Hundreds of millions of euros worth of state tax revenue has been lost, and promises to be lost, to southern Slovakia, including Hungarian-inhabited settlements, due to the disproportionate funding of local governments, said Péter Őry chairman of the Hungarian Community Party at a news conference on January 28. The disadvantage stems from the distribution mechanism used to return the share of taxes on natural persons to municipalities. … Read More

For the fourth year running, the Hungarian Community Party (MKP)  filed another complaint to the regulatory body of the Slovak Public Media Service and the State Prosecutor for failing to uphold the law that proscribes proportionate hours of minority language programming on public television.… Read More

The Hungarian community in Slovakia needs to succeed in the February 29 parliamentary elections and again have representation in the legislature, said the leader of Hungarian Community Association (MKÖ), Gyula Bárdos. … Read More

On January 16, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted a law regulating secondary education, which also applies to the Hungarian minority. “Ukrainian authorities lack the political will to comprehend that they have taken away crucial minority rights and, for Hungarians in Subcarpathia, the 150-year-old right to education in their mother tongue,” said Ildikó Orosz, President of the Hungarian Teachers’ Association of Subcarpathia (KMPSZ) following a meeting with the Ukrainian Education Minister. The vote was 327 Yeas, 3 Nays, 54 abstentions and 16 no votes, in the 450-member legislature. … Read More

Canada and Germany’s ambassadors to the Ukraine say that the president’s decentralization bill does not strengthen civil rights; on the contrary, it hinders democratic processes. … Read More

You may have read recent articles in the New York Times and Washington Post that question the veracity of the unprecedented assault against the ethnic Hungarian community in Subcarpathia, Ukraine. HHRF has written an objection to the Editor of the New York Times and we urge you to write as well, no matter how briefly.… Read More

Following armed raids at the homes of ethnic Hungarian community leaders in Subcarpathia, Ukraine, the president of the Cultural Alliance of Hungarians in Subcarpathia (KMKSZ) called on the newly-elected European Parliament president to “demand that Ukraine observe the Law on Elections, in order to give minorities at least a fair chance to have their interests represented at the parliamentary level.”… Read More

László Hámos Remembered at New York Memorial Event.

Friends, Colleagues Recall Exemplary Commitment and Intellect of Groundbreaking Hungarian-American Activist
Family, friends and colleagues gathered at New York’s Hungarian House on May 11 to remember the life and legacy of László Hámos, President of the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation (HHRF), who passed away after a long illness on April 16.… Read More

Fate of the Hungarian community in Sub-Carpathia, Ukraine hangs in the balance.
Acts of violence, intimidation and unprecedented restriction of education and language rights in the mother tongue dominated 2018. The situation is very tense in the region where the Hungarian minority – now estimated to only number around 120,000 – has lived for centuries.  All of us need to maximize our efforts with heightened vigilance, more initiatives, and your active support, as the situation leading up to the Ukraine national elections in Spring 2019 is likely to escalate. What is behind these alarming developments? … Read More