The father is male, the mother is female, and the government is protecting families – Hungary’s foreign minister gives a speech in Hungarian at the UN Human Rights Council

On Wednesday, Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó started his 20-minute speech at the UN Human Rights Council by expressing his thanks for being allowed to address the council in Hungarian regarding the universal human rights review of his country. His speech, which resembled a campaign speech, was broadcast live on his Facebook page.

Szijjártó mentioned that they have received 267 suggestions from Member States on the implementation of human rights in Hungary, most of which were constructive. Of these, they accepted 131, and 136 have been noted – as he said, the reason for the latter was that in their opinion, these have either been partially fulfilled already, or are not compatible with Hungary’s Fundamental Law, or were politically motivated, e.g. in the case of gender ideology.

He also said that “Hungary has been lead by a Christian Democrat, national, patriotic and right-wing government for the past 12 years, the politics of which are built upon Christian values. This Christian value system is the guarantee that human rights are fully respected in Hungary."

And with a quick switch, he was already talking about the war – although nothing new was mentioned:

• in a war, the most basic human rights are violated, as people lose their right to peace and security. This is unacceptable, and the war must end.
• The people of Hungary do not want war, and the Hungarian government must guarantee peace and safety for its citizens. For this reason, they will do everything in their power to prevent Hungary from being dragged into the war, and will also make sure that it is not the Hungarian people who end up paying for the cost of war.
• In order to ensure this, the Hungarian army has set up a concentrated presence near its Eastern border, and a decision has been made that they would not be sending any soldiers or weapons to the war, and will also not allow any deadly weapons to be transported via Hungary.
• Furthermore, for the same reason as above, the Hungarian government will not support any decisions which would jeopardise the security of the Hungarian energy supply (Russian gas).

He spoke about Hungary receiving the refugees coming from Ukraine, and mentioned that Hungary is helping them, and that in order to ensure the opportunity to work for those who wish to stay, the government is supporting the companies employing refugees. Szijjártó praised Poland for all they have done to help Ukrainian refugees, and added that it is a funny situation that it is precisely these two countries which are not receiving the necessary funds from the EU. He also mentioned that he considers proposals to create no-fly zones dangerous.

“In the course of Hungary's human rights reviews, the issue of illegal migration has been raised many times, and we have received many suggestions from Member States in this regard." – the Foreign Minister said, switching topics. He stated the difference between illegal migrants and refugees, and mentioned that Hungary is committed to not allowing illegal migrants in, and that the country’s Southern borders are strictly guarded. “Last year we stopped 123 thousand migrants, and this year so far 34 thousand” – adding that in his opinion by doing this, Hungary is taking a significant burden off the shoulders of Western European countries, as they would otherwise have to spend billions of euros integrating them.

As Hungary has also been criticized for what it calls “child protection measures”, affecting the rights of families, Szijjártó addressed this subject as well. He talked about the government protecting children and families, mentioned that the mother is female and the father is male, and that marriage can only happen between a man and a woman. The rhetoric which has been heard many times before was brought up again when he said that they are simply aiming to protect families and children, and to ensure that children are not exposed to unwanted content – as this is a right reserved for the parents.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister added that Hungary spends twice as much on supporting families as is the OECD average: 5,2 percent of the GDP. “We have succeeded in making sure that having children is not an economic question any more” – he said, and added that along with the parliamentary elections on 3 April, Hungary will also hold a referendum on its child protection measures.