A/HRC/58/49/Add.1 intolerance, including hate crimes and online hate speech directed at religion or belief and racial minorities, and other vulnerable groups; discrimination and social exclusion faced by Roma; and regression in the promotion of gender equality; as did Hungary’s third UPR (November 2021). IV. National laws, policies, institutions and practices 15. Hungary’s Fundamental Law (Constitution), adopted in 2011, guarantees the right to freely choose, change, and practice religion, and to engage in religious ceremonies both publicly and privately (Article VII(1)). The law explicitly prohibits discrimination based on religion. Hungary’s legal system criminalizes any speech that aims to violate the dignity of religious communities or incites hatred against them, with punishments from fines to imprisonment for incitement to violence, threats, hate speech, or the public denial of historical atrocities like the Holocaust. The Penal Code declares anyone who “publicly denies, casts doubt on, trivializes, or attempts to justify the fact of genocide or other acts against humanity committed by the National Socialist or Communist regimes” as being guilty of a felony (article 333). 16. The ‘National Avowal’ at the beginning of the Constitution states that ‘[w]e recognise the role of Christianity in preserving nationhood. We value the various religious traditions of our country’. Christianity is referenced several times in the Constitution. Although the Fundamental Law asserts the historical role of Christianity in shaping the nation, it maintains the principle of the autonomy of ‘Churches’ (used to refer to all religious organisations). The State cooperates closely with Churches in the provision of education, health, child protection and other social institutions. (Article VII.(4)). 17. Hungary’s 2011 Church Law (Act CCVI) marked a major shift in the country’s prior legal approach to religion or belief organizations since 1990. Previously, any group of citizens could establish a religious organization and some 350 religious or belief groups were recognised. The 2011 law narrowed the scope and parameters of legal personality for religious or belief communities. As a result, it stripped the majority of legal status, reducing those officially recognized to 14, and later 32 organizations - others need a majority vote in Parliament to be recognised. This received much criticism, including from this mandate, 3 and resulted in litigation, including at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). There are currently 32 established Churches, 16 registered Churches and 260 religious associations recognised in four tiers (see para. 30). 18. The 2014 ECtHR case Magyar Keresztény Mennonita Egyház and Others v. Hungary held that deregistration of the applicants as churches had led to violations of article 11 (freedom of association) read in light of article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion); and unfairly discriminated against certain religious groups by denying them access to state benefits and public funding. 19. In response to both domestic and international criticism, the Hungarian government amended the Church Law in 2018. Amendments took effect in 2019, allowing religious organizations to determine their own internal structures, and permitting all such organizations to receive 1% of voluntary tax donations from the public and a further 1% from voluntary tax donations to charitable institutions and civil society. However, the amendments fell short of addressing the broader discrimination concerns. 20. Hungary does not have a national human rights action plan or strategy, but its principal related action plans focus on social inclusion, poverty reduction, women, children, and the environment. There has been a distinct shift from a gender equality framing to one emphasising traditional family structures and the child-bearing role of women. The ‘Empowering Women in the Family and Society Action Plan (2021-2030)’ replaced the ‘National Strategy for the Promotion of Gender Equality 2010-2021’; and the ‘National Social Inclusion Strategy 2030’, adopted in 2021, highlights poverty alleviation, reduction of 3 4 HUN 2/2011.