Act CLXXIX of 2011 on the Rights of Nationalities
One of the most important cornerstone laws of Hungary, which is separately stipulated in the Fundamental Law and adopted with the support of two thirds of the Members of Parliament, is Act CLXXIX of 2011 on the Rights of Nationalities, which since 1993 – renewed in 2011 – has been the central element of the Hungarian minority protection system, unique in Europe. The field of nationality law is one of the most complex segments of the Hungarian legal system. The internationally based body of law with its thorough text and detailed dogmatic set-up ensures a wide range of individual and collective rights and has advanced support and control mechanisms. Its solid historical and broad social foundations are combined with a continuous and dynamic capacity for renewal. It is both a sensitive and solid regulatory environment providing the basis for the unhindered enforcement of rights and interests of nearly one million stakeholders. Since 1989 the Constitution has enshrined the right to collective participation in public life, the cultivation of national minority culture, the use of the mother tongue, education in the mother tongue, the right to use names in one’s own language, and the right to establish local and national-level nationality self-governments for the thirteen nationalities recognised as indigenous. It also raised the level of protection of the legislation regulating the status, opportunities and tasks of communities, as the adoption of the Act on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (Act LXXVII of 1993 – Nektv.) required two-thirds of the votes of the members of Parliament present. The entry into force of the Fundamental Law on 1 January 2012 took over the above provisions, and the provisions of the Act LXXVII of 1993 (Nektv.) are included in Act CLXXIX of 2011 on the Rights of Nationalities (Njt.), replacing and partially transposing and supplementing them. The Act also provides in detail for the basic individual and collective rights – which differ from international standards – of all thirteen nationalities living in Hungary.