observe here, as well. Since the very year of the change of the political system in Hungary the political forces in or out of power have been able to establish consensus concerning minority policy in the Republic of Hungary. These ten years we left behind our core minority policy objectives have essentially remained the same – primarily to consolidate minority communities in Hungary, establish and develop their representative system, as well as implement and strengthen their social and institutional background. Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (Minorities Act) serves as the most important legal means in implementing our minority policy. This Act constitutes a comprehensive legal frame for the aims and means ensuing from Hungary’s rich minority policy experience accumulated during its history. Since the Act has entered into force both our practical minority policy and reports on the fulfilment of our international undertakings, as well as reactions we received thereto clearly indicate that the Act is well ripe for being subject to an all-in revision and substantial amendment procedure. Necessary preparatory codification work has already been launched during the previous parliamentary cycle – under review by the Charter’s Report – but, finally, the Parliament could not deal on the merits with the proposed amendments in the last year of the cycle. Following the last minority elections held in 2002 this law amendment procedure has resumed. The need for the definition of bounds circumscribing the subjects of minority rights, i.e. the minority voters, has presented itself as a firm aim based on conclusions drawn from experience gained from these elections. Last year a conference was held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the Minorities Act. Also, lecturers at the conference, Hungarian and foreign experts including a member of Committee of Experts, were all for the government intention to define, within a law amendment procedure, more exactly the subjects of minority rights, the participants at minority elections and objective elements of belonging to a minority. This is the intention that the current draft of the amendment to the Minorities Act is imbued with. The draft is an attempt trying, within the bounds of possibility, to circumscribe as exactly as possible settlements and regions where minorities typically and traditionally have their historical roots in Hungary. The draft amendment has been prepared in co-operation with experts from the national self-governments of the minorities, ministries, bodies and professionals concerned. The draft is expected to come before the Parliament in the first half of 2004, therefore its finalized version will be treated in detail in our next Periodical Report. While framing and developing its minority policy the Government of the Republic of Hungary continues to pay special attention to the remarks and recommendations of the Committee of Experts as well as to finding solutions to the problems raised by them, just the same way as it did after the previous

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Report. We are confident that, after a longer while, the Committee will see this whole process in its entirety through our reports and, on the other hand, methods and their effects that the Committee may be less informed of, will gain more and more ground in our everyday practice of minority policy-making. Since the submission of the Report several government decisions have come to light, each as a move forward in the field of the protection of minority languages and cultures, as well as the improvement of related educational matters. These positive changes will be touched upon in less detail in this document because, as also indicated by the authors of the Report, their detailed explanation will only become possible in the next Report. What we have added to this paper are mere facts we deem indispensable to mention in order to throw more complex light upon certain elements of the document issued by the Committee of Experts in response to the Second Periodical Report of the Republic of Hungary.Included among such pieces of information, relevant in our opinion, are the official data of the 2001 census that came out only after the Periodical Report had been submitted. In its material, the Committee of Experts could use informal preliminary data only; therefore we deem it important to make the Committee acquainted with the final figures:

Minorities Number of those belonging to minorities

Using the minority language as mother-

tongue

Belonging to the nationality

Ties with cultural assets and

traditions of the nationality

Using the minority language in family

relations and friendly

communities

based upon responses

Croatian 14 345 15 620 19 715 14 788

German 33 792 62 233 88 416 53 040

Romanian 8 482 7 995 9 162 8 215

Serbian 3 388 3 816 5 279 4 186

Slovak 11 817 17 693 26 631 18 057

Slovene 3 187 3 040 3 442 3 119

Roma/Gipsy 48 685 190 046 129 259 53 323

Bulgarian 1 299 1 358 1 693 1 118

Greek 1 921 2 509 6 140 1 974

Polish 2 580 2 962 3 983 2 659

Armenian 294 620 836 300

Ruthenian 1 113 1 098 1 292 1 068

Ukrainian 4 885 5 070 4 779 4 519

As the table above shows, final figures differ from preliminary ones to a minimum extent only. While, on the one hand, they confirmed the preliminary expectation, according to which those belonging to minorities living in Hungary outnumber former census figures, it became evident, on the other hand, that figures estimated by the minorities themselves concerning their population, and also accepted by minority policy-makers as relevant, are by orders of magnitude different from final figures of the 2001 census. An important aspect in this respect is that approximately 5% of the population did not answer questions about their minority ties in the census. Some minority self-government leaders have the opinion that an overwhelming majority of non-respondents includes people with minority ties who are still afraid of confessing their minority statuses, lingual or cultural ties. While, taking relevant census data as a basis, it can be stated as a fact in respect of the territorial breakdown of those speaking minority languages that almost each minority community can be confined to a specific region where its population lives in typically higher proportions, another fact is that practically there is no county or larger city in Hungary without members of all minorities, however small in number.

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Changes in the ethnic composition of the Capital Budapest prove best the internal migration of those belonging to minorities; however, nearly the same applies to the suburban belt situated around the Capital. Almost each satellite town and village formerly populated with a minority community has become a multilingual and multicultural settlement, though it does not follow that those belonging to the same minority in a particular settlement would organize themselves into a community and, as such, express demands as regards the fostering of their language or culture. Further on we draw up our remarks following the sections in the Report of the Committee of Experts. The first thing to be noted herein is that certain issues, subsequently raised by the Committee of Experts, were less accentuated only because the list of aspects previously compiled by the experts of the Charter then sent out to us as a guide how to prepare our Second Periodical Report did not cover them. Concerning Section 19, we wish to note that taking training and educational institutions of minorities over has so far been possible, but a rare occurrence, under public education agreements (also covering financial issues) to be entered into with local self-governments of the settlements maintaining such institutions. This way the National Croatian Self-Government took over the maintenance of the Croatian Primary School of Hercegszántó or the German Self-Government that of German nationality kindergarten in Törökbálint and Budakeszi, and a German School in Piliscsaba. The amendment to the Minorities Act that the Report refers to stimulates no significant changes concerning the taking over of minority kindergartens and schools accommodating children and pupils of local registration (though rules have already been made more exact). This goes on to be subject to an agreement with the self-government in charge of their maintenance. However, as regards minority training and educational institutions accommodating children of nationwide, regional or district registration, the obligation to transfer the task of the maintenance of such institutions and to enter into a public education agreement with the Minister of Education, also providing for financial issues, if so required by the national self-government of the minority concerned, is prescribed by law. We would like to mention that budgets of the Republic of Hungary for both 2003 and 2004 contain funds specifically appropriated for subsidizing the functioning of institutions of the national minority self-governments. The provision of these resources allows the self-governments to decide by far easier about the taking over minority institutions than ever before. As regards Sections 31, 32 and 34 concerning Polish and Section 52 concerning Bulgarian, Greek, Armenian and Ukrainian languages, we have already mentioned in the foregoing the additional minority education as a possibility provided for them. It is to be added that the National Polish Minority Self-Government, which has been organizing a so-called Polish School for years, managed to get closest to the launching of this educational form. In addition to the Ruthenians (Mucsony) and Bulgarians (Budapest), Greeks also have their own institutions of minority public education in the Village Beloiannisz with nursery school education and elementary level language teaching. Taking it all in all, we agree with the content of the Committee of Experts’ Report on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in the Republic of Hungary. In respect of points where our judgement somewhat differs, we have made reservations and described our differing opinion. As it has been mentioned above in the introductory part hereof, our positive measures intended to promote the implementation of our undertakings made in context with the Charter will be treated in detail in our next Periodical Report. Measures of this type have been mentioned here in the only case where they can contribute to a clearer picture to get. Proposals from the Committee of Experts are welcome. They are in harmony with the main goals of Hungary’s minority policy based on consensus among, and therefore equally backed by all relevant political forces, and do coincide with the main courses followed by Hungarian Governments in power in drafting their minority policy. Budapest, January 2004.

Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers [RecChL (2004) 4]The Committee of Ministers,

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Recommends that the Republic of Hungary take account of all the observations of the Cmomittee of Experts and, as a matter of priority:2. Improve the present model of teaching regional or minority languages and move to forms of bilingual education for Part III languages and incorporate the current model of secondary language education into the curriculum for Part II languages.4. Strengthen the presence of minority languages in the media and, in particular, ensure that programmes in minority languages can be received on ordinary radio sets.5. Continue to develop the system of minority self-governments, in particular by improving the conditions for the transferral of educational and cultural bodies and institutions to minority self-governments.

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3rd monitoring cycleState Party Report [MIN-LANG/PR (2005) 6]

Background informationThe Republic of Hungary belongs to the first signatories of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe (hereinafter: the Charter). As such, it presented its first report after the coming into force of the Charter in September 1999, and submitted its second periodical report to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in September 2002.After both reports, the Committee of Experts of the Charter gathered information in Hungary concerning the content of the report, and prepared a report for the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (hereinafter: Committee of Ministers). Following this, the Committee of Ministers discussed the two documents and adopted recommendations for the Republic of Hungary, in which it phrased its expectations aimed at the strengthening the implementation of the Charter in Hungary.The policy of the Republic of Hungary concerning regional or minority languages, and the basic legal regulations guaranteeing the protection of minority languages have not changed, however – just as a result of the ratification of the Charter, the commitments assumed upon ratification, and the implementation of the recommendations adopted by the Committee of Ministers – several amendments of legal regulations have been effected broadening the possibilities of the use of language, and several provisions defining more precisely the rights related to the use of language in certain areas of public life have also been issued.The structure of our report has been adapted to the outline adopted by the Committee of Ministers, issued for the States Party. Our introduction includes basically general information concerning the Republic of Hungary and the minorities living here. In Chapter I we present the legal regulations, the official measures serving the protection of minority languages, and we describe the ways and the organisational background of the spreading of the information of on the Charter. The measures taken concerning the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers are also presented in this chapter. Chapter II of our report is basically a summary of the Hungarian interpretation of Part II of the Charter. Chapter III presents the implementation of our commitments assumed under Part III of the Charter.INTRODUCTIONIn the Republic of Hungary, the past three years have passed basically in the spirit of the accession to the European Union (hereinafter: EU). Both in the legislative processes, as well as in the economy, the most important aim of the effected measures was to adapt to the EU. Our country joined the EU on 1 May 2004.On 1 January 2005, the population of Hungary numbered 10,096,000 persons. According to statistical data in 2003, the per capita GDP at purchasing power parity was 12,818 euros. In 2003, 3.3% of the country’s GDP came from agriculture, 32.5% from industry, and 64.2% from services. 5% of those employed worked in agriculture, 33% in industry, and 62% in services. The ratio of unemployed was 6.1%.Hungary is a parliamentary democracy. At the last elections (in 2002) four parties succeeded in getting elected into the Parliament, and the Government formed was based on a coalition between the Hungarian Socialist Party and the Alliance of Free Democrats.The system of public administration of the Republic of Hungary is divided to cover 3200 settlements, traditionally 19 counties, and the capital, Budapest. The system of local self-government of the capital consists of two levels, with 23 independent districts, and the Municipality of Budapest coordinating the public administration of the capital. The system of minority self-government is presently lacking the county level, thus besides the local level minority self-governments, it is the role of the national level minority self-governments which is decisive from the point of view of the given minority. However, the representation of the minorities in the capital consists of two levels, besides the district minority self-governments the capital’s minority self-governments are also present.(We find it important to mention that Bill No. T/9126 on the amendment of certain laws related to the election of minority self-government representatives, and to national and ethnic minorities has been adopted by the Hungarian Parliament in the period of the finalisation of the present report. The law provides for the establishment of county level minority self-governments.)

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A common trait of the largest part of the national and ethnic minorities living on the area of the Republic of Hungary is that they have been living within the borders of the Hungarian State for centuries. With the exception of the Slovenian autochthonous inhabitants living in the South -Western part of the country, around Szentgotthárd, minorities have arrived to the area of present day Hungary in the past centuries, in several waves. One of their most important historic, social and ethnic determinants is that they have mostly left the original home of their ethnic group before the evolution of their standard literary language, thus the languages, dialects they speak today are usually archaic linguistic forms.In the course of the centuries of historic coexistence with the Hungarian people, the individual national minority communities have integrated fully into the majority society, and their linguistic and cultural affiliation to the mother nation has weakened in several cases. Parallel to this, a new phenomenon, which we may call dual affiliation, appeared. Today, the vast majority of those belonging to the national minorities living in Hungary are bilingual, and often speak Hungarian better than the language of the given minority. Besides their relations to their own cultural heritage, a larger proportion of those belonging to the minorities also have close ties to the Hungarian culture they have became acquainted with, and which they have accepted during the centuries of coexistence.An exception to the above are those minority communities, the presence of which on the territory of the country may also be several centuries old, but which in the past decades have either had continuous supply from their mother country, or the moving in of a larger sized group of the minority has increased the population of their community decisively. Such communities are especially the Bulgarian, the Polish, the Armenian, the Ruthenian, the Ukrainian, and the Greek communities.As a result of the forced assimilation in the decades before World War II, the repression and the banning of education in minority language, the constraint after the war, and the partially voluntary displacements of the population, the until then more intact minority communities weakened, and the language of the community gradually ceased to be a cohesive factor. This was also complemented by the fact that the language of instruction introduced in minority education in the period after the war was not the archaic dialect used by the members of the given communities, but the literary language of the mother nation or mother country.Since the change of the political system, the Republic of Hungary has been devoting special attention to ensuring the rights of the minorities living on its territory. The hidden assimilation policy of the period after World War II has been abolished, and measures have been taken to ensure the self-organisation of minorities, the safeguarding of their identity, the transmittal of their language. From among these measures taken, the one of outstanding importance is the enactment of Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (hereinafter: Minorities Act). It is this legal regulation, which determines the minority policy of the Republic of Hungary up to the present day. With regard to the fact that the linguistic rights of minorities have received outstanding importance in its text, this law may be regarded as the first legal phrasing of the policy related to minority languages. The Act regards altogether thirteen minorities as autochthonous minorities in the territory of Hungary: these are the Bulgarian, the Roma, the Greek, the Croatian, the Polish, the Armenian, the Romanian, the Ruthenian, the Serbian, the Slovak, the Slovene, and the Ukrainian.According to the wordings of the Minorities Act, not only individuals are subjects of minority language rights, but minority communities as well. The right to use the mother tongue in all areas of public life, the right to take part in education where the language of instruction is the minority language or the minority language is taught, the right to safeguard, to transmit and to develop the minority culture, and the possibility to maintain contacts with the mother nation, have all been phrased in the law as collective rights.

* * *Minorities in the mirror of the statisticsThe latest census in the Republic of Hungary was held in 2001. The data gained then contained several pieces of relevant information that we shall also make use of when developing the framework for the use of minority languages.An important aspect in the census was the establishment of the real number of the population of minorities. Just for this purpose, the national level self-governments of the minorities were also involved in the preparation of the census. As a result of several rounds of conciliation, the census data sheet was prepared to involve four questions, as compared to the previous two questions, which were aimed partly at the identity and the mother tongue, and partly at the cultural affiliation and the language used in the family and among friends of those belonging to minorities. The four questions –

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which could be freely answered on the basis of the decision of the Data Protection Act – were the following:

- To which minority do you feel you belong?- To the cultural values and the traditions of which minority are you affiliated?- Which language is your mother tongue?- Which language do you usually use in the family and communities with friends?

All four questions contained three answer choices each, to make it possible to mark multiple affiliations. Each person could decide whether to give only one or several answers to the questions on minorities, independent from their answers given to other questions. The names of the minorities living in Hungary were listed in alphabetical order, with the last choice in their list being the category “Hungarian”. As answering the above questions was not obligatory, the questionnaire finished in the case of all four questions with the category “No answer”. With regard to the fact that among the Roma people in Hungary, marked by the comprehensive name “Gypsy” in the Minorities Act, there are two languages (the Beash and the Romany) which this minority uses, in the questionnaire it was possible to mark both of these in the two questions on languages. The census questionnaire did not contain the name and the personal data of the answering person, thus it was not possible to identify the person by name later on.The Central Statistical Office had the questionnaire translated, with the help of the national minority self-governments, to the language of the minorities, but experience showed that these were used only in certain villages, and there was no demand for their use in the cities.Besides determining the population of the minorities as closely as possible to the real numbers, the processing of statistical data, according to expectations, may also bring us closer to mapping the regions and settlements inhabited to the greatest extent by the minorities.Summarising the data on national and ethnic minorities of the census in 2001, 314,060 persons of the country’s then surveyed population of 10,198,315 persons assumed affiliation to a national minority, and 135,788 persons designated one of the 13 minority languages as their mother tongue. Examining the two new questions, 300,627 persons assumed affiliation to national minority cultural values and traditions, while 166,366 persons use the language of a minority in their family communities and among friends. (The minorities which are bolded are the ones to which the undertakings of the Republic of Hungary concerning Part III of the Charter refer.)

The number of persons belonging to each minority on the basis of the

answers on

Minority the mother tongue

affiliation to the minority

affiliation to minority cultural

values and traditions

the language used in family and friendly

communities

Croatian 14 326 15 597 19 687 14 789German 33 774 62 105 88 209 52 912Romanian 8 482 7 995 9 162 8 215Serbian 3 388 3 816 5 279 4 186Slovak 11 817 17 693 26 631 18 057Slovenian 3 180 3 025 3 429 3 108Roma 48 438 189 984 129 208 53 075

Bulgarian 1 299 1 358 1 693 1 118

Greek 1 921 2 509 6 140 1 974

Polish 2 580 2 962 3 983 2 659

Armenian 294 620 836 300

Ruthenian 1 113 1 098 1 292 1 068

Ukrainian 4 885 5 070 4 779 4 519

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On the basis of the data of the census, it may be stated that the number of those declaring one of the minority languages as their mother tongue has slightly decreased, by 1.4 percent, as compared to the 1990 census. A significant decrease is experienced in the data of the Polish, Croatian, German and Slovak minority communities. The number of those declaring as their mother tongue Armenian, Slovenian, Greek, and Serbian, however, showed a considerable increase. The number of those, who declared their belonging to a minority, however, increased significantly, by nearly 50 percent. A similar tendency may be found in the case of almost all minorities, with a significant increase in the case of the German, Slovak, Slovenian, Roma and Serbian minorities. The only exception is the number of the Romanian minority: here a decrease of 25 percent was registered. This took place parallel to a minor, 2.8 percent decrease of those declaring Romanian as their mother tongue.The number of the answers given to the new question on languages concerning the language used in the family and among friends was 22.5 percent higher than the number of answers replying to the question on the mother tongue. The great number of those answering implies that the mother tongue is really a close determinant of affiliation to a minority community. From among the “new” minorities in the history of Hungarian censuses, recognised in the Minorities Act since the previous census, it was especially the number of the Armenian, the Ukrainian, and the Ruthenian minority that increased, while it was only the number of the Polish minority that decreased if examined by the mother tongue.The dynamic increase of those assuming Roma minority continued, as already experienced in the 1990 census, now there were almost two hundred thousand persons who declared affiliation to this community.The difference between the mother tongue and the language used in the family and among friends is the greatest to the advantage of the language used in the communities in the case of those declaring German language as their mother tongue, however the number of those with German as their mother tongue decreased by one tenth. Two and a half times more persons declared affiliation to the cultural values and the traditions of the German minority than the number of those who declared German as their mother tongue, but their number is one and a half times more than that of those speaking German in the family and among friends, and almost one and a half times more than those declaring themselves belonging to German minority.The number of those declaring themselves belonging to a minority is the highest in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County. A large number of communities of minorities may also be found in Budapest, and Pest, Baranya, and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Counties. In three counties the proportion of minority population exceeds 5 percent of the population giving an answer on the merit of the question (Baranya County: 7.3%, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County: 6.67%, Nógrád County: 5.53%). Most of those who speak the minority language as a mother tongue live in Baranya County. In this county, those who speak the minority language as a mother tongue give 5.57 percent of the population giving an answer on the merit of the question. There are also significant mother tongue communities in Budapest, and in Pest County. The majority of the members of the communities of historic minorities live in villages, whereas the minorities, which are “new” from the point of view of the census, may be found in Budapest and other cities.The territorial distribution by counties of those speaking minority languages in Hungary may be found in Annex I. Annex II gives the number of those speaking a minority language, living in cities of county rank, within their distribution by counties.The economic and social integration of minorities in Hungary may be considered as finished. Their indicators related to their education, employment and income generally do not differ from those of the majority population, living in the same region, under similar conditions.The only exception is the Roma minority, the situation of which differs in many respects from other minorities in Hungary. In their case, social problems, and problems of training and education arise at a highly increased rate. Among the Roma minority, the number of those employed (22,179) hardly exceeds 10 percent of the total Roma population. In case of the other minorities this proportion is between 30 and 50 percent. The number of unemployed and inactive earner population is the highest among the members of the Roma community, and the number of the dependents is nearly 50 percent. According to educational data, almost 10 percent (16,706 persons) of the 7 years old and older Roma population have not even finished the first year of primary school. Hardly a half percent of them (832 persons) have obtained a high school or university diploma. All these show that the increasing of the integration possibilities of the Roma minority needs further special attention from the part of the society.According to estimates prepared by the minority communities – and also accepted by the Hungarian minority policy – the population of the national and ethnic minorities in Hungary exceeds the data

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registered by the census: it amounts to altogether around 8-10 percent of the country’s population of 10 million. According to these estimates, they number from around half million (the Roma) to a couple of thousand. The estimates of the minority organisations concerning the population of their communities were based on their own data, on research results, and on the numbers received within the census to the questions asking for the knowledge of languages without affiliation to a minority.The estimated data differs from the official statistical data to a different extent in the case of each minority, but in some cases, like in the case of the Serbian, the Slovenian, and the Ukrainian minorities, it comes close to the latter. (Bolded are the minorities to which the undertakings of the Republic of Hungary specified in Part III of the Charter refer.)

Minority Estimated population

Bulgarian 3,000 – 3,500 personsRoma 400,000 – 600,000 personsGreek 4,000 – 4,500 personsCroatian 80,000 – 90,000 personsPolish 10,000 personsGerman 200,000 – 220,000 personsArmenian 3,500 – 10,000 personsRomanian 20,000 – 25,000 personsRuthenian 5,000 – 6,000 personsSerbian 5,000 – 10,000 personsSlovak 100,000 – 110,000 personsSlovenian 5,000 personsUkrainian 2,000 – 5,000 persons

The actual number of the population with a minority identity and affiliation is somewhere between the census data and the estimates in the majority of the cases. The difference between the estimated and the declared data may be explained partly by the historic, social, social-psychological characteristics of the Eastern Central European countries affecting the questions of minorities, and partly by the dilemmas of the minorities which have a dual/multiple emotional and cultural affiliation.Good examples of dual affiliation may be found in settlements, where the proportion of the population with a minority affiliation is relatively high. There exist such minority settlements, where the overlapping of Hungarian and minority identity is almost 100%! For example in Pilisszentlélek (Hut), inhabited by Slovaks, 91.3 percent of the persons responding declared themselves Hungarian, but 70 percent also declared themselves to be of Slovak minority, while there were only 3.8 percent, who did not wish to answer. The situation was similar in a Croatian village in Vas County, Szentpéterfa (Petrovo selo), where 89.5 percent of those answering declared themselves Hungarian, with 75 percent declaring themselves Croatian at the same time, and only 1.3 percent of the population of the village not answering. In Ófalu, inhabited by Germans in Baranya County, 90.7 percent of the population declared themselves of German minority, with 95.6 percent declaring themselves of being Hungarian, and only 1.4 percent not answering.The Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has started the analysis of the minority data of the census in 2001.According to the researchers of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the most important tendencies identified by the 2001 census may be summarised in the following six points:

1. About two thirds of the Hungarian Roma continues not to declare themselves of Roma minority: as they do not feel themselves Roma. The high percentage of those of Roma origin and declaring themselves Hungarian naturally does not empower anyone to designate assimilation as the only way of solution of the situation of the Roma.2. The sliding into second place of the original mother tongue continues to be typical in the case of all minorities. Knowing this, the revitalisation of the minority languages may take place in the kindergarten and the school.

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3. Parallel to the change of the language, through the consciousness of origin, the knowledge of the language, and the affiliation to the culture of the minority, since 1980 the affiliation to the minority has been appreciating continuously, which is perhaps the most important result of the positive practice of Hungary’s minority policy, which has gradually reduced prejudice. The “relearning” of the mother tongue is a difficult, long process, however the revival of minority identity may take place rapidly in case the external conditions take a favourable turn.4. The strengthening of minorities in Hungary in the cities and in the capital is an important development: this also shows that the self-government model is able to organise the settled minorities, in an urban environment as well, which used to work as a melting pot.5. There is usually no significant decrease in the most important settlements of the traditional minority regions, at the most an internal restructuring, with the decrease in the use of the mother tongue, and the strengthening of the minority identity.6. It is worthy of attention, however, that the number of one-two person “scattered communities” in non-traditional regions is increasing continuously in the case of all minorities: the background of this phenomenon may be the effects of choosing school, of looking for employment, of mixed marriage, and the conscious abandoning of the often backward minority regions.

The experts add the following main statements to the system of relations between the minorities and their mother tongue, in the case of the minorities to which the undertakings assumed concerning Part III of the Charter relate:a) German minority:Taking into consideration the national data of the last three censuses, we may find considerable differences concerning minorities and their mother tongue. If we take a look at the national data declared by the minorities, we find that in 1980 and 1990 the ratio between those declaring their minority and those declaring a minority mother tongue shifted in favour of the mother tongue. In the 2001 census, however, this tendency reversed. There were almost twice as many persons declaring themselves as belonging to the German minority than the number of those who designated the German language as their mother tongue.The declarations concerning the mother tongue showed an unbroken tendency until 2001, according to which there were always more persons declaring German as their mother tongue than those declaring themselves of German origin. The turnaround in 2001 concerning the language refers to strong language assimilation. The reason for this may be that the generations, which learned German at home in the context of primary family socialisation, also learning German in school, are slowly dying out. After World War II, the German language gradually retreated to the circles of the families and the relatives, and later on its role decreased even here, as a result of the language of instruction in school being Hungarian.Summarising, we may state that, in the case of German minority, the number of those declaring German as their minority, as well as those declaring German as their mother tongue increased in all counties.b) Romanian minority:In Hungary, the number of those declaring Romanian as their mother tongue decreased continuously in the past 20 years. More than 90 % of the population declaring Romanian as their mother tongue live in Békés County and Hajdú-Bihar County. In these counties the extent of the decrease exceeds the national average by far. Similarly to Budapest, in the cities the number of those declaring Romanian as their mother tongue increased.In the period before 2001, the decrease in the circle of those declaring themselves belonging to the Romanian minority was much greater in the villages than in the cities, which shows partly the general decrease in the number of those declaring their belonging to the Romanian minority, while also being a sign of a significant migration from the villages to the cities.c) Slovak minority:In the 2001 census, there were much more persons who declared themselves of belonging to the Slovak minority than those who claimed Slovak as their mother tongue. The fact that the number of Slovak minority has almost doubled by 2001, was influenced by several factors. The Minorities Act adopted in 1993, the establishment of numerous Slovak twin cities relations, and the establishment of minority self-governments, all had a positive effect on the declaring of the belonging to the Slovak minority.d) Croatian minority:

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The number and the proportion of those declaring Croatian as their mother tongue in the 2001 census decreased in all counties: to the smallest extent in Budapest, and among those living in scattered communities.Parallel to the process of changing languages, the data registering minority identity show a minor decrease in the settlements inhabited by Croatians in Somogy and Vas Counties, while in the further four counties and in the capital, the number of the Croatian minority indicate a moderate increase.e) Serbian minority:The largest group of the Serbian minority in Hungary is situated within the virtual “ethnic region” of the capital and Pest County, constituted by the Serbians living in Lórév on the Csepel Island, and in Pomáz. According to the census, the weight of the group increased further: already almost 50 percent of those with Serbian as their mother tongue belong to this group now. The minority and mother tongue data of the Serbians living in the Dél-Alföld region show a significant decrease, while the Serbian community in Deszk tries to maintain its remaining ethnic population within the rapidly developing settlement.Concerning belonging to the minority and the mother tongue, the turnaround mentioned above has already taken place with the Serbian minority as well, according to the data, more persons declared their Serbian minority, than those declaring Serbian as their mother tongue.f) Slovenian minority:The population of the minority community with the most closed settlement network grew according to minority data, and surpassed 3,000 persons. Of this, according to minority data, 56.11 percent of the community lives in five settlements of its own ethnic region (Szentgotthárd and its neighbourhood), involving 55.41 percent of the inhabitants by mother tongue.The relation between belonging to the minority and mother tongue seems to be stabilising, and has practically become balanced in the past two decades. This, especially in the settlements inhabited by the community, is clearly the sign of an accelerating change of language. The process also reflects the assimilation of the younger generation and of those moving to the cities, as well as the ageing of the population, and the unfavourable demographic trends also affecting the Slovenian minority.Definition of the term “person speaking a regional or minority language”Besides the Constitution, a determining element of the policy of the Republic of Hungary related to minority languages is the Minorities Act, which determines, besides their other rights, the rights of the minority communities concerning the use of language.In the Hungarian regulation, it is not the definition of the “person speaking a regional or minority language” that forms the basis of the establishment of the subject of linguistic rights, but the belonging to a “national and ethnic minority”.The subjects of the linguistic rights guaranteed by the law are the persons, communities belonging to the minorities living in Hungary.According to Article 42 of the Minorities Act, the languages used by minorities living in Hungary are the Bulgarian, Roma (Romany and Beash), Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Ukrainian languages.The national or ethnic minorities speaking the above listed languages live scattered in the whole territory of the country. They live mostly in settlements where, even on a local level, they constitute a minority within the population. By reason of their number and local level presence, it is difficult to demonstrate any demand on the part of minorities living in Hungary in small numbers (such as the Bulgarian, the Greek, the Polish, the Armenian, the Ruthenian, and the Ukrainian minorities) related to the use of their languages and cultures, but even in their case the linguistic rights are guaranteed by the Minorities Act, even though their dispersion makes it impossible to define a geographical area or region where their languages are used. As the process of standardisation of the languages spoken by Roma in Hungary (Romany and Beash) advances, the demand arises to extend the undertakings assumed concerning the Charter to these languages as well. This process has already begun; the preparations will probably be ready by the end of the election cycle.As far as Part III of the Charter is concerned, the Republic of Hungary assumed commitments only in connection with the languages of minorities living in more concentrated groups, generally in well definable regions of the country (Romanian, Slovenian minorities) or of those who, due to their numbers, have established educational and cultural structures in their mother tongue despite being scattered across several regions or counties (Croatian, German, Serbian and Slovak minorities).

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The six national minority languages mentioned have undergone various changes over the past centuries. The independent language development followed only partially the mother nations’ language reform movements. As a result, the everyday language spoken by the minorities has conserved archaic dialects that differ from the literary languages sometimes to a smaller, sometimes to a greater extent. Today we witness a process where since minority education is administered in the literary languages already incorporating the results of language reforms, the literary languages are superseding local regional minority dialects.The geographical distribution in the territory of the country of the minorities falling under Part III of the CharterThe majority of Croatians in Hungary live in the southern and western counties of the country: in Baranya, Zala, Vas, Győr-Moson-Sopron, and Bács-Kiskun County, most of them in small settlements in these counties. However, their presence is marked in Budapest as well, due mainly to the system of minority self-government.In the course of the 2002 minority elections, altogether 108 Croatian minority self-governments were formed in the territory of the country. Of this, 18 in Budapest, 11 in Bács-Kiskun County, 31 in Baranya County, 8 in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, 4 in Pest County, 6 in Somogy County, 11 in Vas County, and 11 in Zala County. The number of Croatian minority settlement self-governments is 20.(According to the provisions of paragraph (1), Article 22 of the Minorities Act, a settlement self-government, in which more than half of the representatives in its elected body have been elected as the candidates of one national or ethnic minority, may declare itself minority settlement self-government.)Those declaring themselves belonging to the German minority live in the greatest numbers, in decreasing order, in Baranya County, Pest County, Budapest, Tolna County and Komárom-Esztergom County, evenly divided into city- and village inhabitants.The German minority in Hungary established altogether 340 local minority self-governments in 2002. Of this, 24 were formed in Budapest, 23 in Bács-Kiskun County, 85 in Baranya County, 8 in Békés County, 9 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, 2 in Csongrád County, 16 in Fejér County, 11 in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, 20 in Komárom-Esztergom County, 2 in Nógrád County, 37 in Pest County, 5 in Somogy County, 7 in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, 34 in Tolna County, 10 in Vas County, 43 in Veszprém County, and 4 in Zala County. As may be seen from the listing, the location of the German minority covers the whole territory of the country, as only in two counties of the 19 counties of the country did they not form a German minority self-government. The elected local bodies were transformed into German minority settlement self-governments in 34 settlements.The Romanian national minority in Hungary may be found in the greatest numbers in Békés County and Hajdú-Bihar County, both bordering Romania, and in Budapest and Csongrád County.At the 2002 elections, 44 Romanian minority self-governments were formed. 18 of these were established in Budapest, 12 in Békés County, 5 in Csongrád County, and 9 in Hajdú-Bihar County. In one settlement, the local body has been transformed into minority settlement self-government.The Serbian minority lives in Budapest and its surroundings, as well as in the Southern counties of the country: in Csongrád County, Baranya County, Békés County, and Bács-Kiskun County, mainly in cities.The number of the self-governments of the Serbian minority after the 2002 elections was altogether 44, of which 17 were established in Budapest, 3 in Bács-Kiskun County, 4 in Baranya County, 1 in Békés County, 3 in Fejér County, 10 in Pest County, 1 in Hajdú-Bihar County, and 1 in Tolna County.The largest communities of the Slovak minority living in our country may be found in the cities of Békés County, in Pest County, and Komárom-Esztergom County, as well as in the villages of Nógrád County.The Slovak minority living in Hungary has formed self-governments in 13 of the 19 counties of the country and in the capital at the last minority elections. Their self-governments number 115. Of this, 15 were created in Budapest, 3 in Bács-Kiskun County, 17 in Békés County, 17 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, 3 in Csongrád County, 2 in Fejér County, 2 in Heves County, 9 in Komárom-Esztergom County, 20 in Nógrád County, 24 in Pest County, 1 in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, and 1 each in Tolna County and in Veszprém County. Thus, the Slovak minority in Hungary constitutes the most scattered minority language community (after the German minority). The number of Slovak minority settlement self-governments is 8.

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The number of those declaring themselves as belonging to the Slovenian minority has increased significantly since the last census, and the same is valid for the related categories. Most of them live in Vas County, a smaller part of them in Budapest and Pest County.Slovenian self-governments were formed after the 2002 elections in Budapest (2), Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County (1), Fejér County (1), Győr-Moson-Sopron County (1) and in Vas County (8).Minorities “speaking non-territorial languages” in the Republic of HungaryThe largest minority of the country continues to be the Roma community. They live in the largest numbers in the less developed North- Eastern region, in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, and in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, but their number is above 10 thousand in Budapest, Heves County, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County, Pest County, and Hajdú-Bihar County as well. However, they are also represented by a population of at least thousand persons in all other counties.Roma in Hungary belong to three large language groups: the Romungros speaking Hungarian (who call themselves Hungarian Gypsies, or musician Gypsies), the Olah Gypsies speaking both Hungarian and Romany languages, and the Beash Gypsies speaking Hungarian an and the archaic Romanian language. Between 1971 and 1993, there was rather rapid language assimilation among the Beash and the Olah Gypsies. The conversion from the Beash and the Romany mother tongues to the Hungarian mother tongue took place in the context of bilingualism.Between 1993 and 2003, the proportion of those speaking the Beash mother tongue within the Roma population decreased from 5.5% to 4.6%. However, among those speaking the Romany language, the change of languages did not continue, their proportion within the Roma population increased from 4.4% to 7.7%. Thus, a part of the Olah Gypsies changed from the conversion of languages to the re-conversion of language, which was also supported by the language and cultural programmes organised by the Roma organisations.According to the data of the 2002 minority self-government elections, the geographical distribution of Roma in Hungary practically covers the whole territory of the country. In the course of the elections, Roma minority self-governments were formed in great number, altogether 999 local bodies were established. By far the most Roma minority self-governments were formed in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County (152), but the number of Roma minority self-governments was above ten in all counties.The vast majority of those belonging to the Bulgarian minority live in Budapest and its surroundings. Bulgarian minority self-governments were formed in Budapest (21), and in Baranya County, Győr-Moson-Sopron County, Hajdú-Bihar County, and Veszprém County (1 in each), and two in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, with 3 formed in Pest County.The Greek minority also lives characteristically in Budapest and its surroundings, forming a community consisting of a couple of hundred persons besides this in Fejér County. Greek local minority self-governments were formed in Budapest (20), and in eight counties of the country (1 in each), and in Pest County (3).Half of those belonging to the Polish minority live in the capital city. The community established altogether 51 local minority self-governments, of which 15 in Budapest, 12 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, with the rest of them operating in further 12 counties of the country.Two thirds of those belonging to the Armenian minority live in Budapest and Pest County. The number of their self-governments is altogether 31, of which 16 operates in the capital city, and the rest in eleven further counties of the country.Half of the Ruthenian minority lives in Budapest and Pest County. 31 Ruthenian minority self-governments were formed, of which 15 operate in Budapest, 9 in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, 5 in Pest County, and one each in Baranya County and in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County.The largest groups of the Ukrainian minority may also be found in Budapest and Pest County, and furthermore in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County. There are 13 Ukrainian minority self-governments operating, of which five in Budapest, two in Baranya County, and one each in six other cities.It is not a condition of forming minority self-government for either the electors or the elected persons to speak the language of the minority. Thus, many minority self-governments were formed, where even the officers do not speak the language of the given minority,In 2003, the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities conducted a survey examining among others the knowledge of national minority languages of the representatives elected to the minority bodies, affecting 130 settlements, covering among these all the villages with a transformed minority settlement self-government. There were 384 representatives elected into the bodies of the transformed minority

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settlement self-governments, of which 353 persons ran as minority candidates. 304 persons of the latter spoke the minority language of the settlement.We also examined the situation of language knowledge within the settlement self-governments in minority settlements where the settlement self-government was not transformed into minority settlement self-government, but the presence of one of the minorities was marked within the given settlement. Here there were 77 persons running as minority candidates of altogether 517 persons. In spite of this, 362 persons know the language. The knowledge of the language may be considered good, still, according to the answers, the sessions are conducted (with 2 exceptions) in Hungarian, and the language of the minutes taken is also Hungarian. (In the case of the two settlements mentioned as exceptions, the sessions are held in two languages, in Hungarian and in the language of the minority, but the minutes are taken in Hungarian here as well.)

CHAPTER IThe most important laws and legal regulations serving the protection of minority languagesThe situation of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary in the society is determined by paragraph (1), Article 68 of the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary (Act XX of 1949, hereinafter: Constitution), which states that the national and ethnic minorities living in the Republic of Hungary participate in the sovereign power of the people: they represent a constituent part of the State. The Constitution guarantees collective participation in public life for the minorities, grants them the right to establish local and national self-governments, to foster their culture, to use their mother tongue, to have their mother tongue as the language of instruction, and to use their names in their own language.The Minorities Act guarantees individual and collective type of minority rights to the 13 minorities living in Hungary - the right to personal autonomy, and the right to establish self-governments. The Act deals in a separate chapter with the linguistic rights, the educational and cultural rights of the minorities, and ensures the right for them to use their names in their own language. The determining of educational and cultural rights as collective rights ensures the possibility for all minorities to create their own educational system and cultural life.In its chapters on the rights of minority communities, and the tasks and competences of minority settlement self-governments and local minority self-governments, the Minorities Act ensures a rather broad scope of participation in educational and cultural affairs for minority self-governments. Besides determining the minority language as the language of instruction, it makes it possible for minority self-governments to participate in determining the tasks of local minority educational institutions, in appointing the head of the institution, and in evaluating the educational work.We would like to note that the effect of all legal regulations listed below extends to cover all minorities listed in the Minorities Act.With the enacting and the ensuing amendments of Act LXXIX of 1993 on Public Education (hereinafter: Public Education Act), the most important steps were taken to harmonising with the Minorities Act. Referring to the relevant section of the Minorities Act, the Public Education Act declared that, besides Hungarian, the language of education in kindergarten and tuition in primary school, as well as in boarding schools should be the language of the national and ethnic minorities. The relevant spheres of competences defined by the Minorities Act for minority self-governments were similarly adopted, thus allowing for them to make effective use of the possibility to influence the development, contents and form of minority education. It was also this regulation that created the National Committee for Minorities, which operates as the minister’s advisory board in the field of minority education and consists of the delegates of all minorities.The Act on Radio and Television Broadcasting (Act I of 1996, hereinafter: Media Act) made it an obligation for public service media to produce programmes presenting the life and culture of the minorities. Service providers performing public service functions are obliged to provide information in the mother tongues of the minorities.Act CXL of 1997 on the Protection of Cultural Goods, Museum Institutions, Public Library Services, and Cultural Education defines the preservation of the national and ethnic minorities’ cultural traditions, their continuation in a worthy manner, the improvement of personal, intellectual and economic conditions of community and individual education (culture), the promotion of activities which improve the quality of life of citizens, and the operation of institutions and organisations established to realise all of these points as common tasks of society as a whole.

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Act XLV of 2002 on the Amendment of Law Decree No. 17 of 1988 on Registration, Marriage Procedures, and the Bearing of Names corrected, just in connection with the undertakings assumed in the Charter, the rules related to the bearing of names and the changing of names by minorities, and made it possible to conclude marriages in the language of the minorities.Act XCVI of 2001 on the Publication of Business Advertisements, Shop Signs and Certain Announcements of Public Interest in the Hungarian language stipulates that all signs having a business advertisement nature, all shop signs, and communication of public interest must be published in the Hungarian language. In case of a sign in a foreign language, the Hungarian language advertisement or sign shall appear beside the foreign language sign in the same length, and with the same text.The regulation accepts only one exception from under this general obligation. According to paragraph (4), Article 6 of the law “The requirements laid down in the present Act do not affect the business advertisements and signs published in the languages of the minority languages determined in Article 42 of Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities in settlements where a minority self-government of the minority with the affected mother tongue operates. ”Act I of 2002 on the Amendment of Act XIX of 1998 on the Criminal Code came into force on 1 July 2003, and harmonised the order of criminal proceedings and the provisions of the Charter. According to paragraph (2), Article 9 of the Code, “in criminal proceedings everyone may use in speech and in writing his mother tongue, the regional or minority language according to an international agreement promulgated by law, in a circle determined by that, or – in case the person does not know the Hungarian language – he may use another language designated by him as known”.The regulations of civil proceedings are provided for in Act III of 1952 on the Code of Civil Procedure. The law states that, on the one hand, “the language of the court proceedings is Hungarian. No one may be disadvantaged for the lack of knowledge of the Hungarian language..”, and on the other hand, it also contains that “in the court proceedings – in a circle determined by international agreement – everyone is entitled to use his mother tongue, regional or minority language.” In such cases “the court is obliged to use an interpreter (…)”.In Act CXL of 2004 on the General Rules of Official Procedure and Servicing in Public Administration, there are separate paragraphs on minority rights related to the use of language. Worthy of emphasising is the provision, according to which, in it’s order, the representative body of the minority settlement self-government, or the body of the national minority self-government may determine besides the Hungarian the official language of the official procedure falling into its competency. This legal regulation will come into force on 1 November 2005.In the field of economic and social life, Act XVI of 2002 amended Article 5 (regulating the prohibition of discrimination) of Act XXII of 1992 on the Labour Code. The amendment extended the prohibition of discrimination to cover the provisions, measures, conditions and the practices related to the procedure preceding and promoting the establishment of employment. Furthermore, the legal regulation was extended to include the category of indirect discrimination. The practice shall be regarded as such, if the affected circle of employees may be regarded as a mostly homogeneous (national, ethnic) group, and the provisions, measures, conditions and the practices related to the employment relationship, and formally formulating equal requirements to all or ensuring equal rights to all, are disproportionately discriminative to them.Act CXXV of 2003 on Equal Treatment and the Promotion of Equal Opportunities (hereinafter: Equal Opportunities Act) also amended the mentioned Article of the Labour Code. Thus, only one reference to the requirement of equal treatment remained in the Labour Code, according to which “The requirement of equal treatment in the employment relationship shall be observed” and that “the consequences of the violation of the requirement of equal treatment shall be remedied adequately, and this shall not injure, or impair the rights of other employees.”Since the amendment, the Equal Opportunities Act has been playing a more important role in the field of economic and social life, as it phrases generally, for the whole of the legal system, the content, the obligees and the obligors of equal treatment, as well as the possibilities of legal remedy for those affected. The effect of the Act extends to cover not only the employment relation and other service relations, but also other legal relations concerning to work (e.g. the legal relation established on the basis of an entrepreneurial contract, a commission contract, a part-time work contract, etc.). The Act specifies the cases in which special attention shall be paid to the observation of the prohibition of discrimination. Thus, for example: in access to work, in public advertisement for work, in contracting work, in the conditions of employment, in establishing and terminating a legal relation, in the

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calculation and the ensuring of wages, as well as in the enforcement of the liability for indemnification and the disciplinary obligations.New measures taken by the State to foster the use of regional or minority languagesThe Republic of Hungary assumed undertakings related to the whole of its territory upon ratifying the Charter. Though the concrete undertakings relate to altogether six of the minority communities living in Hungary, the measures oriented at the protection of minorities, and at minority policy are more general, equally affecting all communities, just in order to ensure also the development of communities presently in the status of “minorities not related to one region”. The effect of the below state measures extends to cover all minority communities listed in the Minorities Act, regardless of whether or not they were beneficiaries of our undertakings assumed upon our accession to the Charter. (When presenting measures, which relate exclusively to one certain minority, we shall indicate the given community.)The amendment of the Constitution, adopted by Act LXI of 2002, promulgated in December 2002, and entered into force on 1 May 2004, intended to serve partly the broadening of the possibilities to use minority languages, and partly the expansion of the use of the mother tongues by the minority self-governments; however, its primary purpose was to make unequivocal the determination of the circle of those participating at the minority self-government elections. The amendment took out the text “minority self-government” from paragraph (1), Article 70 of the Constitution, thus taking out minority self-government elections from the effect of the regulations related to the election of representatives to the National Assembly and to local self-governments. The provision made unequivocal those phrased in paragraph (4), Article 68 of the Constitution, according to which the local and national minority self-governments may be established by the national and ethnic minorities. Thus, the legislator, in the legal regulation related to the election of minority self-government representatives, determines the circle of those participating in the election of minority self-government representatives narrower than those provided for in the regulations on general voting rights. However, this narrowing makes it possible for the self-governments to be established by persons really directly affiliated to the minority languages and cultures.After the amendment of the Constitution, partly as a result of this, the process of amending the Minorities Act also began. The direct basis for this was given by Resolution 30/2003 (III.27.) of the National Assembly on the Necessity of the Revision of the Regulations Affecting Minorities, which prescribed for the Government the execution of the elaboration of the law on minority voting rights and the amendment of the Minorities Act.The elaboration of the amendment may also be related to a previous recommendation of the Committee of Ministers, according to which (the Republic of Hungary) shall continue the development of the possibilities inherent in the system of minority self-government, with regard to the fact that the system may contribute considerably to the support and the strengthening of minority languages.Among the reasons for the amendment of both the Constitution and the Minorities Act, we shall speak about a phenomenon, the appearance of which after the first minority election surprised both politics and the minority communities. Minority self-government elections, arranged since 1994, have exerted a basically positive effect on the self-organisation of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary, they have contributed to the strengthening of the communities, nevertheless, from the very beginning, the acting in bad faith of certain individuals and groups may be identified, and the number of those, who have abused the special rights guaranteed to minority communities, kept growing. Abusing the argument of the free choice of identity, minority election initiatives were taken and minority self-government bodies were established in the name of such minorities, to the existence of which in the given settlement there is no reference, neither in the data of the census, nor in other data, for example in the existence of the given minority civil initiatives, or the operation of minority associations.At the 2002 elections, the negative tendencies experienced at the previous elections continued and even strengthened. Besides the abuses related to the direct minority self-government elections, abuses of the preferential minority mandate also appeared. At the settlement self-government elections, it was often not the representatives of the minority communities, who ran for and won the preferential mandates ensured for the national and ethnic minorities, but the representatives of organisations, moreover sometimes parties, whose clear-cut aim was the influencing of the local status quo.The continuously growing number of unauthorised persons intruding into the minority self-government system has strengthened the demand within a broad circle of minority communities, that only persons belonging to the given community shall be nominated and elected as minority representatives. The persistence of the negative tendency may result in the weakening of the traditional cultural organisations of the authentic minorities, and the diminishing of their legitimate base.

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Besides eliminating the outlined negative phenomenon, the government has created the possibility, through the amendment of the Minorities Act, to establish the county level of minority self-government, which may help to designate the regions inhabited by minorities. The county minority self-governments to be elected at the next minority elections make it possible to clear up in which counties may the presence of a minority community be relevant. However, as may be seen in the table in Annex I, the designation of the regions is made difficult by the fact that by today most minorities are present in all counties of the country.The amendment of Article 47 of the Minorities Act related to the amendment of the Public Education Act was of outstanding importance from the point of view of the take-over and operation of minority educational institutions by the affected minority self-governments, as the amendment details the legal framework concerning the take-over of public education institutions by minority self-governments, as well as the establishment, and the maintaining of these. The amendment determines the circle of the minority educational institutions, which the settlement self-government is obliged to hand over upon the request of the national self-government, and those, which may be handed over upon the request of the self-government. The details and the conditions of the transfer of the institution shall be stipulated by public education agreements concluded between the minister of education and the affected settlement self-governments.The amendment in 2003 of the Public Education Act also altered the characteristics of institutions performing regional or national tasks with the purpose of helping minority educational institutions get into the hands of minority management. (It should be mentioned here that the institutions performing the most successful minority education come from exactly these schools.)A government measure relevant from the point of view of the use of minority languages was that the total sum of resources supporting minority education, culture and public life grew by a greater extent than the current inflation in all three years of the reporting period. The intention to increase the financing of minority education year-by-year, and to establish the framework for the operation of minority institutions, as well as to support cultural initiatives, may well be traced in the Budget Acts of the past three years. (Annex 3)Act CXL of 2004 on the General Rules of Official Procedure and Servicing in Public Administration, besides listing the basic principles of the legal regulation, devotes a special subtitle to the regulations related to the use of language. This chapter regulates in detail the ways of proceeding in public administration procedures initiated in minority languages, the possibilities of using minority languages, as well as the rights in the public administration procedure of persons belonging to a minority. The legal regulation will come into force on 1 November 2005. (Annex 4)Point 62 of the Government Decree 1021/2004 (III.18.) on the government programme promoting the social integration of Roma minority and measures related to this contains the expectation for the affected organisations to examine, with the coordination of the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities, the possibilities for the extension of the Charter to cover Roma languages spoken in Hungary. Depending on the results of the examination, the necessary measures shall also be taken.National Assembly Decree 91/2004 (IX.28.) OGY on the ratification of the Agreement concluded between the Republic of Hungary and Serbia and Montenegro, on the protection of rights of the Hungarian minority living in Serbia and Montenegro, and the Serbian minority living in the Republic of Hungary, signed in Budapest on 21 October 2003 (and Government Decree 2252/2003 (X.15.) on the signature of the Agreement) contribute to the completion of linguistic rights of the Serbian community in Hungary.Government Decree 2319/2003 (XII.13.) on the approval and the promulgation of the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Hungary and the Government of the Slovak Republic on the mutual educational and cultural support of the national minorities determines the framework for the utilisation of the support coming to the Slovak minority in Hungary from the mother country.(The international agreements supporting the national minorities will be presented in detail in the relevant points of Part III.)Starting with 2003, parallel to the founding of the budget line serving the supporting of the operation of minority institutions, all minorities with the exception of two (Armenian, Ukrainian) established at least one such institution. (Annex 5)There were several developments in the field of minority education, which were due to the general processes in minority policy. In the point on education, we shall present more in detail the outstanding step taken – in the direction of the spreading of bilingual education – in Croatian minority education. Certain minorities speaking non-territorial languages have founded a national school for language

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teaching. Thus, by today, besides the Armenians, who have practically lost their mother tongue at the collective level, and the Ukrainians, who until now have been insistent on to their “Sunday school” outside of the public education system, all minorities in Hungary have school- based education.Significant legal and practical steps have been taken with regard to the integrated, equal opportunity oriented education of the Roma minority, and as a result of several years of development work, Roma language minority instructional-educational work has begun in the educational, instructional institutions of several settlements.The Roma scholarship programme, which ensures in the budget of the Public Foundation for the Roma living in Hungary a separate line for scholarships for young Roma, which may be used from the 5th year of primary school until the obtaining of a diploma, has continued in the reporting period.

With the help of the Public Foundation for the Roma living in Hungary, more and more Roma youngsters receive a chance to continue their studies.Beginning with the 2005/2006 school year, the government launches a new scholarship programme in order to promote equal opportunities for disadvantaged students. One of the most emphasised target groups of the programme is that of Roma student living in a disadvantaged situation.The Ministry of Education has invited applications for minority research institutions, higher education minority departments, department groups, for the elaboration of linguistic-methodological materials helping the teaching of Beash and Romany languages, and for the elaboration of an ethnographical curriculum. The introduction of these in the process of education is continuous since 2003.An important novelty of the reporting period is that national minority self-governments could live for the first time with their official scope of authority when they created and adopted the minority collection of first names of the given community. The extremely serious professional work was complemented by the development of the bilingual registration documents and the informatics background, and the real possibility was created for the members of minority communities to use their family names and their first names according to the rules and the orthography of their mother tongue. To support the conceptual possibility in practice, the Government has forwarded the books containing the first names, free of charge, to all minority self-governments and to settlements with minority self-government. The Ministry of the Interior prepared the computer programme for minority registration, the training of registrars is continuous.One of the dynamically developing areas of the predominance of the use of language rights is the Internet. The presentation of the home pages created by the minority communities, institutions takes place in three different forms: a) some of them publish three versions in three different languages, that is they give information in the mother tongue of the minority, in Hungarian, and in English; b) others inform in the mother tongue of the minority, and in Hungarian; c) and still others communicate only in the mother tongue of the minority.Around 20% of the home pages created by minority communities, institutions appear only in Hungarian, while around 80% of them also have a version in the mother tongue of the minority. As far

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as texts translated to Roma – Beash, Romany – languages are concerned, we hardly find any such text published in the domestic Internet home pages oriented at minorities. English language versions, important from the point of view of the information of the international public, appear in only one third of these home pages, because of the lack of resources for translation. English language information is given by most Roma oriented home pages, and English language versions exist for example in the case of the Slovak and the Ukrainian home pages.With the expansion of Internet, the Ministry for Informatics and Communications gives support to minorities to be able to prepare to meet the challenges of the information society. In 2003, the ministry gave support, through inviting applications, to promote the mother tongue information–communication work of the minority self-governments. Within the framework of this, almost two thirds of the local minority self-governments, altogether 1,005 self-governments received informatics instruments.As a result of the “Public Net Programme” (the establishment of broadband connection), altogether 2,004 community points of access were established in Hungary in 2004. The programme could be joined by the local minority communities, as well, through community houses, cultural centres.The organisational background of the protection of regional or minority languagesDue to the consequent and continuous minority policy of the Republic of Hungary, the legal background necessary for the protection of minorities, and within this the protection of minority languages, has been established in Hungary. There are several national administrative bodies (including the self-governments of the minorities), and non-governmental organisations, the significant part of whose activities consist in protecting the mentioned languages and minorities. The Committee on Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Parliament supervises at the highest, legislative level that no violation of the principles protecting the minorities and, within that, those protecting linguistic rights of the minorities occur in the process of elaboration of legal provisions. The institution of the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights reports exclusively to Parliament; the Commissioner examines the complaints addressed to him concerning the violation of linguistic rights and issues recommendations as to how to remedy the situation. The monitoring of the enforcement of minority rights, and within that the linguistic rights of the minorities makes also part of the duties of the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities.The national and local minority self-governments have undertaken the task of the protection of the rights of the given minorities. Within this, the self-governments are the main advocates of the of enforcing the minority linguistic rights at local, regional and national levels. Recently, through the minority joint commissions, the issue of ensuring the collective exercise of linguistic rights by minorities has been also included in bilateral documents of the minority joint commissions, established for the follow-up of the situation of minorities, between the Republic of Hungary and the mother countries of the individual minorities. It should be mentioned here that, parallel to our country’s accession to the EU, the Hungarian affiliate (HUBLUL – Hungarian Bureau for Lesser Used Languages) of EBLUL (European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages) was formed, the tasks of which include the collection and servicing of information, on a domestic and international level, on the linguistic rights of minorities in Hungary.The following is a list of the organisations actively involved (also) in the field of protection of minority languages:- Committee for Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Parliament of the Republic of Hungary1054 Budapest, Széchenyi rkp. 19.Chairperson: László Szászfalvi (Fidesz-MPSZ)Tel.: (361) 268-5031 Fax: (361) 268-5986Internet: www.mkogy.hu- Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Minority Rights 1051 Budapest, Nádor u.22.Parliamentary Commissioner: Dr. Jenő KaltenbachTel.: (361) 475-7149, Fax: (361) 269-3542Internet: www.obh.hu- Office for National and Ethnic Minorities 1085 Budapest, Baross u. 22-26.President: Antal HeizerTel.: (361) 266-6343, Fax: (361) 266-1225Internet: www.icsszem.hu

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- National Croatian Self-Government1089 Budapest, Bíró Lajos u. 24.President: Mihály KaragicsTel.: (361) 303-5630, Fax: (361) 303-5636Internet: www.croatica.hu- National Self-Government of Germans in Hungary1026 Budapest, Júlia u. 9.President: Ottó HeinekTel.: (361) 212-9151, Fax: (361) 212-9153Internet: www.ldu.hu- National Self-Government of Romanians in Hungary5700 Gyula, Eminescu u. 1.President: Traján Kreszta Tel., Fax: (3666) 463-951Internet: www.patruroman.hu- Serbian National Self-Government1055 Budapest, Falk Miksa u. 3.President: Milica Pavlov Tel. Fax: (361) 331-5345- National Slovak Self-Government1114 Budapest, Fadrusz u. 11/aPresident: János Fuzik Tel. Fax: (361) 466-9463Internet: www.slovaci.hu- National Slovene Self-Government9985 Felsőszölnök, Fő u. 5.President: Márton Ropos Tel. Fax: (3694) 434-032Internet: www.slovenpages.hu- Bulgarian National Self-Government1093 Budapest, Lónyay u. 41.President: Dr. Dancso Muszev Dimitrov Tel.: (361)216-4210; Fax: (361) 215-5184Internet: www.bul.hu- National Roma Self-Government1076 Budapest, Dohány u. 76.President: Orbán Kolompár Tel. (361) 322-8963; Fax: (361) 322-8501Internet: www.oco.hu- Greek National Self-Government1054 Budapest, Vécsey u. 5.President: Theodorosz Szkevisz Tel.: (361) 302-7275; Fax: (361) 302-7277Internet: www.elines.hu- National Polish Minority Self-Government1102 Budapest, Állomás u. 10.President: Konrad Sutarski Tel./Fax: (361) 261-1798Internet: www.polonia.hu- National Armenian Self-Government1025 Budapest, Palatinus u. 4.Vice-President: Ádám Szárkiszján and Gábor Szontágh Tel: (361) 332-4970; 332-3943- National Ruthenian Minority Self-Government1147 Budapest, Gyarmat u. 85/BPresident: Vera Giricz Tel.(361) 468-2636; Fax: (361) 220-8005

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- National Ukrainian Self-Government1065 Budapest, Hajós u. 1.President: Jaroszlava Hartyányi Tel./Fax: (361) 461-0111Internet: www.ukrajinci.hu- EBLUL Hungarian Member State Committee1055 Budapest, Falk Miksa u. 3.Secretary: Borisz Bekics Tel. Fax: (361) 331-5345E-mail: borisbek2003@yahoo.comOrganisations involved in the preparation of the reportThe Office for National and Ethnic Minorities invited the national self-governments and national NGOs of the affected minorities, and all the ministries to participate in the preparation of the report. When compiling the final material, it asked for the help of county public administration offices, the county courts, the county public prosecutor’s offices, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, the National Radio and Television Commission, the Hungarian Radio, and the Hungarian Television. The draft report has been sent for comments, in the context of public administration conciliation, to all ministries, and to the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights. The presidents of the national minority self-governments also received the draft text of the report – for making their comments.Information provided related to the European Charter for Regional or Minority LanguagesThe Government of the Republic of Hungary, and the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities, as well as the Prime Minister’s Office supervising it, and the Ministry for Youth, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities have made serious efforts in the period since the previous report in order to inform the representatives of the minorities living in our country, and the central, regional, and settlement offices, and the judiciary on the obligations assumed by Hungary. This goal was also served by the conference organised in June 2002, where we invited all organisations, from which we requested part materials or data for the present report.In all three years of the reporting period, the colleagues of the Office participated regularly at county level, regional, or local trainings on minority public life, where the participants were informed, in the form of lectures, on the tasks originating from the implementation of the Charter, and on the process of implementation.In October 2003, the professional conference titled “The Minorities Act is Ten Years Old” was organised, where both Hungarian and foreign lecturers emphasised the importance of the transmission and the fostering of minority languages within the context of the protection of minorities, referring to the relevant points of the Charter.In 2004, the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities prepared a survey examining the use of minority languages, with the participation of 68 minority settlement self-governments, later complementing this circle with further 64 settlements. In the beginning of the survey, we asked the self-governments on a data-sheet on how extended minority language public administration was in these villages, and how much it was typical for demands related to this to appear, as well as on how much the conditions, which would enable the extension of minority language public administration, were at their disposal.Naturally, we informed the self-governments we involved in the survey, in writing as well as in speech, on the undertakings the Republic of Hungary had assumed in this field.Also in 2004, the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities and the Metropolitan Public Administration Office organised informative lectures in all districts of the capital, where – in the context of giving information on the legal regulations on minorities - the Office’s colleague presented the content of the Charter and the scope of the undertakings assumed by Hungary. We will continue to give the same information this year as well, in all counties of the country, narrowing the theme of the presentation to the rights related to the use of minority language, with special regard to the undertakings assumed upon ratifying the Charter.Besides this, partly through the adoption of the previous Charter report, partly related to the visit to Hungary of the Committee of Experts, we presented at a press conference the undertakings assumed by Hungary and the process of their implementation.Measures taken upon the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers

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In the process of the second monitoring cycle, on the basis of the proposal of the Committee of Experts, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe phrased five recommendations for the Republic of Hungary. These were the following:“Recommends that he Republic of Hungary take account of all the observations of the Committee of Experts and, as a matter of priority:1. Ensure that the necessary integration of Romany and Beash speakers which would allow their full participation in the economic, social and political life, also preserves their linguistic and cultural identity; strengthen the teaching of Romany and Beash at least at lower grades and contribute to the development of Romany as a written language, in particular through standardisation at European level.2. Improve the present model of teaching regional or minority languages and move to forms of bilingual education for Part III languages and incorporate the current model of secondary language education into the curriculum for Part II languages.3. Identify the territories in which the number of speakers justifies the effective implementation of Articles 9 and 10 and take further positive measures to encourage the use of minority languages in judicial proceedings and in dealings with the administration.4. Strengthen the presence of minority languages in the media and, in particular, ensure that programmes in minority languages can be received on ordinary radio sets.5. Continue to develop the system of minority self-government, in particular by improving the conditions for the transferral of educational and cultural bodies and institutions to minority self-governments.”We received the final text of the recommendations in the second half of 2004, however, with regard to the fact that their content was already known to us, the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities already began the preparation of the steps to be taken related to the recommendations. In the case of certain recommendations, preparations have already been taken earlier, as we had reached a stage in the process of implementation, where we could phrase our tasks related to these.Such an affair, in progress earlier as well, was the question of building the education of Romany and Beash languages into the school system. The amendment in 2002 of Ministry of Culture and Education Decree 32/1997 (XI.5.) MKM on the Issuing of the Guidelines on the School Education of National and Ethnic Minorities has stated that the obligatory time framework of the teaching of Roma languages is 2 hours per week; besides this, starting out from the realistic possibilities, the decree allows for the free regrouping of these hours throughout the school year, that is even for their teaching in one block at any point of the school year.Annex 5 of Act LXII of 2002 on the 2003 Budget of the Republic of Hungary specified for the first time in the 2003/2004 school year, in the paragraphs presenting the titles for obtaining supplementary normative funding for minority education, that the maintainer of the school may apply for supplementary funding if the education of a Roma language is present in the institution. (In the previous regulation – from 1991, supplementary normative funding was available in the case of Roma minority education, similarly to the case of education of other minority languages. In this sense the specification of the this provision in 2003 may seem as a simply technical amendment, however, even thus, it signals a considerable change.) Naturally, the law prescribes that in the case of education of the Romany and the Beash languages, the above- presented regulation shall be taken into account in the institution.Due to the above regulations, the education of Romany or Beash language was started in 9 educational institutions of 6 settlements.As far as the rest of the recommendations are concerned, their implementation will obviously demand more time.Concerning the second recommendation, we would like to mention that on the basis of legal regulations, participation in minority education is voluntary, and it also depends on the decision of the pupil or the parent whether they choose the mother tongue, the bilingual, or the language-teaching form of education. National or regional schooling institutions with mother tongue or bilingual programmes are usually accompanied by boarding schools, to be able to receive the pupils choosing this form of education.Nevertheless, we agree with the statement that the proportion of mother tongue or bilingual schools, giving a higher level knowledge of language, shall be increased. (Presently around 80% of the minority schools are language-teaching schools.) This goal is served by our decisions determining the

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financing of minority education, as a result of which today the supplementary funding of bilingual minority education is 70% higher than that of language-teaching education. Besides this, the Ministry of Education has invited special applications in each of the past two years for the necessary training of teachers in professional language.As far as the building into the curriculum of the languages falling under Part II is concerned, their inclusion in the system of public education is possible since the amendment in 1999 of the Act on Public Education. However, because of the lack of interest of the parents, and of other conditions (well-trained teachers, textbooks), this took place only in a few places. There was already Bulgarian, Greek, and Ruthenian language-teaching in a couple of settlements (Budapest, Beloiannisz, Mucsony). In the 2004/2005 school year, the Bulgarian, the Greek, and the Polish supplementary schools founded by the Bulgarian National Self-Government, the Greek National Self-Government and the National Polish Minority Self-Government began their operation, making possible the learning of these languages in the context of supplementary minority education in several settlements of the country. Supplementary minority education extends to cover only the teaching of the mother tongue and ethnography of the minority, the pupils perform their compulsory school attendance in other educational institutions. A great advantage of this form of education as compared to Sunday schools is that a certificate may be issued on the school studies, and that it entitles the participants to take an examination in basic culture, and a final examination and, in case the pupil continues his studies, the results may be added to his points. The supporting of the supplementary schools goes the same way as that of the language-teaching schools.It also belongs here that the education of the Ruthenian language has been introduced in the local primary school in Komlóska, one of the traditional settlements of Ruthenians in Hungary.What may be reported, on the basis of the census data, on the regional distribution of those speaking minority languages, is that in the case of all communities, a more narrow region may be delimited, where each minority lives typically in greater concentration. But we may also state besides this, that there is almost no county, or larger city in which one or another minority does not appear – even if only in very small numbers.The internal migration of the persons belonging to minorities may be observed most of all in the change of the ethnic composition of the population of the capital, Budapest, but the situation is just the same in the majority of the suburbs around the capital. The suburbs and villages around the capital once all used to be inhabited by one minority or another, but by today have changed, almost without any exception, into multilingual, multicultural environment. However it does not follow from this directly that those living within one settlement and belonging to the same minority would organise themselves into a community and, as such, would phrase demands concerning fostering of their language and culture.A similar situation was experienced in the course of the past decade in the county seats. As a result of the internal migration of the population, the towns of county rank have become multinational, and practically all minorities have appeared in the population of these cities. The numbers of the minority citizens, who moved in these cities, make it possible for them to organise themselves as communities and appear either in the civil sphere or in minority self-governance in the public life of the cities.The strengthening of the media presence of the minorities has already received special attention as a result of the complaints and the initiatives of the minorities related to this. As a result of the complaints related to the possibilities in terms of broadcasting time and financing, the Hungarian Parliament Committee on Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs conducted a hearing of the reports of the presidents of public service media institutions in November 2003, but there were no substantial consequences of this hearing.Following this, in 2004, the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights (hereinafter: Minority Ombudsman) examined the enforcement of minority rights in the media. On the basis of the examination, the Minority Ombudsman phrased proposals, recommendations, and initiatives. Among his proposals was the supervision and the rewriting of the legal regulations related to minority presence in the media, the amendment of the Act on Self-Governments, and the creation of a legal regulation, which makes it possible to archive minority programmes. The essence of the recommendations concerns the examination of the ways that minority language media market in Hungary could be expanded within the context of cooperation with the neighbouring countries; and the alternative technical and financial possibilities that could be elaborated to ensure the preparation and the broadcasting of minority language programmes at a higher quality than presently.

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Besides the above, the Minority Ombudsman requested the Ministry for Informatics and Communications to clear up in what way the broadcasting of minority radio programmes could be ensured in the future.The essence of the initiative phrased and addressed to the President of Hungarian Television and the President of Hungarian Radio was that the leaders of the two public service media should regularly conciliate with the representatives of the minorities concerning the questions of the operation of minority medias. Besides this, the Minority Ombudsman requested the President of Hungarian Television and the President of Hungarian Radio to take the necessary measures to ensure the safeguarding and the further development of the professional quality of minority programmes, to ensure the material conditions of preparing programmes, and to restructure the system of financing.Besides this, on the basis of the investigation, the Minority Ombudsman requests the Hungarian Parliament Committee on Human Rights, Minorities and Religious Affairs to discuss the questions related to minority media, and to support the Ombudsman’s proposals by its resolution.After the initiative taken by the Minority Ombudsman, the President of the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities turned, in a letter in 2005, to the President of the Commission supervising public service media, the National Radio and Television Commission. In his letter, he proposed for the President of the National Radio and Television Commission to initiate conciliation between the President of Hungarian Radio and the 13 national minority self-governments concerning the problems related to minority programmes in the Hungarian Radio. He proposed, furthermore, for the President of the National Radio and Television Commission to initiate conciliation between the President of Hungarian Television and the representatives of the minorities in order to supervise the programme schedule and the programme time of minority television programmes. He also proposed that in case the resources of the National Radio and Television Commission make it possible, it could support, through inviting applications, the acceptance of minority language, mother country programmes into the programme schedule of cable servicing companies, which are present in settlements inhabited by minorities.One of the possibilities for strengthening minority media presence may be the appearance, on the domestic media market, of radio studios established and operated by minorities. The Slovene minority has established its radio, “Radio Monoster”, which broadcasts eight hours daily in the region inhabited by Slovenian minority; “Radio C” operates in Budapest with the support of the National Radio and Television Commission, with programmes oriented mainly to Roma audiences, in Hungarian and also in Gypsy language.The strengthening of the minority self-government system is the firm intention of the Hungarian Government. This is reflected by the Constitution, as well as by the spirit and the provisions of the Minorities Act, adopted by a two- thirds majority. The basis for the minority self-governance was created by the provisions of the Constitution, however these provisions, besides guaranteeing the right to establish minority self-governments, did not determine precisely who exactly could establish minority self-governments. As the Minority Act also fails to determine the subjects of law exactly, and as after the past three minority elections there were equally unwanted phenomena, which questioned the essence of minority self-governance, in 2003 the Parliament amended the Constitution, stating that at the minority elections – as compared to the previous regulations – not all Hungarian citizens may elect and may be eligible, only those who belong to the given minority. (However, the Constitution does not determine the criteria for belonging to a minority.)The task of defining the “minority voter” was thus transferred to the elaborators of the Minorities Act and the Act on the Election of Representatives in Minority Self-Governments. The intention of the legislators is clearly to tie the system of minority self-governments to the minority communities. This goal may only be attained if we determine the scope of the persons who may participate at the minority self-government elections as electors and as candidates to be elected.The draft amendment of the law includes the schedule for the composition of the so-called list of minority voters, which, once it is prepared, will make it possible to limit more precisely the regions where one or another minority is traditionally present. According to the draft, the way this could be accomplished would be to have the citizens who intend to participate at the minority elections ask the chief administrator of the Mayor’s office of the settlement, personally or in writing, for the registration in the minority voters’ list. The clerk would be obliged to include the applicants in the minority voters’ list. The only expectation concerning the voters’ list would be that at least 30 minority voters would have to register their names in it in each settlement, because the minority self-government elections would be held at the given settlement only in this case.

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Obviously, the amendment of the Minorities Act also involves other purposes. As we have already mentioned above, the more precise definition of the duties and the scope of authority of minority self-governments may contribute to the further development and the strengthening of the network of minority institutions. The summarising of the conditions and the processes related to the transfer of minority cultural institutions in the Act also serves the same end. (The Parliament has adopted, before the preparing of the present report, the law on the election of minority self-government representatives, as well as on the amendment of some acts concerning national and ethnic minorities.)The establishment of minority institutions, and the ensuring of the financing of their operation also rank among the special minority policy goals. According to paragraph (1), Article 36 of the Minorities Act, national self-governments of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary may establish institutions to enhance the cultural autonomy of the minority represented by them. The establishment and the transfer of the institutions have already begun before the reporting period. It turned out soon that an adequate system of financing of the minority institutional system in Hungary is necessary for the establishment and the maintaining of minority institutions. According to the provisions of the Minorities Act, when deciding about the normative state contribution, the institutions operated by the national minority self-governments fall into the same category as nongovernmental organisations performing human services.However, normative support may be a partial solution only in the case of a part of the institutions, notably for educational institutions, as funding on the basis of the norms determined in the Budget Act covers the financial demand for their almost full operation, only at these institutions. No normative funding is provided for in the budget for other institutions, and neither is the data on the minorities available, necessary for the effecting of normative type of funding.Until 2003, there was no separate budget line for the financing of minority institutions. Thus, it was the assets and applications earmarked for minority purposes in the Budget Act that gave the possibility for the institutions of national minority self-governments to ensure the funds for their yearly operational costs. In the case of some specially treated institutions, to avoid the impossibility of their operation, the Government extended support to them from the budget line for minority coordination and intervention (Hercegszántó Croatian School Centre, research institutes), or from the reserves (Slovenian Radio).In the course of planning the 2003 budget, the national minority self-governments marked as a priority among their needs the creating of a separate budget line for the development of a network of minority institutions, to make it possible to finance securely the already operating institutions, as well as to establish new institutions.After conciliation, the Government created the budget line (HUF 429 million), in the 2003 Budget, for the take-over and the maintenance of minority institutions, and after the adoption and promulgation of the Budget Act, the Office for National and Ethnic Minorities elaborated the invitation for applications for the utilisation of the funds.On the basis of the applications received in 2003, 21 minority institutions were granted funds for their operation or for investment. Preferential support was granted to the Roma, the Croatian, the German, the Slovak, and the Serbian national self-governments. From among the institutions, it is the Croatian Training and Educational Centre, the Pécs German Boarding School, the Serbian Cultural and Documentation Centre, and the Slovak Documentation Centre, which deserve special mention, where the operation of the new institutions was based on significant investments.The amendment in 2003 of Article 47 of the Minorities Act details the funds available for the take-over, establishment and maintenance of public educational institutions by minority self-governments. It determines the circle of institutions, which the settlement self-government is obliged to transfer upon the demand of the national self-government, and those, which may be transferred upon the request of the self-government. The details and conditions of the take-over of the institutions are stipulated in the public education agreements concluded between the Minister of Education and the affected settlement self-governments. A further guarantee of the operation of the public education institutions transferred to the minority self-governments is that the minority self-governments operating the institution may apply for the contributions, supports and supplementary contributions provided for in the Budget Act under the same titles and conditions as local self-governments. Furthermore, after each child, pupil provided for, they are entitled to the minority maintenance supplementary support (on the basis of a different procedure, depending on the type of the institution) to an extent yearly determined by the Budget Act. (Annex 6)In 2004, the budget line for the support of the take-over and the maintaining of minority institutions totalled HUF 366.9 million, because of the austerity measures of the Government. Even thus, the strengthening and the broadening of the network of institutions continued successfully. The number of

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institutions, which were supported grew to 22, with several newly established institutions also beginning their operation this year – such were the Croatian Scientific Institute, the Library of Ruthenians in Hungary, the Public Museum Collection and Exhibition Place of Ruthenians in Hungary, and the Slovak Legatum Nonprofit Company. The support granted in 2003 and 2004 is summarised in Annex 5. It may be seen from the table that 11 national minority self-governments have established and operated minority institutions. In the course of the two years, the Government ensured HUF 795.9 million for the undisturbed operation of these institutions.The 2005 budget, with HUF 439.2 million for this purpose, founds the successful continuation of the process of institutionalisation.On the basis of experience collected in the first two years of the utilisation of the funds, we may state that, in spite of the contradictions experienced in the Roma areas, this form of support serves well the building of real cultural autonomy, and meets the requirement that there shall be a shift in the utilisation of public resources, from general financing to project oriented financing, even in the area of financing domestic minorities.The draft amendment of the Minorities Act, which is presently in a parliamentary phase, regulates the conditions of the take-over of other minority institutions, primarily cultural institutions (cultural centres, public collections, libraries), and their operation by minority self-governments, similarly to the provisions set for the take-over of public education institutions. However, with regard to the fact that the amount of the central normative earmarked to ensure the cultural tasks is presently rather low, and that settlements may utilise it only on the basis of the number of their population, the way of financing transferred institutions in the future will have to be reconsidered after the passing of the amendment.

Part IICHAPTER IIThe general minority policy of the Republic of Hungary with special regard to the points of Chapter II of the CharterIt is a determinant element of the minority policy of the Republic of Hungary to make the society aware of the fact that the presence in the Carpathian Basin of the minorities recognised in the Minorities Act goes back several centuries. Their contribution to the development of the country is indisputable, their cultural values enrich the whole of the country’s population. Since the change of the political regime, the prevailing governments’ programmes also include the basic principles of minority policy, the framework of which is determined by international conventions and documents, the Constitution, as well as the already mentioned laws and other legal provisions.A special characteristic of Hungarian minority policy is the operation of the minority self-government system. This system, looking back to a decade long past, taking into consideration the rather advanced state of the assimilation of domestic minority communities, has contributed to establishment of legitimate representations by the dual identity communities, already weakened in their language and culture, in all such settlements, where they are still present as a community. This system, which has not been tried anywhere else before, has proved to work, the community life of the minorities has revived with the strengthening of the system of representation, sometimes also in settlements, which even the given minority has not registered as living communities. It is a special goal of the Hungarian government for the development of the minority policy, based on a political consensus until now, to remain continuous, and for the strengthening communities, self-governments of the minorities to institutionalise, as well as for the minority cultural autonomy, announced as a goal, to become reality.

Article 7 – Objectives and principlesArticle 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, iArticle 7, paragraph 2Article 7, paragraph 3Article 7, paragraph 4

The enforcement of minority rights is guaranteed, besides the already presented article of the Constitution, by the provisions of the Minorities Act in force. In its preamble, the Act phrases that „the language, the intellectual and material culture, the historical traditions of the national and ethnic minorities who are Hungarian citizens and live in Hungary, and other characteristic qualities connected to their minority status are considered aspects of their identity as individuals and as a community. All these are special values, the preservation, nurturing and increase of which is not only a basic right of

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the national and ethnic minorities, but also in the interest of the Hungarian nation, and ultimately in that of the community of States and nations.”The Minorities Act also stipulates that the Republic of Hungary refrains from any measure, as a result of which the linguistic, cultural, educational, or economic interests of minorities could be violated.As a new means for the protection of the interests of those belonging to minorities, on 22 December 2003, the Parliament passed Act CXXV of 2003 on Equal Treatment and the Promotion of Equal Opportunities, with the aim of having the Republic of Hungary meet the requirements of Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin. The basis of the regulation is paragraph (1), Article 70/A of the Constitution. However, as the referred provisions prohibit not only racial and ethnic discrimination, but establish some kind of a general prohibition, the Act, in accordance with the Constitution, prohibits all kinds of discriminative attitude.The intention of the Act is to phrase the content, the obligees and the obligors of equal treatment, in a general way, just as the legal framework, on the basis of which the aggrieved party could raise a claim against the party violating the law. Its system of categories is analogous with those contained in the Council Directive, it extends to cover both direct and indirect discrimination based on racial and ethnic origin, also treating the notion of harassment.The effect of the legal provisions extends to cover persons and groups in both the public and the private sector, also including state organisations in the sphere of labour, social protection, education, and access to goods and services.The Act is of extreme importance in the protection of the rights of persons belonging to national and ethnic minorities. It also contains the basic regulations related to not only equal treatment, but also to equal opportunities. (The prior concept involves a negative obligation, while the latter supposes positive measures.) The regulation also provides for the prohibition of indirect discrimination, and introduces the possibility of public action (actio popularis), as well as the shift of the burden of proof, to promote the remedy of legal injuries.Since 1 January 2005, the implementation of the principle of equal treatment is controlled and supported by a national public administration organisation, the Equal Treatment Authority.Both the Minorities Act and other legal provisions make it possible for persons belonging to minorities, communities to keep contact with the states speaking the language of the minority, or with other communities belonging to a similar cultural circle. The institutionalisation of the relations is served by bilateral agreements on the protection of minorities concluded by the Republic of Hungary with the neighbouring states, the mother countries of certain minorities in Hungary; and by the operation of minority joint commissions with these states. Such bilateral agreements have been concluded with the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Slovenia, the Republic of Croatia, the Slovak Republic, Romania, Ukraine and, in the beginning of 2005, with Serbia and Montenegro. All agreements provided for the establishment of bilateral (minority) joint commissions, which have sessions regularly, and whose primary task is the continuous monitoring of the situation of the affected minorities, and the initiation of measures, which serve their development.Besides their relations with the mother countries, almost all minorities dispose of a broad system of international relations. The relations of the Roma minority, besides contacting Roma organisations living in neighbouring countries, also extend to cover, for example, active participation in the preparatory works of European Roma and Travellers Forum. The self-government of Bulgarians in Hungary is a member of the International Association of Central European Bulgarians. The Croatian minority’s relations are extremely good with Croatian settlements in Austria and Slovakia. The National Polish Minority Self-Government is a member of the European Union of Polish Communities. German minority in Hungary has close relations with the German language countries and regions, with German minority organisations in Europe, and with minorities speaking other languages in German speaking countries. They have been having intensive and fruitful cooperation with the Germans living in Trentino-Südtirol Province for several years. Besides the German minority in Hungary, the organisations of the Romanian minority in the country and the National Slovak Self-Government are also members of the FUEN- Federal Union of European Nationalities. The domestic Slovak minority also fosters intensive relations with the World Association of Slovaks Living Abroad, which includes six Slovak organisations from Hungary, as well as the organisations of the Slovaks living in Romania and in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. In the past decade, Ruthenians in Hungary have developed close relations with the Ruthenian organisations in the neighbouring countries, in Europe, and overseas. The National Ruthenian Minority Self-Government is a founding and active member of the Union of Ruthenians in Europe, and the World Council of Ruthenians. The Ukrainian community

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participates in the work of the European Congress of Ukrainians and the World Congress of Ukrainians. The listed system of relations also promotes the development of the language, the communication of domestic minority communities.Domestic regulation makes it possible for persons not belonging to the minority community to have a possibility to learn the language of the given minority as well.Paragraph (1), Article 48 of the Act states that “ Minority educational institutions may admit school children not belonging to the given minority only if the needs of the given minority have been met and additional capacity is available. Admission (enrolment) to such schools may take place according to rules made public in advance”.Concerning the guaranteeing of the rights to language education of all the communities living in the settlement, paragraph (3) of the above cited Article states that “In settlements where inhabitants of Hungarian mother tongue or other national or ethnic minorities are in numerical minority, the local self-government is bound to guarantee the instruction of children in Hungarian mother tongue, in other minority mother tongue or instruction of other minority mother tongue, pursuant to the provisions of the present Act.”Minorities and their languages are researched by the Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, already mentioned in the introduction, as well as by the minority research institutes established by the individual minorities, and financed by State funds. Presently it is only the Armenian minority, which does not have such a research institute.The Republic of Hungary intends to create a social atmosphere, in which no minorities will have to suffer discrimination. In the course of the implementation of our minority policy, we rely on the active cooperation of the national and ethnic minorities, on the activity of their legitimate, elected bodies.

Evaluation Report of the Committee of Experts [ECRML (2007) 5]Background information

Chapter 1 Background information1.1 The ratification of the Charter by Hungary1. The Republic of Hungary signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (hereinafter referred to as “the Charter”) on 5 November 1992 and deposited its instrument of ratification (see Annex I) on 26 April 1995. The Charter entered into force in Hungary on 1 March 1998 and was published in the Official Gazette, Volume 1999, No. 34.2. Article 15, paragraph 1 of the Charter requires States Parties to submit three-yearly reports in a form prescribed by the Committee of Ministers. The Hungarian authorities presented their 3rd

periodical report to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on 21 November 2005.3. In its previous report (ECMRL [2004] 5), the Committee of Experts of the Charter outlined particular areas where policies, legislation and practice could be improved. The Committee of Ministers took note of the report presented by the Committee of Experts and adopted recommendations (RecChL [2004] 4), which were addressed to the Hungarian authorities.1.2 The work of the Committee of Experts4. The present report is based on the information obtained by the Committee of Experts from the 3rd periodical report of Hungary and the replies to an additional questionnaire submitted to the Hungarian authorities on 16 February 2006, as well as through interviews held with representatives of the minority languages in Hungary, practitioners working with/in such languages and governmental representatives during an on-the-spot visit (24 to 26 May 2006). No further information was submitted pursuant to Article 16 paragraph 2 of the Charter. This report is based on the policies, legislation and practice prevailing at the time of the on-the-spot visit. Any changes will be taken into account in the next report of the Committee of Experts concerning Hungary.5. The Committee of Experts will firstly recall the outstanding issues raised in the 1st and 2nd

monitoring cycles (1998-1999, 1999-2002) regarding Hungary’s compliance with the provisions of Part II and Part III of the Charter and then focus on the measures taken by the Hungarian authorities to respond to its findings and to the recommendations addressed to the Hungarian government by the Committee of Ministers. It will also highlight new issues detected during the 3rd monitoring cycle. 6. This report was adopted by the Committee of Experts on 1 December 2006.

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1.3 Presentation of the regional or minority language situation in Hungary: up-date7. The users of minority languages are represented by local minority self-governments, which are autonomous public bodies elected by the municipal minority electorate with a view to taking over relevant (e.g. cultural, educational) competences and institutions (e.g. schools, museums) from the authorities. Thirteen national minority self-governments, including one joint body for the users of Romany and Beás, act as umbrella organizations of the local and county minority self-governments3.8. Since the last census in 2001, the Committee of Experts has neither received new official data on the number of minority language users, nor updated estimates from bodies or associations legally established in Hungary. As in the 1st and 2nd monitoring cycles4, the Committee of Experts shares the assessment of the Hungarian authorities that the real number is “somewhere between the census data and the estimates”.Census results (2001) and estimates (see 3rd Periodical Report, p. 5, 7)

Minorities(related Part III languages are in bold)

Persons affiliated to the minority

Persons affiliated to the minority’s cultural values and traditions

Mother- tonguespeakers of the minority languages

Persons using the minority language(s) within the family and with friends

Estimates by the minority self-governments of the number of persons belonging to the minorities

Armenian 620 836 294 300 3,500-10,000

Bulgarian 1 358 1 693 1,299 1,118 3,000-3,500

Croatian 15,597 19,687 14,326 14,789 80,000-90,000

German 62,105 88,209 33,774 52,912 200,000-220,000

Greek 2,509 6,140 1,921 1,974 4,000-4,500

Polish 2,962 3,983 2,580 2,659 10,000

Roma5 189,984 129,208 48,438 53,075 400,000-600,000

Romanian 7,995 9,162 8,482 8,215 20,000-25,000

Ruthenian 1,098 1,292 1,113 1,068 5,000-6,000

Serbian 3,816 5,279 3,388 4,186 5,000-10,000

Slovak 17,693 26,631 11,817 18,057 100,000-110,000

Slovenian 3,025 3,429 3,180 3,108 5,000

Ukrainian 5,070 4,779 4,885 4,519 2,000-5,000

EvaluationPart II

Chapter 2 The Committee of Experts’ evaluation2.1 The Committee of Experts’ evaluation in respect of Part II of the Charter9. In the 1st and 2nd monitoring cycles, the Committee of Experts observed that among the minority languages covered only by Part II of the Charter, Polish and Ruthenian had a territorial basis while Armenian, Beás, Bulgarian, Greek, Romany and Ukrainian were non-territorial languages according to Article 1 paragraph c. of the Charter6. The Committee of Experts will subsume all languages under Article 7 paragraphs 1-4 of the Charter, keeping in mind that the objectives and principles should be applied to non-territorial languages mutatis mutandis according to Article 7 paragraph 5 of the Charter.

3 see 3rd Periodical Report, p. 12, 14-15, 26-274 see 1st/2nd Reports of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 115 The census refers to the Roma minority. While the vast majority of the Roma population speaks only Hungarian, a significant number speak Romany or Beás (a language used by Roma in the southern part of Hungary). There are about twice as many users of Romany as of Beás.6 see 1st Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 19; 2nd Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 12

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Article 7 – Objectives and principlesArticle 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph aArticle 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph b

11. Minority language users represent the majority of the population in many municipalities (település), in some more than 90%. Regarding regional administrative divisions, the Committee of Experts takes note of discussions in Hungary to merge its 19 counties (megye) with a view to creating larger regions. There is nevertheless no indication that the Hungarian authorities do not comply with the above provision as is shown by the agreement with Serbia and Montenegro on the protection of minorities (2004), which prohibits measures which may change the proportions of the populations in the areas inhabited by persons belonging to the national minorities7.12. Although the population share of minority language users at the county level nowhere exceeds 7.3% (Baranya), the Committee of Experts encourages the Hungarian authorities to ensure that new administrative divisions will not constitute an obstacle to the promotion of their languages.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph c

13. Under this provision, Parties are expected to develop a comprehensive strategy for the resolute promotion of regional or minority languages, which requires a long-term vision, a global legislative instrument, specialized institutions and appropriate financial means. 14. Hungary has established a solid legal and institutional basis for the implementation of this provision8 (e.g. Act LXXVII [1993] on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, hereinafter referred to as “the Minorities Act”, and the office of a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities). 17. During the on-the-spot visit, the Committee of Experts received complaints from users of minority languages that, besides positive initiatives such as the Medium-Term Development Programme for Mother-Tongue Education, no overall vision and predictable long-term planning exists for any of the 14 minority languages. The interlocutors were also worried about the acute underfunding of their educational establishments and media. Regarding the Part III languages, the Committee of Experts will deal with this issue in the context of its evaluation of Part III of the Charter and the findings. With regard to Part II languages, the Committee of Experts urges the authorities to take immediate steps to produce structured plans for the protection and promotion of these languages.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph d

19. Generally, the users of all minority languages have the possibility of using their languages in public life “freely at any time and anywhere” (Minorities Act, Section 51 paragraph 1), for example before judicial authorities9. Against this background, the Committee of Experts welcomes the fact that several courts have employed Romany and Beás users and also trained staff in Romany, but has at its disposal no further information about the practical implementation of this legal possibility regarding the six other languages, in particular Polish and Ruthenian. 20. Act CXL (2004) on the General Rules of Official Procedure and Servicing in Public Administration stipulates that every user of a minority language may use it “in speech and writing at the public administration authority.” Replies to requests submitted in a minority language must be translated into that language if the citizen so demands (Section 9 paragraph 310). The Committee of Experts commends the Hungarian authorities for extending such generous guarantees even to the users of dispersed non-territorial languages. However, apart from the use by some municipalities of place names in minority languages covered only under Part II of the Charter, the Committee of Experts received no information on the measures that have been taken to render the rights concerning the administrative use of these languages operational. 21. The Committee of Experts identified, in the 2nd monitoring cycle, a number of structural problems relating to the media of all minority languages (unsatisfactory presence on television, use of an old radio frequency that modern radio sets cannot receive, late time-slots11). The 3rd periodical report does not contain any detailed information on the use of minority languages covered only by Part II of the Charter in the media. According to what the Committee of Experts learnt during the on-the-

7 see 3rd Periodical Report, p. 6, 568 see 1st Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 239 see 1st Periodical Report, p. 8; 1st Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 2410 see Annex 4 to the 3rd Periodical Report11 see 2nd Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraphs 25, 33, 35, 52; p. 32, paragraph F

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spot visit, Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Polish, Ruthenian and Ukrainian still share 52 minutes of television broadcasting twice a month and each has a national weekly radio programme (30 minutes). A television programme (26 minutes weekly and 52 minutes four times per year), a public radio programme (26 minutes, six times per week) and a programme on private Radio C are broadcast partly in Romany and Beás, partly in Hungarian. While the radio programmes are in practice inacessible for the users, the new Autonomy Channel of Duna TV intends to broadcast in all minority languages, for which the broadcasting time remains to be determined. On the whole, the Committee of Experts must conclude that the structural problems identified previously have not diminished. These issues will be dealt with in more detail under Part III of the Charter.22. The Hungarian authorities assisted the minority self-governments of the users of Beás/Romany, Bulgarian, Greek, Polish and Ruthenian to take over and maintain cultural institutions12.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph e

23. As the Committee of Experts noted in the 1st monitoring cycle13, minority self-governance ensures the maintenance and development of links between groups using the same minority language and the establishment of cultural relations with other linguistic groups in Hungary. Regarding links between groups using languages “in similar form”, the Committee of Experts was informed during the on-the-spot visit that the relations between the national minority self-governments representing the users of Ukrainian and Ruthenian are generally good, but do not go beyond the level of co-operation that exists with other national minority self-governments.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph f

24. As observed in the 1st monitoring cycle, Hungary has an appropriate legislative framework for the teaching and study of minority languages in place. A class or study group teaching one of the 14 minority languages at one of the different stages of education must be set up by any municipality if (the parents of) at least eight pupils so request14. If users of dispersed languages cannot meet this requirement, Act LXXIX (1993) on Public Education (Article 86 paragraph 5) provides for “supplementary minority education”, which is provided by the local school or by travelling teachers. Supplementary minority schools teach minority languages and ethnography within the public education system and receive the same public funding as schools teaching such languages as foreign languages (so-called language-teaching schools). Pupils are not required to study in addition to the normal school week. They may take exams and receive official reports.25. In the 2nd monitoring cycle, the Committee of Experts regretted that education in Armenian was limited to Sunday schools15.26. During the period under review, the Armenian national self-government has not applied for supplementary minority education. Therefore, Armenian continued to be taught outside the public education system16. As a consequence, teacher training has not been provided for. The Committee of Experts did not receive any further information on Armenian.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph g

46. This provision aims on the one hand at persons who have no cultural link with a regional or minority language (speakers of the state language or other regional or minority languages as well as immigrants) and, on the other hand, at persons who do have such links, but not the ability to use that language. Referring to Romany and Beás, the Committee of Experts underlined in the 2nd monitoring cycle that the Charter would also apply to assimilated persons who do not use a minority language as integration should not lead to a loss of language and cultural identity in order to be compatible with the spirit of the Charter17. It is noteworthy in this context that the census of 2001 differentiated between four categories of “minority affiliation” (mother-tongue speakers, family speakers, minority affiliation, affiliation to cultural values and traditions of the minority).47. In the 1st and 2nd monitoring cycles, the Committee of Experts noted that it was legally possible for anybody to set up and attend minority language classes, but this possibility was not actively encouraged in practice. In the absence of special facilities for non-speakers, it was unclear whether, for example, financial problems of a minority language school could hamper the satisfaction of

12 see Annex 5 to the 3rd Periodical Report13 see 1st Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 2514 see 1st Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 2615 see 2nd Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 5216 see 3rd Periodical Report, p. 1617 see 2nd Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraphs 43, 49

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demand from non-speakers. As “no developments [had] occurred”, Hungary was urged to take measures18.48. According to the information obtained from users of minority languages during the on-the-spot visit, non-speakers are admitted into schools teaching a minority language and there seem to be no capacity problems.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph h

49. All minority languages except for Armenian have their own research institutes. The Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences also carries out research on these languages19. The Committee of Experts received no information as to whether it is possible to study Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Polish and Ukrainian in Hungary. 52. The Committee of Experts encourages the Hungarian authorities to promote the study of Ruthenian at least at one university or equivalent institution in Hungary and requests them to clarify in the next periodical report whether Armenian, Beás, Bulgarian, Greek, Polish, Romany and Ukrainian can be studied in Hungary.

Article 7, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph i

53. According to the information obtained in the 1st and 2nd monitoring cycles, relevant initiatives have been taken. However, no concrete examples have been provided in the 3 rd monitoring round. The Committee of Experts asks the Hungarian authorities to provide more specific information in the next periodical report of how the use of each of the languages covered only by Part II of the Charter is facilitated and/or encouraged in transnational exchanges.

Article 7, paragraph 2

54. The Committee of Experts stated in the 1st and 2nd monitoring cycles that Hungarian legislation did not contain any provision creating an unjustified distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference relating to the use of a minority language20. 55. There is no indication that legislation adopted during the 3 rd monitoring cycle21 contains discriminatory provisions. The Committee of Experts did not receive any information (other than in relation to Romany and Beás) which would lead it to suspect that there exists in practice any unjustified distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference concerning minority language use in Hungary. The Committee of Experts rather takes note of Act CXXV (2003) on Equal Treatment and the Promotion of Equal Opportunities. The act provides for a prohibition of direct and indirect discrimination of persons and groups in the public and the private sector and sets up an Agency of Equal Opportunities where complaints can be filed. The Committee of Experts notes that, in general, this act seems to strengthen the legal position of minority language users.

Article 7, paragraph 3

57. In the 1st and 2nd monitoring cycles, the Committee of Experts found that Hungary’s National Basic Curriculum and media guidelines advocate respect, understanding and tolerance for the users of minority languages and their cultures.22

58. The Committee of Experts welcomes further initiatives such as the creation of the post of an Ombudsman for Equal Opportunities in Hungarian Television (Magyar Televízió) with a view to ensuring that television reporting does not refer to ethnic affiliation without the consent of the person concerned. According to what the incumbent, who is a minority language user, told the Committee of Experts during the on-the-spot visit, the Roma benefit most from his interventions. It remains nonetheless to be seen whether the ombudsman will be able to increase the proportion of topics related to minority languages in Magyar Televízió’s programme23.

Article 7, paragraph 4

60. As expressed by the Committee of Experts in the 1st and 2nd monitoring cycles, minority self-governance guarantees the participation of minority language users in the formulation of relevant

18 see 1st Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 27, 2nd Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraphs 28, 3819 see 3rd Periodical Report, p. 2820 see 1st Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 30; 2nd Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 2221 see 3rd Periodical Report, p. 1422 see 1st Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 31; 2nd Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 2223 as suggested in the 3rd Periodical Report, p. 48

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policies.24 In addition, many relevant posts in authorities of central, county and local government are held by users of such languages (e.g. the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities).

Conclusions/FindingsChapter 3 Conclusions3.1 Conclusions of the Committee of Experts on how the Hungarian authorities reacted to the recommendations of the Committee of Ministers Recommendation no. 2:“Improve the present model of teaching regional or minority languages and move to forms of bilingual education for Part III languages and incorporate the current model of secondary language education into the curriculum for Part II languages.”Primary and secondary minority language education still largely takes the form of teaching of the language and little progress has been made with regard to mother-tongue and bilingual education. There are problems of underfunding of schools, insufficient vocational training and a lack of teaching materials as well as of teachers able to teach subjects in minority languages. Positive mention needs to be made of the Medium-Term Development Programme for Mother-Tongue Education and the unique scheme of supplementary minority education, which has permitted the users of Polish and Ruthenian to integrate education in their languages into the curriculum.Recommendation no. 3:“Identify the territories in which the number of speakers justifies the effective implementation of Articles 9 and 10 and take further positive measures to encourage the use of minority languages in judicial proceedings and in dealings with the administration.”The territories have not been identified in which Articles 9 and 10 could be effectively implemented, nor have the Hungarian authorities taken positive measures to encourage citizens to use minority languages in judicial proceedings and in dealings with the administration. However, civil servants who want to learn a minority language are offered salary and leave incentives.Recommendation no. 4:“Strengthen the presence of minority languages in the media and, in particular, ensure that programmes in minority languages can be received on ordinary radio sets.”The Hungarian authorities have initiated a scheme to introduce broadcasting in Hungary’s 14 minority languages on the Autonomy Channel of Duna TV and assisted internet radio broadcasting in Croatian. However, the allocation of an unsuitable medium-wave radio frequency to minority language programmes and the decision to change the timetable for the rerun of the national television programmes in minority languages have weakened the access to programmes in regional or minority languages.Recommendation no. 5:“Continue to develop the system of minority self-governments, in particular by improving the conditions for the transferral of educational and cultural bodies and institutions to minority self-governments.”The Hungarian authorities provided the financial means for the national self-governments to take over or establish four schools teaching in minority languages. Due to the structural underfunding of all schools in Hungary, this process has for the time being come to an end. The absence of financial guarantees and the need for additional regulations also have prevented minority self-governments from taking over or setting up further cultural institutions.3.2. Findings of the Committee of Experts in the 3rd monitoring cycleA. The Committee of Experts expresses its gratitude to the Hungarian authorities for the continued excellent level of co-operation. Despite the shortcomings identified in the context of the 3 rd monitoring cycle, the Committee of Experts recognizes the value of the unique system of minority self-government, which is in principle beneficial to the protection and promotion of minority languages. Further mention needs to be made of supplementary minority education, which is provided if the statutory requirement of eight pupils cannot be met and which the Committee of Experts considers good practice.

24 see 1st Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 32; 2nd Report of the Committee of Experts, paragraph 22

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B. However, the structure of the periodical report has not always allowed the Committee of Experts to consider all aspects of Hungary’s compliance with the Charter in full detail. Part II of the Charter, which covers all 14 minority languages, has received very little attention. In particular, the Hungarian authorities did not report on the application to Part III languages of those Part II obligations that are not covered by related undertakings in Part III of the Charter. Also, the Hungarian authorities did not report on each undertaking and, under each undertaking, on each language separately. C. The protection and promotion of minority languages in Hungary is hampered by a lack of long-term language policy and planning. Many measures undertaken by the Hungarian authorities are reactive in nature and do not follow an overall vision for each of the 14 languages. The budgetary parameters of mother-tongue and bilingual educational institutions are volatile and in many cases application-based, which makes long-term planning difficult.D. However, the Medium-Term Development Programme for Mother-Tongue Education is a step towards language planning. Regrettably, the Hungarian authorities have not complemented it by defining, in the light of the results of the 2001 census, long-term (i.e. beyond 2015) quantitative and qualitative targets for each of the 14 languages. There is no strategy to provide mother-tongue or bilingual education to all those who may want it and according to the situation of each language. Furthermore, those who do not speak a minority language (including those substantial numbers affiliated to the relevant minority's cultural values and traditions) have no comprehensive framework of adult and continuing education at their disposal that would enable the “relearning of the mother-tongue”25. Hungary also lacks a dedicated mechanism according to Article 8 paragraph 1 sub-paragraph i. of the Charter which could monitor the accomplishment of targets and the use of the earmarked funding.E. Most minority languages covered only under Part II are treated similarly in the fields of the media and culture to languages covered also under Part III of the Charter. In education, the recommendations of the Committee of Experts and the Committee of Ministers concerning the integration of the Sunday schools teaching Ruthenian and Polish into the public education system have been implemented. Considering that Ruthenian and, to a lesser extent, Polish have a territorial basis, not enough is done in the field of administration.G. The structural deficits in education have mainly stayed the same throughout the three monitoring cycles. Mother-tongue and bilingual primary and secondary schools remain underrepresented compared to schools where there is only teaching of the language. Small village schools are threatened with closures or mergers and there is a consequent need to organize commuting. Continuity of minority language education between primary and secondary schools is not secured because the offer of minority language education at ordinary secondary schools is very limited. Also, minority language teaching at the level of technical and vocational schools is underdeveloped. Although sufficient teachers of minority languages have been trained, there exists a serious shortage of teachers teaching subjects in minority languages. H. With the possible exception of the civil courts, a vicious circle hinders the full implementation by Hungary of its obligations under Articles 9 and 10 of the Charter: in the absence of defined areas in which concrete implementory measures have to be taken, language-related recruitment and training efforts lack institutionalization. This results in the practical impossibility to use a minority language vis-à-vis (judicial) authorities and public services, which in turn makes the language users, who are not systematically informed and encouraged, reluctant to invoke rights they are not used to.I. Whereas the provision of television and radio broadcasting was extended during the 3rd monitoring cycle, persistent structural problems affect the effectiveness of minority language broadcasts: unsatisfactory time-slots and time-schedules for television, inadequate funding, a lack of local and regional broadcasters as well as of private radio stations offering certain programmes in minority languages and the absence of a training scheme for minority language journalists. The most serious problem, however, is that radio programmes in regional or minority languages are broadcast on frequencies that cannot be received by ordinary radio sets in all areas inhabited by minority language users. J. Due to financial constraints, some key features of minority self-government, notably the possibility to take over or set up cultural and educational institutions, are broadly inoperative at present. Few such institutions are operated by the minority self-governments.K. The Committee of Experts observes, in particular regarding measures under Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the Charter, that the Hungarian authorities adopt an approach that will make it difficult to preserve

25 3rd Periodical Report, p. 8

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minority languages from substantial decline. In particular, they tend to rely too much on the initiative of the minority language users instead of systematically taking proactive measures.

Comments by the State Party [ECRML (2007) 5]Comments of the Republic of Hungary on the Opinion of the Experts’ Committee concerning the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Hungary (3rd monitoring cycle)The Government of the Republic of Hungary appreciates the professional remarks of the Opinion of the Experts’ Committee on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Hungary. The observations, comments and proposals of the Experts’ Committee may constitute important elements in defining the future orientation of Hungary’s minority policy.The opinion of the Experts’ Committee on the minority policy and the minority language policy of Hungary is a very detailed and deep professional analysis. With regard to the fact that Hungary’s next periodical report on the implementation is due in the first quarter of 2008, we do not intend to enter into details when reacting on some concrete elements of the Opinion. Our detailed answers will be included in the 2008 periodical report.However, we think it is important to point out that several positive developments that took place since the time of the submission of our latest report will or may greatly affect the development of minority languages in Hungary.In October 2005 Hungarian Parliament adopted the act containing amendments of minority-related legal provisions. The regulations contained in the amendment contribute to the further strengthening of the minority self-governments’ system, which is the main tool and guarantee for ensuring cultural autonomy to minorities in Hungary. The elections of local minority self-governments in autumn 2006 already took place in conformity with the new rules. The election process will end in April 2007 by the election of regional and national minority self-governments.We would like to mention just two elements in connection with the opinion of the Experts’ Committee: significant positive developments have recently taken place in their respect.During the last two years further educational and cultural institutions were taken over for administration by national minority self-governments. Nowadays there are 36 such institutions throughout the country. Minority self-governments will have the opportunity to continue this process in 2007, too.The establishment of the new MR4 Channel of the Hungarian Radio is of outstanding importance as far as access to minority media is concerned. This new, autonomous channel for minority programmes with an autonomous frequency has been operating since 1 February 2007 in the native languages of minorities. It broadcasts programmes during 12 hours every day, and it has its own structure and budget as stipulated in the Minorities Act. The costs of its functioning are guaranteed to the Hungarian public service radio in harmony with the current budgetary act.These two examples clearly show that the support of minorities and the protection of minority languages continue to constitute a priority in the Republic of Hungary. The minority policy of the present Government ensures its continuity and renewal. We are confident that the next periodical report will be convincing for the members of the Experts’ Committee visiting Hungary.

Erika Németh

Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers [RecChL (2007) 5]The Committee of Ministers,[…]Recommends that the Hungarian authorities take account of all the observations of the Committee of Experts and, as a matter of priority:2. improve the financial situation of minority language education and increase the stability of resourcing;

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5. improve the offer of minority language programmes in the media, in particular by allocating a suitable radio frequency as well as developing and financing a comprehensive scheme for the training of journalists and other media staff using minority languages;6. improve the conditions for the transferral of educational and cultural bodies and institutions to minority self-governments.

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