Hungary\u2019s government has smeared human rights groups, the European Union, migrants, and philanthropist and former financier George Soros. Now the Hungarian government has a new target \u2013 the United Nations.\u00a0Hungary\u2019s Foreign Minister has even demanded the resignation of the UN\u2019s top human rights official Zeid bin Ra\u2019ad al-Hussein \u2013 after Zeid, in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council, described as racist comments made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n about immigration and race-mixing.<\/p>\n
To his credit, Zeid also denounced leaders engaging in shameless xenophobia in Europe, calling for members to stand against leaders stoking hatred for political profit.<\/p>\n
Days later, in early March, Hungary\u2019s government declared war on the UN Migration Compact, a non-binding global policy currently being negotiated, designed to cover all sides of international migration. The government plans on using taxpayer\u2019s money to fund a so called \u201cinformation campaign\u201d on the compact and blocked negotiations of the policy at the EU level.<\/p>\n
Hungary\u2019s foreign minister even wants the UN to say migration is \u201cbad and dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, blue posters across Hungary say the \u201cUN wants Hungary to continuously accept migrants\u201d and that the \u201cUN wants us to pay for the settlement and employment of migrants.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no coincidence that this is happening shortly before national legislative elections, set for April 8. The prime minister has repeatedly said the elections will determine whether \u201cHungary will remain Hungarian, or become an immigrant country.\u201d Journalists have reported that the government party at campaign events is portraying nongovernmental groups and media outlets as groups that \u201chave to be stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch is one of those organizations. We could even fall under the scope of newly proposed bills penalizing organizations \u201csupporting migration.\u201d The pending bills, which claim asylum seekers are a national security threat, have been criticized by several UN experts and risk blocking vital support to asylum seekers and migrants in Hungary.<\/p>\n
This anti-UN, anti-immigrant rhetoric doesn\u2019t seem to be hurting Hungary\u2019s ruling party, which is riding high in the polls. But it is seriously damaging both human rights in the country and Hungary\u2019s international standing \u2013 it\u2019s likely to face criticism next week before the Human Rights Committee at the UN where its human rights record will be reviewed.<\/p>\n
Whoever wins the vote on April 8 will have bridges to build. As a European Union and United Nations member, Hungary\u2019s pre-election campaigns are harming its status in both places.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hungary\u2019s government has smeared human rights groups, the European Union, migrants, and philanthropist and former financier George Soros. Now the Hungarian government has a new target \u2013 the United Nations.\u00a0Hungary\u2019s Foreign Minister has even demanded the resignation of the UN\u2019s top human rights official Zeid bin Ra\u2019ad al-Hussein \u2013 after Zeid, in a speech to the UN Human Rights Council,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2190,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions\/2190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/europeandrussiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}