Secretariate of the deputy commissioner for fundamental rights ombudsman for the rights of national minorities

Following a special invitation, the Minority Ombudsman and the Head of the Secretariat gave a presentation on nationality rights, non-discrimination and the possibilities of interdisciplinary professional cooperation at the course entitled "Architecture of Peripheries - Rediscovery and Innovation" at the BME.

At the session of the National Assembly's Committee of Nationalities in Hungary held on 29 October 2024, the Ombudsman and the Minority Ombudsman presented their report on their activities in 2023, which was unanimously adopted and deemed suitable for plenary debate. The meeting was chaired by Serbian nationality advocate Alexov Lyubomir, Vice-Chairman of the Committee.

The guests of the autumn session of the interdisciplinary discussion series launched by the Minority Ombudsman were Dr. Judit Durst and Dr. Zsanna Nyírő, sociologists and researchers of the HUN-REN TK Institute for Minority Research, who gave a presentation and held a discussion on the complex processes of social mobility for the Secretariat of the Minority Ombudsman and colleagues of the co-departments.

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 framework of the investigation on the enforcement of nationality cultural rights, especially on the nationality content of museums, on 19 July and 5 August 2024, the staff of the Minority Ombudsman visited the Open-Air Ethnographic Museum maintained by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation and the Central Directorate of the Hungarian Country Houses belonging to the museum in Szentendre.

On 16 February, at the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, the Ombudsman and the Minority Ombudsman presented the Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum Award to the 2023 nationality laureate at a ceremony. Doncsev Toso, writer, translator, sociologist, member of the Hungarian Writers' Union and the Bulgarian Writers' Union, first chairman of the Minority Round Table, which drafted the first Nationalities Act thirty years ago, was nominated for the award by the Minority Ombudsman.