Hungary’s International Legal Obligations
9.
Hungary is a state party to both the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless
Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961). It is also a party
to core human rights treaties that have provisions related to statelessness including the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) and the Convention on the Rights
of the Child (1989). Hungary is also a party to the European Convention on Nationality
(1997) and is one of the few states in the world to operate a specific mechanism for the
identification and protection of stateless persons.
10.
Nevertheless, much remains to be done in order to ensure the complete and effective
fulfilment of the country’s international obligations relevant to statelessness. This
submission focuses on some of these gaps in Hungarian law and practice, which result
both in increasing the risk of new cases of statelessness in Hungary and in undermining
the human rights protection of stateless persons in the country. In particular, this
submission looks at:
Law and policy gaps related to the right of every child to acquire a nationality
and the prevention of statelessness at birth;
The lack of basic substantive and procedural safeguards in naturalisation
procedures;
Restrictions in access to the statelessness determination procedure and the
non-provision of temporary status for applicants; and
Restrictions in access to socio-economic rights, in particular, the right to
employment, housing, health care, and education for recognised stateless
persons.
Insufficiency in the Prevention of Statelessness at Birth
11.
Hungary has the following international obligations with respect to the prevention of
statelessness at birth:
4
Hungary shall ensure that all children born on its territory can exercise their right
to a nationality, with particular attention to those children who would otherwise
be stateless;4
Hungary shall provide for its nationality to be automatically acquired by
foundlings found on its territory who would otherwise be stateless;5
Hungary shall provide for its nationality to be acquired by children born on its
territory who do not acquire at birth another nationality, either at birth or
subsequently, to children who remained stateless, upon application (with the
possibility to require maximum five years of habitual residence before submitting
the application, no other conditions)6 and the period in which persons concerned
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 7.
1997 European Convention on Nationality, Article 6 (1) (b); 1961 Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness, Article 2.
6
1997 European Convention on Nationality, Article 2 (6) (b); 1961 Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness, Article 1 (2) (b).
5