Minority Report 2021 by Mikó Imre Association for the Protection of Minority Rights

REPORT 2021

MIKÓ IMRE

Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance Founded by RMDSZ/UDMR/DAHR

THE VIOLATION OF MINORITY RIGHTS AND THE ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION FACED BY THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY IN ROMANIA

MIKÓ IMRE

Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance Founded by RMDSZ/UDMR/DAHR

REPORT 2021 THE VIOLATION OF MINORITY RIGHTS AND THE ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION FACED BY THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY IN ROMANIA

CONTENT

1. VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS............................................................................................7 1.1. Bilingualism in the public sphere....................................................................................................... 7 1.2. Bilingualism in the judiciary............................................................................................................. 10 1.3. Problems with bilingual place name signs and vandalization of signs and monuments............................................................................................................................ 12 1.4. Bilingual street signs............................................................................................................................ 14 1.5. Town hall inscriptions......................................................................................................................... 15 1.6. Safety measures..................................................................................................................................... 17 1.7. Driving test in Hungarian................................................................................................................... 18 1.8. Discrimination in the healthcare system....................................................................................... 19 1.9. Use of the Hungarian language in stores of multinational companies and financial institutions........................................................................................................................... 22 1.10. Anti-Hungarian sentiments at the protests against measures to combat the epidemic............................................................................................................................... 23 2. ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION...........................................................................................................25 2.1. Discrimination in the education system......................................................................................... 25 2.1.1. Teaching Romanian to minority pupils............................................................................... 25 2.1.2. The University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/ Marosvásárhely..................................................................................................................................... 27 2.1.3. Attempts to close a Hungarian school resurface............................................................... 29 2.2. Discrimination in administrative territorial disputes................................................................ 30 2.3. Ethnic harassment of Hungarian nationals................................................................................... 32 3. THE PERSECUTION OF HUNGARIAN SYMBOLS........................................................................34 3.1. Banning the Szekler flag..................................................................................................................... 34 3.2. Problems pertaining to the administrative flags featuring regional symbols..................... 35 3.3. The persecution of the Hungarian flag........................................................................................... 36 4. HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY..........38 4.1. Hate speech in politics......................................................................................................................... 38 4.1.1. Political leaders instigating against the Hungarian community.................................. 38 4.2. Hate speech on social media.............................................................................................................. 42 4.3. Hate speech and violance in sports.................................................................................................. 44 5. THE ILLEGAL APPROPRIATION OF THE MILITARY CEMETERY IN THE UZ VALLEY.............47 6. THE RESTITUTION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY...............................................................................51 7. FAILURE OF THE MINORITY SAFEPACK INITIATIVE................................................................52 8. CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................53

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

1. VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS The use of minority languages in public institutions and the judicial system is still one of the top issues affecting persons belonging to national minorities. The existing legal framework is often incoherent, it does not provide adequate mechanisms for implementation and monitoring, and the updating of language policies has been consistently blocked in the past few years. 1.1. Bilingualism in the public sphere The legislative framework on linguistic rights for national minorities is by no means coherent, various provisions are spread across a range of laws. Moreover, while laws are generally permissive, concrete norms aimed at implementation, monitoring and follow-up are often lacking. There is a general lack of accountability when it comes to enforcing legal provisions regarding minority rights, which needs to be addressed. The implementation of minority-friendly language policies (even where required by law) is sporadic and generally depends on the goodwill of local administrations. There is an overall lack of accountability when it comes to enforcing legal provisions regarding minority rights, there being no clear pathway for a legal recourse in cases of non-compliance. Since 2019, the legislation that applies in most aspects regarding the use of minority languages in and by local public institutions is the Administrative Code. This stipulates that in the administrative territorial units - be these a municipality or a county - in which a national minority constitutes at least 20% of the total population (according to the latest census), the authorities of the local public administration, public institutions under their jurisdiction, as well as the deconcentrated public services (local and regional offices/institutions belonging to the various ministries) must ensure the right of national minorities to use their mother tongue in their dealings with these institutions. On the level of municipalities, this is relevant in the case of 322 municipalities, while on a county level this is relevant in a total of 6 counties in Romania, where the Hungarian population exceeds the required threshold of 20%: Covasna, Harghita, Mureș, Bihor, Satu Mare and Sălaj. In practice this means – among other things – the obligation to make public information available in Hungarian as well. However official documents and information on public interest are mostly available exclusively in Romanian. Every year we look at the websites of institutions belonging to the local and county level public administrations in these six counties, as well as those of the deconcentrated public services, in order to assess their willingness to communicate public information in Hungarian as well. It is unfortunate that many of these websites still lack any information in Hungarian, with the rest ranging from a complete page in Hungarian (mostly in areas where Hungarians make up the absolute majority of the population) to partial or minimal Hungarian content. One of the negative examples in 2021 is the website of the Mureş County Agency for Employment, where informations were published exclusively in Romanian, despite the large number of Hungarian citizens in the county. In addition to this, the in-service training courses organized by the same institute were held only in Romanian. Updating language policies is also problematic, as the case of the much-disputed Administrative Code demonstrates. After being adopted by Parliament in 2018, and containing some favourable provisions regarding linguistic rights for minorities, it was contested at the Constitutional Court

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

It is unfortunate that many of the official websites completely lack any information in any minority language, including the site of Toplița/Maroshévíz Municipality

by several parties, as well as the President, with the court eventually deeming it unconstitutional on procedural grounds. Taking into consideration another attempt of updating language policies, the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) wanted to decrease the required 20% threshold to 10%, because they considered it too high, especially in the case of the scattered communities, where, according to the law, they cannot use their mother tongue. Besides introducing the abovedescribed provisions, they proposed the introduction of the concept of „significant”, instead of using exact quantities. They wanted to make language policies applicable in those regions where significant Hungarian communities live, however they met considerable opposition. Moreover, there have been several endeavors by local authorities to make official documents, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates etc, available in Hungarian too. They met strong oppositions from the central government. In 2019 the Administrative Code was adopted again in a modified form through a government ordinance, this version, however, significantly curtailed several positive provisions that ensured linguistic rights for national minorities. For instance, alternative thresholds have been scraped, meaning that language policies cannot be enforced in administrative units where the percentage of a minority does not reach 20%, which is a huge disadvantage for minorities living in large cities, where they might constitute a community of several thousand inhabitants and yet do not meet the required threshold. Moreover, the names of streets, squares and parks are not required to be put up in a bilingual or multilingual format, not even in cases where minorities exceed the 20% threshold. Furthermore, in the administrative territorial units, where a national minority constitutes at least 20% of the total population, decisions of normative nature have to be made public both in Romanian and in the language of the minority in case. However, in practice this measure is taken only in cases, when the leaders of the city/town belong to the Hungarian community. The biggest problem is that there are no monitoring institutions and no accountability when it comes to enforcing such provisions. In addition, in case of non-compliance, there is no sanctioning.

It is possible to use one’s mother tongue orally, if one requires a translator, but this is not possible in writing. People cannot comprehend the difficult legal expressions, therefore their basic rights to have fair access to justice is violated

In 2021 in the city of Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely, where the Hungarian minority constitutes more than 37% of the total population, as a result of renovations at the post office, indications and information in Hungarian disappeared, however, before this renovation all the posters and indications were bilingual. It is highly recommended and necessary to continue to put up the information inside the Post Office in Hungarian as well, as it was prior to the renovation. Our organization wrote a letter to the director of the Post Office regarding this problem. In their answer officials downplayed the issue. Even though they promised to solve the problem, this did not happen in practice. Beyond the incoherent legislative framework and the systematic opposition to updating language policies, the linguistic rights of the Hungarian community are also endangered by individual attacks, fuelled by blatant anti-Hungarian attitudes. The Civic Association for Dignity in Europe, led by Dan Tanasă, a widely known anti-Hungarian nationalist provocateur, continues its vicious

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

fight against Hungarian signs and inscriptions (see chapters 1.3, 1.4). Other actions of the organization against the rights of the Hungarian community include many other lawsuits against local administrations that put up bilingual signs on the forefront of their town halls (see chapter 1.5), Szekler or Hungarian flags (see chapter 3). In many cases the justice system tacitly supports these nationalist endeavours and the decisions point to a double standard when it comes to the linguistic rights of the Hungarian community.

Observations and recommendations: The reason why linguistic rights are not applied in practice, although the obligation is stipulated in the national legislation, is due to the fact that there are currently no mechanisms that ensure their implementation. The Administrative Code does not provide the possibility to fine non-compliant local administrations and public institutions. Therefore, both the legislative and the executive bodies of the state should commit, first and foremost, to a more comprehensive approach toward ensuring the use of minority languages in relations with the public administration. To this end, linguistic rights should be set within a legislative framework that specifies concrete measures for implementation, while also ensuring that adequate sanctioning mechanisms are stipulated within the relevant laws on the implementation of linguistic rights for national minorities. Moreover, further positive measures need to be adopted in order to ensure the use of minority languages, most importantly by allocating the necessary human and financial resources needed for implementation. It is also relevant that, when monitoring the situation of the rights of national minorities, international organizations put particular emphasis on studies and data regarding implementation, considering that states often stop at codifying minority rights, including linguistic rights in laws, while doing little to ensure proper application.

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

Moreover, according to the Penal Code, during the investigative phase, as well as during the trial itself, all information must be communicated to the accused party in their mother tongue, both orally and in a written form. In this case, the costs of the translation are supported by the state. However, if the defendant is found to be guilty, they will likely be required to reimburse the costs of translation and/or interpretation. If the judge, the lawyers and both parties concerned are Hungarian, the existing laws allow for the possibility to conduct the entirety of a trial in Hungarian. Nevertheless, the decision whether or not to do so, is ultimately left to the discretion of the judge. All of this points to a chaotic, haphazard and incidental use of minority languages in legal proceedings in Romania, rather than a systematic approach.

The Mureș Tribunal: bilingualism in legal proceedings is rarely ensured, even in a county like Mureș/Maros, where the Hungarian population exceeds the required threshold of 20%

1.2. Bilingualism in the judiciary The use of minority languages within the Romanian judicial system continues to be problematic, which negatively affects the access to fair trial for citizens belonging to a national minority. This is an issue frequently raised by international organizations, most recently in the 2018 report by the Council of Europe on Romania in light of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Currently, the regulations regarding legal procedures within the Romanian judicial system allow the use of their mother tongue for members of national minorities only in some cases, while even in those, the costs of translation and interpretation often have to be supported by the parties themselves. For instance, the Civil Code states that both parties can use their mother tongue during the oral phase of a trial, however, the costs of interpretation have to be paid by the parties themselves. This rule does not apply to witnesses as well, meaning that in civil cases witnesses can only testify in Romanian.

Observations and recommendations: It would be ideal if the law on the use of the mother tongue was extended to civil actions also, because the right to a fair trial, the right to represent one’s legal interest in court, regardless of the severity of the issue, is very important. It is also essential to be able to represent one’s point of view in one’s mother tongue and for this reason the change in the legislation would be highly recommended.

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

1.3. Problems with bilingual place name signs and vandalization of signs and monuments As far as bilingualism is concerned in the areas where there is a significant number of Hungarians, one of the main issues is the lack of bilingual (Romanian and Hungarian) place name signs and the vandalization of these. While the latter is a sign of negative attitudes towards the Hungarian community on the part of the majority population, the former clearly shows the hesitation or even unwillingness of local authorities to acknowledge the multicultural aspect of some municipalities. Romania’s Administrative Code provides local administrations with the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to put up the name of their city/town on the road signs in a minority language, regardless of the percentage of that minority. In February 2021, unknown perpetrators vandalized the Monument of the Szekler Martyrs, painting it over with the colors of the Romanian flag. The use of red-yellow-blue paint is becoming more and more common in the case of defacing different Hungarian signs and reviling monuments. Vandalization of bilingual place name signs is still commonplace and a continuing problem in Romania and it is a blatant symbol of anti-Hungarian sentiments

made up of Romanian citizens belonging to the Hungarian minority, therefore the blue spray painting over the Hungarian inscriptions cannot be comprehended as anything other than an act of discrimination and incitement to hatred against ethnic Hungarians. Furthermore, another unfortunate incident took place in Săcele/Négyfalu, where the bilingual signs indicating the districts and quarters in the village did not last even for a week, since in the beginning of July, 2021, the Hungarian inscriptions were painted over. The Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance condemns all extreme manifestations and takes the necessary steps in all similar situations in order to identify the perpetrators and hold them liable as soon as possible.

The Monument of the Szekler Martyrs is regularly desecrated and, given that it is an important symbol, this negatively affects the entire Hungarian community in Transylvania

Following these incidents, in February, the place name signs of Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár have also been vandalized. On the trilingual place name sign of Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár the Hungarian inscription was painted over, however, the German inscription did not bother the perpetrator. Some months later, unknown perpetrators painted over the Mathias Rex statue group as well, in the same city. This is not the first or the last time that such anti-Hungarian acts have taken place in Transylvania. In February, another incident took place, when unknown perpetrators sprayed over the Hungarian inscriptions on the tourist signs marking the mountain route between Iod/Jód and Sălard/Szalárd in the Gurghiu/Görgényi Mountains. The population of Iod/Jód village is largely

An unknown perpetrator painted over the Hungarian inscriptions on the tourist signs marking the mountain route between Iod/Jód and Sălard/Szalárd in the Gurghiu/Görgényi Mountains

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

Observations and recommendations: It is unfortunate that the vandalization of bilingual signs is a reoccurring problem every year. In some places, like Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár place name signs are vandalized almost every year. Romanian nationalists are trying to provoke conflict between the two nationalities by damaging road signs and monuments, at the time when peaceful cooperation between communities would be vital for the development of the region. Such cases clearly demonstrate a hostile attitude towards the Hungarian community and their signs and inscriptions, even in cases when these are required or allowed by law, and even when there is political will and understanding. This signals that these issues, aside from the legal and the political aspect, also need to be dealt with at a social level, ensuring that multiculturalism is more widely accepted. Therefore, while it is important that linguistic rights are upheld, strengthened and updated by positive measures and clear legislation, a wider, large-scale promotion of tolerance and multilingualism is required.

1.4. Bilingual street signs When it comes to bilingual inscriptions, street signs are arguably one of the most controversial issues. The Romanian legislation does not expressly stipulate that street signs should be bilingual in municipalities with a significant minority population.

There is an ongoing fight on the part of the Romanian authorities when it comes to putting up bilingual (Romanian and Hungarian) street signs.

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

Observations and recommendations: There is a need for clear legislation regarding the use of minority languages when it comes to the street name signs. The Administrative Code does not require for street signs to bi-/multilingual, even is cases when the percentage of a minority in a given town/city exceeds 20%, which is the minimum threshold for applying other linguistic rights for national minorities. This can be very confusing and causes problems not only for the authorities, but also instigates intolerance towards the Hungarian population. Unfortunately bills submitted to the Romanian Parliament that seek to clarify the situation are repeatedly rejected by the overwhelming majority of Romanian political parties, even though the Romanian Parliament should be the one to pass unambiguous legislation in this respect. It is highly unfortunate that there is no political will at this point in Romania to find a proper solution in order to finally put an end to the endless inscription trials that concern bilingual street signs. Unfortunately, parties in the Parliament often turn legislation proposals regarding bilingualism into a populist political stance.

1.5. Town hall inscriptions The removal of town hall inscriptions in Hungarian is a continuing problem. Lawsuits against various local councils in Szeklerland for putting up inscriptions that read “Községháza” (used in smaller towns) or “Városháza” (used in cities) – both meaning “Town Hall” in Hungarian, alongside the Romanian equivalent, which is “Primărie”- still continue and as a result of this negative practice, such inscriptions will soon disappear. As a result of this, the inscription of the Hungarian „Városháza” continue to be removed in villages and cities, where the majority population belongs to the Hungarian minority and speaks Hungarian.

The case of the bilingual street signs in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely, a more than 37% Hungarian populated city, still does not seem to be solved. After winning the long fight for putting up the Hungarian street name signs in the city, there is still a strong opposition from Romanian politicians. Dan Tanasă, an anti-Hungarian provocateur, who is wellknown for initiating lawsuits of such nature, had filed a complaint concerning the bilingual street name signs put up so far.

The existence of bilingual street name signs in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely is a continuous problem. Even though in some streets these were put up, Romanian civil organizations took the municipality to court in an attempt to force them to remove the street name signs

Town Hall inscriptions continue to be removed and there are no signs of this situation improving in the near future

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

The Civic Association for Dignity in Europe, led by Dan Tanasă, is well-known for initiating lawsuits against local councils in Szeklerland. Their activity is mainly focused on questioning and fighting against the linguistic rights of the Hungarian minority. In recent years our organization has been closely monitoring the development of these cases all over Szeklerland. Tens of local councils have been called upon to remove the “Town hall” inscriptions in Hungarian, and the ones that refused to do so have been subsequently sued.

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

1.6. Safety measures The issue of safety measures and warning signs has not been handled promptly and to a satisfying degree, since in most cases they are still only available in Romanian. It is highly discriminatory and can lead to serious dangers.

Due to the vague and often contradictory legal provisions, the local councils generally lose these court cases. Most of the justifications presented in court are that the terms “Községháza” and ”Városháza” are not legally accurate, because they are not the exact translation of the Romanian “Primărie”, which according to them would be “Polgármesteri hivatal”, but they were borrowed from Hungary. However, several Hungarian Romanian dictionaries translate the words “Községháza”/”Városháza” as “Primărie” and in the local Hungarian environment and in the local language use, it is not “Polgármesteri hivatal”, but “Községháza” or “Városháza”. Moreover, in cases where the Romanian “Primărie” was translated as “Polgármesteri hivatal”, the plaintiffs have looked for something else to object to, like the order of the bilingual inscriptions, or the position of these, which only serves to show that their purpose is to eradicate Hungarian inscriptions, by any means necessary.

Observations and recommendations: The action of the previously mentioned NGO, namely the Civic Association for Dignity in Europe against the use of “Town hall” inscriptions in Hungarian cannot be comprehended as anything other than a vicious campaign against the Hungarian community. The lack of an explicit legal framework and adequate monitoring mechanisms contribute to the above-mentioned cases. It is more than worrying that these absurd cases are admitted in court, and that local councils successively lose them. Instead of facilitating a better understanding between the majority and the minority communities, it creates unnecessary tensions and increases distrust towards the institutions of the Romanian state.

Unfortunately, the translation of safety measures and warning signs is a continuing problem in Romania. Our organization noticed a lack of Hungarian inscriptions warning people of high voltage danger, or fire exits or fire exit plans, or any explanation in Hungarian about the safety measures provided in swimming pools, for example. The absence of such explanations and bilingual safety warning signs in regions where a significant portion of the population is Hungarian is a great risk factor, and leads to an environment, where people – especially small children who do not grasp Romanian yet – are prone to accidents that can even be fatal.

The lack of Hungarian inscriptions, for example warning people of potential dangers, can lead to serious consequences

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

1.7. Driving test in Hungarian Even though the opportunity to take the driving test in Hungarian for the members belonging to the Hungarian minority is still valid, this is not guaranteed during the road test with police officers, who tend to be mostly Romanian and the majority of whom do not know or do not want to speak Hungarian at all, even in the areas where the majority of the population is Hungarian. In case of a revoked driving license, the written exam can be taken only in Romanian. Although Hungarian-speaking persons can take the written exam in Hungarian, with learning materials also available in this language, in the case of the practical test with a police officer, which is the final and decisive test before obtaining a driving license, there is no such opportunity. Police officers tend to be mostly Romanian, they do not speak Hungarian in most cases and - in order to manage this discrepancy - officers usually employ the help of people who want to take the test that speak both Romanian and Hungarian to translate for the people who do not speak Romanian fluently and thus might not understand the police officer’s instructions. This can make the communication during the test rather problematic and challenging, since one has to comply with the received instructions on the spot, not to mention that it is not the job of the prospective drivers, who are nervously waiting to take the test themselves, to translate for their colleagues.

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

1.8. Discrimination in the healthcare system The global health crises caused by COVID-19 could be strongly felt in 2021, too. The communication of vital public information in minority languages, such as Hungarian, was of the utmost importance to the well-being of its speakers. It took a long time for the information related to the pandemics and the vaccination campaign to be translated to Hungarian, and even now these are available sporadically, not everywhere and not uniformly. Another unsolved problem is related to the use of minority languages in the healthcare system in general. In Romania, as in Europe and other countries in the world, there is a vaccination campaign to beat COVID-19. A strong discrimination could be observed in this field, namely that there has been no information in Hungarian, it has not been possible to register for the vaccine in Hungarian, there have been no forms in Hungarian, which must be filled before getting vaccinated, for several months. Citizens were informed about the vaccine only in Romanian and the difficult medical terminology was challenging even for those who otherwise are native speakers of Romanian. It is more than clear that Romanian citizens belonging to the Hungarian minority have been discriminated for several months and the information available only in Romanian impaired the elderly people, who are the most in need of protection. It is vital to notice that even though translations have been made of the relevant information regarding the pandemic and the vaccine campaign, it took several months and it is available sporadically and not uniformly. Our organization turned to Raed Arafat, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Romania, in charge of the official COVID-19 vaccination website. We requested that general information about vaccination and registration for vaccination be available in Hungarian. In their answer the ministry stressed that the website has a Romanian and an English version as well. Furthermore, posters in schools communicating information related to the use of masks against COVID-19 have only been available in Romanian for several months. Even though they have since been translated, this issue should have been solved at the state level, by the Ministry of Education, not the local management of the schools in case.

It can be substantiated with statistical data that in the Hungarian-inhabited counties a much higher proportion of people fail to pass the practical driving test due to the fact that they cannot communicate with the police officers

Furthermore, learning materials available for the written exam are often incorrect translations from Romanian to Hungarian, which do not follow the peculiarities of the Hungarian language. As it was stated above, in case a driving license has been revoked because of a serious traffic violation or any other reasons, the written exam must be taken in Romanian, since there is no possibility to take it in Hungarian. Our organization tried to find out the reasons for this discriminatory practice, however, even after several inquiries from the relevant authority, we were not given any plausible explanation in relation to this practice. In order to make the process of obtaining a driving license easier, writing tests should be assured in Hungarian in all of the cases and there should be Hungarian-speaking police officers to ensure better communication.

To our request that information about vaccination and registration for vaccination on the official website be available in Hungarian, we received an answer that it is possible in English

Regarding health care in general, the lack of Hungarian-speaking employees in the healthcare system still constitute a problem. According to article 7, paragraph m) of Law no. 110 of May 19, 2017: one of the basic principles of public health care is „providing in the healthcare units and within the personnel specialized in medical or social assistance, persons who know the language of national minorities in those administrativeterritorial units, where the citizens of national

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

Other problems within the Romanian healthcare system which affect national minorities include the lack of critical information for patients in their mother tongue. These are – in most cases – available exclusively in Romanian, including information on vaccines, or brochures released by the Ministry of Health for mothers with newborn babies. Diagnoses by doctors are also written exclusively in Romanian. Finally, information on medicines is also not available in any language other than Romanian, which is extremely dangerous given that not understanding the use, the proper dosage, or the side effect of a certain medication, can lead to serious consequences for patients.

It was a particularly worrying situation when students in schools did not receive information in Hungarian about the importance of wearing a mask and the correct way of wearing it in order to prevent the spread of the epidemic COVID-19 vaccination questionnaires were available only in Romanian

minorities either have a share of over 20% of the inhabitants or their number is at least 5000, in compliance with the other provisions of the job description”. In this respect the situation is unchanged, there are no concrete solutions. Moreover, unfortunate cases continue to occur in which a member of the Hungarian minority is not guaranteed the right to be attended within the healthcare system and social services by a person who speaks their mother tongue. On the contrary, they are ill-treated and even discriminated when they try to use their mother tongue. In one of the cases, a 77-year-old Hungarian-speaking woman was discriminated by one of the doctors working at the County Hospital in Satu Mare/Szatmárnémeti. The 77-year-old woman first tried to tell the doctor her complaints in Romanian, but since it proved to be a bit difficult for her, she tried to communicate her health issues in Hungarian. Subsequently, the doctor in case became angry and called on her to „speak in Romanian and communicate her health issues in Romanian, since she lives in Romania”. Considering that there is a problem with the Hungarian higher education in the field of medicine in the country, no wonder that there is a lack of Hungarian-speaking doctors and that the use of Hungarian in the healthcare system is still a problem.

Observations and recommendations: The communication of relevant information in minority languages is vital, especially during the global health crisis caused by COVID-19. It is especially outraging that there has been no information about the vaccination campaign in Hungarian for a long period time. Moreover, patients should be guaranteed the right to be attended within the healthcare system by a person who speaks their mother tongue, and should never be discriminated because of using their mother tongue. Finally, pharmaceutical companies should provide the relevant information about medication not only in Romanian, but also in the language of national minorities, such as Hungarian, especially taking into account the fact that this information is already available for most medications, since the vast majority of these are distributed by the same companies across Europe.

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

1.9. Use of the Hungarian language in stores of multinational companies and financial institutions Members of the Hungarian community face linguistic and ethnic discrimination in their everyday life. Violation of language rights, humiliation and disrespect continue to be problems that affect people belonging to the Hungarian national minority working at certain stores of well-known multinational companies in Transylvania’s Szeklerland. Szeklerland is a historical region in Eastern Transylvania, composed of Covasna/Kovászna, Harghita/ Hargita and part of Mureș/Maros county, where the Hungarian community constitutes roughly 75% of the total population. Unfortunately, there are many stores and supermarkets operating in Szeklerland, where the management and Romanian staff have a negative, restrictive attitude towards the Hungarianspeaking employees. According to a case that took place in a store of a multinational company operating in Sfântu Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyörgy, where the customers belong mostly to the Hungarian minority, the department manager had a strong discriminatory attitude towards the Hungarian-speaking employees. The manager forbade them to speak in Hungarian to the customers and even among themselves. Seven employees have given their resignition since the Romanian-speaking department manager was hired at the respective store because they could not tolerate such a discriminatory behaviour.

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

same issue can be identified in the case of the smart cash registers, which do not provide a Hungarian menu. Moreover, even though certain bank ATMs provide menus in different foreign languages, some of them lack the Hungarian menu. Our association took the necessary measures, sending letters to the managers of these stores to solve the problem and pay more attention to the Hungarian employees and customers and we also filed complaints to the competent bodies.

Observations and recommendations: Any kind of manifestation of discrimination, intolerance and injustice targeting the Hugarians at their workplace is totally unacceptable, since legal provisions prohibit discrimination at the workplace. Due to the fact that Hungarian is one of the 20 legally accepted minority languages in Romania, Hungarianspeaking employees and customers should be free to use it whenever they want.

1.10. Anti-Hungarian sentiments at the protests against measures to combat the epidemic Anti-Hungarian manifestations are not uncommon on the part of different NGOs and the Romanian population in general. Last year, even protests against anti-epidemic measures turned into protests against Hungarians, where people showed disrespect and chanted hateful words against the Hungarian minority. As it is known, many protests against anti-epidemic measures were organized in several cities in the country in April 2021, which were coordinated by the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR). A crowd of nearly 400 people gathered in the center of Pitești in the same month to protest against the lockdown rules, the mandatory use of face masks and to demand freedom. In the first part of the protest the crowd protested against the restrictions and shouted slogans such as „Freedom!” and „Down with the Government!”, however, in the second part the crowd started chanting xenophobic slogans. The crowd also shouted the well-known „Out with the Hungarians from the country!” chant, which is frequently used at football matches. It is inexplicable why the crowd blamed the Hungarians for the current epidemiological situation and took the opportunity to incite to hatred against the Hungarian minority.

Discrimination and harassment occured at a retailer, when Hungarian employees were banned from using the Hungarian language in private conversations during their working hours

Furthermore, the management of some of the stores in a shopping mall operating in Sfântu Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyörgy in Szeklerland do not pay attention to bilingual communication with the cutomers and the employees, they communicate with the customers exclusively in Romanian. Product tags, as well as address systems provide no information in Hungarian. The

VIOLATION OF LINGUISTIC RIGHTS

ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

2. ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION According to the United Nations, „discrimination is any unfair treatment or arbitrary distinction based on a person’s race, sex, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, age, language, social origin or other status. Discrimination may be an isolated event affecting one person or a group of persons similarly situated, or may manifest itself through harassment or abuse of authority.” Ethnic discrimination is still a persisting problem in Romania, which affects the Hungarian minority, too. It occurs most notably within the educational system, but also in several aspects of healthcare, not to mention double standards in the justice system. 2.1. Discrimination in the education system The Romanian education system faces a number of challenges, which disproportionally affect minorities. Access to education in one’s mother tongue should be a concern based on the principles of equality and non-discrimination. All children, including children attending a school where the language of education is a minority language, should be ensured equal access to high-quality education. Romanian children belonging to a national minority, including the Hungarian-speaking pupils, generally have access to minority language education, depending on their number and the size of their local communities.

In the past years demonstrations against COVID restrictions and vaccination have often reflected antiHungarian sentiments, given that the anti-vaccination political party, the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) is also strongly anti-Hungarian

Observations and recommendations: Spreading hatred and intolerance even at protest that concern both the Romanian- and Hungarian-speaking population is totally unacceptable. It is very worrying that such anti-Hungarian statements were made at the protests organized by a parliamentary party and that there is a search for scapegoats during the epidemic, which is given an ethnic tone due to the fact that anti-Hungarian rhetoric is often present in the discourse of people protesting against anti-epidemic measures.

After finishing high school, many of the Hungarian-speaking pupils tend to continue their studies at Romanian universities, where the language of study is Romanian. Many of these students face ethnic discrimination in their dealings within the educational system, too. A former student at a Romanian university turned to our organization with the issue that her Hungarian name had a spelling mistake on her certificate replacing her diploma. The former student emphasized that even after multiple inquiries the institution refused to correct the misspelled name, claiming that they would write the name based on the Romanian alphabet (which is different from the Hungarian one). Our organization also contacted the management of the university regarding this issue. In their answer, the management reiterated that they would write names on certificates based on the Romanian alphabet. 2.1.1. Teaching Romanian to minority pupils Teaching the official language of Romania to students belonging to the Hungarian minority is a continuing problem. Taking into account the new national curriculum, from 5th to 9th grade pupils are studying Romanian language and literature from textbooks that are designed especially for minorities, which helps them study it as a second language. Older pupils continue to study the state language from the same textbooks as pupils whose mother tongue is Romanian When it comes to the textbooks written according to the new curriculum, there are still many problems. First of all, Romanian language and literature textbooks for Hungarian-speaking 9th graders have still not arrived, which might affect the next year’s 10th grader pupils, as well. Moreover, when it comes to studying Romanian, theoretical knowledge, including difficult literary texts and high-level grammatical analysis still play a vital role. According to the Romanian teachers, instead of the theoretical knowledge, more practical exercises should be included into these new Romanian textbooks. Textbooks should also concentrate on teaching everyday communication.

ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

2.1.2. The University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely The case of the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/ Marosvásárhely remains unsolved and the situation is getting worse, with no prospect of a reassuring future. Hungarian higher education in the field of medicine is highly important and concerning, which can also be related to the right of the Hungarian community in Transylvania to be attended by a doctor who speaks their mother tongue. The community perceives the merge of the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/ Marosvásárhely and of the Petru Maior University as another attack, because any steps taken backwards, any regress, in terms of the achievements in the domain of education and higher education can have irreversible cultural consequences for the Hungarian minority in the long run. This is why the case of the Hungarian line of study at the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/ Marosvásárhely is an inevitable pivotal point of the Hungarian politics in Transylvania, given that jeopardizing the Hungarian-language based higher education can have unforeseeable consequences. Taking into consideration all these, we will present the unsolved and increasingly problematic situation of the University.

Despite the fact that Hungarian-speaking pupils don’t have a linguistic basis in Romanian, they are expected to understand and interpret texts in Romanian that are beyond their linguistic knowledge, therefore this practice makes it very hard for Hungarian children to learn Romanian, a fact that puts them into disadvantage later on

Furthermore, regarding Romanian homeworks and assignments in general, the activity definitions and descriptions are worded entirely in Romanian. Pupils hardly understand what their task is, because there is no Hungarian explication even for pupils at the elementary level. Many children complain, according to their teachers, that they do not understand what they have to do in their homework assignments.

Observations and recommendations: According to the recommendations of this year’s European Regional Forum on Minority Issues “states should revise their constitutions in order to facilitate regional language immersion teaching as part of the national education framework.” The methodology of teaching Romanian to minorities is still not effective, even after a number of changes regarding the new national curriculum and the Romanian language and literature textbooks. Any measure should be pupil-centered, ensuring that minority children acquire proper language skills in the state language. Furthermore, Hungarian pupils again suffered the consequences of the ill-working educational system, Romanian language and literature textbooks for 9th graders have still not arrived at the time this report was compiled.

The University of Medicine in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely is presently the only higher education facility in Romania that provides medical training in Hungarian. Despite the fact that the Hungarian community has been asking for a Hungarian department for years, instead of moving towards an acceptable solution, the situation seems to be deteriorating. In the following we will summarize the absurd ongoing situation of the University by drawing a timeline of events that lead to the current situation of the University. News surfaced in April of 2018 that the leadership of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy and those of the Petru Maior University, which is a purely Romanian university, have agreed to merge the two institutions. The objections of the Hungarian professors within the senate of the University of Medicine were not enough to impede the decision, as they made up merely a third of the vote. They expressed concern over the fact that the Hungarian leadership received no concrete assurances as to how the university would keep its multicultural character in case of a merge. Despite the outrage of students, professors, prominent political leaders and the entire Hungarian community of Romania in general, the merge of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely and the Petru Maior University was finalised in September 2018, and consequently the already unstable and never quite fully materialised multicultural aspect of the university is in more peril than ever before, as the percentage of Hungarian students and professors dropped significantly. In early 2019 the senate of the university decided to establish an English faculty, after resisting for years the idea of creating a Hungarian department, as required by the 2011 Law on Education, on the grounds that it would violate the autonomy of the university. Regarding the issue, Hunor Kelemen, the president of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ), declared that “the creation of a Hungarian department is a legitimate expectation of students and professors”, adding that “it is difficult to find an argument against it – especially now that [the university] can accommodate an English faculty”. There has also been significant setback regarding the ongoing problem expressed by Hungarian professors and students, namely that practical courses are taught exclusively in Romanian, even

ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

for students who chose to study in a language other than Romanian. The High Court of Cassation and Justice (the supreme court of Romania) ruled that this practice is not discriminatory. In December, 2019, following a final court ruling, Hungarian professors and students lost the lawsuit they had initiated back in 2018 against the university for deciding to merge without the consent of the Hungarian leadership.

The case of the Hungarian line of study at the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely is an inevitable pivotal point of the Hungarian politics in Transylvania, given that jeopardizing the Hungarian-language based higher education can have unforeseeable consequences

Despite the legal requirements, no progress has been made regarding the Hungarian department of the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely. At the inaugurual meeting of the Senate of the University elected for the 2020-2024 term, the Rector of the University made a public promise to improve the relations with the Hungarian Department. It is unfortunate that this has not been solved so far. In the spring of 2020, the only undergraduate accredited educational program, the Hungarian line of study at the Department of Medicine was re-accredited. However, the enrolment numbers offered by the Committee of ARACIS (Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) for the Hungarian students significantly dropped: from 200 to 120. On the other hand, they increased this number for the Romanian students from 270 to 300. According to the conducted analyses, the ARACIS Committee had made a mistake in the accounting of some essential indicators. For example, they did not take into consideration the number of lecturers at the department and the potentially advertisable and existing jobs. If they had taken these into account, according to the simulations, the maximum enrolment number could have been approximately 170. Regarding this matter, there have been several consultations with Senator Zoltán Novák and State Counselor László Borbély. Hunor Kelemen, the president of UDMR/RMDSZ, signaled the obvious unjustice to the then Minister of Education, Monica Anisie and asked for notifying the ARACIS Committee about this issue. The Rector of the University filed a complaint which received majority support within ARACIS, however, the necessary quorum did not come together at that meeting. Thus, the Hungarian leaders dit not meet the deadline for filing an appeal.

ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

Observations and recommendations: In light of the increasingly problematic situation of medical training in Hungarian in Romania, this issue can only be satisfactorily solved, if the provisions of the 2011 National Law on Education - which states that higher education institutions that are designated as being multicultural by the Ministry of Education have to establish separate faculties or departments for minority students are unequivocally implemented. However, in the last ten years almost no steps were taken into that direction. This would solve numerous problems and anomalies that the Hungarian line of study is currently facing, but most importantly it would secure and strengthen the multicultural character of the university and safeguard the future of medical training in Hungarian. Regarding Romanian higher education in minority languages in general, this should be as broad as possible, addressing the needs of the minority communities. Therefore, higher education in minority languages should include not only the fields of study that are directly linked to the survival of a minority community, such as training teachers, but also the ones that are linked to the development of that community and of the region that they inhabit, and which are traditionally taught almost exclusively in the state language, such as engineering sciences.

2. 1.3. Attempts to close a Hungarian school resurface There is still uncertainty when it comes to the situation of the II. Rákóczi Ferenc RomanCatholic High School in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely. The Roman-Catholic High School in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely ceased to operate as an independent institution in 2018. In October 2016 the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) launched an investigation against Zsolt Tamási, the head of the school, and Ștefan Someșan, the former school inspector because of alleged illegalities committed during the establishment of the school in 2014. In February of 2018, the Romanian Parliament adopted a law on the reestablishment of the school, which was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court a month later. Finally, the school could reopen as the II. Rákóczi Ferenc RomanCatholic High School in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely in accordance with Government Decree No. 48/2018 and Decree No. 4320 of the Ministry of Education adopted on the 9th of August, 2018. After these two lawsuits were initiated, these sought the annulment of the Government Decree and the revocation of the Ministerial Decree. Following this the Unirea High School, its parents’ community (Representative Council of Parents Within the Unirea National College) the Civic Association for Dignity in Europe, led by Dan Tanasă and the People’s Movement Party, led by its executive chairman, Marius Pașcan, attacked the Government Decree No. 48/2018 in the Administrative Court, a decree, which made the establishment of the school possible under the auspices of the Bólyai High School. On the 15th of January, 2020, they adjourned the lawsuit, until the Constitutional Court deliberates on the constitutional objections, as the Târgu Mureș Court of Appeal raised a constitutional objection against the Emergency Ordinance No. 2018/48 of the Romanian Government, which together with other three legislative amendments permitted the re-establishment of the

ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

II. Rákóczi Ferenc Roman-Catholic High School through a Ministerial Decree. However, the Court annulled the Decree that made the functioning of the school legal.

ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

The administrations of Gheorgheni/Gyergyószentmiklós and Harghita/Hargita County have been trying to pursue the annulment of this record and to rectify the county borders for a long time. In 2019, the Prahova Tribunal decided in favour of Harghita/Hargita County and the cadastral record from 1998 was considered invalid. Neamt County and Cheile Bicazului appealed the decision at the Ploieşti Court. According to the Ploieşti Court of Appeals’ ruling in 2020, the territorial and administrative rights of the Békás Gorge were granted to the municipality of Bicaz Chei, which, besides other things, means that Gheorgheni/Gyergyószentmiklós cannot count on the tax revenues coming from the tourism and trade there.

The Romanian state continuously tries to impede the functioning of the Rákóczi Ferenc Roman-Catholic High School in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely

This has been appealed by the leaders of the school, so the Bucharest High Court will rule on the case in 2022, most probably after the investigation concerning the constitutionality of the other lawsuit. The management of the school repeatedly asked for the case to be heard at a different court on the grounds of conflict of interests, since the judge assigned to the case was herself a member of the parents’ community of the Unirea High School. All objections concerning the incompatibility of the judge were rejected. The case is still ongoing. 2.2. Discrimination in administrative territorial disputes Another concerning issue regarding the Hungarian community is related to certain administrative territorial disputes, where the parties involved are not treated equally. Regarding the border dispute between Gheorgheni/Gyergyószentmiklós, one of the biggest cities of Harghita/Hargita County in Szeklerland, which is mostly Hungarian-populated, and the locality of Bicaz Chei/Békás-szoros, part of the Romanian region of Moldova, has lasted nearly ten years. The legal debate is related to the Békás Gorge, which stretches along the border of Harghita/ Hargita and Neamț counties, and the territory belonging to it. According to a law from 1996 all localities had to register their boundaries in a cadastral survey. In 1998 the cadastral offices of Harghita/Hargita and Neamț counties drew up a record. According to this, the gorge and its surrounding area belonged to Cheile Bicazului.

The borders of administrative territorial units are sometimes drawn without any consideration to the ethnic composition of the localities in question, as the example of the ruling connected to the Békás Gorge shows

According to Csaba Borboly, the President of the Harghita County Council, Harghita/Hargita County and its prefect were excluded from the proceedings of the lawsuit so that the evidences would not be taken into consideration, even though several laws stipulate that in the case of border disputes the counties concerned must be involved. This situation has been permanently settled given that it includes the decision of the Ploiești Court of Appeal, which rejected Harghita County’s application for revision, thus not changing its previous judgment and excluding Hargita/Harghita County from the lawsuit. In spite of various attempts to overthrow the decision in this respect it seems that the matter is permanently settled in favour of Neamț county.

ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

2.3. Ethnic harassment of Hungarian nationals According to the United Nations, „harassment is any improper and unwelcome conduct that might reasonably be expected or be perceived to cause offence or humiliation to another person. Harassment may take the form of words, gestures or actions which tend to annoy, alarm, abuse, demean, intimidate, belittle, humiliate or embarrass another or which create an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.” Ethnic harassment of the people belonging to the Hungarian minority is also an issue of utmost concern in Romania.

ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

in case was Hungarian. He insulted her many times, saying „close the window, because you smell, „bozgor” („bozgor” is a derogatory term meaning „person without country”, frequently used by Romanian nationalists to refer to a Hungarian), „go to the Hungarians and create a community with the Hungarians, not with me! I am Romanian”. According to another case in October, 2021, two Hungarian students were walking on the streets of Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár, where they were suddenly attacked, beaten and robbed. Based on their words, the perpetrators heard that they were speaking in Hungarian and this might have been the reason why the conflict began. After this incident, the injured parties went to the local police station to report the case and file a complaint against the perpetrators. To their surprise the police officers refused to provide a Hungarian-Romanian translator, even though they had the right to have one. Our organization filed a complaint to the National Council for Combatting Discrimination not only against the attackers, but also because of the conduct of the police officers. It is unfortunate that these were not the last cases of the year. According to the story of a kindergarten teacher, she has been facing constant discrimination and harrassment by the kindergarten’s director because of her Hungarian origins.

Observations and recommendations: Discrimination and harassment started to be a constant problem in everyday life. Not only does this happen at one’s workplace or at different insitutions, but also in one’s private life, which is totally unacceptable.

An example of anti-Hungarian hate speech is the fact that a book entitled Parasitic Touranic Nations is widely available and even sponsored on Facebook by one of the biggest online bookshops in Romania

One of the negative cases in 2021 was that a Hungarian person faced constant harassment by her Romanian neighbour because of her ethnicity. According to the allegations of the Romanian neighbour, he called on his Hungarian neighbour several times because of the smell coming from her apartment, because of her cats. However, the biggest issue was the fact that the neighbour

THE PERSECUTION OF HUNGARIAN SYMBOLS

3. THE PERSECUTION OF HUNGARIAN SYMBOLS 3.1. Banning the Szekler flag Putting up the Szekler flag, the symbol of the historic region of Szeklerland, still constitutes a problem in Romania. Many Hungarian mayors lost lawsuits for putting it up and even received exorbitant fines. Prefects and the nationalist organization of Dan Tanasă, the Civic Association for Dignity in Europe (ADEC) have been very active over the past few years regarding the banning of the Szekler flag. They demanded that Hungarian mayors in Szeklerland remove the Szekler flag from public spaces or from the building of the local administration. Many lawsuits have been initiated against the mayors that refused to take the flags down because they felt the attack against the symbols of the Hungarian minority to be unjust and a double standard. Most of the mayors lost these court cases. However, many mayors are discouraged from fighting for the rights of their local community in the first place and decide to take down the flag, due to the ongoing pressure from authorities. In 2021 the last szekler flag in Covasna county had to be removed, which was displayed in the village center of Ojdula/Ozsdola, next to the monument of the heroes of the Second World War. This case, as well, like many others, is related to the well-known anti-Hungarian provocateur, Dan Tanasă.

THE PERSECUTION OF HUNGARIAN SYMBOLS

Observations and recommendations: In many regions in Romania, like Moldova and Bucovina, and across Europe in various countries, people can use their flags freely in public spaces. The Szekler flag, the symbol of Szeklerland is no different than any other regional symbols, which should be used freely. However, the lack of communication and compromise leads to the above-mentioned unfortunate cases, which deepen the tension between the majority and minority population.

3.2. Problems pertaining to the administrative flags featuring regional symbols The persecution of Hungarian symbols also affects the administrative flags featuring regional symbols. Despite the fact that it is legal for territorial administrative units to adopt their own flags, the cities and the counties with a Hungarian majority population still face a number of problems. The county councils of Covasna/Kovászna and Harghita/Hargita, as well as certain municipalities in the mentioned counties adopted administrative flags in recent years, but subsequently lost lawsuits, with the courts declaring these flags illegal.

Cases of the last few years show that the prefects or the leader of ADEC are not interested in a broader conversation about local and regional symbols or learning about their significance to the communities in case.

Last year the practice of removing the Szekler flag continued, this time the Szekler flag was removed from the center of Ojdula/Ozsdola

After almost a decade without official symbols, Hungarian municipalities in Romania were finally legally allowed to use their symbols, however anti-Hungarian organizations attacked the decision of the Romanian Government that allowed the use of these symbols and started legal procedures in order to nullify the decision that makes it possible for these symbols to be displayed

THE PERSECUTION OF HUNGARIAN SYMBOLS

After more than 10 years of struggle, the Municipality of Sfântu Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyörgy adopted its administrative flag, which would be displayed on the facade of the City Hall and other local institutions. However, this case was also attacked by the leaders of the famous antiHungarian party, the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), asking for the abrogation of the Government decision which made the adoption of the administrative flag possible. Despite the fact that almost all of the counties and municipalities in Romania adopted an administrative flag, the municipality of Sfântu Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyörgy has to deal with hostility and complaints based on trumped-up arguments, even when the Government itself accepted the flag in question.

Observations and recommendations: It is unfortunate that problems pertaining to the administrative flags appear especially in those counties and municipalities where the majority of the population belongs to the Hungarian minority. Given how politically charged this issue is, we believe that prolonging hesitation in regard to the administrative symbols would contribute to the uncertainty and lack of trust of the local administrations towards the central Government, therefore in order to enhance the institutional trust, the Government should clearly regulate this matter. Prefects have been fining the mayors who decorated their localities with Hungarian flags for March 15th celebrations since 2018

3.3. The persecution of the Hungarian flag The Hungarian flag is also frequently a target for Romanian authorities, nationalist organizations and individuals. According to the Romanian legislation, the flag of another country can only be displayed in the presence or the occasion of a visiting for an official setting, and the Romanian flag is also put up next to it. However, this does not apply to the private sphere, but most importantly, it does not take into account the fact that apart from being the national flag of Hungary, the horizontally displayed red, white and green colours are considered a national symbol by all Hungarians, and thus by the Hungarian community of Romania as well. The Hungarians of Romania have been regularly using this flag at the commemoration of the historical events of the 1848 revolution in the last 30 years, without any disruption or problems from the authorities. However, recently the prefect of Covasna/Kovászna county started to search for legal reasons to obstruct this particular set of commemorative events organized by Sfântu/Gheorghe municipality. Prefects in Romania continue to fine mayors for decorating their city with Hungarian flags. As it happened in the last two years as well, Árpád Antal, the mayor of Sfântu Gheorghe/ Sepsiszentgyörgy was once again fined by the prefect of Covasna/Kovászna county with a total of 10.000 RON. The prefect fined the mayor for decorating the city with the colours of the Hungarian flag on the occasion of the March 15th celebrations, and for failing to put up a Romanian flag next to each Hungarian flag and cockade. The use of flags in Romania is regulated by Law nr. 75 of 1994, which establishes the correct use of the Romanian and other national flags during the visits of official foreign delegations. However, during their events, national minorities can use their own symbols freely, as stipulated in Government Resolutions 1157/2001 and 223/2002. The fact that each year the Romanian

government conflates the Hungarian national colours, used by our community to symbolise our belonging to the Hungarian nation, with the state symbols of Hungary, is a false equivalence. Romanians living outside the country also use the Romanian national colours during their various events, which does not mean that on such occasions they are representing the Romanian state. Prefects have been fining the mayors who decorated their localities with Hungarian flags for March 15th celebrations since 2018.

Observations and recommendations: What we are witnessing is an absurd, but sadly not an uncommon situation. Taking into account the fact that Romania has committed to preserving the identity of its national minorities, which is emphasized in different international treaties and agreements and also through Romania’s own national legislation, such a measure of persecution, as presented in the examples above, is unacceptable. The symbols, including the Szekler flag, the Hungarian flag or any other local symbols are intrinsic elements of the Hungarian identity. The banning of the flag of Hungary is a confirmation of the vehement opposition of the Romanian state towards any manifestation of regional identity. We consider that the adoption of relevant laws, clearly stipulating the right of minorities to use their national, regional and local symbols and a methodology of proper implementation would be a demonstration of Romania honoring to its international commitments.

HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY

4. HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY The Hungarian community not only continuously faces political attacks, but also the national media, news channels are flooded with anti-Hungarian messages. Anti-Hungarian hate speech flared up several times during the course of last year. 4.1. Hate speech in politics According to the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, 2020, hate speech is defined as: „any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender or other identity factor.” According to the definition presented above, hate speech is still present in the Romanian political discourse and Hungarians are often the target of nationalist politicians. 4.1.1. Political leaders instigating against the Hungarian community Hate speech has become one of the most frequent methods for spreading discriminatory ideologies. Many politicians used this method in the course of last year to turn the public opinion against the Hungarian minority and also to gain political capital. Emil Boc, former Prime-Minister of Romania and the current mayor of Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár, in March, 2021, declared for the Napoca FM radio station, that he did not agree with the appointment of a Prefect belonging to the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UMDR/RMDSZ).

HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY

This message aims to incite hatred against Hungarian leaders. The statement made reads as follows: „What should I say? I am speechless. It is a gesture of unprecedented defiance of the leadership of PNL (National Liberal Party) towards the PNL Cluj organization”. „Now I am interested in the full compliance of the law by the new prefect and especially in the respect of all of the national symbols (...)”. The behaviour of the mayor manifested in the above-mentioned radio show cannot be comprehended as anything else than one whose immediate purpose was to incite to hatred and discrimination against the Hungarian minority and the Hungarian leaders. The mayor of a multiethnic, modern city that is supposed to support multiculturalism and represent them equdistantly, deepens the conflict between the citizens belonging to the majority and the minority population, bringing back the atmosphere of the ‘90s, explicitly claiming that he does not agree with the decision made by the Government of Cluj County. In a democratic state, where fundamental human rights and freedoms, the right to identity and others are guaranteed by law, it is inadmissible for the mayor of Cluj to resort to such political means that could divide the society. Our organization turned to the National Council for Combatting Discrimination and the case is still pending. A similar incident occured when the mayor of Păulești/Szatmárpálfalva also manifested severe anti-Hungarian behaviour. Zenovia Bontea, the mayor of the above-mentioned village, renamed the Primary School from Ambud/Ombod, which initially beared the name of a former local Calvinist pastor, János Soltész, after a Romanian mathematician, Ion Barbu. The former was a famous Calvinist pastor from that locality, thus having an important merit in the development of that community, while Ion Barbu, although he was a famous mathematician and poet, had nothing to do with the village, given that he was born in Argeș county. In addition to this, the same mayor discriminated the office’s notary because of her/his ethnicity. The notary turned to our organization and stated that the mayor had harassed and discriminated her/him on several occasions due to her/his Hungarian ethnicity. Furthermore, the mayor tried to hinder all those who sympathize with the Hungarians or DAHR (UMDR/RMDSZ).

The mayor of Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár, Emil Boc, raised national security concerns regarding the appointment of the Hungarian-speaking Prefect of Cluj/Kolozs county, solely because of his origins. This is a sign that Hungarians are still being considered a national security threat in Romania

A former Prime Minister of Romania hinted that an economic development could change the ethnic ratio in the mostly-Hungarian populated Harghita/Hargita county

HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY

In another example of hate speech in the political sphere, Ludovic Orban, a Member of Parliament and a former Prime Minister of Romania also attacked the Hungarian community in his rhetoric at a congress organized in Harghita/Hargita county. He basically suggested that the ethnic composition of Harghita/Hargita county should be artificially changed. According to the 2011 census, in Harghita/Hargita county almost 86% of the total population is made up by the Hungarian minority.

HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY

Another case is related to a Romanian Member of Parliament from Satu Mare/Szatmár, Radu Cristescu, who posted a racist message on his Facebook page in March, 2021, insulting the politicians of DAHR (UDMR/RMDSZ) and the Hungarian community. According to his post „the leaders of DAHR (UDMR/RMDSZ) horde still behave like the descendants of Attila’s Huns (…).” His statement is pejorative and a racist one, which aims to incite hatred against the Hungarian leaders. One of the most worrisome results of the parliamentary elections held in December, 2020, is that for the first time in the last 12 years, an ultra-nationalist, extremist party has entered the Romanian Parliament with a very strong support. This is incredibly worrying, as the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) is totally against minorities and promotes legionary ideas. The party constantly posts anti-Hungarian messages on their official page and social media page. They mostly give way to ultranationalist discourse in the country. The president of the party also provoked on the national holiday of Hungarians and instigated to hatred in the Hungarianpopulated cities and also instigated to violence regarding the events in the military cemetery in the Uz Valley.

An MP in the Romanian Parliament called the Hungarians “neo-Huns”, which is a pejorative term implying savage barbarian and therefore labelling the Hungarian community as being savage and barbaric

Anti-Hungarian hate speech, instigation and aggressive rhetoric are continuous and recurring in the discourse of the President of AUR

Observations and recommendations: It is unfortunate that hate speech has entered the mainstream political communication. Instead of condemning expressions of racism or any other form of hate speech, political parties and organizations resort more and more to using expressions of hate speech against vulnerable groups such as national, ethnic or other minorities. Moreover, beyond denouncing these attitudes, there is a need for immediate, clear and adequate actions on behalf of political groups. The response should be proportional to the severity of a particular statement involving hate speech, also taking into consideration whether it targets a member of a vulnerable group or an entire community. Furthermore, political parties should consider establishing offices that provide legal aid to victims of hate speech and discrimination. According to the recommendations of the European Regional Forum on Minority Issues, 2021, “States should prohibit expressions and restrict their dissemination when they qualify as advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence in accordance with Article 20(2) of the ICCPR. When qualifying incitement and dissemination as a criminal offence the following factors should be taken into account as detailed in the Rabat Plan of Action: the content and form of speech; the economic, social and political climate; the position or status of the speaker; the reach of the speech, the objectives of the speech, and reasonable probability that the speech would succeed in inciting actual action against the group.”

HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY

4.2. Hate speech on social media Hate speech continues to be a mainstay of the political discourse on social media platforms as well, which targets the individuals on the basis of ethnicity and nationality. The Hungarian minority is still one of the biggest targets of the hateful messages posted on different social media platforms, not only by private citizens, but also by mainstream politicians. Due to the fact that the content of the communicated text is rarely checked and regulated, social media has become a breeding ground for xenophobic rhetoric. Incitement to hatred, xenophobic and anti-Hungarian manifestations are still widely present in the Romanian society, which is proven by last year’s happennings as well. On the 15th of March, 2021, George Simion, co-chair of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) posted a video message, taken in the center of Sfântu Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyörgy, in which he criticized the decoration exhibited on the occasion of the 15th of March celebrations, the National Day of Hungarians. The aim of this message was to incite to hatred against the Hungarian community and transmit racist ideas.

HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY

the center of the country you cannot display the flags of other countries without displaying the flag of our country...Such challenges, like these invented flags of the so-called regions, which actually do not exist, must be stopped!...Transylvania belonged, belongs and will belong to Romania...we should not have invented flags and Hungarian flags in the center of the country...I don’t think that we should have parties based on ethnic criteria in Romania..” He also posted the following message accompanying the above photo: „Such a thing is inadmissible: the center of the country, Sfântu Gheorghe, full of flags in the colors of Hungary! As a Member of Parliament, I am asking the Romanian state institutions to intervene urgently to legalize the situation in the center of Sfântu Gheorghe. I will also initiate a law to toughen up penalties. But we have no allies in the parliament for this issue: Do you support us?” By sharing this message Simion sought to deepen the already existing ethnic conflict between the majority and the minority population. Such discriminatory messages distributed on social media platforms aim to incite to hatred against the Hungarian minority. Following this post, many antiHungarian comments were added by different individuals. The behaviour of the co-chair of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians in this regard, manifested on his social media page, can only be described as one whose immediate purpose was to create tension between the Romanian and the Hungarian groups, by coming to a city, where actually the people belonging to the two ethnicities live peacefully. In a democratic state, where fundamental rights and freedoms, the right to identity and other such rights are guaranteed by law, it is unacceptable for a Member of the Romanian Parliament to resort to political means that are likely to divide the society. We firmly condemn such malicious statements, such instigatory rhetoric, which stigmatized an entire community.

On the National Day of Hungarians, George Simion incited against the Hungarians in Sfântu Gheorghe/ Sepsiszentgyörgy and encouraged the Romanians to take violent actions against the Hungarian symbols, suggesting that it would be right to remove them through vandalism

His video message reads as follows: „We are in Sfântu Gheorghe and as always, as every year, there is a challenge and a great lack of respect for Romania, here in the center of the country, the whole square of Sfântu Gheorghe is full of flags in the colors of Hungary, without at least one Romanian flag...What the City Hall does here in Sfântu Gheorghe, what UDMR/RMDSZ does here, the constant challenges and lack of respect for the Romanian nation, cannot be tolerated. UMDR is a terrorist, which created ethnic tensions...There was an agreement that there would be no activity in the Parliament on Monday..because it is the 15th of March, the National Day of Hungarians. (....) It is outrageous! In the center of Romania, in

A Hungarian politician was threatened with rape on social media after a political declaration. Threatening someone with sexual violence on social media is an organic part of the anti-Hungarian extremists’ rhetoric

Such anti-Hungarian messages were posted by other politicians as well, such as the leader of the Calea Neamului Association,

HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY

Mihail Târnăveanu. He posted a picture showing himself displaying a Romanian flag between the Hungarian flags on the occasion of the 15th of March. He also stated that next year more and more such manifesations will take place, until „UDMR/RMDSZ takes the show of autonomy out of its head.”

Observations and recommendations: Social media platforms provide a space also for hateful rhetoric. Not only random individuals, but also politicians tend to use these platforms more and more in order to incite to hatred by exposing deeply xenophobic discourses. According to the recommendations from the European Regional Forum on Minority Issues from 2020, „States should develop long-term, comprehensive policies for combating negative stereotypes of, and discrimination against, minority individuals and groups, and promote intercultural understanding (...).”

4.3. Hate speech and violance in sports Anti-Hungarian behaviour and hate speech are still common in sports, mainly football. Hungarian players are often the target of xenophobic chants during football matches. It is a difficult problem to solve, since there is a lack of explicit legislation and a sanctioning system. Sadly, these incidents are not handled in a proper way from a legal point of view and due to this fact they tend to be a continuing problem.

Blatant and hateful anti-Hungarian discourse became a completely normal and unfortunately tolerated phenomena during sports events in Romania

On the 9th of August, 2021, Sepsi OSK Sfântu Gheorghe played against Farul Constanța in the home town of the latter. The supporters of Farul Constanța were continuously chanting blatantly racist and xenophobic messages, which make the Hungarian community highly uncomfortable, uneasy and fearful. The famous anti-Hungarian slogan „Out with the Hungarians from the country” was also chanted. The openly racist supporters were not stopped by the authorities, not even when they were throwing objects and spitting towards the players of Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe during the game. ”I cannot bear this xenophobia anymore. I cannot accept this! We have gotten to the situation where we are afraid to play with teams that have powerful supporter groups. We are glad that they have ardent fans, but they should support their team, not attack us by saying we should leave the country. They have insulted Niczuly in every possible way and they were throwing bottles at him. That’s it, we cannot take this anymore. Are we bothering anyone with anything? We will withdraw, and that’s it!” declared Attila Hadnagy to GSP, a Romanian sports publication after the game. Our organization turned to the Romanian Football Federation and to the UEFA. The CS Farul Constanța football team was fined with 10.500 RON. Another incident targeting the Hungarian minority occurred during the football match between FK Csíkszereda and FCSB football clubs. The match took place in the home town of the former. During the whole match the supporters of FCSB displayed a strong anti-Hungarian behaviour. They chanted xenophobic chants, such as „This is Steaua. This is Bucharest. Just like Harghita and Covasna counties are Romanian lands”, and the above-mentioned well-known anti-Hungarian chant “Out with the Hungarians from the country”.

The Romanian authorities do very little to nothing in order to curb xenophobia at sports events

Our association filed a complaint to the Romanian Football Federation. We also turned to the football club. According to the club’s answer they are not responsible for the behavior of the supporters and there was no act of discrimination at the football match in case.

HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION TARGETING THE HUNGARIAN COMMUNITY

Observations and recommendations: Xenophobic, anti-Hungarian attitudes have become a common phenomenon among some Romanian supporters. It became commonplace for some Romanian supporters to use football events in order to spread hate speech. In their approaches to tackling hate speech and acts of hatred in sports national bodies, institutions, organizations, sport federations and clubs etc. should clearly distinguish between measures aiming at preventing such phenomena and measures of handling cases that already occurred. It is highly important to stress that sport clubs should take action in combating hate speech among their supporters, by establishing clear regulations and imposing sanctions, such as removing offenders or in some extreme cases even permanently banning them. In terms of sanctions, it is more effective to sanction sport clubs, rather than individuals or groups of individuals, firstly because, sanctions often make perpetrators more hostile and are rarely conducive to long-term solutions, and secondly, penalizing teams/sport clubs will motivate them to more effectively monitor the acts of hate speech committed by their own supporters, especially in the case of repeat offenders. Regarding the latter issue, membership cards for supporters might be a useful way of keeping track of repeat offenders and thus imposing adequate sanctions for these perpetrators.

THE ILLEGAL APPROPRIATION OF THE MILITARY CEMETERY IN THE UZ VALLEY

5. THE ILLEGAL APPROPRIATION OF THE MILITARY CEMETERY IN THE UZ VALLEY The case of the illegal appropriation of the military cemetery in the Uz Valley is still a grave concern. The site in question has been the source of disharmony for several years between the local administrations of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva in Bacău county and Sânmartin/ Csíkszentmárton in Harghita county, but a 1968 law clearly states that the valley belongs to the latter. Nevertheless, attempts by Harghita county officials to impede the appropriation of the cemetery through legal means have so far failed. In April 2019, Hungarians from Romania learned that the local government of Dărmănești/ Dormánfalva (Bacău county) illegally took ownership of a First World War German, Austrian and Hungarian military cemetery in Valea Uzului/Úz-völgye (Uz Valley), actually belonging to the jurisdiction of the village of Sânmartin/Csíkszentmárton in neighbouring Harghita county. There is a general consensus among historians that Hungarian soldiers from the Miskolc region in Hungary are resting here. The fights that took place in this Valley during the First and the Second World Wars are heavily documented and the identity of the buried soldiers are confirmed.

The illegal appropriation of the military cemetery in the Uz Valley has sparked an intense interethnic conflict

However, officials from Dărmănești/Dormánfalva unfoundedly claim that 52 Romanian soldiers were also buried in this cemetery, despite the fact that the actual burial ground of the Romanian soldiers was identified and located several kilometres away.

THE ILLEGAL APPROPRIATION OF THE MILITARY CEMETERY IN THE UZ VALLEY

Under the guise of “refurbishment”, officials from Dărmănești/Dormánfalva put up numerous crosses made of concrete on the graves and erected a monument featuring legionary symbols in memory of the Romanian soldiers that fought in World War II. It is absolutely shocking and unacceptable that some of these concrete crosses have been directly placed on the actual burial sites of identified Hungarian soldiers. The said local administration had no official permits to conduct these works, as later confirmed by the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Culture, as well as the Bacău County Prefect’s Office. The situation escalated on June 6th, 2019, when several thousand Romanian commemorators forcefully broke into the cemetery and attacked a group of Hungarian civilians, who had come together to form a human chain around the cemetery in order to prevent the illegal takeover. After arriving to the scene, the group of Romanian commemorators (that included several violent football hooligans) demanded that the cemetery gate be opened, while shouting: “Go home!”, “Go to Budapest!” and the sadly familiar chant “Out with Hungarians from the country!” As this crowd became more and more angry and unmanageable, police forces lost control over the situation. The increasingly aggressive Romanian group broke the gates of the cemetery, destroyed several wooden crosses, placed on the graves, that marked the memory of Hungarian soldiers and started hitting the Hungarians present with wood broken from the fence and causing great material and moral injury. More serious violence was only prevented because the police forces escorted the Hungarian protesters – who had been peacefully praying while these events took place – out from the cemetery.

THE ILLEGAL APPROPRIATION OF THE MILITARY CEMETERY IN THE UZ VALLEY

In July, the local government of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva started to retroactively acquire the permits necessary for the concrete crosses that they had already put up back in April. It is clear from this that in the moment of making these modifications in the cemetery the local government in question did not have the documents and permits required by law, but despite this, no charges were made. The situation is aggravated by the fact that none of the competent authorities brought charges against the illegal occupation of the cemetery or for using public funds to achieve this, nor were any of the people who broke into the cemetery and violently attacked the Hungarian group prosecuted. By contrast, some of the leaders of the Hungarian community, who had been peacefully praying in a human chain, were given hefty fines. Both sides have initiated numerous lawsuits in connection with these incidents. Following several months of investigations after the incident, the public prosecutor in charge decided to close the case. This prosecutor absurdly claims in his ruling that „Out with Hungarians from the country!” is a „so-called anti-Hungarian chant”, which in this case cannot be classified as a crime of incitement to hatred and discrimination on grounds that it did not refer to an entire community, only to those present at the cemetery. The prosecutor considered the case to be closed. Similarly, he also ruled out the charges of incitement to hatred and discrimination, the disturbing of public order, desecration of graves, aggression, violence and wrecking and thus closed the case. The Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance appealed this decision, the General Prosecutor approved the decision of the Prosecutor to close the case. Thereafter our organization appealed the court’s decision to close the case and take no further action, and the ruling was in our favour, meaning that the Prosecutor has to investigate further regarding the following charges: aggression, violence and wrecking, incitement to hatred and discrimination and disturbing of public order. However, the case regarding the desecration of graves was closed. The case took another turn in 2021, when it was referred to the General Prosecutor’s Office to continue the investigation in view of the fact that George Simion, as a Member of Parliament, was also involved. On the 23rd of April, 2021, the General Prosecutor closed the case involving Simion. They also closed the cases of aggression, violence and wrecking, incitement to hatred and discrimination, as well as the disturbing of public order, saying that such crimes had not taken place.

The occupation of the cemetery was actually the result of a violent intrusion, in which enraged hooligans smashed the gate and beat members of the Hungarian community. Mocking and hateful behaviour is uneacceptable and disrespectful towards the memory of the fallen soldiers, who should be respected regradless on which side they fought

In 2021 the General Prosecutor referred the case to the Prosecutor’s Office in Moinești (where crimes which were not related to George Simion would be investigated). They continued the investigation and on the 30th of September, 2021, the Prosecutor again closed the case. Only the Romanian witnesses were questioned, while the Hungarian ones were not heard at all. In light of this, the whole case seemed as if the Hungarians were the only ones to blame for the events, while the Romanian group demonstrated peacefully. They again closed the investigation. Our organization appealed this decision. The process of the appeal consists of two steps: if we had considered the ruling of the Prosecutor to be inadmissable, we would have referred it to the General Prosecutor’s Office. If the General Prosecutor had refused the case, it would have been dealt with at the Court to determine whether the General Prosecutor’s decision was founded. What eventually happened was that the Prosecutor upheld our complaint and ordered the investigation to be reopened, accepting all the arguments we had risen, including the fact that not all the witnesses were heard. Furthermore, in view of the final court decision so far that the cemetery does not belong to Dărmănești/Dormánfalva, but to Harghita/Hargita County, they

THE ILLEGAL APPROPRIATION OF THE MILITARY CEMETERY IN THE UZ VALLEY

reffered the whole case to the Prosecutor’s Office in Miercurea Ciuc/Csíkszereda. The case is currently continuing there, a decision which was upheld by the Moineşti Court on the 21st of December. In addition to this, other suits are ongoing, too. According to local council resolution No. 29 of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva, the cemetery in the Uz Valley is part of their own public property. Based on this local council resolution the ownership of the cemetery was registered in the cadastral survey. We appealed and requested the annulment of this local council resolution. This case was heard at the Bacău Tribunal at first instance and according to the decision taken on the 26th of May, they annulled the above-mentioned resolution. Dărmănești/Dormánfalva appealed this ruling and the case was finally heard at the Bacău Court of Appeal in October, 2021, when they ruled out the annulment of the council resolution. As it was stated above, on the basis of local council resolution No. 29 in 2019 they declared the cemetery to be part of Dărmănești/Dormánfalva’s public property. Our request from the Moinești Court is to delete the cadastral survey entry, as it is based on a resolution, which had already been annulled. The next hearing regarding this case will take place in March, 2022. Another case, which started at the Bacău Tribunal, concerns the annulment of the building permit which allowed the erection of the crosses for the Romanian heroes in the area of the cemetery. We also requested that the Tribunal order the demolition of the illegal works done so far.

THE RESTITUTION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY

6. THE RESTITUTION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY Unfortunately, there has been absolutely no progress in Romania regarding the restitution of private property confiscated during the communist regime, despite numerous international commitments taken by Romania to this effect. What is more, in recent years we have been witnessing a backward trend in these cases, with many formerly returned properties following lengthy court battles, now being re-nationalised. Such was the case of many properties belonging to the Hungarian churches that we have been frequently reporting on in our newsletters and reports of the past few years, but also properties belonging to other private landowners and entities. For instance, the vast majority of the more than 600 Transylvanian castles and mansions, as well as their surrounding land - confiscated from mostly Hungarian landowners - have still not been returned to their rightful owners. Landowners complain that even the mansions and castles that have been returned are mostly in a very poor state and require urgent refurbishment and constant upkeep. However, the land that has been given back together with these big properties is often only a small fraction of the originally owned acreage, and without the income generated by the land (mostly woodland) it is next to impossible to manage the upkeep of these large buildings, which are important cultural and touristic landmarks. Not to mention the fact that, similarly to the church properties, some of the big estates that have been returned are now also in the process of being re-nationalised. Such is the case of the Mikes family estate, where a large manor house, several accompanying buildings and about a quarter of the 12000 hectares of land that the descendants reclaimed have been returned, only for the court decision to be disputed by Romsilva, a state company in charge with managing forests belonging to the state. Of the 3500 hectares of woodland returned, Romsilva is now reclaiming 3000, citing irregularities during the original restitution suit. Besides being a blatant attempt to backtrack the legally settled restitution process, this also represents a huge economic setback for the descendants of the Mikes family, as well as the people they had employed, because under the law, they are not allowed to conduct any economic activity on the said land until this lawsuit is over. This ongoing lawsuit over the woodland of this particular family is clearly illustrative of the reason why the Romanian state mostly returned old buildings pertaining to these big estates, while holding on to the land surrounding them. The former requires money for its upkeep (which is why most of them were not used by the state and were left to ruin), while the latter generates revenue, and is therefore more valuable to the state. Property rights, however, should not be subject to such considerations.

Observations and recommendations: The issue of the stagnating and often reversed restitution process in Romania is an affront to the basic right to ownership and an open discriminatory campaign against certain religious and ethnic minorities. Although Romania has slowly been returning confiscated private properties for years, it has not done so in equal measure, as ethnic and religious minorities are clearly being discriminated against, an issue also mentioned year after year in the US State Department’s annual reports on Romania.

FAILURE OF THE MINORITY SAFEPACK INITIATIVE

7. FAILURE OF THE MINORITY SAFEPACK INITIATIVE According to the official site of the Minority SafePack initiative, „The Minority SafePack is a package of law proposals for the safety of the national minorities, a set of EU legal acts that enable the promotion of minority rights, language rights, and the protection of their cultures. In short, safety for minorities and legislative package for minorities.”

CONCLUSION

8. CONCLUSION There have been many worrisome developments in 2021, when it comes to minority rights in general and the situation of the Hungarian community in Romania in particular. The violation of linguistic rights is a continuing problem affecting the Hungarian minority in Romania. There is still a strong political resistance regarding any attempts to update minority rights protection, while current laws on the use of minority languages are often discriminatory. Even after a modification, the Administrative Code does still not encompass satisfactory laws and legal principles regarding the use of minority languages in and by local public institutions. Due to the lack of a clear legal framework, there are still ongoing fights concerning the issues of bilingual place name signs, street signs or even town hall inscriptions. Vandalisation of place name signs and lawsuits against bilingual inscriptions continue to be common in Romania.

It is unfortunate that an attempt to establish a European standard in minority rights spectacularly failed when the minority Safepack was rejected, in spite of the fact that there was a clear sign on the part of European minorities that they support this initiative, which is backed by more than 1 million signatures Europe-wide

The Minority SafePack initiative was very important for all the minorities throughout Europe, including the Hungarian minority in Romania. It is unfortunate that despite the more than one million European citizens’ signature for the Minority SafePack and the support of the European Parliament, the initiative failed after the European Commission rejected its legislative proposals. Not just politicians, but also the people belonging to national and linguistic minorities feel that the European Commission has let them down. In 2017, Romania expressed its disagreement and antipathy toward this initiative by appealing to the court and asking it to scrap the initiative. Romania’s manifestation of rejecting a Europeanlevel solution for minority issues confirms its dismissive position when it comes to solving the problems related to the Hungarian community in the country. The reason why a European solution is needed is that if this matter is not controlled at supranational level, nation-states, like Romania, will abuse their power.

Observations and recommendations: The situation of the Hungarian community living in Romania is also affected by the rejection of the Minority SafePack by the European Commission, anti-Hungarian sentiment and anti-Hungarian manifestations are still present in Romania. According to the recommendations of this year’s European Regional Forum on Minority Issues “The EU must reconsider the proposals of more than a million citizens, supported by the European Parliament in a resolution with over 75% of the votes cast, as well as by national and regional governments the European petition campaign called the Minority Safepack European Citizens’ Initiative which called for the adoption of a set of legal acts to improve the protection of persons belonging to national and linguistic minorities and strengthen cultural and linguistic diversity in the Union.”

The issues related to the healthcare system are of utmost importance in the light of the global health crises. Translations of vital public information in minority languages related to the COVID-19 pandemic are still not present everywhere and uniformly. Other forms of ethnic discrimination faced by people belonging to the Hungarian minority include the continued struggle to ensure that minorities are attended within the healthcare system by medical personnel that speaks their mother tongue. Cases of ethnic harassment in the country unfortunately continue to abound, which disproportinally affect the Hungarian people. In the course of 2021, many Hungarian individuals were discriminated, verbally or even physically attacked because of their ethnic origins. It is unacceptable for such cases to happen in a democratic state, where fundamental rights and freedoms are guaranteed by law. Teaching the official language of Romania to Hungarian-speaking students is still a struggle, which is intensified by the fact that Romanian language and literature textbooks for 9th grader pupils, designed especially for teaching Romanians as a second language, have not arrived in time. In addition to this, the method of teaching the state language to minorities has still not been modified to a satisfactory degree. Theoretical knowledge still stands out, instead of more practical exercises, which would help them communicate in their daily life. Moreover, the situation of the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely is still unsolved, not to mention the unjust attempts to close the II. Rákóczi Ferenc Roman-Catholic High School in Târgu Mureș, which are two extremely discriminatory measures. A systematic double standard is traceable when it comes to the symbols of the Hungarian community in Romania. It is completely unreasonable that Hungarian people are not allowed to use the Szekler flag, while other regions in Romania, like Moldova and Bucovina, can use their flag freely. Hate speech and racism are still a mainstay in the political discourse. Many political leaders used the method of inciting to hatred against the Hungarian minority and their political leaders in order to gain political capital on social media platforms, which became a breeding ground for xenophobic rhetoric. There is an urgent need for updating laws regarding the rights to freedom of speech.

Anti-Hungarian behaviour is still common in sports, mainly football. To combat hate speech directed against the Hungarian minority, which is sadly rampant during sporting events, a further set of comprehensive measures is needed. Unfortunately, there has not been much progress in Romania regarding the restitution of private property confiscated during the communist regime, despite numerous international commitments taken by Romania to this effect. There have been many developments concerning the issue of the illegal appropriation of the military cemetery in the Uz Valley, but there is a need for further positive ones. Many of the lawsuits are still ongoing, while some of them were closed. In lieu of a comprehensive package of laws guaranteeing the rights of national minorities, and given that minority issues are often used by majority politicians as a means of fearmongering and gaining political capital, any systematic change regarding the situation of minority rights in the near future seems unlikely. In this context, the role that Hungarian civil society can play in signalling discrimination and fighting for basic rights is crucial. Therefore, the Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Services Assistance will continue to closely monitor the situation of minority rights in Romania, and use all legal and diplomatic means to fight for the causes which are relevant for the Hungarian community in Romania.

CONTENT NOTES

NOTES

CONTENT NOTES

Minority Report 2021

Articles inside

Marosvásárhely

to combat the epidemic

and financial institutions

1.8. Discrimination in the healthcare system

1.2. Bilingualism in the judiciary

1.2. The University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș

of signs and monuments

1.4. Bilingual street signs

1.6. Safety measures

1.5. Town hall inscriptions

1.7. Driving test in Hungarian