Statement of Dr Tamás Korhecz, president of HNMC concerning the decision of the Constitutional Court on the constitutionality of the Law on National Councils
The National Council of the Hungarian National Minority is disappointed with the decision of the Serbian Constitutional Court from 16th January, which declared unconstitutional and repealed certain provisions of the Law on National Councils of National Minorities. This body pronounced two Articles of the Law (Article 23: Invalidity of Enactments and Article 24: Assignment of the Founding Right) entirely, and additional eight Articles ( Article 10: General Competences, Article 12: Competences in the Filed of Education – Participation in the Institutional Management, Article 15: Other Competences in the Field of Education, Article 19: Competences in the Field of Media – Founding Rights, Article 20: Competences in the Field of Media – Participation in the Institutional Management, Article 25: Relation with the State Bodies, Article 26: Relation with the Bodies of the Autonomous Province and the Local Self-Government Units, Article 27: International and Regional Co-operation) partially unconstitutional. Some of the repealed provisions ensured such collective minority rights that the National Council of the Hungarian National Minority has been enjoying and enforcing legally for several years, therefore this decision reduces the acquired level of minority rights, therefore some established rights and standards have been infringed. These repealed provisions primarily refer to our rights related to the management of educational institutions primarily attended by Hungarians and those of particular importance to our community.
Though we consider some parts of the decision unacceptable from the point of constitutional law, anyway we consider positively that the Constitutional Court’s decision affirms the administrative competencies in general of directly elected national councils, the right of national councils to become founders of public educational and cultural institutions. It should be emphasized that the rights and competencies of national councils in the fields of culture and official language use have remained entirely untouched. While we hope that the legislation will complement the repealed provisions with adequate new provisions, this time it has been proved once again that in the field of minority protection in Serbia “the practice of one step forward – one step backward” is still prevailing.
Dr Tamás Korhecz, president of HNMC