Acta Humana – Human Rights Publication

Promoting Labour Market Participation of Parents With Young Children in Hungary

2025-02-10T12:20:47+01:00

Work-life balance is at the heart of Hungarian family policy, and after 2010 Hungary took significant steps to support parents to work and have children at the same time. This article presents complex and flexible measures that offer tailor-made solutions for families in different life situations. These include maternity, paternity and, more generally, parental and grandparental leave and benefits, which allow parents to care for and raise their children at home while at the same time providing strong labour market protection and labour market participation. While time spent with children contributes significantly to the development of a strong parent-child bond, it also poses challenges in terms of returning to the labour market. In order to minimise the obstacles to employment, parents in Hungary have access to a wide range of state support and childcare services. The article aims to provide a horizontal picture of how the overall objective of balancing work and family responsibilities is implemented at the micro level (individual and family level) and macro level (social and economic level) in Hungary. This is based on the work and family-based social model that has been under construction since 2010.

Care and Demographic Change: Old and New Directions for the European Care Strategy

2025-02-10T12:29:55+01:00

The phenomenon of an aging society is a complex issue in the European Union, resulting in an increasing number of elderly people relying on the financial and social support of a shrinking working-age population. This recognition highlights the need to develop shared strategic directions for care, particularly in the field of long-term care, that can be implemented in practice. Since care falls under the jurisdiction of Member States, the lack of a unified approach and the diversity of existing operational practices necessitated the adoption of the European Care Strategy in September 2022. Based on relevant international literature and policy documents, including the European Care Strategy issued by the European Commission, this study argues that the effective and sustainable functioning of care, encompassing multiple policies with differing impacts and perspectives, requires identifying points of connection and synergies. This points toward the creation of a holistic care policy based on an integrated approach.

Appeals Against Election Results in the Light of the 2024 Municipial Elections

2025-02-10T12:34:16+01:00

The aim of the paper is to present the procedures for appealing against the results of elections, with a special focus on recounts, re-runs and by-elections. The practical aspect of the issue is emphasised by the review of specific cases, all of which arose in the context of the 2024 municipal elections. In addition, the study formulates various legislative proposals based on each case.

The Connection Between Totalitarian Symbols and the Freedom of Speech on Light of the Recent ’Z’ Dilemma

2023-11-21T12:10:07+01:00

It is a constant issue, whether a symbol, formerly used by totalitarian systems, could be subject to criminal law ban, because it offends the human dignity of others. Is it proportionate to constrain the right of free speech for this reason? What happens, when an Indian citizen displays a swastika, and insists, that for him, this symbol does not represent Nacism, but rather welfare and good luck. Or take a more recent example: let’s assume that a Hungarian citizen is convicted in Lithuania for wearing a shirt with a ’Z’ letter on it, the public display of which has been banned in the country since 2022, for symbolizing the Russian aggression against Ukraine. The question arises: what is more imoprtant: the meaning of the symbol for the society in which it is displayed, or its meaning to the person who displays it? In this article, I seek the answer for these questions, with an outook to the problems arising from the relativism of the symbols’ meaning and the actual ’Z’ dilemma.

Cold Case? Unpunished Human Rights Abuses?

2024-09-25T15:48:44+02:00

So far, no in-depth analysis has been made on the international enforcement of Julian Assange’s human rights. This paper intends to provide a practical guide for Julian Assange to enforce his human rights presumably violated. It seems timely to remind him of the opportunity, since the final deadline for launching domestic procedures is surely approaching rapidly, if not over already…

How Human Exploitation May Be Fought in Public Procurement-Affected Industries?

2025-02-10T12:54:34+01:00

Human exploitation is a global phenomenon despite being globally fought against. The exact number of people in modern enslavement remains unknown but the tendency is obvious. Counterintuitively, even Covid–19 policies seem to have contributed to the level of exploitation through supply shortages and increased demand for commodities and low-added-value goods. The article discusses the inevitable necessity that governments step up against all forms of human exploitation domestically so as in global supply chains. The article intends to stir up attention against the position that the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulation, the UK Modern Slavery act, let alone the EU’s Public Procurement Directive could not be improved significantly. The article scrutinises these legislative items through the lens of their efficacy. The article finds that all three regulatory regimes have their specific imperfections: the U.S. law does not pay significant attention to the notion of reparation, the UK law outsources the problem to the corporates while the EU Directive does not even reflect on the triviality that supply chains are globally interlinked, let alone paying attention to the time dimension and legal limitations of criminal proceedings. Furthermore, all three regimes apply the notion of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products the public procurement of which are not under the anti-TIP regulations despite the apparent realities.

Freedom of Speech and Sedition in Post- Colonial Democracies: Lessons from Kenya, Ghana and South Africa for India

2024-11-23T16:33:57+01:00

Freedom of speech is a fundamental right in India, but colonial-era sedition laws and anti-terror laws, which challenge the core ethos of an independent democratic nation such as India have become a major challenge for the Indian society and question the existence, value and possible misuse of such laws. Since 2014, cases under the sedition law have increased by 28%, challenging the guarantees of human rights in India. With activists and legal experts questioning the value and misuse potential of such laws in India, the country should look up to the examples set by various post-colonial African states such as Kenya, Ghana and South Africa, which have favoured robust democratic standards and constitutional freedoms over colonial and apartheid-era sedition laws.