The Ombudsman on the obstacles of Nationality communities' rights

The Ombudsman on the obstacles of Nationality communities' rights

Due to the lack of adequate legal and technical conditions to ensure that Nationality communities get involved in local government decision-making process, these communities are not able to exercise all the rights to which they are entitled. The commissioner for fundamental rights has turned to the minister of administration and justice.

Ombudsman Máté Szabó conducted an ex officio inquiry titled „ Exercising nationalities' rights" in which he examined how persons belonging to nationalities are able to exercise their rights provided under the provisions of the Basic Law. The results of the inquiry showed that there are no adequate legal and technical conditions to ensure that Nationality communities get involved in local government decision-making process: under the current legal framework, it is not possible to indicate the nationality nature of associations in the court registry of non-governmental organizations, therefore the nationality related activities laid down in the statutes of non-governmental organizations can not be searched for in any databases of certified public records. This deficiency can be an obstacle to involve nationality communities in the decision-making process at the local level, meaning that they are not able to exercise their nationality rights provided under the law.

Commissioner for fundamental Rights Máté Szabó has asked the minister of administration and justice to amend the relevant laws and regulations to ensure that the certified public registry kept by the National Office for the Judiciary (Országos Bírósági Hivatal) records the nationality nature of the associations, as well.

Download