null Conference on the right of indigenous minorities to mother tongue education

At the end of September, the Minority Rights Protection Institute organised a two-day conference entitled "The Right of Indigenous Minorities to Mother Tongue Education - in Theory and Practice" at Pázmány Péter Catholic University. At the event, which was supported by the State Secretariat for Nationality Policy of the Prime Minister's Office and the Bethlen Gábor Fund, eminent experts from the international and Hungarian professional community and elected leaders of the communities concerned reviewed current issues and enforcement options related to the protection of the rights of nationalities in Hungary and Hungarians living abroad. The conference was opened by the Minority Ombudsman, who gave a professional opening presentation entitled "The indispensable elements of minority identity preservation - language and education".

In the morning, Elisabeth Sándor-Szalay participated in a round table discussion on the right to education of indigenous minorities in international law, with the participation of Gábor Kardos (Professor - ELTE ÁJK), Petra Lea Láncos (Professor - PPKE JÁK, Member of the Expert Committee of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages) and Balázs Vizi (Associate Professor - NKE ÁNTK, Research Professor - HUN-REN TK KI). The discussion was moderated by Sándor Szemesi (Senior Adviser to the Constitutional Court, Director Adviser to the KJI).

 

In the afternoon programme of the conference, Tamás Török, Head of the Secretariat, gave a presentation entitled "Nationality education: institutional system at the intersection of pedagogy, law and nationality policy", and then moderated the panel entitled "The right of Hungarian nationalities to mother tongue education". The panellists were Ibolya Englenderné Hoch (President of the National-level Self-Government of Germans in Hungary), Milán Gyurity (Deputy President of the National-level Self-Government of Serbs), Mónika Szabó (Director General of the Slovak Teaching Language Kindergarten, Primary School, Secondary School and College) and Miklós Sutya (Director General of the Magdu Lucian Romanian Primary School and Kindergarten).

We thank to Laura Gyeney (Associate Professor - PPKE JÁK, Director of the KJI) for inviting us and for the long-term partnership in the professional work on the legal protection of nationality communities in Hungary.

The full programme of the conference will be published in a post-conference publication, which will also include a technical description of the presentations and the round table discussions. The publication will be announced on the Minority Ombudsman's Facebook page.

We thank Orsolya Szabó, Head of Cabinet of the National-level Slovak Self-Government and the Institute for Minority Rights Protection for the photos.