Monday, July 5th, 2021
LGBTQ rights restricted
Council of Europe criticizes Hungary’s constitutional amendment
A family consists of a man and a woman, queer people are not allowed to adopt children in Hungary. This is what Hungary’s parliament has written in an amendment to the constitution. The Council of Europe sees the freedoms of LGBTQ as endangered – it is particularly critical of one passage.
Legal experts from the Council of Europe have raised concerns about a constitutional amendment in Hungary that could further restrict the rights of LGBTQI + people. The Venice Commission is critical of a part that stipulates that the gender of a child is fixed at birth and cannot be changed. This should be changed or repealed in order not to deny transgender people the recognition of their gender, as it was said in a statement by the Strasbourg legal experts.
The abbreviation LGBTQI + stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans and other non-heterosexual people or people who do not identify with the traditional role model of men and women or other social norms relating to gender and sexuality. Hungary introduced the new constitutional amendment in December. This also excludes the adoption of a child by same-sex couples. “The father is a man, the mother is a woman,” says the text of the document.
The expert body of the Council of Europe saw this only as legal concerns, should unmarried or single heterosexuals be allowed to adopt. With regard to another passage of the constitutional amendment on education, the panel pointed out that the curriculum in schools should be diverse and the right of parents to choose between denominational and non-religious courses must be respected.
According to the experts, whether parts of the constitutional amendment are ultimately compliant with human rights, democracy and the rule of law depends primarily on the laws and regulations that will be based on the amendment in the future. One was generally concerned, however, that there had been no public consultation on the change and that the changes had been issued in an emergency.
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