Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights Signs Cooperation Agreement with Eszterházy Károly Catholic University

The Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights concluded a cooperation agreement with Eszterházy Károly Catholic University (EKKE). The document was solemnly signed by Dr. Ákos Kozma, Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and Dr. Ilona Pajtók Tari, PhD, Rector on 14 December 2021 in the conference hall of the Eger Lyceum.

On this ceremonial occasion, speeches were delivered by Dr. Csaba Ternyák, Grand Chancellor, Bishop of Eger, Dr. Ilona Pajtók Tari, PhD, Rector, and Dr. Ákos Kozma, Commissioner for Fundamental Rights.

In his address, Dr. Ákos Kozma underlined the following: “As Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, it is my priority task to enforce the right to participate in higher education and in learning and education in general. In addition to that, I hold it to be my mission to continuously monitor international standards in relation to these rights, to maintain an ongoing dialogue among Hungarian professionals, and to contribute to finding answers in the international realm. It is in this spirit that we have called to life our cooperation with Eszterházy Károly Catholic University, one of the Hungarian institutions dedicated to the scientific development of future generations, which pays particular attention to protecting all these rights and achieving these goals.”

As the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and Eszterházy Károly Catholic University laid down in their cooperation agreement, “it is a common part [of their mission] to serve the enhancement of social responsibility and common good by facilitating the enforcement of the value system enshrined in the Fundamental Law of Hungary through their activities based on a firm professional–scientific foundation, by widely propagating human rights knowledge, and by honing people’s rights awareness and especially their democratic civic competences.”

In the framework of the above, the institutions will engage in developing joint educational and training programmes, and organising research, surveys, roundtable discussions and conferences; furthermore, they will supervise university theses and papers prepared for TDK (Scientific Students’ Associations), and they will mutually exchange information about the latest publications, research findings and reports prepared in the field of human rights, legal knowledge and rights awareness, while also providing joint grant opportunities for EKKE’s students.