Slovak-Hungarian relations have greatly deteriorated between neighboring
Hungary and Slovakia, both member countries of NATO and the EU. The
source of the deepening tension has been the passage, on June 30, 2009, of
additional restrictive amendments to the Meciar era Slovak State Law 270 of
1995. These restrictive amendments were passed even after the Hungarian
minority in Slovakia and Hungary herself expressed their concerns.
Analysis
Nearly every sentence of the State Language Law restricts ethnic Hungarian
citizens of Slovakia in using their native language and in their freedom of
speech; nearly every sentence is aimed directly against the members of the
Hungarian ethnic community of Slovakia. For this reason, Hungary views
the entire law as problematic.
The most significant problems of the law are:
1. The introduction of a new category of crime, „language crime”, or the
criminalization of the use of the Hungarian language. Section 3 of the
law prescribes as mandatory the use of Slovak, both written and oral, for
official interactions in many areas of daily life. What this amounts to
is that, for instance, an ethnic Hungarian bus driver and an ethnic Hungarian
passenger, an ethnic Hungarian postal worker and an ethnic Hungarian
resident, or an ethnic Hungarian fireman and an ethnic Hungarian victim of a
fire are prohibited from communicating with each other in Hungarian.
According to §9, the language use in these interactions may be monitored by
the Ministry of Culture. According to §2, local authorities may do
likewise. Based on this law, then, Slovak citizens whose native
language is Hungarian are liable for prosecution if, under certain circumstances,
they use their common native language to communicate with each other.
Section §2 and §9 of the law not only allows for, but essentially mandates
that a report be filed for any infraction.
2. Fines for using Hungarian within the Hungarian community. Section
9/a of the law prescribes that fines ranging from 100 to 5,000 EUR be issued
under the jurisdiction of the Slovak Ministry of Culture to legal persons for
perceived shortcomings or violations of the law. This means that in
many workplaces (transport services, post offices and fire stations, as well
as the police, local governments or any company) fines may be imposed, if
ethnic Hungarian employees providing services to ethnic Hungarians use
Hungarian in their official capacity. Since, according to Slovak law,
the employee is responsible for fines imposed upon his/her workplace, fines
imposed on the workplace de facto amount to fines imposed upon ethnic
Hungarians for using their native language. In addition, §11 and 11/a
of the law de facto provide for retroactive penalties and mandate the
replacement of existing monuments, memorial plaques, and gravestones (!)
whose inscriptions are largely or entirely in Hungarian, and prescribes that
the cost of the required modifications must be borne by the legal or natural
persons who erected or commissioned them.
3. Discrimination. It follows from the above that certain Slovak
citizens (for instance, those whose native language is Hungarian) are subject
to monitoring, harassment and penalties for using their native language,
while other Slovak citizens (for instance, those whose native language is
Slovak or Czech) are not. Section §3 of the law is openly
discriminative, since the Czech minority may use their native language
without restrictions, which means that members of other minorities are
prohibited from using theirs. As in many areas of Europe, including
Slovakia, ethnic identity and the use of the native language are closely
intertwined, which means that discrimination in native language use amounts
to discrimination based on ethnicity.
4. Violations of the freedom of the press and freedom of speech.
Section 5 of the law provides, as a general rule, that all media outlets –
both public and privately owned media – must use the Slovak language, with
the exception of programs transmitted for national minorities. This
means that Hungarian-speaking citizens cannot set up a radio or television
station that transmits programs exclusively in Hungarian. The law
requires that programs broadcast on local public address systems always be
announced in Slovak first, regardless of the ethnic composition of the
locality. Hungarian inscriptions on monuments, memorials and
gravestones (which must always come second to a Slovak-language inscription)
must be approved in advance by the Ministry of Culture. This represents
state censorship, and contradicts the freedom of language use and the freedom
of expression.
5. Violation of freedom of association and religion. Section 5 of the
State Language Law provides that cultural and educational programs should be
in Slovak, with the exception of „educational” programs aimed at minority
audiences. This means that organizations and associations are not free
to choose the language of their activities and programs. For instance,
in a settlement populated by ethnic Hungarians, the Hungarian language may be
used in a presentation on Hungarian historical figures, but if the program
involves American history, it cannot be performed or carried out in
Hungarian, because the subject matter is not Hungarian. Section 3 of
the law is a violation of the freedom of association and freedom of religion,
since it restricts the use of language in the institutional life of
associations and churches. The churches can freely choose only the language
in which they conduct their services; they have no choice about the language
in which they conduct administrative process and provide public information.
6. Limitations on existing regulations protecting minorities. Section 1(4) of
the amended State Language Law asserts that the separate regulations
governing the use of minority languages are applicable only if the directives
of the State Language Law do not provide otherwise. This statement completely
transforms the existing (already very weak) legal protections for minority
languages and for the speakers of minority languages, since it gives
unmistakable preference to protecting the State Language over the protection
of minority rights.
What will be the effect of enacting this state language law?
1. It will create a climate of fear and humiliation among Hungarian-speaking
citizens. Regardless of how strictly the law will be actually enforced,
native Hungarian-speakers in Slovakia are humiliated by being legally
prohibited from using their native language with each other – a prohibition
which does not apply to citizens belonging to the ethnic Slovak majority or
to the Czech minority. The possibility of penalties creates fear: not only
when penalties are actually assessed, but also by virtue of the fact that
penalties may be assessed at any time.
2. Increased ethnic conflict. Since the law is unambiguous in
differentiating Slovak-speaking citizens from Hungarian-speaking citizens,
and legally entitles the Slovak speakers to harass Hungarian speakers, the
incidence of Slovak-speaking citizens issuing insults, humiliations and
threats against their fellow citizens who speak their native Hungarian among
themselves will increase even before the law enters into force. After the law
enters into force, this situation will only become worse.
3. Cultural ethnocide. The climate of fear and humiliation, the
sanctions and penalties will prod many Hungarian-speaking citizens of
Slovakia to stop using their native language, or to not acknowledge their
Hungarian ethnic identity, and to try to spare their children from their
ordeal. Because of this, the Slovak State Language Law is an instrument
of forcible change in the ethnic composition of settlements and ethnic
regions where the population is either mixed or Hungarian.
4. A sustained crisis in the relations of two allied states. Given the
serious human rights issues presented by the Slovak State Language Law, and
the Law’s expected consequences, Hungary is compelled to voice her concerns
forcefully, both bilaterally and toward the international community.
This will result in a sustained communications crisis in the official
relations between the two neighboring states, which are both members of NATO
and the European Union.
Hungary proposed bilateral discussions, a proposal that was ignored by the
Slovak side. On numerous occasions, members of the Hungarian government
and special committees of the Hungarian Parliament expressed their concerns
and requested that substantial consultations be held before passage of the
law. The Slovak side, in a serious violation of the Basic Treaty of
1995 between Slovakia and Hungary, ignored the concerns and requests of the
Hungarian side and proceeded to approve the law without consultations.
Hungary accepted – unilaterally – the mediation of the High Commissioner on
National Minorities of the OSCE. The Hungarian government and
Parliament accepted the invitation of the High Commissioner for National
Minorities for a tripartite meeting, and has persisted in promoting this
meeting, despite the fact that Slovak diplomats misinformed the High
Commissioner regarding the date that the law would be passed, and then
proceeded to pass the law in its final form before the tripartite
consultations could occur. Then, the Slovak side visited the office of the
High Commissioner prior to the agreed meeting date, and - prior to the
original date of the tripartite meeting and without the permission of
the High Commissioner - issued public comments on the opinion of the High
Commissioner, giving a completely false interpretation of his views.
The Hungarian side has repeatedly communicated to the representatives of the
international community the position, objectives and steps taken by Hungary
in this matter. In the fall, a joint delegation from the Hungarian
political parties will contact international organizations with the aim of
resolving this issue.
Conclusion
The joint position taken by the Hungarian political parties is that the
solution to the problem is the repeal of the amendment of the law. In
practice, this means that the Slovak side should pass a new amendment to the
law that eliminates all provisions that discriminate against citizens of the
Slovak Republic whose native language is not Slovak. Although the Hungarian
side views most of the law as problem-ridden, it is prepared to participate
in multilateral discussions (to include representatives of the Hungarian
minority of Slovakia), in which the participants aim to create a
non-discriminatory exemption for the minority and regional languages used in
Slovakia, and for the users of these languages, from the effects of the State
Language Law.
Slovak-Hungarian relations have greatly deteriorated between neighboring
Hungary and Slovakia, both member countries of NATO and the EU. The
source of the deepening tension has been the passage, on June 30, 2009, of
additional restrictive amendments to the Meciar era Slovak State Law 270 of
1995. These restrictive amendments were passed even after the Hungarian
minority in Slovakia and Hungary herself expressed their concerns.
