Hungarian Govt stands up for the protection of human rights

Attending a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said Hungary firmly upheld the protection of human rights both at home and in international organisations.

Given present global dangers and a century so far marked by wars and crises, terrorism and mass illegal migration, serious debates are taking place regarding human rights, a ministry statement quoted the minister as saying. As rights are continually violated, it is important to distinguish between what counts as a universal human right and what does not, he said in his speech.

Szijjártó said everyone had the right to lead their life in safety and in their own place of residence, to be free to practise their religion and to identify with their nation. But no one had the right, he added, to violate the borders of two safe countries, to kill for an ideology or religion, or to stop people from using their mother tongue.

He noted that millions of ethnic Hungarians live outside the country’s present-day borders, around 150,000 in neighbouring Ukraine, where until 2015 they enjoyed a broad array of rights. Then, in the areas of education, culture, media and public administration, their mother-tongue rights were severely restricted with the result that 99 minority schools shuttered recently, he noted.

Hungary, he said, insisted on the soonest possible restoration of rights of the Transcarpathian Hungarian community. “They’re not asking for anything more than they previously had…” he said.