Decision 35/1992. (VI. 10.) AB – representation of minorities
The Constitutional Court’s very first decision regarding minorities was delivered on 2 June 1992. Although the submission specifically requested the determination of unconstitutionality by omission with regard to para. 3 of Article 68 of the Constitution, which regulates the representation of minorities, the Constitutional Court ex officio examined the entire article. After finding that “the general representation of minorities was not ensured to the extent and in a manner consistent with the provisions of the Constitution”, it established a constitutional violation and called on the Parliament to adopt, with a two-thirds majority, an act on the rights of national and ethnic minorities. The decision highlighted that the role of minorities as constituent parts of the State makes minority rights so important that they need to be regulated at the statutory level, and that representation is a necessary prerequisite for fulfilling this role. However, the Court did not say that there was any constitutional requirement specifically to ensure the parliamentary representation of minorities. In 1993, the Parliament finally created the Minority Act, in which it settled the issues of the representation of minorities at the local level (minority self-governments), but referred the regulation of parliamentary representation to a separate law.