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Eur. Comm. HUMAN RIGHTS HUNGARIANS CENTRAL EUROPE |
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8-JUNE 2010 THE FOUNDATION VIOLATED SLOVAKIA’S LANGUAGE LAW The treasurer of the foundation has placed a poster on a public location in Samorin (Somorja) in South Slovakia, The poster contains the following text, „HUNGARIANS ARE BORN AS FREE PEOPLE , NOT AS SLAVES”. According to the Slovakian language law the use of the English language is strictly forbidden in public. Members of the autonomous Hungarians speaking inhabitants of Slovakia, have already been prosecuted by the Slovakian language police for the public use of an other language as Slovakian. You can read more about the language law under the following link. http://www.hungarian-human-rights.eu/taalterreur/ |
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5-6-2010 LANGUAGE RIGHTS IN CENTRAL EUROPE. The foundation launched it’s language rights portal. The purpose of this portal is to notify the Hungarian speaking citizens in Slovakia and Romania, that they are entitled to use their mother language. Just like the Welsh can do in England, or the German speaking population of South Tirol is entitled to. These rights are guaranteed in European bilateral and national treaties and laws. For more information please visit: http://www.language-rights.eu/ |
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12-6-2010 THE SLOVAKIAN LANGUAGE POLICE PROSECUTES AMATEUR THEATRE PLAYERS. The Slovakian language police sent a summon, to amateur theatre players, who violated the Slovakian language law. According to the Slovakian language law, any kind of cultural meetings in the Hungarian language are forbidden. The language law also prohibits the use of spoken English in public. English language inscriptions are also forbidden in public. It is very remarkable that the Slovakian language police tolerates pop concerts in the English language, however it does not tolerate similar events if they happen in the Hungarian language. On the basis of these procedural inequalities regarding the Language law. Slovakia is the only country in the European union, that openly discriminates on the sole basis of ethnicity. |
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1-7-2010 SLOVAKIA, THE TROJAN HORSE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION In 1996 the Dutch politicians Frits Bolkestein en Geert Wilders concluded that a lack of respect for the rights of ethnic minorities will impede the integration of Central Europe into the European Union. In 1996 they pointed out that “new member states must comply with the acquis communautaire that has been formulated by the EU in 1993 in Kopenhagen. Ather the ethnic trouble in former Yugoslavia it is of utmost importance to ensure that ethnic stability is present in the region. Europe should be aware not to bring the Trojan horse into the European union.” You can read more in the following article. Slovakia the Trojan horse in the European union. |
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1-7-2010 REPORT OF LANGUAGE LAW VIOLATION TO THE SLOVAKIAN LANGUAGE POLICE According to the Slovakian language law, it is prohibited to use English or Hungarian in public. At present day this law is still in effect.) Therefore we have asked the Slovakian language police to prosecute all documented perpetrators of the Slovakian language law ( 1-Basisschool Kirreweie, 2- the foundation ECHRHCE, 3-Pontes Pieter Zeeman School, 4-Kia Motors, 5-Gemeente Ablasserdam en 6-Zoetermeer) The Slovakian language police already prosecuted a Hungarian language amateur theatre player group. |
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1-8-2010 PORTRAIT OF THE FOUNDATION ON DUTCH PUBLIC TV The “vlinderrevolutie ”– named after a term found in meteorology -the butterfly effect-, shows engaged and motivated world citizens, who try to make the world a better place. A portrait has been made of Gabor Landman, the treasurer of the foundation, whilst leaving to Slovakia and handing out flyers that list the 10 most basic language rights that Hungarians Speaking Slovaks have. You can watch or download this program by clicking here. (Dutch Language) |
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12-8-2010 LANGUAGE RIGHTS IN ROMANIA, A GAP BETWEEN LAW AND PRACTICE Romania has national, bilateral, European and International obligations regarding the language rights of its own Hungarian speaking inhabitants, amongst others. On paper everything looks good, however the practice unfortunately shows that the rights of the native Hungarians Speaking are neglected or only symbolically respected. Attila Brassai and Lehel Kovács, both university teachers and Gábor Landman, treasurer of the foundation, discussed the possibilities to improve the language rights in Romania. The recording can be watched here (Hungarian Language ) |
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20-10-2010 LANGUAGE RIGHTS IN ROMANIA DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PAPER AND PRACTICE On paper Romania is a country that does not assimilate it’s autonomous peoples by force. It is even a place where old ethnic controversies have been abolished completely. It is even a country where autonomous people are protected by righteous laws and treaties. In practice these rights are violated on a very great scale. Here you can read about ten cases in which Romania seriously breaches its own domestic, bilateral, European and international legal obligations. The crystal clear law 215 of 2001, which states that the use of the autonomous language is compulsory in administrative regions where the population is higher than 20 % is simply violated on a large scale. We asked the competent authorities to comply with the law, here you can read more.
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20-10-2010 MISSING BILINGUAL SIGNS IN CENTRAL EUROPE The ANWB (Dutch automobile club) yearly publishes very useful maps for its members, however it seems that the ANWB is not consistent regarding the use of bilingual signs in Central Europe. When it comes to Swedes in Finland, German Speaking Italians or Basks bilingual signs are used. However in the case of the new Europe (Romania and Slovakia) these bilingual signs are missing. We wrote a letter to the ANWB to correct this. (Dutch Language version Only) |
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20-11-2010 LANGUAGE RIGHTS IN CENTRAL EUROPE For a person grown up in the Netherlands it is the most natural thing to stand up for their rights. A Western European citizen will not hesitate to file a complaint to the public authorities or will not hesitate to use legal means to enforce the use of their rights. The Hungarian speaking autonomous population of Romania and Slovakia shows reflexes, with regards to civil rights, that are hard to understand for a person being grown up in an open and free society. These differences in attitude are at least very remarkable, since we all live in a United Europe, where equal norms and rules apply. You can read more about language rights in Central Europe in the following article. (Dutch only ) |
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20-11-2010 PLEASE HELP US HELP Our foundation sends a yearly mailing in which we ask for donations, the Dutch and Hungarian language versions can be accessed here. The European Committee Human Rights Hungarians Central Europe is an independent foundation that strives for the creation of a Central Europe where discrimination on the bases of race, language and ethnicity are abolished. By this way we would kindly ask you to support our foundation. You can support us anonymously or by bank transfer. Donations to our foundation are tax deductible from Dutch income tax. |
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23-05-2011 NASTY NATIONALISM RETURNS TO CLUJ NAPOCA. Last Monday 23 may, all public welcome signs at the entrance of the city disappeared. These welcome sign, also welcomed the visitor in the Hungarian language , which is the native tongue of almost 20 % of the population of this city, and it used to be over 50 % before the post second World war ethnic cleansing. Together with the removal of these signs, a very discriminative sign has been placed at the statue of king Mátyás, which is the symbol of the Hungarian community of this city. We issued a press statement regarding these discriminative events (Dutch language). We also sent a letter to the mayor of Cluj-Napoca (Hungarian: Kolozsvár) urging him to dissociate himself from the heritage of Funar and to pay attention to ratified European laws, such as the European Charta for regional languages. The public letter to Mr. Apostu can be read here in English, Hungarian German Romanian and Dutch. |
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25-05-2011 LANGUAGE ARROGANCE IN TARGU MURES ( MAROSVÁSÁRHELY ) On the website of Targu Mures airport not a word can be found in English or Hungarian. Hungarian speaking staff is underrepresented at the airport. Although 80 % of the passengers is Hungarian speaking. Also the counties that are being served by the airport are mainly Hungarian speakingé Maros over 40 % , Hargitha 90 % and Kovászna 80 %. As a local public governmental body the usage of the Hungarian language in public announcements is compulsory, according to the Romanian law215 /2001. The way in which the language needs of the passengers are dealt with is unprecedented in Western-Europe. An example might be Weeze Airport, where German, Dutch and English language inscriptions can be found. Unfortunately the director of Targu Mures Airport neglects the language rights of it’s passengers, in the letter that we wrote to him, we kindly ask him to comply with national law and with basic language rights. (Hungarian only ) |
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25-05-2011 ANWB CHANGES ROMANIAN AND SLOVAKIAN MAPS In 2010 September we wrote a short letter to the ANWB (Dutch Automobile club), we informed them about an inconsistency regarding the usage of bilingual place names in Europe. We noticed that bialngual signs were used for the Swedisch speaking Finns, the Basks in Spain, the German speaking Italians, however bilingual signs were missing for Slovakia and Romania. The ANWB was so kind to correct this inconsistency — Thanks ANWB. Here you can see the old maps for Slovakia and Romania and the new maps for Slovakia and Romania. |
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02-08-2011 RESPECTING EUROPEAN LAWS IS A SENSIBLE TOPIC IN ROMANIA On 26-07-2011 the treasurer of the foundation placed a sticker on the illegal an monolingual plaque of the historian Iorga, which had been placed on the 23th of may next to the statue of king Matthias in Cluj –Napoca, (Hungarian Kolozsvár). The sticker contains the following text. Where is the Hungarian inscription? We live here as well. Start to respect European Laws right now! Unfortunately respecting European treaties concerning language rights and civil rights is still a very sensible theme in Romania. Although Romania ratified the Charta for regional languages in 2008, many language rights deriving from this treaty, such as receiving basic public information in Hungarian are still denied. You can read our press release here. (Dutch language only) The video’s of this action can be viewed under the multimedia section or by pressing this link. The video clearly shows that this plaque is guarded by the city council of Cluj-Napoca. |
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02.07.2011 MISSING LANGUAGE INSCRIPTION AT THE POLICE IS DISCRIMINATION Recently the anti discrimination Council of Bucharest ordered that missing bilingual signs at Romanian police stations are discriminative. According to the Romanian 215/2001 law on public administration bilingual language services are obligatory at ever public institution, which lays within a region where at least 20 % of the population was ethnic Hungarian in 1992. Tordaszentlászlo (Romanian : Savadisla ) is consisting for over 50 % of ethnic Hungarians nevertheless not a single Hungarian word can be found at the police station. A list of municipalities where the Hungarian language can be used in public administration can be found here. We hope that the policy of Cluj County will change this soon and will start to comply with law. The verdict of the anti discrimination council can be read here. (Romanian Language Version only) |
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18-02-2015 Ethnic hate in Cluj-Napoca / Kolozsvár / Klausenburg On February the 5th the court of Cluj-Napoca annulled court order nr 4800, which ordered the placement of bilingual Romanian-Hungarians place signs at the entrance of Cluj-Napoca, since the city council and the major of Cluj-Napoca lodged an appeal The court didn’t repudiate our language claims, but ruled that a Dutch NGO had no competency in this matter and therefore the act has been annulled. Till present day ethnic autonomous Hungarian speaking Romanians are subject to ethnic hate in Cluj-Napoca. On public media several inhabitants of this city reacted with hateful, racist , xenophobic and discriminating remarks to this news. This proves that a part of the population is still afraid of ethnic Hungarians and is ignorant about their citizens rights. |