[ad_1]
The secret history of the 2018 elections in 84 color pages.
I’ll buy it
As Chairman of the Parliamentary Judicial Commission, Imre Vejkey of the KDNP introduced a bill that would allow the Equal Treatment Authority (ETA), established in 2004, to function as part of the Ombudsman’s Office (AJBH) from now on, thus losing its autonomy. We have already briefly reported on Monday’s news. Given that ruling parties tend to change the institutional public law system if they have a specific interest in it, it is also worth examining in relation to this step what might have justified it and what the change means.
Why right now?
The bill’s explanatory memorandum says essentially nothing about it. The only reference to a date after the adoption of the Basic Law requiring equal treatment in 2011 mentions an AB resolution from 2012. But it is also unclear why the transformation suddenly became timely in the fall of 2020.
Communication of the bill is hampered by the fact that the justification states that the protection of the fundamental right to equal treatment will be more comprehensive and effective in the new alignment.
In other words, it is undeniable that it is a rule of law.However, for months, the government has been trying to dispel EU criticism of the Hungarian rule of law by saying that Brussels should focus on epidemiological defense rather than indict it for political purposes.
EBA matters
ETA can be contacted if someone has been disadvantaged due to a trait (perceived or real), such as skin color, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political preference. If the request is found to be well founded, the authority may impose various sanctions. ETA, one of the relatively well-functioning autonomous public administrations, has acted quickly and more effectively against discrimination, in some cases even against the political preferences of the majority government.
This was the case, for example, when the University of Debrecen was convicted of discriminating against a student who protested against the honorary university citizen title awarded to Vladimir Putin. Or when the local government of Pécs acted in a similar way, afterwards (even during the leadership of Fidesz) they were constantly sucking a newspaper (of the opposition), the Pécs Stop.
Is the government racist, is Gergely Gulyás homophobic?
However, there is a much more politically sensitive issue on which important progress has just been made. At the end of the 2018 election campaign, the government put up posters with STOP inscriptions throughout the country on which Arab-looking asylum seekers marched. The Society turned to ETA for the Rights of Freedom and asked ETA to declare that the cartel harasses and violates the right to equal treatment of people of Middle Eastern, South Asian and North African descent with darker skin than most Hungarians.
ETA, like the fire, was afraid to start a procedure at the end of which it might have to say: Viktor Orbán’s government was carrying out racist propaganda.Otherwise, it is difficult to justify the neck-wrapped justification with which the HCLU application was rejected. It was argued that immigration policy is a central element of the government program, the parliamentary majority of the government voted with confidence, so that the anti-migrant campaign is in fact the result of a parliamentary decision, and its competence does not extend to the parliamentary decisions.
The HCLU filed an administrative complaint against the decision, and after two and a half years and three rounds, it was finally decided in the Metropolitan Court that ETA could not continue. And just in the second half of last week, the defense organization was notified that ETA had already prosecuted the government and the Prime Minister’s Office.
The HCLU recently turned to the ETA in another shameful case: they complain that according to Gergely Gulyás, minister who heads the Prime Minister’s Office, the presentation of the fairy tale book Fairy Tale to Everyone raises suspicions of endangering minors. According to the HCLU, the minister’s statement could intimidate members of minorities in the book.
Does the merger of ETA with the Ombudsman’s Office change anything?
Some say things that have been unpleasant to the government may have prompted the law change. But we also had a source of legal protection that was sure there was no such connection. For one thing, there would have been very few days to prepare a Commission proposal, and the government does not usually suffer a heart attack immediately if criticized.
For example, regarding the STOP signpost campaign, the Curia said right after the elections that the government had supported the parties of the Fidesz-KDNP coalition with it, violating equal opportunities between the parties. It is true that it is not racism in that procedure. It is also true that the Curia received a new president just a few weeks ago in the person of András Varga Zs., Also known for his ultra-fair constitutional right.
Regardless of what the coalition’s law factory started, it is difficult to interpret putting ETA under the authority of the ombudsman as a step forward from the point of view of law enforcement. At least the omens are not good: the Independent Police Complaints Board recently reached a similar line and, in 2012, professional ombudsmen lost their independence.
Under the bill, ETA’s current powers and procedures would not change under the AJBH. However, the employer’s rights would now be exercised by the Ombudsman, Ákos Kozma. Since AJBH has become almost invisible since Kozma was appointed last summer,
fears that the Commissioner, following his current routine, will try to fully control the functioning of the new administrative authority,which could significantly slow down ETA’s relatively smooth work so far.
It is not yet known under what infrastructure, personnel and financial conditions the successor organization will be able to continue working, for example, how many of the current 29 employees can remain. In any case, the abolition of ETA’s independence seems to fit in well with the series of measures taken by Viktor Orbán to try to silence the sometimes critical voices within the state apparatus.
We asked the president of ETA, Ágnes Honecz, with his staff what they know about the background of the proposal, if they believe that the current level of legal protection in the new system can be ensured, if they have previously received any indication about the planned change and if they know something about the conditions to continue the work. within the framework of. ETA did not want to speak. According to the bill, the expected date of entry into force is January 1, 2021, the date of Ágnes Honecz’s mandate.
[ad_2]
