On February 13, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child published its report on the situation of children’s rights in Hungary between the period of 2014 and 2019. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee organised a discussion with children’s rights experts and lawyers about the situation of Hungarian child protection.
Currently, 30% of children in Hungary are separated from their family for financial reasons, 48% of Roma children receive segregated education, 15% of 17-year-olds do not attend school, and the state spends only 3.8% of GDP on education. In addition, the institutional care of children with disabilities and the confinement of refugee children in transit zones is problematic.
The best interest of children
The Hungarian legal system obliges the Hungarian state and all the bodies that come into contact with children to take the best interest of children more prominently into account. According to Zsolt Szekeres, a lawyer working with refugee children, an impact assessment and coordination have often been lacking during the more than 200 legislative changes affecting children in recent years. Children’s rights often compete with each other, for example, when the child has a right to be raised in a family, but in addition s/he has a right to safety and protection too.
What about the institutional system?
The situation of asylum-seeking children is currently very bad in Hungary. Refugee children can be held for an indefinite period in transit zones, where they often witness the starvation of their parents, and also, during the asylum procedure their interest is not taken into account. There are 23,000 children in child protection care in Hungary, their number is growing by 8–10 thousand a year, and they enter the system either as adolescents or as infants.
A 2014 law stipulates that children under the age of 12 must be placed with foster parents, however, the number of foster parents has not changed significantly in recent years; there are still only 5,500 foster parents in Hungary. Unfortunately, the majority of children under 12, approximately 7,000, still live in children’s homes.
The number of children removed from their family has increased in recent years. There are three groups of exceptions to the 2014 Act: severely disabled children, chronically ill children, and siblings. Children with disabilities and chronic illnesses can be placed in institutions for the care of adults with disabilities, as well as in institutions for psychiatric patients. In addition, the educational situation of children with disabilities is also a problem; there has been no progress in the field of inclusive education in the past six years.
Domestic violence: a structural problem or unavoidable individual tragedies?
According to experts, this is a structural problem. Many professionals do not have the right knowledge and mentality to explore and handle cases of domestic violence. In addition, physical and verbal violence against children of various minority groups is supported at a higher level due to the government’s divisive policy. Members of the signalling system do not dare to signal when needed; they often do not know when to do what. Their sense of responsibility should be strengthened through training.
Signalling system in institutions
Residents and workers of closed living institutions usually only dare to discuss violations they have suffered anonymously because they are afraid of retaliation. The staff working in children’s homes are often undertrained, and the 2010 EMMI protocol only scratches the surface of problems.
What will happen now?
Currently, the government is doing little to improve the situation. ‘Lawyers, human rights defenders are excluded from institutions, transit zones, and practically from everywhere where children are locked up for extended periods of time, and efforts are being made to incite society against aid organisations. Meanwhile, the work of child protection professionals remains disrespectful: low pay, labour shortages, overwork and lack of further training do not advance the situation of children’s rights.’ In addition to the government’s responsibility to improve the situation, it is also everyone’s own civic duty not to give in to incitement.