2.1. Legal status
In Ukraine at the moment the legal status of the minorities are defined by the following documents having legal effect4: The Constitution of Ukraine (1996), Ukraine’s Declaration of Nationality Rights (1991), The Law of Ukraine about National Minorities (1992), and a great number of decrees. The statements concerning only the Hungarian community can be found in various inter-state treaties between Ukraine and Hungary (e.g. Treaty between the Hungarian Republic and Ukraine about the basis of good neighbourhood and cooperation, 19917, Declaration of the principles of cooperation between the Republic of Hungary and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in guaranteeing the rights of national minorities8, 1991) and in the suggestions of the Ukrainian-Hungarian Inter-state Joint Commission.
Articles 11, 24 and 92 of the Ukrainian Constitution touch upon the question of legal status of national minorities. Article 11 proclaims that the state guarantees „ethnic, cultural, language and religious development of Ukraine’s indigeneous peoples and national minorities” (The Constitution of Ukraine, p. 6). Article 24 prohibits race, ethnic, nationality, language etc. discrimination. According to the wording of the text, the idea of positive discrimination cannot be implied, either. „There shall be no privileges or restrictions based on race, colour of skin, political, religious and other beliefs, sex, ethnic and social origin, property status, place of residence, linguistic or other characteristics” (ibid., p. 12). Article 92 proclaims that the human and citizens’ rights and freedoms of indigeneous peoples and national minorities are defined exclusively by the laws of Ukraine.
Article 1 of Ukraine’s Declaration of Nationality Rights guarantees equal rights for the nationalities and forbids discrimination based on nationality. Article 2 says that the state takes on itself the creation of circumstances necessary for development of language and culture of national minorities. Article 4 permits the use of national symbols.
The Nationality Law of Ukraine declares that human rights and nationality rights are inseperable notions. Article 1 of the Law admits citizens to be equal irrespechive of their nationality, and status that the rights of people belonging to national minorities are part of generally accepted human rights. Article 3 says: „Those citizens of Ukraine who are not of Ukrainian nationality and declare their national identity, belong to national minorities”. Article 11 makes it possible for the citizens to freely choose their nationality or its re-establishment. The Law forbids discrimination on a nationality basis (Article 18), provides the right of nominating candidates for Parliament and for national organizations (Article 14), and states that separate sums of money are allocated in the state budget for developing the national minorities.
In the Ukrainian-Hungarian Inter-state Basic Treaty signed in 1991 there is only one paragraph (Paragraph 17) that deals directly with the minorities. The contracting parties without reference to specific documents proclaim the necessity of the defence of ethnic, linguistic and religious identity of the national minorities. The text contains a reference to a document signed by the two states before, under the title Declaration of the principles of cooperation between the Republic of Hungary and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in guaranteeing of the rights of national minorities. Four items of the treaty deal indirectly with the minorities. They are about frontier cooperation, the widening of contacts between frontier citizens and organizations, and cultural cooperation (cf. Kárpátaljai Szemle, 1995/8-9:24-25).
The introductory part of the basic treaty admits that national minorities live in Ukraine and Hungary, admits their rights on a personal and also on a community level, and considers nationality rights to be part of human rights. The document names the national minorities as a state-forming element (Paragraph 1). It has respect for admitting and choice of nationality (Paragraph 2). The signing parties take responsibility on themselves for creating such a status for national minorities which provides the right to participate effectively in public affairs (Paragraph 5). The parties promise not to strive for the assimilation of national minorities, they create conditions for saving the identity of the minorities and admit that the nationality organizations express the opinion of the national communities.
In sum, the above mentioned documents admit the existence of national minorities living in Ukraine, they see the minority rights as part of human rights, they consider nationalities to be a state-forming element, they forbid discrimination based on nationality, and one document (the Declaration signed by Hungary and Ukraine) mentions not only the individual, but the collective nationality rights, too.
Besides the above mentioned documents (applicable since 1991) there is a valid resolution (Resolution No 52 of 26 November 1944, adopted at the first congress of People’s Committees of Transcarpathian Ukraine) which declares the collective guilt of the Hungarians, saying that the Hungarians and Germans are eternal enemies of the Ukrainian nation. This resolution was the ideological base for deportation of the Hungarian male population aged 18-50 in November and December of 1944. A group of Transcarpathian Hungarian intellectuals addressed a petition to the Soviet government in 1971 and 1972 in which they asked for the abrogation of the document mentioned above (cf. Petition I and II9), but the editors of the petitions were called to account, and the resolution is in force even today. The Cultural Association Of Hungarians In Subcarpathian (CAOHIS) asked for the resolution’s abrogation several times, but the authorities did not take any steps concerning this matter. Thus, in spite of the above mentioned documents, in Ukraine Hungarians are still theoretically the enemy of the Ukrainian nation, and a collectively guilty people.
2.2. political organization (parties, movements)
Political self-organization of Transcarpathian Hungarians had been impossible for a long time. It was only in 1989 that the first nationality organization of Transcarpathian Hungarians was formed - the Cultural Association Of Hungarians In Subcarpathian (CAOHIS) (see A KMKSZ történetébõl and Tíz év a kárpátaljai magyarság szolgálatában).
The THCA started off as a cultural organization, but it has played a political and interest-safeguarding role from the very beginning. It became a significant political factor in Transcarpathia’s life shortly after its foundation. Today it is the largest nationality organization of the region. According to its register, the association has 143 local groups and about 25,000 members.
On 5 August 1994 the committee of the Berehovo District of the THCA decided to cut free from the THCA and founded an independent organization - the Hungarian Cultural Association of Bereg Lands (HCABL). Their founders’ meeting was held on 5 November 1994 with the participation of 117 delegates from 35 local groups. The HCABL has 2,300 members and 38 local groups.
Shortly after the separation of HCABL, the Uzhhorod, Svalyava and Tyachiv local groups founded independent organizations, too - the Association of Hungarians of the Ung Lands (AHUL), the Cultural Association of Hungarians of Svalyava (CAHS) and the Cultural Association of Hungarians of Tyachiv (CAHT).
On 6 August 1994 the organizations that had separated from the THCA founded the Forum of Transcarpathian Hungarian Organizations consisting of the HCABL, AHUL, CAHS, CAHT and the Transcarpathian Community of Hungarian Intellectuals, the latter being founded on 30 April 1993 and defining itself as an intellectual association.
In order to represent Transcarpathian Hungarians on a nation-wide level the THCA, together with the Associations of Hungarians of L’viv and Kyiv, founded the Democratic Association of Hungarians Living in Ukraine (DAHLU). But soon after its formation conflicting interests emerged within the DAHLU because of the difference of aims - the objectives of Transcarpathian Hungarians living in a block are those of having schools with Hungarian as a language of instruction, political safeguarding of interests, etc., whereas the aims of Hungarians who live scattered in Ukrainian cities are those of having Sunday schools and mother tongue clubs. The THCA suspended its membership within the DAHLU, which exists only theoretically as it has not been able to achieve practical results either in the political, or in the cultural sphere so far.
Each organization has its place on the multi-coloured Transcarpathian Hungarian political palette. The Cultural Association Of Hungarians In Subcarpathian (CAOHIS) is politically the most significant organization of Transcarpathian Hungarians which expresses its opinion about all questions concerning this minority. The THCA is the only interest-safeguarding organization in Ukraine which plays an active political role and does not only follow the events but takes an active part in influencig them.
The other regional association - the Forum of Transcarpathian Hungarian Organizations - exists only by its membership organizations, and it is only one of them, the Transcarpathian Community of Hungarian Intellectuals (TCHI), which expresses its opinion publicly about questions regarding the whole of Transcarpathian Hungarians. The TCHI takes an active part in the formation of economic life, too.
The Hungarian Cultural Association of Bereg Lands (HCABL) is a regional association which attaches importance to culture instead of politics, and it takes part in the life of Berehovo and Berehovo District mainly by organizing cultural programs, promoting national traditions, inauguration of memorial tablets of famous people of Transcarpathia and Hungary who have visited the town.
The political importance of the CAHT and CAHS can be felt practically only within Tyachiv and Svalyava, and the significance of their cultural activity can also be observed only within their own towns.
The professional interest-safeguarding organization of the Transcarpathian Hungarian teachers is the Transcarpathian Association of Hungarian Pedagogues (TAHP).
2.3. representation in administrative bodies
During the Soviet era the ratio of Hungarians was minimal in leading posts and legislative bodies, whereas the Russian ethnic group was represented in excess of its numerical ratio.
The situation changed after the 1994 municipal elections. In 1994 among the 59 members of the regional council there were 9 Hungarians, i.e. 15 % of the council’s body of representatives. The first vice-president of the regional council was of Hungarian nationality. The fact that the nomination of 5 Hungarian representatives in the regional council was supported by the THCA, characterizes the role of political federation of Transcarpathian Hungarians in the forming of the community’s life and destiny.
In the board of district councils the representation of Hungarians was 14 % between 1994 and 1998 (among the 347 district council representatives there were 49 of Hungarian nationality).
A total of 4,304 representatives took part in the work of town and village councils of Transcarpathia, 611 of them (14 %) were of Hungarian nationality. The ratio of Hungarian representatives in the local councils was the highest in Berehovo District, where there were 380 mandates, and 298 of them were possessed by representatives of Hungarian nationality.
In the cycle between 1994 and 1998 Transcarpathian Hungarians had one representative in the Supreme Council of Ukraine (the Verhovna Rada), and in the current period they again have a member of Parliament - Miklós Kovács, president of THCA.
After the parliamentary and municipal elections on 29 March 1998, eight nationalities are represented in the councils of different level of Transcarpathia. A total of 6,902 representatives hare got mandates. There are 5,753 (83.3 %) representatives of Ukrainian nationality, and 918 (13.3 %) Hungarians. Compared to the former cycle, the number of Hungarian representatives grew from 672 to 918, that of the Russians - from 21 to 42, that of the Rumanians - from 82 to 126. The number of Hungarian representatives in the districts as follows: Berehovo - 450, Vinohradiv - 178, Mukachevo - 72, Rakhiv - 6, Svalyava - 1, Tyachiv - 16, Uzhhorod - 178, Khust - 8, City of Uzhhorod - 3; among the 73 representatives of the regional council there are 64 Ukrainians, 6 (8.2 %) Hungarians, 2 Russians and 1 Jew.