COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION CONCLUDES CONSIDERATION OF HUNGARY'S REPORTS

CERD
61st session
16 August 2002
Morning


The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning concluded its consideration of the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth periodic reports of Hungary, with the Government delegation inviting the Committee to visit the country before the next periodic report was submitted.
Committee Chairperson Ion Diaconu replied to the invitation by saying that it was a good idea except that at present the financial situation of the Committee might not enable it to travel to Hungary.
In his concluding statement, Linos Alexander Sicilianos, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur to the reports of Hungary, said that he was impressed by the quality of the responses of the delegation to the questions raised by the Committee members. He noted that all institutional Hungarian structures were in place to deal with non-discrimination, including the office of the Ombudsman.
He also noted that the Committee had already established two recommendations - General Recommendations nos. 7 and 15 - with regard to article 4 of the Convention. The attention of the Government of Hungary was drawn to those recommendations and its obligations to enact laws prohibiting organizations promoting racial hatred.
In their response to questions raised by the Experts, the members of the delegation said that 100 per cent of Roma woman were unemployed in Hungary; that among the Roma population up to 70 per cent did not have employment; and the situation could be attributed to the attitudes of certain employers.
The delegation also said that before 1990, approximately 90 per cent of the Roma population was actively employed because of the regime's mandatory employment provisions. However, since 1990, and after the political change, the number of Roma actually employed had decreased dramatically and various emerging discriminatory phenomenon had become tangible.
Also taking part in the discussion were Committee members Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, Patrick Thornberry, Agha Shahi, Kurt Herndl, Regis de Gouttes, Nourredine Amir, Raghavan Vasudevan Pillai, Patricia Nozipho January-Bardill, José Augusto Lindgren Alves and Ion Disconu.
The Committee will issue its formal, written concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Hungary at the end of its three-week session to be closed on 23 August.
Hungary, as one of the 162 States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, is obliged to submit periodic reports on its performance focused on giving effect to the provisions of the treaty. Article 9 of the Convention stipulates that States parties should submit periodic reports to the Committee for monitoring purposes.
When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will take up the fifth periodic report of Estonia (CERD/C/373/Add.2).

Response of Hungary
In response to questions raised by Committee Experts yesterday afternoon, the members of the Hungarian delegation said that in the last decade, Hungary had made progress in the protection and promotion of the rights of its nationalities and minorities. The rule of law had been strengthened; a series of laws had been enacted; and civil society was assuming its part of responsibility within the society. However, there were instances of prejudices against minorities which had surfaced requiring further measures from the Government.
The delegation said that anti-Semitic expressions in the past had prompted the administration and the judiciary to step up the fight against the elements that promoted such attitudes. A political party that adopted anti-minority lines had lost parliamentary seats after the last elections held in April; and it was not even able to obtain the threshold of 5 per cent to qualify for a seat. With regard to anti-Muslim sentiments, the delegation said that there was no Islamic community in Hungary and that no one had declared becoming a Muslim during the last census.
The parliamentary act concerning Hungarians living abroad was aimed at maintaining support despite the fact that they were living under different State jurisdictions, the delegation said. The Government had signed a series of agreements with the countries where Hungarians were living. The act was aimed at preventing any form of discrimination against the Hungarians in those countries.
One hundred per cent of Roma women had no jobs in Hungary, the delegation said. Among the Roma population up to 70 per cent did not have employment. The situation could be attributed to the attitudes of certain employers who were reluctant to employ Roma people.
Before 1990, approximately 90 per cent of the Roma population was actively employed because of the regime's mandatory employment provisions, the delegation said. However, since 1990, and after the political change, the number of Roma actually employed had decreased dramatically and various emerging discriminatory phenomenon had become tangible. Between 1995 and 1996, the number of unemployed Roma had increased because of the open discriminatory sentiments. Even today, indirect discrimination was tangible in various employment areas.
Concerning the Holocaust, the delegation said that the Roma population in Hungary observed every year in 6 major places the commemoration of the execution of several thousand Hungarian Roma that took place in the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps. Following the law introduced by the Government two years ago, all victims of the Holocaust were remembered on 16 April each year.
Segregation in schools was widespread in the country not only concerning the Roma but also between rich and poor, the delegation said. The liberalization of the education system and the participation of the private sector, experienced during the last decade, had created certain inconveniences in the application of governmental policies. Concerning the Roma children, the Government had been running educational programmes to assist them to pursue their studies and to cope with other non-Roma students.
The negative attitude towards foreigners had decreased with more than 30 per cent of the population believing than the presence of foreigners could contribute to the country's development. At the same time, 40 per cent of the population was of the view that they were open to other cultures. However, the negative attitudes were as high as 70 per cent.
With regard to refugees, the delegation said that Hungary was party to the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and the Protocol of 1967. For that reason, it had been hosting refugees and asylum-seekers from several countries. Since 1998, the number of asylum-seekers had increased by 40 times. In 2001 alone 10,000 applications for asylum had been lodged; 174 demands received refugee status. The office of immigration and citizenship, which was established recently, was in charge of processing applications.
Hungarian prisons were overcrowded, the delegation said. As of February 2002, the normal capacity of penitentiary institutions was 10,800 persons while there were over 17,000 persons detained. In order to reduce overpopulation in prisons, the Government had adopted a 6-year programme of development to build new penitentiary facilities and to renew the existing ones.

Concluding Statement
LINOS ALEXANDER SICILIANOS, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur to the reports of Hungary, said that he was impressed by the quality of the responses by the delegation to the questions raised by the Committee members. He said that all institutional structures were in place to deal with non-discrimination, including the office of the Ombudsman.
He noted that the Committee had already established two recommendations - General Recommendations nos. 7 and 15 - with regard to article 4 of the Convention. The attention of the Government of Hungary was drawn to those recommendations and its obligations to enact laws prohibiting organizations promoting racial hatred.
Mr. Sicilianos said that the situation of other minorities, in addition to the Roma, should be taken into consideration. The delegation had provided information on acts of discrimination against Roma people. For example, Roma children were not admitted to kindergarten institutions, and their school dropout was higher than the rest of the population.
Prior to Mr. Sicilianos' statement, some Committee Experts asked the delegation, among other things, about the prospect by the new Government to reduce disparities existing in the society with regard to the Roma community; the harsh treatment of the Roma people; and the reaction of the Government to the Committee's General Recommendations no. 27 on the Roma people. The delegation said that it would reflect the responses in its next periodic report.



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