Liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law underpin the EU – these are core values shared by member states. And it is no surprise therefore that human rights are a critical element in the EU’s foreign relations, exchanges with other countries, development policy and work in international institutions like the UN.
Hungary has a large number of minority groups with a variety of ethnic, religious and other backgrounds and benefits from the potential diversity these offer. The Roma are the largest ethnic group here, making up 6-8% of the population. And 12 other national and ethnic minorities are also recognised and provided with certain rights to self-government.
Against this background of EU core values and its domestic situation, the Hungarian Government recently said that working on an EU-wide Roma Strategy would be one of their main priorities when they hold the rotating EU Presidency in early 2011. We wait to see the details, but the social and economic difficulties facing this sector of society are immense – and not just in Hungary.
We are working supportively on these issues where we can. It’s an objective of the United Kingdom’s foreign policy to oppose racism and discrimination and to spread equality and tolerance world wide. Our Embassy here in Budapest wants to do all it can to promote this agenda. Last year, for example, we helped launch the Hungarian-led ZARE (Zene a Rasszizmus Ellen) initiative at the famous Sziget Festival: ZARE has now has held events in every part of the country and is highly active, using the power of music to fight intolerance and hatred.
To help awareness of the importance of tolerance Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall visited the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest during their visit to Hungary in March this year. In June, at the celebration of Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday, the British Embassy also celebrated diversity through art exhibitions, displays and performances by Roma and Jewish musicians. And just recently we unveiled a plaque outside our Embassy to commemorate the work of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg in saving Hungarian Jewish citizens from the Holocaust (he operated from our building towards the end of the Second World War).
We will continue to speak out against anti-Semitism, anti-Roma activities and any other forms of intolerance. These are completely inappropriate in our modern, united Europe.
This week, the British Embassy in Budapest, with the British Council, the British Chamber of Commerce and the Central European University (CEU), organised an interactive conference on diversity and equal opportunities policies. We were privileged to have key figures in this field, from the UK and Hungary, speaking about the importance of these policies and ways of implementing them. The lively debate, involving NGOs and members of civil society here, was encouraging – it demonstrated keen interest and a lively debate on these important issues.
We are looking forward to working with the Hungarian Presidency and other member states to promote respect for human rights in Europe and worldwide.