| HUNGARY Republic of Hungary Magyar Koztarsasag Joined United Nations: 14 December 1955 Human Rights as assured by their constitution Updated 01 January 2013 |
FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
Article I
(1) The inviolable and inalienable fundamental rights of MAN shall be respected and defended by the State as a primary obligation.
(2) Hungary shall recognise the fundamental rights which may be exercised by individuals and communities.
(3) The rules for fundamental rights and obligations shall be determined by special Acts. A fundamental right may be restricted to allow
the exercise of another fundamental right or to defend any constitutional value to the extent absolutely necessary, in proportion to the
desired goal and in respect of the essential content of such fundamental right.
(4) Subjects of law established by an Act shall have the fundamental rights and obligations that by nature not only apply to natural persons.
Article II
Human dignity shall be inviolable. Every human being shall have the right to life and human dignity; embryonic and foetal life shall be
subject to protection from the moment of conception.
Article III
(1) No person shall be subjected to torture, any inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or be enslaved. Human trafficking shall be
prohibited.
(2) All medical and scientific experiments on human subjects without their free and informed consent shall be prohibited.
(3) All practices aimed at eugenics, any use of the human body or any of its parts for financial gain, and human cloning shall be prohibited.
Article IV
(1) Every person shall have the right to freedom and personal safety.
(2) No person shall be deprived of his or her liberty except for statutory reasons or as a result of a statutory procedure. Life imprisonment
without parole shall only be imposed in relation to the commission of wilful and violent offences.
(3) Any person suspected of and arrested for committing any offence shall either be released or brought before a court as soon as
possible. The court shall be obliged to give such person a hearing and to immediately make a decision with a written justification on his or
her acquittal or conviction.
(4) A person whose liberty has been restricted without a well-founded reason or in an unlawful manner shall be entitled to indemnity.
Article V
Every person shall have the right to repel any unlawful attack against his or her person or property, or one that poses a direct threat to the
same.
Article VI
(1) Every person shall have the right to the protection of his or her private and family life, home, relations and good reputation.
(2) Every person shall have the right to the protection of his or her personal data, and to access and disseminate data of public interest.
(3) The exercise of the right to the protection of personal data and the access to data of public interest shall be supervised by an
independent authority.
Article VII
(1) Every person shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include the freedom to choose or
change religion or any other persuasion, and the freedom for every person to proclaim, refrain from proclaiming, profess or teach his or
her religion or any other persuasion by performing religious acts, ceremonies or in any other way, whether individually or jointly with
others, in the public domain or in his or her private life.
(2) The State and Churches shall be separate. Churches shall be autonomous. The State shall cooperate with the Churches for community
goals.
(3) The detailed rules for Churches shall be regulated by a cardinal Act.
Article VIII
(1) Every person shall have the right to peaceful assembly.
(2) Every person shall have the right to establish and join organisations.
(3) The right to freedom of association shall allow the free establishment and operation of political parties. Political parties shall participate
in the formation and proclamation of people’s will. No political party may exercise public power in a direct way.
(4) The detailed rules for the operation and financial management of political parties shall be regulated by a cardinal Act.
(5) The right to freedom of association shall allow the free establishment and operation of trade unions and other representative bodies.
Article IX
(1) Every person shall have the right to express his or her opinion.
(2) Hungary shall recognise and defend the freedom and diversity of the press, and shall ensure the conditions for free dissemination of
information necessary for the formation of democratic public opinion.
(3) The detailed rules for the freedom of the press and the organ supervising media services, press products and the infocommunications
market shall be regulated by a cardinal Act.
Article X
(1) Hungary shall ensure the freedom of scientific research and artistic creation, the freedom of learning for the acquisition of the highest
possible level of knowledge, and the freedom of teaching within the framework determined by law.
(2) The State shall not be entitled to decide on questions of scientific truth, and scientists shall have the exclusive right to evaluate any
scientific research.
(3) Hungary shall defend the scientific and artistic freedom of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
All institutions of higher education shall be autonomous in terms of the contents and methodology of research and teaching, and their
organisations and financial management shall be regulated by a special Act.
Article XI
(1) Every Hungarian citizen shall have the right to education.
(2) Hungary shall ensure this right by extending and generalising public education, providing free and compulsory primary education, free
and generally available secondary education, and higher education available to every person according to
12
his or her abilities, and by providing statutory financial support to beneficiaries of education.
Article XII
(1) Every person shall have the right to freely choose his or her work, occupation and entrepreneurial activities. Every person shall be
obliged to contribute to the community’s enrichment with his or her work to the best of his or her abilities and potential.
(2) Hungary shall strive to create conditions ensuring that every person who is able and willing to work has the opportunity to do so.
Article XIII
(1) Every person shall have the right to property and inheritance. Property shall entail social responsibility.
(2) Property may only be expropriated in exceptional cases and in the public interest, in legally defined cases and ways, and subject to full,
unconditional and immediate indemnity.
Article XIV
(1) No Hungarian citizen may be expelled from the territory of Hungary and every Hungarian citizen may return from abroad at any time.
Any foreign citizen staying in the territory of Hungary may only be expelled by a lawful decision. Collective expulsion shall be prohibited.
(2) No person may be expelled or extradited to a state where he or she faces the danger of a death sentence, torture or any other inhuman
treatment or punishment.
(3) Hungary shall grant asylum to all non-Hungarian citizens as requested if they are being persecuted or have a well-founded fear of
persecution in their native countries or in the countries of their usual residence due to their racial or national identities, affiliation to a
particular social group, or to their religious or political persuasions, unless they receive protection from their countries of origin or any
other country.
Article XV
(1) Every person shall be equal before the law. Every human being shall have legal capacity.
(2) Hungary shall ensure fundamental rights to every person without any discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, gender, disability,
language, religion, political or other views, national or social origin, financial, birth or other circumstances whatsoever.
(3) Women and men shall have equal rights.
(4) Hungary shall adopt special measures to promote the implementation of legal equality.
(5) Hungary shall adopt special measures to protect children, women, the elderly and persons living with disabilities.
Article XVI
(1) Every child shall have the right to the protection and care required for his or her proper physical, mental and moral development.
(2) Parents shall have the right to choose the type of upbringing they deem fit for their children.
(3) Parents shall be obliged to look after their children. This obligation shall include the provision of schooling for their children.
(4) Adult children shall be obliged to look after their parents if they are in need.
Article XVII
(1) Employees and employers shall cooperate with each other in order to ensure jobs, make the national economy sustainable and for
other community goals.
(2) Employees, employers and their representative bodies shall have a statutory right to bargain and conclude collective agreements, and to
take any joint action or hold strikes in defence of their interests.
(3) Every employee shall have the right to working conditions which respect his or her health, safety and dignity.
(4) Every employee shall have the right to daily and weekly rest times and annual paid leave.
Article XVIII
(1) The employment of children shall be prohibited except for cases laid down in an Act posing no risk to the child’s physical, mental or
moral development.
(2) Hungary shall adopt special measures to protect young people and parents in the workplace.
Article XIX
(1) Hungary shall strive to provide social security to all of its citizens. Every Hungarian citizen shall be entitled to statutory subsidies for
maternity, illness, disability, widowhood, orphanage and unemployment not caused by his or her own actions.
(2) Hungary shall implement social security for the persons listed in Paragraph (1) and other people in need through a system of social
institutions and measures.
(3) The nature and extent of social measures may be determined by law in accordance with the usefulness to the community of the
beneficiary’s activity.
(4) Hungary shall promote the livelihood of the elderly by maintaining a general state pension system based on social solidarity and by
allowing for the operation of voluntarily established social institutions. Eligibility for a state pension may include statutory criteria in
consideration of the requirement for special protection to women.
Article XX
(1) Every person shall have the right to physical and mental health.
(2) Hungary shall promote the exercise of the right set out in Paragraph (1) by ensuring that its agriculture remains free from any
genetically modified organism, by providing access to healthy food and drinking water, by managing industrial safety and healthcare, by
supporting sports and regular physical exercise, and by ensuring environmental protection.
Article XXI
(1) Hungary shall recognise and enforce the right of every person to a healthy environment.
(2) A person who causes any damage to the environment shall be obliged to restore it or to bear all costs of restoration as defined by law.
(3) No pollutant waste shall be brought into Hungary for the purpose of dumping.
Article XXII
Hungary shall strive to provide every person with decent housing and access to public services.
Article XXIII
(1) Every adult Hungarian citizen shall have the right to be a voter as well as a candidate in the elections of Members of Parliament, local
representatives and mayors, and of members of the European Parliament.
(2) Every adult citizen of any other member state of the European Union who is a resident of Hungary shall have the right to be a voter as
well as a candidate in the elections of local representatives and mayors, and of members of the European Parliament.
(3) Every adult person who is recognised as a refugee, immigrant or resident of Hungary shall have the right to be a voter in the elections
of local representatives and mayors.
(4) The exercise or completeness of active suffrage may be subject to the requirement of residence in Hungary, and passive suffrage may
be subject to further criteria under a cardinal Act.
(5) Every elector may participate in the election of local representatives and mayors in the locality of his or her residence or registered
address. Every elector may exercise his or her right to vote in the locality of his or her residence or registered address.
(6) A person disenfranchised by a court for committing an offence or due to his or her limited mental capacity shall have no suffrage. No
citizen of any other member state of the European Union who is a resident of Hungary shall have passive suffrage if he or she has been
disenfranchised in his or her native country under any law, court or official decision of his or her state of citizenship.
(7) Every person entitled to vote in elections of Members of Parliament shall have the right to participate in national referenda. Every
person entitled to vote in elections of local representatives and mayors shall have the right to participate in local referenda.
(8) Every Hungarian citizen shall have the right to hold a public office corresponding to his or her aptitude, qualifications and expertise. A
special Act shall determine public offices that may not be held by members or officials of any political party.
Article XXIV
(1) Every person shall have the right to have his or her affairs administered by the authorities in an impartial, fair and reasonably timely
manner. This right shall include the obligation of the authorities to justify their decisions as determined by law.
(2) Every person shall have the right to statutory state compensation for any unlawful damage caused by the authorities while performing
their duties.
Article XXV
Every person shall have the right to submit a written application, complaint or proposal, whether individual or joint, to any organ which
exercises public power.
Article XXVI
The State shall strive to use the latest technological solutions and scientific achievements to make its operation efficient, raise the standard
of public services, improve the transparency of public affairs and to promote equality of opportunity.
Article XXVII
(1) Every person lawfully staying in the territory of Hungary shall have the right to freedom of movement and to freely choose residence.
(2) Every Hungarian citizen shall have the right to be protected by Hungary during any stay abroad.
Article XXVIII
(1) Every person shall have the right to have any charge against him or her, or any right and duty in litigation, adjudicated by a legally
established independent and impartial court in a fair public trial within a reasonable period of time.
(2) No person shall be considered guilty unless his or her criminal liability has been established by an effective court ruling.
(3) Every person subject to prosecution shall have the right to legal defence at every stage of the trial. No counsel shall be made liable for
his or her opinion expressed while providing legal defence.
(4) No person shall be found guilty or be punished for an act which, at the time when it was committed, was not an offence under the
law of Hungary or of any other state by virtue of an international agreement or any legal act of the European Union.
(5) Paragraph (4) shall not exclude the prosecution or conviction of any person for an act which was, at the time when it was committed,
an offence according to the generally recognised rules of international law.
(6) Except for extraordinary cases of legal remedy determined by law, no person shall be prosecuted or convicted for any offence for
which he or she has already been acquitted or convicted by an effective court ruling, whether in Hungary or in any other jurisdiction as
defined by international agreements or any legal act of the European Union.
(7) Every person shall have the right to seek legal remedy against any court, administrative or other official decision which violates his or
her rights or lawful interests.
Article XXIX
(1) Nationalities living in Hungary shall be constituent parts of the State. Every Hungarian citizen belonging to any nationality shall have the
right to freely express and preserve his or her identity. Nationalities living in Hungary shall have the right to use their native languages and
to the individual and collective use of names in their own languages, to promote their own cultures, and to be educated in their native
languages.
(2) Nationalities living in Hungary shall have the right to establish local and national self-governments.
(3) The detailed rules for the rights of nationalities living in Hungary and the rules for the elections of their local and national self-
governments shall be defined by a cardinal Act.
Article XXX
(1) Every person shall contribute to satisfying community needs to the best of his or her capabilities and in proportion to his or her
participation in the economy.
(2) For persons raising children, the extent of contribution to satisfying community needs shall be determined in consideration of the costs
of raising children.
Article XXXI
(1) Every Hungarian citizen shall be obliged to defend the country.
(2) Hungary shall maintain a voluntary reserve force for national defence purposes.
(3) During a state of national crisis or, by decision of Parliament during a state of preventive defence, every adult male Hungarian citizen
living in Hungary shall perform military service. If armed service is incompatible with the conscience of any person obliged to perform
military service, he shall perform unarmed service. The forms and detailed rules for military service shall be defined by a cardinal Act.
(4) Every adult Hungarian citizen living in Hungary may be ordered to perform work for national defence purposes during a state of
national crisis as defined by a cardinal Act.
(5) Every adult Hungarian citizen living in Hungary may be ordered to engage in civil protection for the purpose of national defence and
disaster management as defined by a cardinal Act.
(6) Every person may be ordered to provide economic and financial services for the purpose of national defence and disaster
management, as defined by a cardinal Act.
Article I
(1) The inviolable and inalienable fundamental rights of MAN shall be respected and defended by the State as a primary obligation.
(2) Hungary shall recognise the fundamental rights which may be exercised by individuals and communities.
(3) The rules for fundamental rights and obligations shall be determined by special Acts. A fundamental right may be restricted to allow
the exercise of another fundamental right or to defend any constitutional value to the extent absolutely necessary, in proportion to the
desired goal and in respect of the essential content of such fundamental right.
(4) Subjects of law established by an Act shall have the fundamental rights and obligations that by nature not only apply to natural persons.
Article II
Human dignity shall be inviolable. Every human being shall have the right to life and human dignity; embryonic and foetal life shall be
subject to protection from the moment of conception.
Article III
(1) No person shall be subjected to torture, any inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or be enslaved. Human trafficking shall be
prohibited.
(2) All medical and scientific experiments on human subjects without their free and informed consent shall be prohibited.
(3) All practices aimed at eugenics, any use of the human body or any of its parts for financial gain, and human cloning shall be prohibited.
Article IV
(1) Every person shall have the right to freedom and personal safety.
(2) No person shall be deprived of his or her liberty except for statutory reasons or as a result of a statutory procedure. Life imprisonment
without parole shall only be imposed in relation to the commission of wilful and violent offences.
(3) Any person suspected of and arrested for committing any offence shall either be released or brought before a court as soon as
possible. The court shall be obliged to give such person a hearing and to immediately make a decision with a written justification on his or
her acquittal or conviction.
(4) A person whose liberty has been restricted without a well-founded reason or in an unlawful manner shall be entitled to indemnity.
Article V
Every person shall have the right to repel any unlawful attack against his or her person or property, or one that poses a direct threat to the
same.
Article VI
(1) Every person shall have the right to the protection of his or her private and family life, home, relations and good reputation.
(2) Every person shall have the right to the protection of his or her personal data, and to access and disseminate data of public interest.
(3) The exercise of the right to the protection of personal data and the access to data of public interest shall be supervised by an
independent authority.
Article VII
(1) Every person shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include the freedom to choose or
change religion or any other persuasion, and the freedom for every person to proclaim, refrain from proclaiming, profess or teach his or
her religion or any other persuasion by performing religious acts, ceremonies or in any other way, whether individually or jointly with
others, in the public domain or in his or her private life.
(2) The State and Churches shall be separate. Churches shall be autonomous. The State shall cooperate with the Churches for community
goals.
(3) The detailed rules for Churches shall be regulated by a cardinal Act.
Article VIII
(1) Every person shall have the right to peaceful assembly.
(2) Every person shall have the right to establish and join organisations.
(3) The right to freedom of association shall allow the free establishment and operation of political parties. Political parties shall participate
in the formation and proclamation of people’s will. No political party may exercise public power in a direct way.
(4) The detailed rules for the operation and financial management of political parties shall be regulated by a cardinal Act.
(5) The right to freedom of association shall allow the free establishment and operation of trade unions and other representative bodies.
Article IX
(1) Every person shall have the right to express his or her opinion.
(2) Hungary shall recognise and defend the freedom and diversity of the press, and shall ensure the conditions for free dissemination of
information necessary for the formation of democratic public opinion.
(3) The detailed rules for the freedom of the press and the organ supervising media services, press products and the infocommunications
market shall be regulated by a cardinal Act.
Article X
(1) Hungary shall ensure the freedom of scientific research and artistic creation, the freedom of learning for the acquisition of the highest
possible level of knowledge, and the freedom of teaching within the framework determined by law.
(2) The State shall not be entitled to decide on questions of scientific truth, and scientists shall have the exclusive right to evaluate any
scientific research.
(3) Hungary shall defend the scientific and artistic freedom of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
All institutions of higher education shall be autonomous in terms of the contents and methodology of research and teaching, and their
organisations and financial management shall be regulated by a special Act.
Article XI
(1) Every Hungarian citizen shall have the right to education.
(2) Hungary shall ensure this right by extending and generalising public education, providing free and compulsory primary education, free
and generally available secondary education, and higher education available to every person according to
12
his or her abilities, and by providing statutory financial support to beneficiaries of education.
Article XII
(1) Every person shall have the right to freely choose his or her work, occupation and entrepreneurial activities. Every person shall be
obliged to contribute to the community’s enrichment with his or her work to the best of his or her abilities and potential.
(2) Hungary shall strive to create conditions ensuring that every person who is able and willing to work has the opportunity to do so.
Article XIII
(1) Every person shall have the right to property and inheritance. Property shall entail social responsibility.
(2) Property may only be expropriated in exceptional cases and in the public interest, in legally defined cases and ways, and subject to full,
unconditional and immediate indemnity.
Article XIV
(1) No Hungarian citizen may be expelled from the territory of Hungary and every Hungarian citizen may return from abroad at any time.
Any foreign citizen staying in the territory of Hungary may only be expelled by a lawful decision. Collective expulsion shall be prohibited.
(2) No person may be expelled or extradited to a state where he or she faces the danger of a death sentence, torture or any other inhuman
treatment or punishment.
(3) Hungary shall grant asylum to all non-Hungarian citizens as requested if they are being persecuted or have a well-founded fear of
persecution in their native countries or in the countries of their usual residence due to their racial or national identities, affiliation to a
particular social group, or to their religious or political persuasions, unless they receive protection from their countries of origin or any
other country.
Article XV
(1) Every person shall be equal before the law. Every human being shall have legal capacity.
(2) Hungary shall ensure fundamental rights to every person without any discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, gender, disability,
language, religion, political or other views, national or social origin, financial, birth or other circumstances whatsoever.
(3) Women and men shall have equal rights.
(4) Hungary shall adopt special measures to promote the implementation of legal equality.
(5) Hungary shall adopt special measures to protect children, women, the elderly and persons living with disabilities.
Article XVI
(1) Every child shall have the right to the protection and care required for his or her proper physical, mental and moral development.
(2) Parents shall have the right to choose the type of upbringing they deem fit for their children.
(3) Parents shall be obliged to look after their children. This obligation shall include the provision of schooling for their children.
(4) Adult children shall be obliged to look after their parents if they are in need.
Article XVII
(1) Employees and employers shall cooperate with each other in order to ensure jobs, make the national economy sustainable and for
other community goals.
(2) Employees, employers and their representative bodies shall have a statutory right to bargain and conclude collective agreements, and to
take any joint action or hold strikes in defence of their interests.
(3) Every employee shall have the right to working conditions which respect his or her health, safety and dignity.
(4) Every employee shall have the right to daily and weekly rest times and annual paid leave.
Article XVIII
(1) The employment of children shall be prohibited except for cases laid down in an Act posing no risk to the child’s physical, mental or
moral development.
(2) Hungary shall adopt special measures to protect young people and parents in the workplace.
Article XIX
(1) Hungary shall strive to provide social security to all of its citizens. Every Hungarian citizen shall be entitled to statutory subsidies for
maternity, illness, disability, widowhood, orphanage and unemployment not caused by his or her own actions.
(2) Hungary shall implement social security for the persons listed in Paragraph (1) and other people in need through a system of social
institutions and measures.
(3) The nature and extent of social measures may be determined by law in accordance with the usefulness to the community of the
beneficiary’s activity.
(4) Hungary shall promote the livelihood of the elderly by maintaining a general state pension system based on social solidarity and by
allowing for the operation of voluntarily established social institutions. Eligibility for a state pension may include statutory criteria in
consideration of the requirement for special protection to women.
Article XX
(1) Every person shall have the right to physical and mental health.
(2) Hungary shall promote the exercise of the right set out in Paragraph (1) by ensuring that its agriculture remains free from any
genetically modified organism, by providing access to healthy food and drinking water, by managing industrial safety and healthcare, by
supporting sports and regular physical exercise, and by ensuring environmental protection.
Article XXI
(1) Hungary shall recognise and enforce the right of every person to a healthy environment.
(2) A person who causes any damage to the environment shall be obliged to restore it or to bear all costs of restoration as defined by law.
(3) No pollutant waste shall be brought into Hungary for the purpose of dumping.
Article XXII
Hungary shall strive to provide every person with decent housing and access to public services.
Article XXIII
(1) Every adult Hungarian citizen shall have the right to be a voter as well as a candidate in the elections of Members of Parliament, local
representatives and mayors, and of members of the European Parliament.
(2) Every adult citizen of any other member state of the European Union who is a resident of Hungary shall have the right to be a voter as
well as a candidate in the elections of local representatives and mayors, and of members of the European Parliament.
(3) Every adult person who is recognised as a refugee, immigrant or resident of Hungary shall have the right to be a voter in the elections
of local representatives and mayors.
(4) The exercise or completeness of active suffrage may be subject to the requirement of residence in Hungary, and passive suffrage may
be subject to further criteria under a cardinal Act.
(5) Every elector may participate in the election of local representatives and mayors in the locality of his or her residence or registered
address. Every elector may exercise his or her right to vote in the locality of his or her residence or registered address.
(6) A person disenfranchised by a court for committing an offence or due to his or her limited mental capacity shall have no suffrage. No
citizen of any other member state of the European Union who is a resident of Hungary shall have passive suffrage if he or she has been
disenfranchised in his or her native country under any law, court or official decision of his or her state of citizenship.
(7) Every person entitled to vote in elections of Members of Parliament shall have the right to participate in national referenda. Every
person entitled to vote in elections of local representatives and mayors shall have the right to participate in local referenda.
(8) Every Hungarian citizen shall have the right to hold a public office corresponding to his or her aptitude, qualifications and expertise. A
special Act shall determine public offices that may not be held by members or officials of any political party.
Article XXIV
(1) Every person shall have the right to have his or her affairs administered by the authorities in an impartial, fair and reasonably timely
manner. This right shall include the obligation of the authorities to justify their decisions as determined by law.
(2) Every person shall have the right to statutory state compensation for any unlawful damage caused by the authorities while performing
their duties.
Article XXV
Every person shall have the right to submit a written application, complaint or proposal, whether individual or joint, to any organ which
exercises public power.
Article XXVI
The State shall strive to use the latest technological solutions and scientific achievements to make its operation efficient, raise the standard
of public services, improve the transparency of public affairs and to promote equality of opportunity.
Article XXVII
(1) Every person lawfully staying in the territory of Hungary shall have the right to freedom of movement and to freely choose residence.
(2) Every Hungarian citizen shall have the right to be protected by Hungary during any stay abroad.
Article XXVIII
(1) Every person shall have the right to have any charge against him or her, or any right and duty in litigation, adjudicated by a legally
established independent and impartial court in a fair public trial within a reasonable period of time.
(2) No person shall be considered guilty unless his or her criminal liability has been established by an effective court ruling.
(3) Every person subject to prosecution shall have the right to legal defence at every stage of the trial. No counsel shall be made liable for
his or her opinion expressed while providing legal defence.
(4) No person shall be found guilty or be punished for an act which, at the time when it was committed, was not an offence under the
law of Hungary or of any other state by virtue of an international agreement or any legal act of the European Union.
(5) Paragraph (4) shall not exclude the prosecution or conviction of any person for an act which was, at the time when it was committed,
an offence according to the generally recognised rules of international law.
(6) Except for extraordinary cases of legal remedy determined by law, no person shall be prosecuted or convicted for any offence for
which he or she has already been acquitted or convicted by an effective court ruling, whether in Hungary or in any other jurisdiction as
defined by international agreements or any legal act of the European Union.
(7) Every person shall have the right to seek legal remedy against any court, administrative or other official decision which violates his or
her rights or lawful interests.
Article XXIX
(1) Nationalities living in Hungary shall be constituent parts of the State. Every Hungarian citizen belonging to any nationality shall have the
right to freely express and preserve his or her identity. Nationalities living in Hungary shall have the right to use their native languages and
to the individual and collective use of names in their own languages, to promote their own cultures, and to be educated in their native
languages.
(2) Nationalities living in Hungary shall have the right to establish local and national self-governments.
(3) The detailed rules for the rights of nationalities living in Hungary and the rules for the elections of their local and national self-
governments shall be defined by a cardinal Act.
Article XXX
(1) Every person shall contribute to satisfying community needs to the best of his or her capabilities and in proportion to his or her
participation in the economy.
(2) For persons raising children, the extent of contribution to satisfying community needs shall be determined in consideration of the costs
of raising children.
Article XXXI
(1) Every Hungarian citizen shall be obliged to defend the country.
(2) Hungary shall maintain a voluntary reserve force for national defence purposes.
(3) During a state of national crisis or, by decision of Parliament during a state of preventive defence, every adult male Hungarian citizen
living in Hungary shall perform military service. If armed service is incompatible with the conscience of any person obliged to perform
military service, he shall perform unarmed service. The forms and detailed rules for military service shall be defined by a cardinal Act.
(4) Every adult Hungarian citizen living in Hungary may be ordered to perform work for national defence purposes during a state of
national crisis as defined by a cardinal Act.
(5) Every adult Hungarian citizen living in Hungary may be ordered to engage in civil protection for the purpose of national defence and
disaster management as defined by a cardinal Act.
(6) Every person may be ordered to provide economic and financial services for the purpose of national defence and disaster
management, as defined by a cardinal Act.
Human habitation of the region containing Hungary dates back to about 6,500 BCE with the
Koros culture. The region underwent domination by Celts, the Roman Empire, the Huns and
various nomadic tribes. The arrival of the Magyar tribespeople from across the Carpathian
Mountains from Ukraine some time after 896 is traditionally considered the beginning of
Hungarian Culture. Magyars dominated until defeat by the Ottoman Empire in 1526 and the
division of Hungary into three parts in 1541. The ascension of the Austrian Hapsburgs led to
a union with Croatia to create the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1718 the entire Kingdom was
restored. On 15 March 1848, mass demonstrations led to the dethroning of the Hapsburgs
and the establishment of the first Republic of Hungary. In 1867, Hungary was reunited with
Hungary into one Kingdom. Their defeat in World War I led to the collapse of the Monarchy
and the independent Republic of Hungary was declared on 31 October 1918. Their
alignment with Germany in World War II led to post war domination by Russian and a
transition to Communism. On 3 November 1956, students who had originally organized for
were crushed in a bid for independence. On 23 October 1989, Hungary achieved
independence from the Soviet Union with the promulgation of a revised Constitution. The
Fundamental Law of Hungary the country's new constitution, was adopted on 18 April 2011,
promulgated a week later and went into force on 1 January 2012 and is Hungary's first
constitution to be adopted within a democratic framework and following free elections.
Human rights are detailed beginning with Article I (FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY),
conforms with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which Hungary is a
signatory, and are enumerated below. For a full English translation of Hungary's
Constitution, click here.
Koros culture. The region underwent domination by Celts, the Roman Empire, the Huns and
various nomadic tribes. The arrival of the Magyar tribespeople from across the Carpathian
Mountains from Ukraine some time after 896 is traditionally considered the beginning of
Hungarian Culture. Magyars dominated until defeat by the Ottoman Empire in 1526 and the
division of Hungary into three parts in 1541. The ascension of the Austrian Hapsburgs led to
a union with Croatia to create the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1718 the entire Kingdom was
restored. On 15 March 1848, mass demonstrations led to the dethroning of the Hapsburgs
and the establishment of the first Republic of Hungary. In 1867, Hungary was reunited with
Hungary into one Kingdom. Their defeat in World War I led to the collapse of the Monarchy
and the independent Republic of Hungary was declared on 31 October 1918. Their
alignment with Germany in World War II led to post war domination by Russian and a
transition to Communism. On 3 November 1956, students who had originally organized for
were crushed in a bid for independence. On 23 October 1989, Hungary achieved
independence from the Soviet Union with the promulgation of a revised Constitution. The
Fundamental Law of Hungary the country's new constitution, was adopted on 18 April 2011,
promulgated a week later and went into force on 1 January 2012 and is Hungary's first
constitution to be adopted within a democratic framework and following free elections.
Human rights are detailed beginning with Article I (FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY),
conforms with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which Hungary is a
signatory, and are enumerated below. For a full English translation of Hungary's
Constitution, click here.