A/HRC/58/49/Add.1 highest levels, have made statements that may promote racial hatred, in particular as part of the Government’s anti-immigrant and anti-refugee campaign started in 2015.”16 46. The prevalence of hate speech in Hungarian society was brought up by a range of actors during the mandate visit. These stretched from hate speech attacking Roma, LGBTIQ+, the unemployed and poor, and a range of religious minorities who are repeatedly demonised in the media. In her 2021 country report, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression highlighted serious concerns regarding ‘State-orchestrated campaigns of fearmongering, scapegoating, and stigmatization’ faced by human rights defenders, journalists, LGBTI rights activists, and those defending and promoting migrant rights.17 47. The Special Rapporteur received reports that authorities were hesitant to classify incidents as hate crimes. She received some criminal statistics on hate crimes in police proceedings (2019-2023) which indicated a total number of 106 such crimes. These were in particular classified as violence against a member of a community, and a few related to incitement against a community, but there were no violations of freedom of conscience and religion. Although she also met with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, she regrets that she did not receive information on any investigations, prosecutions or convictions for racist hate speech, especially by public figures and politicians. She was subsequently informed that the reason for the lack of statistics was that no prosecutions for such offences were carried out between 2019 and 2023. E. Educational, social service and health sectors 48. Since 2010, a wide range of State duties in education, social security and health services have been transferred to various churches. 49. The Special Rapporteur underlines that a human rights enquiry into this matter is not to question the quality of commitment or care offered by churches, but raises questions around inclusion, equal access, transparency, accountability, and the human rights of all concerned whether patients, employees, school management, children, or the community of parents/guardians. 1. Education 50. The main objective of the 2021 Public Education Strategy is the development and support of underperforming and disadvantaged students in formal education. 51. Section 2 of Act CCVI (as amended) establishes that ‘[a] parent or guardian shall have the right to decide on the moral or religious upbringing and religious education of his minor child, and to provide for it accordingly’. Under Section 3, ‘[t]he exercise of freedom of conscience and religion shall be made possible for those cared for in educational...institutions’. 52. Public schools in Hungary are mandated to provide one hour per week of faith/ethics education for grades 1-8, with parents choosing between classes from a tier 1 established church course or ethics course. Other religious groups are allowed to offer extracurricular optional education. Private schools are not required to offer faith or ethics classes. 53. Since the education reform in 2013, only schools run by tier 1 ‘established churches’ receive an automatic subsidy for operating expenses / full funding by the State depending on the number of students, with other religious groups are able to apply to open schools and to receive a subsidy for employee salaries. The Special Rapporteur was informed that ‘church schools’ can make (their) faith education class mandatory without offering ethics as an alternative. 54. Before 2010, there were two streams of funding for municipal schools: normative state funding plus funding from the municipality. Church schools were not receiving the second 16 17 CERD/C/HUN/CO/18-25, para. 16. A/HRC/50/29/Add.1, para. 63. 9