Hungarian American Coalition News, 2009 (17. évfolyam, 1. szám)
2009 / 1. szám
Translation of the speech of Edith K. Lauer, Chair Emerita of the Hungarian American Coalition. Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Hungarian Friends: It is a great joy and honor for me to represent the Hungarian American Coalition and to be present on this inspiring mass demonstration. We, members of the Hungarian nation from all across the Carpathian Basin, Europe and the United States, have gathered here at Dunaszerdahely to call the world’s attention to the fact that the language use of the 526,000-strong historic Hungarian community is in danger in Slovakia. Even from far away, we Hungarian Americans follow the difficulties and challenges of the historic Hungarian community in Slovakia with sincere interest and great concern. For us, who live in a diverse and multicultural society, it is inexplicable, that in 2009, when most countries are struggling to alleviate the effects of the global economic crisis, why the Slovak government thinks its most important task is to create a restrictive and discriminative language law? Unfortunately there is only one answer, one explanation for this action. The Slovak Language Law serves a political agenda: to expand the use of the majority Slovak language, to curtail the use of Hungarian and thereby discourage Hungarians from maintaining their culture and identity, and eventually, to assimilate the historic Hungarian community. By passing the Slovak Language Law, Slovakia violates the standards of free speech, the basic standards of equality and tolerance, and a number of the country’s international obligations undertaken as a member of the European Union. As Hungarian Americans, it is both our duty and responsibility to inform US decision-makers—the State Department, the National Security Council, and members of Congress—about the discriminative and punitive aspects of the Slovak Language Law and its possible consequences. Therefore, the Hungarian American Coalition, together with the National Committee of Hungarians from Slovakia and the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation, recently issued a statement in Washington denouncing the recently passed anti-minority Language Law in Slovakia. In our statement, we call upon American policy makers, especially those dealing with the countries of the Central and Eastern European region, to urge Slovak leaders to repeal the discriminatory provisions of the State Language Law and to recreate it in a form that guarantees genuine equality for minority languages and the state language alike, in conformity with Slovakia’s international obligations. Dunaszerdahely, September 1, 2009 Remarks on the Opinion of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (excerpts) in June 2009, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Knut Vollebaek, received delegations from Slovakia and Hungary to discuss the amendments to the Slovak Law on the State Language. After the discussions, Mr. Vollebaek shared his opinion and recommendations on the proposed amendments with the two delegations. In the following paragraphs we summarize only our remarks in response to the Commissioner’s Opinion and Recommendations. The actual report can be obtained at: http://www.hacusa.org/languagelaw/slovaklanguagelaw.html Upon analysis, the OSCE High Commissioner’s opinion on the Slovak Law on the State Language emerges as a detailed, careful report fundamentally sustaining the Hungarian position, but contains a few inaccuracies and errors that need to be corrected. • In the second paragraph of chapter 1 of the Opinion, the Law on the Use of Languages of National Minorities adopted in 1999 reads as follows: “the Law grants all minority languages equal status with the Slovak language in all towns and villages where the minority represents at least 20 percent of the overall population’’. This statement about equal status is a serious error and is completely unfounded. In reality, the Law on the Use of Languages of National Minorities is restrictive in public offices even where the minority population exceeds 20 percent of the total population, and within these offices the restriction further applies to the handling of predetermined documents. Minority language is allowed only in client communications and only to provide information. There are no sanctions if these — restricted - rights of minority citizens are unobserved. The use of minority language among minority employees is not allowed by the Law on the Use of Languages of National Minorities, even if the minority population exceeds 20 percent of the total population. The status of the minority language is much weaker than that of the state language even in settlements where the minorities exceed 20 percent. The recent adoption of the amendments to the Law on the State Language has further weakened the already restricted status of the minority language.. Even after the adoption of the Law on the Use of Languages of National Minorities, in 1999 there was no proper balance between the protection of the state language and the protection of minority languages: the state language was unequivocally under greater protection than the minority languages. This is not a case where a well balanced situation was improved by the amendments of June 30, 2009; rather, what happened was that the passage of those amendments made an already inequitable situation worse. • The Opinion states, that “it is generally acknowledged that recent years have marked a significant improvement in Hungarian American Coalition - September 2009 - 3
