Seventh Forum on Minority Issues Statement by H.E. Ádám Zoltán KOVÁCS Deputy State Secretary for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary (Geneva, 25 November 2014) Mr President, Ms Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to take the floor on behalf of the Government of Hungary at this Seventh Forum on Minority Issues, which we consider as a unique and outstanding platform for exchange of best practices, discuss challenges, launch initiatives and formulate recommendations with regard to the protection of national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. Let me extend the highest appreciation of my Government to the High Commissioner for Human Rights and his Office, the President of the Human Rights Council, and most particularly to the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues and to all those who contributed to the organization of the Forum. The Hungarian Government remains firmly committed to the cause of minority protection both in its internal and external policies. On the basis of its own historical experience, Hungary strongly believes that the promotion and protection of minority rights contribute “to political and social stability and peace” as it was universally recognized in the 2005 World Summit Outcome. In our view minorities, whose individual and collective rights are safeguarded by law and assured by government authorities, accepted and tolerated by the majority of a society, are efficiently contributing both to the internal stability of a country and to its good neighbourly relations with others. In this context we consider as of particular importance and actuality the choice of preventing and addressing violence and atrocity crimes targeted against minorities as main topic of the Forum. Dramatic eruptions of violence in several parts of the world, resulting in serious and massive violations of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, mostly at the expense of and targeted against minorities, are calling for urgent steps towards practical implementation of the principles of the prevention and the responsibility to protect. Ladies and Gentlemen, For Hungary the protection of minorities has double layers. In Hungary there are thirteen recognized national or ethnic minorities, while outside its borders, mostly in