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Members of the British House of Commons
condemn religious discrimination
Early Day Motion 18
HRWF Int. (10.12.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - On 13 November 2002, the House of Commons issued a motion that
"condemns the continuation of religious discrimination and violations of human rights in Hungary, most recently through the instruction of Law LXXXIV, 2001 (PA153);
believes this law violates the principle of freedom of conscience and religion and discriminates against minority religions in Hungary;
notes that Hungary's treatment of minority religions less favourably than larger or longer established religions has been condemned by international organisations and the US State Department;
deplores the introduction of this law and urges the Government in Hungary to ensure its immediate repeal;
believes this law to be incompatible with membership of the European Union;
and calls on Her Majesty's Government to make urgent representations to Hungary to repeal this law before a final decision is taken at Copenhagen on Hungary's application to accede to the European Union."
Signed by
Dismore/Andrew
Wyatt/Derek
Spink/Bob
Smyth/Martin
McDonnell/John
Caton/Martin
Davidson/Ian
Beggs/Roy
Simpson/Alan
Marris/Rob
Loughton/Tim
Barnes/Harry
Robinson/Iris
Corbyn/Jeremy
Drew/David
Cryer/Ann
Walter/Robert
Hopkins/Kelvin
Hurst/Alan
Hermon/Sylvia
Cohen/Harry
Atherton/Candy
Griffiths/Win
Cunningham/Jim
Lucas/Ian
Dean/Janet
Wilkinson/John
Williams/Roger
Harvey/Nick
Leigh/Edward
Thomas/Simon
Holmes/Paul
Stinchcombe/Paul
MacDougall/John
Sawford/Phil
Clarke/Tony
Etherington/Bill
Sarwar/Mohammad
Source: Peter Buda, HRWF Int. correspondent in Budapest
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Minority Churches , Human Rights Organizations and Public Figures
against the Misuse of Census Data
By Anita Danka for Human Rights Without Frontiers Int.
HRWF Int (21.11.2002) - Website: www.hrwf.net/ Email: info@hrwf.net - In January 2001 Hungarian public figures, religious denominations and human rights organizations issued a common standpoint protesting against the optional question of the 2001 census inquiring about one's religious orientation. The standpoint claimed that the question itself violated the religious neutrality of the state and expressed concern about the potential use of the received data for political purposes. The government rejected the allegations.
Yet in December 2001 the Parliament accepted a provision according to which the rate of the state funds allocations to churches is no longer determined by the citizens' 1% tax donations but by the newly-received census figures (paragraph 153. of 2001:LXXIV). The opposition parties at the time (mainly Hungarian Socialists and the Association of Free Democrats) lined up with the protesters.
According to their reasoning, this new provision misuses census data as the question was addressing one's religious orientation and did not ask about whom would one like to support financially. The protesters claim that the 1% tax donations reflect more transparently the will of the citizens, which the state cannot alter legitimately and the provision negatively discriminates 98% of the registered churches, of which state subsidies will be curtailed.
The law containing this provision will come into effect in January 2003 unless the Socialists and the Alliance of Free Democrats, now occupying the government benches, propose its reconsideration. This newly elected government is now in a very difficult situation, since they have to maneuver between the label of the "anti-historic-churchist" or that of the "unreliable". They would certainly like to recover their connection with the historic churches after their open alliance with the Young Democrats (previous ruling party) during the previous parliamentary term and the election campaign without damaging their campaign slogan "We keep our word".
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Draft antisect-law
An Independent Parliamentary Proposal, on establishing an Inter-Ministerial Committee for the coordination of social self-defense against spiritual influences endangering fundamental freedoms
The Parliament
Considering initiations received from numerous groups of citizens;
Considering the recommendations and resolutions accepted during the last years by Council of Europe bodies, - especially the Council of Europe Recommendation 1412 (06/22/99), the experiences of recommendations and resolutions by the European Parliament, the European Commission as well as that of European national legislations and governmental bodies with the purpose of promoting and coordinating on the governmental level the social resistance against the fraudulent influence of religious nature, or with any other spiritual orientation or aim, attacking certain citizens or their groups and endangering human rights C namely the right to preserving the identity, to personal and family security, freedom of belief and religion and the right to information.
Adopts the following resolution:
I.
The Government is requested by the Parliament to establish an Inter- Ministerial Committee working next to it for the fulfillment of the following tasks:
- Comprehensive scholarly examination of occurrences related to the activities of new or novel religious or other kind of spiritual initiatives, movements and communities, and especially of groups, commonly called as "sects" in Europe; and the promotion of the establishment of such examinations' institutional conditions.
- Comprehensive and regular information on the risks represented by the "sect phenomenon" for the citizens - above all for the young whose socialization according to the norms accepted by the dominant part of the society is endangered, - also on the realization of the intent to mentally influence their identity; promoting the realization of the institutional conditions of such information.
- Promoting civil, secular and ecclesiastical organizations safeguarding the interest of citizens influenced by the "sect phenomenon" in any way and working against the above-described anti-social influence; creating a systematic cooperation with well-known non-profit civil organizations that have been working in this field for a long time.
- Initiating and promoting the establishment of the institutional conditions of organized information and training among public servants C above all teachers and other public servants working with the youth by occupation, - who presumably come across with the "sect phenomenon" in the course of their work.
- The coordination of the involved state authorities' measures and interventions against destructive groups.
- Initiating an amendment and regulatory enactments for stepping up against intellectual influencing endangering civil rights.
- Systematic following of the international experiences related to the "sect-issue" C especially of those recommendations and resolutions that are being made in the European Union countries and in the different European institutions (council of Europe, European Parliament, OSCE); establishing a partnership based on mutual information with the European C national or supranational- state and civil organizations dealing with this issue.
II.
The Parliament authorizes the Government to decide on the Inter-Ministerial Committee's structure, functioning and organization in a decree. The Government appoints the executive director of the Committee for a five-year-period.
III.
The Inter- Ministerial Committee operates with annual work-schedule. It prepares annual reports on its work for the Government, which are also sent for informative purposes to the Parliament and are accessible to the public through the Government's home page and by the media.
IV.
The present decree shall come into force on the day of its promulgation. Its implementation shall be carried out by the Government within thirty days after its coming into force.
Reasoning
The proposal is trying to solve a decade-old problem. Since the democratic transformation the Hungarian society has been flooded by novel, often destructive, negative influences endangering human rights, against which it is helpless even today.
According to the Preamble, the proposal intends to further the social measures and government-level coordination against this negative tendency in the spirit of the resolutions and recommendations issued by Council of Europe organs. It is also an important consideration, that during the last years there have been pressing initiatives on this topic from a considerable number of Hungarian groups of citizens towards the parliament and the Government. We find it important, that the various occurrences related to the functioning of groups that are commonly called as "sects" within the European Union are examined and analyzed comprehensively, in a scholarly way above the level of everyday politics. The adequate institutional conditions of this work should be established, which is the responsibility of the Government according to the proposal. The proposal has been made timely by the fact that the Office of National Security reported in his book last year that some groups, disguised as religious organizations, constitute already a threat to national security.
The proposal is trying to find a solution to a long-existing problem, which solution takes into full consideration human rights, within them freedom of religion, and at the same time it aims at having a European outlook taking into consideration the positive example of certain European Union member states.
Based on all these we could state, that the proposal could promote the common aim and intent, that the Parliament and the Government should end all forms of abuse of religious C and church statuses, and should accurately inform the currently helpless Hungarian society about the risks represented by the "sect phenomenon".
Budapest, 12/11/01
Lszl Szszfalvi /MDF/
Lszl Balogh /MDF/
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