György Réti
Hungary and the Problem of National Minorities
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In the last five years, as a consequence of the political changes in Central and Eastern Europe, better opportunities have arisen for minorities in politics and economic life. At the same time, in some countries, nationalistic tendencies which were previously more or less muted have emerged among the majority. In many cases, the minorities' cultural and economic activities, and even their very existence, have elicited phobias.
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The 1994 agreement between Hungary and Croatia details the minority rights spelled out in the Hungarian-Croatian Basic Treaty signed on December 16, 1992.
This agreement, in keeping with international and European documents and the signatories' domestic legislation, guarantees the rights of minorities to preserve their cultural, linguistic and religious identity, to establish and manage educational institutions on all levels, to use their own language in public and private, to receive and impart information in their language (including the mass media), to worship in their language and to maintain the sites and monuments significant to them.
The agreement guarantees the right of individual members of the national minorities to take an effective part at national, regional or local level in decisions that affect the minorities to which they belong. Minorities enjoy freedom of assembly and association which allows them to maintain their ethnic and cultural identity. They have a right to establish unhindered and direct contacts across frontiers with foreign citizens with whom they share a cultural and linguistic identity and, also, with the institutions of their state.
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A political battle has ranged over the use of Hungarian place-names in Slovakia. Under a law passed in 1990, their use has been prohibited; however, July 1994 legislation has once again made the use of Hungarian names possible.
In March 1995 the two countries signed a basic treaty providing for the protection of minority rights, in keeping with the recommendations of the Council of Europe. One of these, Recommendation No. 1201, stipulates that minorities may create "autonomous authorities" in accordance with the domestic legislation of the state in which they live. The treaty confirms that the signatories respect the inviolability of their common border and have no claims on one another's territories. Ratification of the treaty by Slovakia is still ahead.
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Hungarians in Romania complain about being particularly concerned about economic discrimination (in redundancy lay-offs, in issuing entreprenurial licenses, participation in privatization, etc.) and about the refusal to create a multi-tier educational system with Hungarian as the language of instruction. The Hungarian university and the Hungarian consulate in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár) were closed by Ceausescu and have remained closed to thisday.
There are many schools, state and church, elementary and secondary, teaching in Hungarian, but according to the RMDSZ's memorandum, "an independent educational system (from nursery school to university) adequate for the needs of approximately 2 million Hungarians does not exist in Romania".
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is a Counsellor at the Hungarian Embassy in Rome
