Collective and Individual Rights of National Minorities in the Light of European Charters

Abstract

This study examines the normative content, legal nature and implementation of the European charters for the protection of minorities (the Charter for the Protection of National Minorities and Regional and Minority Languages), which have been in force for almost twenty years, in the light of the European Charter of Human Rights. It concerns the ratification and implementation of the Charters in the countries neighbouring Hungary and their impact on the legal status of Hungarian national minority communities and the enforcement of their collective and individual rights. The implementation of these Charters in the countries concerned shows, in a tendential manner, progress in terms of the enforcement of minority rights, although there are sometimes surprising setbacks. It has happened several times in the last century that Hungarian national minorities, instead of playing a bridge role, have become hostages of the so-called successor country in which they live historically. One example of this is the change of the minority population ratio. The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities expressly prohibits the state authority from changing the previous population ratio in regions traditionally inhabited by national minorities, which, unfortunately, has happened before and after the entry into force of the Convention. Therefore, it is evident that the enforcement of the rights of national minorities in Europe, including Hungarian national minorities beyond the country's borders, is not only in the beneficially coordinated interests of those concerned, but also of Hungary, i.e. the kin-state, but also of the EU, and in some cases of the respective nation-states. This is confirmed by the Fundamental Law of Hungary (Fundamentals, Article D), according to which Hungary, keeping in mind the unity of the unified Hungarian nation, bears responsibility for the fate of Hungarians living outside its borders.