Your Excellency, M. Président,
Excellencies, dear Colleagues,
The 10 years anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides a great opportunity to reflect on the improvement of the rights of indigenous peoples in the past decade,
Let me start by emphasizing Hungary’s recognition of the important contributions of the UN mechanisms working on indigenous issues, and commend the efforts of the Permanent Forum, the Expert Mechanism and the Special Rapporteur on indigenous Peoples.
The special importance Hungary attaches to the promotion of the rights of indigenous peoples stems from two sources.
While there are no indigenous peoples living on our soil, numerous Hungarian communities exist as national minorities in surrounding countries for long centuries. These communities in their legitimate aspirations to preserve national identity – the language, the traditions, the culture, the religion - are facing very similar challenges to those of indigenous peoples. We just understand very well what it means, how hard it can be to protect cultural identity.
The worldwide promotion of the respect for and the protection of the rights of minorities - especially in Csángó land, where the Hungarian “Magyar” language is considered by UNESCO a severely endangered language - remains one of the major priorities of the Hungarian foreign policy. Hungary ensures the rights of minorities living under its jurisdiction by providing constitutional, institutional and other legal guarantees, including autonomous self-governance and parliamentary representation. We firmly believe that our commitment to the rights of minorities serves also the cause of indigenous peoples.
In this regard, and noting that this year is also the 25th anniversary of the “UN Declaration of the Rights of Persons belonging to Minorities”, the 10th annual Human Rights Forum which is to be held in 28-29 November in Budapest, will host a panel on comparative study of the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.
Based on linguistic kinship Hungary is an active and devoted member of the Finno-Ugric movement, which held its 6th World Conference in Hungary. Last year, Iszkaszentgyörgy and Veszprém were chosen as the Finno-Ugric Capital of Culture. This program aims to raise the identity of Finno-Ugric, and Samoyedic people, and to improve their cooperation.
In this context we are glad to note that the Finno-Ugric World has confirmed itself since its more than 20 year existence as a “reality with its own identity and self-reliance, institutions and diverse organizations consistently introducing and implementing in its activities the international standards”, especially in the areas of social, economic and cultural rights, both in their individual and collective dimensions, in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Let me reiterate our strong support for the outcome document of the 2014 World Conference. Hungary fully shares its objectives, with special regard to provisions aiming at securing the rights of indigenous peoples in the fields of education, health, culture, housing, capacity-building based on principles of non-discrimination, equal participation and empowerment.
Hungary welcomes the consultation process concerning the ways to enable the participation of indigenous peoples’ representatives and institutions in meetings of relevant United Nations bodies on issues affecting them and commends the work of the advisers.
Mr. President,
Hungary has the privilege to be a member of Human Rights Council until 2019 and as a former co-chair of the Open Working Group on SDGs, Hungary has a firm and longstanding dedication to contribute at all levels to the realization of this universal and ambitious roadmap, in which the Human Rights Council’s role is substantial. We are committed in integrating the support to indigenous peoples in the implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
In conclusion, I would like to confirm that Hungary remains committed to taking fully into account the interests and aspirations of indigenous peoples in the international human rights mechanisms.
I thank you very much for your attention.
