Statement of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary on the measures that he requested in connection with the amendment of the Slovakian Penal Code approved in December 2025 - AJBH-EN
Prof. Dr. Máté Szabó
Prof. Dr. Máté SZABÓ
Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, Hungary
CURRICULUM VITAE
He was elected by the Hungarian Parliament as the Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil Rights for
six years which position he had hold from 26.09.2007. He continues his role and stands as the general
ombudsman of Hungary. From 1st January 2012, Prof. Szabó is Commissioner for Fundamental Rights.
He received his law degree at the Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Law in Budapest in
1980 and got a job as a journalist. From 1984, he worked as a scientific associate in the Political
Science Department of the Eötvös Loránd University's Faculty of Law. From 1990, as an associate
professor. He defended his PhD. on social movements in 1987, and got the ‘Doctor of the Political
Science' title from the Hungarian Academy of Science in 1996.
He is a founding member of the Hungarian Political Science Association and the Hungarian
Humboldt Association; furthermore, he is an active member of the Political Science Committee of
the Hungarian Academy of Science and several international associations related to sociology and
political science.
Since 1980, he has continuously carried out several project researches on various subjects of political
and social sciences.
• Between 1991-2007, he was a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in
Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Mainz and Frankfurt an der Oder in Germany.
• He was a visiting fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies, Wassenaar, in
1995.
• In 2000, he was a research fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
He is specialized in civil society, social movements and political protest and the theory of law and
politics as well. He published more than 300 scientific contributions in Hungarian, English and
German. He is a regular participant at conferences in political science, law, and political sociology
in Europe and around the world. He teaches political science and European studies. Since he was
elected ombudsman, he is an active member of the International Ombudsman Institution and the
European Network of Ombudsman and board member of the European Ombudsman Institute.
Awarded:
• The ‘Erdei Ferenc Prize' of the Hungarian Sociological Association for young talents in 1988.
• The memorial medal ‘For Hungarian Higher Education' of the Ministry of Education for his
teaching career in 2006.
• The ‘István Bibó-Prize' of the Hungarian Political Science Association in 2007, as an
acknowledgement of his life work.
• The Gold Cross of Merit awarded by the President of Poland in 2012, in recognition of his
merits in strengthening human rights and developing Polish- Hungarian relations in this field.
Born in 1956 (13.06.), Budapest-Hungary. Married, and father of two children.
Publications on foreign languages (2007-)
1) Books
Human Rights and Civil Society in Hungary . Twenty Years for Rights and Freedom (1988-2008). OBH,
Budapest, 2009.
2) Studies in volume
Partizipation und Zivilcourage- die neue Ungarn jenseits des Autoritarismus in: Aron Buzogany-Rolf
Frankenberg (Hrsg.): Osteuropa: Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2007.
277-291.
Collective Protests in Central European Post-Communist Countries, in: Pero Mladini-Davorka Vidovic
(eds.): Transitions in Central and Eastern European Countries, CPI, Zagreb, 2007. 93-117.
1968 in Hungary, in: Martin Klimke-Joachim Scharloth (ed.): 1968 in Europe. A History of Protest and
Activism, 1956-1977. Palgrave, New York, 2008. 219-229.
(-Kerényi Szabina): Transnational Influences on Patterns of Mobilisation Within Environmental
Movements in Hungary, in: Brian Doherty-Thimothy Doyle (eds.): Beyond Borders. Environmental
Movements and Transnational Politics.Routledge: New York, 2008. 107-125.
Die Zivilgesellschaft Ungarns in einer vergleichenden Perspektive, in: Anton Sterbling (Hrsg.):
Zivilgesellschaftliche Entwicklungen in Südosteuropa. O. Sagner, München, 2009. 205-239.
Kompromiss als Erbe des Kádárismus: Ungarn 1989-1990, in: Jerzy Macków (Hrsg.): Autoritarismus in
Mittel- und Osteuropa. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2009. 199-215.
The Hungarian Ombudsman Institution (1995-2008), in: Linda C. Reif. (eds.): The International
Ombudsman Yearbook. Martinus Nijhoff Publ. Leiden/Boston, 2009.154-182.
Das Wesen von Ungehorsam und Kritik. Ombudsmann-Institution, die osteuropäische Revolution
der Menschenrechte und eine neue Zivilkultur, in: Bálint Balla-Anton Sterbling (Hrsg.): Europäische
Entwicklungsdynamik. Krämer Verlag.Hamburg, 2009. 87-107.
Milestones in the global and European development of human rights, in: Jernej Rovsek/Liana
Kalcina(eds.): 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 15th
Anniversary of the Human Rights Ombudsman Act in Slovenia. The Human Rights Ombudsman of
Slovenia, Ljubljana, 2009.88-94.
Demonstration Democracy in Hungary, in: Armen Harutyunyan(eds.): Freedom of Expression-Right to
Fair Trial.Almanac, Erevan(Armenia) 2010. 38-55. in Russian: 214–233; in Armenian: 123–146.
Demokratija Demonstraciji v Vengrija, in: Armen Harutyunyan(ed.): Almanah: Szvabodna
Vürazsenyija Mnenyija. Erevan(Armenia) oroszul 2010.214-233. Uo. örményül 123-146.
Gab es eine politische Ethik der Wende- und wäre diese heute noch gültig? In: András Masát(hrsg.):
Ethik und Alltag. Zwischen Wahrheit und Wirklichkeit. Andrássy Univ.Abhandlungen Nr. 23. 2010.
Budapest, 29-57.
Revisionismus, Liberalismus und Populismus: die Oppositionn in Ungarn, in: Detlef Pollack-
Jan Wielghos (hrsg.): Akteure oder Profiteure? Die demokratische Opposition in den
ostmitteleuropäischen Regimeumgbrüchen 1989.WS-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2010. 63-83.
Zwischen Reform und Revolution. Ungarns Weg aus der Staatssozialismus-wohin? In: Th.
Grossbölting-Raj Kollmorgen u.a.(Hrsg.): Das Ende des Kommunismus. Die Überwindung der
Diktaturen inn Europa und ihre Folgen. Klartext, Essen, 2010.177-195.
The Hungarian Ombudsman Institution, in: S. Rashidova(ed.): World Ombudsmen. Y-M.M. Publ.
Tashkent, 2010. 58-74.
Defizite der Demokratie oder Machtausübung mit Defiziten? Probleme der Kundgebungen und des
Versammlungsrechts in Ungarn, in: Joachim Jesko von Puttkamer-Gabriele Schubert(Hrsg.): Kulturelle
Orientierungen und gesellschaftliche Ordnungsstrukturen in Südosteuropa. Harrassowitz Verlag,
Wiesbaden, 2010. 221-239.
Ungarn hat gewahlt – aber wie? In: Berliner Debatte/Initial 2010/2. 67–73. (– Sziklay Julia): Die
Institution des Ombudsmanns in den deutschssprachigen; LanderHumboldt-Nachrichten, 2010. No.
32. 11–20.
3) Studies in Journals
Legal and Political Environment of NGO's in Hungary , in: : Annales Universitatis Scientarium
Budapestinensis de Rolando Eötvös Nominate . Sectio Iuridica. Vol. XLIX.2008.23-55.o.
Civil and Uncivil Society in Hungary, in: Central European Political Science Review 2008./33.66-87.
A Transnational Civil Society in Europe: from the point of view of the new post-communist EU-
members, in: Central European Political Science Review Vol. 9. No. 34.2008. 61-94.
Urbanisten versus Populisten in Ungarn, in: Berliner Debatte/Initial 2009/3. 67-74.o.
Disobedience and Criticism. in: Jura 2009/2. 175-185.
Unprotected? Who guards the guardians, in: European Ombudsman Newsletter 2009/12. 58-61.o.
Related to the Tradition of the Extreme Right- Down by Law in the Post-Communist Democracy, in:
Annales 2009/253-277.
The Ethos of Ombudsman's Institution, in: Journal für Rechtspolitik 2010/1. 12-21.o.
Press releases
null Statement of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary on the measures that he requested in connection with the amendment of the Slovakian Penal Code approved in December 2025
Statement of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary on the measures that he requested in connection with the amendment of the Slovakian Penal Code approved in December 2025
In his capacity as a National Human Rights Institution, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights is obliged to stand up against legislation that violates the fundamental rights of Hungarian citizens, as well as to protect the rights that they are guaranteed in the international treaties and the binding documents of the European Union.
He requests action related to the provision of the Slovakian Penal Code entitled “denial of peaceful settlement after the Second World War” running counter to international treaties and certain treaties of the European Union, with a view to preventing criminal legal sanctioning based on the public denial or questioning of the legal documents referred to in the provision, which may also be applied against Hungarian nationals living in Hungary.
It should be clarified that the amendment of the incriminated criminal law protects the “peaceful settlement” that was achieved on the basis of the laws adopted by the representative bodies of the Republic of Czechoslovakia or the Slovak National Council, an integral part of which are those 13 so-called Beneš decrees which basically deprived more than 4,000,000 ethnic Hungarians and Germans of their basic life conditions. These decrees and the subsequent laws that confirmed them have not been formally repealed ever since.
The restriction of the disputes on viewing these legal documents with criminal law instruments raises concerns all the more because in Slovakia, there are continuing expropriation procedures against the current owners of land property, in which those decisions on the confiscation of the land properties owned by ethnic Hungarian and German private individuals that were adopted after the closing of the Second World War but were not executed for administrative reasons for several decades, according to the official Slovak standpoint, are still deemed valid and are used, by recalling these legal documents. Consequently, the legal interest of the disapproved provision of the Slovakian Penal Code that is declared one to be protected by calling for the sentence of imprisonment is the entirety of such legal documents which were built on the collective punishment of people who belonged to an ethnic minority and they served the foundation of the state’s measures aimed at disenfranchisement.
With regard to all this, this criminal provision is not compatible
- with Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, pursuant to which everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
- with the provision in the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) signed in Helsinki, pursuant to which ensuring respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the legal equality of nationalities, was put as the principle governing the mutual relations of the participating states.
- as a participant of the Helsinki process, which was also signed by Czechoslovakia, with the spirit of the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, which stipulates that the questions related to national minorities can only be solved satisfactorily in a democratic political framework. The rights of persons of national minorities shall be fully respected as part of universal human rights.
- with regard to Slovakia’s European Union membership, with Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, based on which the Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.
- with Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, according to which everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
Thus, based on all the above and in line with the content of these letters, there is a threat that as a result of the chilling effect of the relevant provision of the Slovakian Penal Code, all those who wish to use domestic or international legal remedy because of the legal restrictions committed by the earlier Slovak state and the recent property expropriations committed by referring to the latter, may waive the available lawful instruments of enforcing their rights, in fear of the potential application of criminal legal sanctions, even in case that the sentence of imprisonment for expressing critical opinions against the legal documents generated as part of the “peaceful settlement” after the Second World War does not become general practice.
The incriminated provision of the Slovakian Penal Code primarily affects the ethnic Hungarian minority with Slovak citizenship in the Felvidék (‘Upper Hungary’) region but as consequence of the provisions on the territorial scope of the Slovakian Penal Code, Slovakia may even launch a criminal procedure against Hungarian citizens living in Hungary under this legal title, even for expressing an opinion on the internet. The basic problem, i.e., the grievances suffered by the ethnic Hungarian population in Slovakia after the Second World War can only be peacefully settled by repealing the so-called 13 Beneš decrees, which declared Hungarians collectively responsible for the Second World War, however, I have no competence to propose such action, contrary to the criminal provision that has recently taken effect.