Europe’s leading human
rights organization said Tuesday that discrimination against Gypsies, Jews,
gays and other minorities in Hungary is getting worse and is urging authorities
to fight racist violence and take other steps to protect the vulnerable.
The Council of Europe made its recommendations in a
report that examines a wide range of human rights issues in the country.
Its release comes as studies claim poverty is increasing in the country and as
Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces accusations from many fronts of weakening
democratic standards.
The findings are based on a July 1-4 visit to Hungary by Nils Muiznieks,
the council’s Commissioner for Human Rights. In a 44-page report of Muiznieks’
findings, it notes a “deterioration of the general climate of tolerance in
recent years” and says that the treatment of Gypsies, or Roma, is the
“most blatant form of intolerance.”
While it praises Orban’s government for announcing a “zero tolerance”
policy toward antisemitism in 2013, it also says that authorities
“sometimes fail to deal with anti-Semitic incidents in a diligent
manner.”
It said it is also worried by a trend to rehabilitate, in the school
curricula or in monuments, Hungarians known for antisemitism or for supporting
the Nazis during World War II.
While the Hungarian government has not yet commented on the report, it
has usually strongly disputed similar criticism.
The report cites as evidence violence against Roma and the rise of the
far-right Jobbik party, as well as far-right paramilitary marches by right-wing
groups that have taken place in recent years in Roma villages meant to sow
fear.
“The Commissioner is deeply concerned at the widespread presence of
racist and extremist organizations and movements in Hungary and extremism in
the country’s political arena,” it says.
The report also takes a critical view of Hungary’s treatment of a range
of other matters, including media freedom and the treatment of refugees.
