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

In the framework of the investigation on the enforcement of nationality cultural rights, especially on the nationality content of museums, on 19 July and 5 August 2024, the staff of the Minority Ombudsman visited the Open-Air Ethnographic Museum maintained by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation and the Central Directorate of the Hungarian Country Houses belonging to the museum in Szentendre.

Following a special invitation, the Minority Ombudsman and the Head of the Secretariat gave a presentation on nationality rights, non-discrimination and the possibilities of interdisciplinary professional cooperation at the course entitled "Architecture of Peripheries - Rediscovery and Innovation" at the BME.

At the end of September, the Minority Rights Protection Institute organised a two-day conference entitled "The Right of Indigenous Minorities to Mother Tongue Education - in Theory and Practice" at Pázmány Péter Catholic University. At the event, which was supported by the State Secretariat for Nationality Policy of the Prime Minister's Office and the Bethlen Gábor Fund, eminent experts from the international and Hungarian professional community and elected leaders of the communities concerned reviewed current issues and enforcement options related to the protection of the rights of nationalities in Hungary and Hungarians living abroad. The conference was opened by the Minority Ombudsman, who gave a professional opening presentation entitled "The indispensable elements of minority identity preservation - language and education".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

On 16 February, at the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, the Ombudsman and the Minority Ombudsman presented the Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum Award to the 2023 nationality laureate at a ceremony. Doncsev Toso, writer, translator, sociologist, member of the Hungarian Writers' Union and the Bulgarian Writers' Union, first chairman of the Minority Round Table, which drafted the first Nationalities Act thirty years ago, was nominated for the award by the Minority Ombudsman.

The Minority Ombudsman and the association Res Iudicata - Judges for Social Consciousness are active participants in and committed supporters of the identification of access to justice issues and the development of jurisprudence through their domestic and international activities. Ensuring equal access to justice for members of vulnerable social groups, in particular children, people with disabilities, Roma or refugees, is a challenge for legislators from both a substantive and procedural perspective and requires daily attention from law enforcement officials. The phenomenon of unequal access is present in many countries across Europe, regardless of the legal context, but there are significant differences in the needs of different groups and in the tools available to compensate for them. The current social and technical challenges, in addition to the structural problems, have led to a wide range of legal and social science actors being involved in the issue and have inspired a number of solutions that can compensate for the inequality. With this in mind, they organised an international professional conference on 8 December 2023 at the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, with the participation of national and international experts, to present the problems and emerging opportunities in the field, in order to stimulate professional dialogue and to provide an opportunity to raise public awareness and strengthen solidarity with vulnerable groups in society.

The 67th Congress of the FUEN (Federal Union of European Nationalities) took place in Pécs, from 7-10 September 2023. Fifteen years after the 2008 congress, the city hosted for the second time the largest meeting of European national minorities and linguistic communities. This year the event's Hungarian organising partner and host was the National Self-Government of the Germans in Hungary.