Secretariate of the deputy commissioner for fundamental rights ombudsman for the rights of national minorities

On 13 December, the Roma Nationality Study Scholarship Diploma Ceremony took place, where, as in previous years, 25 talented Roma students with excellent secondary school performance received their diplomas. The young people concerned will receive a monthly scholarship of 30,000 HUF for the academic years 2024/2025 and 2025/2026, based on an open call for applications by the Ministry of the Interior. The event was opened by the Minority Ombudsman, followed by speeches by Attila Sztojka, State Secretary for Social Opportunities and Roma Relations, and István Aba-Horváth, President of the National-level Roma Self-Government.

In the framework of a comprehensive investigation into the nationality content of museums, the Minority Ombudsman organised a workshop at the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights on 29 November. The aim of the five-hour meeting, which was attended by nearly twenty experts, was to present the basic situation revealed by the investigation, to discuss the professional findings and recommendations, and to clarify and supplement them.

In the framework of a comprehensive investigation into the nationality content of museums, the Minority Ombudsman and her staff visited the nationality country house of the National-level Slovak Self-Government in Sátoraljaújhely-Rudabányácska. The Ethnographic Collection of Slovaks in Zemplén, which is classified as a museum of public interest, has been run by the Cultural Institute of Slovaks in Hungary as its own institution since 2015.

On 2 December, the plenary session of the National Assembly discussed the annual report on the activities of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and his deputies in 2023. This is traditionally the last stage of the (political) assessment of the document: according to the Act on the National Assembly, the Committee on Nationalities and the Committee on Justice are obliged to review, discuss and express their opinion on the current report every year, and if confirmed, it will be submitted to the plenary session.

At the session of the National Assembly's Committee of Nationalities in Hungary held on 29 October 2024, the Ombudsman and the Minority Ombudsman presented their report on their activities in 2023, which was unanimously adopted and deemed suitable for plenary debate. The meeting was chaired by Serbian nationality advocate Alexov Lyubomir, Vice-Chairman of the Committee.

The guests of the autumn session of the interdisciplinary discussion series launched by the Minority Ombudsman were Dr. Judit Durst and Dr. Zsanna Nyírő, sociologists and researchers of the HUN-REN TK Institute for Minority Research, who gave a presentation and held a discussion on the complex processes of social mobility for the Secretariat of the Minority Ombudsman and colleagues of the co-departments.