Statement of H.E. Dr. Ferenc Dancs Deputy State Secretary for Migration Challenges of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary 12th UN Forum on Minority Issues 28-29 November 2019, Geneva Madam Chair, Mr Special Rapporteur, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, The UN Forum on Minority Issues is a significant and outstanding platform for exchanging views, ideas and best practices with the aim of furthering the protection of the rights of national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. For historical reasons, one of the key objectives of Hungary’s foreign policy is the international protection of minority rights. The Hungarian Government therefore highly appreciates efforts of the UN Minority Forum and especially the activity of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues to keep the questions of minorities, in particular their language, education and human rights on the agenda. The Hungarian government remains committed to the promotion of the education in and the teaching of minority languages, and the current developments in several regions, including our own neighbourhood show that attention is also required from the international stakeholders in this matter. We therefore welcome the expertise and advice offered in the UN and other relevant regional framework related to this matter. We firmly believe that the language rights of national minorities are integral part of human rights. In our view, when discussing the use of minority languages the focus should not only be on the opportunities provided by the majority, eventually multilingual society for ethnic minority speakers, but we have to explore the possibilities how to maintain and guarantee their rights to the use of mother tongue in education and in other sphere of public life. These rights are enshrined in international instruments of the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe (CoE). States have no other task but to comply with them. According to the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1992: “States should take appropriate measures so that, wherever possible, persons belonging to minorities may have adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue or to have instruction in their mother tongue.” Recommendations of the Inaugural Session of the Forum on Minority Issues confirmed the above, by adding that “Specific forms of such opportunities should be chosen in consultation with persons belonging to minorities and taking account of their freely expressed wishes.” The first international agreement concerning education in minority languages was adopted within the framework of the Council of Europe in 1992, “the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages”. With its ratification, States Parties undertake to ensure fully or partially the education in minority languages on different levels of their educational system, according to their choice and in conformity with the Charter.