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The State versus Churches 7.0. – Is constitutional rights protection unenforceable?

standpoint 2015-07-15 | Fb Sharing

The churches deprived of their church status cannot give effect to the judicial decisions that have established the violation of their rights.

The churches deprived of their church status cannot give effect to the judicial decisions that have established the violation of their rights. The Constitutional Court in decision 23/2015 (VII. 7.) AB and the European Court of Human Rights in Magyar Keresztény Mennonita Egyház and others v. Hungary held that the deregistration of churches following the 2011 Church Law violated the right to religious freedom.

In the issue of the freedom of religion, political arbitrariness and constitutionalism are opposed to each other. The governing majority stripped every religious community of its church status and subjected them to the political deliberations of the Parliament, enabling it to decide which community can regain church status. In order to put this system in place, the Fundamental Law was amended twice. Though the regulation failed both before the ECtHR and the Constitutional Court, the Hungarian legislature has not taken the judicial decisions seriously and the churches cannot enforce their rights.

It is clear from the decision of the Constitutional Court that in order to overcome the current stalemate the Parliament and the Government shall take steps and enact legislation that meets the requirements of the freedom of religion. Both, however, only pretend to take action and do not meet the requirements set by the judicial decisons.


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