ACTORS, ACTIVITIES, ST AGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Who are the main actors in the "politicai field" on the issues of asylum seekers and victims of rac ism or xenophobia?

a)Activists. They can be recruited from the bureaucratic-administrative sector or from the civil society. Anti-human rights "streetfighters" are rare, but other more subtle forrns of rejection and hostility may poison the atmosphere of Hungarian society. Behind the few hostile xenophobic actions there might be broader social support. This is what we can assume based on opinion polls and other surveys. Some groups may not openly articulate their hostility against foreigners or racial minorities, but they may "cover" the activism of racist "streetfighters". Some of the civil servants misusing their power on these issues may refer to the "consent" of the majority who back them in these cases and reject the liberal norms. As a consequence, pro human rights activists have to fight on many fronts: trying to change general hostile attitudes, convincing officials and clerks to follow the norms of human rights, and combating "streetfighters" with ali possible legal means.

b) Clients. They have as varied profiles as do the activists. The biggest native ethni c minority, the Roma, has established its own civic infrastructure, including some civil rights organisations, for help and self-help.

e) Supporters. Many groups and institutions, from the govemmental sector and from the civil society, from Hungary and from abroad, help to defend civil rights. In Hungary not only the liberal and socialist parti es but also the conservatives use the language of human rights, which is a requirement in the post-comrnunist politicai culture. Although, there are clear-cut differences among poiiticai parties treating the issue, there is a consen-sus among the parties that Hungary should not become "the last station for refugees be-fore the gates of the West". It is very likely that in the course of the coming election (in 1998) the overwhelming number of the parties will court their potential voters by restric-tive programs conceming immigration, despite the differences in poiiticai values. In Hun-garian society, younger, urban, cosmopolitan, "European"-oriented persons with higher education and white collar occupations tend to accept the open ing up of the country and of multiculturalism, while older, less educated, blue collar or unemployed people in the countryside with strong national identification reject that. Among the minorities there is little solidarity despite their common problems.

What are the main forms of human rights actions in Hungary?

a) Propaganda and training aiming to mobilise people for human rights, and targeted on the hosti le or passive majority as weil as on the groups of actual and possible victims.

b) Monitoring and documenting the current state of human rights. This includes vari-ous activities oriented towards governmental organisations misusing their discretionary po wer, as weil as against groups and individuals injuring or misusing foreigners, asylum seekers, and so on. The use of the "power" of international and local publicity enables the activists to "make the issue" or to "set an agenda". The power of information is also im-portant in tenns of building up archives, which may serve many functions, such as train-ing, media education, legal assistance and so on based on their practical experience to-wards government and the public, civic groups launeh reform initiatives to improve the status of minorities and foreigners.

e) Legal counselling service, networking, community building. Activities to help the c1ients, the minority groups or the refugees, achieve better results in legal or other adrnin-istrative procedures, and to establish groups and networks enabling them to help thern-selves and to articulate their demands. Information on their rights and duties, on their participation and on the ch anne ls for articulating their concerns are provided for the c1i-ents. A wide range of professional and serni-professional volunteer work has been under-taken to improve the conditions of the different groups of foreigners and to help th em find a satisfactory solution in Hungary to their situation as migrants.

We may identify different stages or periods in the development of human rights activ-ism in Hungary. The main characteristics of these periods are the following:

1. 1987-1989

• Human rights are not institutionalised, but there are rapid improvements due to the ch ange in regime.

• Civic act ivism is first and foremost oriented to change the regime and institutionalise rights and freedoms. Some initiatives emerge both from church and other groups to help Hungarian refugees from Romania. National and demoeratic motives play a role.

• Mostly ethnic Hungarians immigrate from Romania. The overwhelming majority of the population supports the assistance to and the integration of the victims of total itarism and ethnic discrimination.

• There is no legal status in the beginning of the de facto immigration. Transitory solu-tions are established. There isa relatively homogeneous ethni c composition of immigrants.

• First violent attacks byskinheads against Roma and non-European foreigners. Under heavy government and police pressure, calm quickly returns.

2. 1989-1991

• Institutionalisation of human rights and freedoms and of the rule of law occurs by changing the constitution, passing new laws and establishing constitutional democracy.

• The previously suppressed civil right activism is now legal and is coopted into the formai poiiticai process. Many old "catacomb" activists change to politics, and new gen-erations ofactivists and groups emerge. An intemationalisation process occurs, with Hun-43

garians acting as members of international networks, and international organisations act-ing freely in Hungary.

• The newly established freedom in Hungary also locks various ethnic groups in the country, who had hoped to go further West. However, Western countries, especially Aus-tria, demand a strict refugee regime and border control, to avoid being a target of illegal immigration from and via Hungary. Contradictory tendencies emerge, and these are fur-ther strengthened by the outbreak of civil war in Yugoslavia. As a result, the ethnic com-position of immigration changes, the dominance of ethnic Hungarians is still there, but other important ethnic groups appear. There is a large quantitative increase which will be perceived by Hungarian and Western decisionmakers as a threat and a destabilising force.

• Immigrant status and related procedures are established and institutionalised under the pressure of Western and Hungarian fears that see Hungary as a "fortress" against un-predictable immigrant streams from the East and the South. Hungary is still open to ethnic Hungarians, but is more selective. The Antall-government believes that ethnic Hungarians have to live in their country of origin to uphold the Hungarian minority there. As a result, a contradictory reg ime of immigration and refugee status is emerging, with territorial re-striction which makes the non-European immigrants mostly "outlawed" in Hungary.

• The mobilisation of violence and other hostilities reaches its peaks. Fears of Yugo-slav war, socio-economic crisis, unemployment, West European rejection, and violence against foreigners depicted in the press and media lead to hostile outbursts and violent attacks on foreign migrants and Roma. There is a change in public opinion toward all mi-grants, including ethnic Hungarians, who are rejected as competitors with lower skilled and blue collar workers on the job market. The "skinhead issue" will be discussed by the politicaI elite and will receive publicity; decisionmakers are uncertain to support any type of immigration.

3. 1991-1994

• The main institutional guarantees for human rights are settled and established. The issues concerning the rights ofwomen, minority groups, and migrants-foreigners proveke conflicts between the Christian Demoeratic government on the "right" and the Social ist and Liberal opposition parties on the "left". A conflict arises between "law and order" and

"right and freedom" views and politicaI camps emerge within and outside the Parliament concerning issues of immigration, Roma minority, the mass media freedom and control, and so on.

• The national and international network of the NGOs is strengthened, and new initia-tives are established. An interconnection develops with the extraparliamentary protest ac-tivities of the Socialist and Liberal opposition parties organised in the so-call ed "Demo-eratic Charter", a nation-wide initiative of post-communist human rights activists. Human rights networks with different profiles emerge, for example those that are Liberal, Anar-chist-Libertarian, Feminist-Alternative or Socialist-Syndicalist. Institutionalisation, fictio-nalisation and networking occur within a new NGO sector, where problems of migrants and ethnic minorities are one of the specific fields. Connections to parties and trade un-ions and to different social groups establish a "rnultiorganisational field of alliance for rights and freedoms" .

• There is a relative stabilisation of the level of immigration to Hungary. Important groups simply do not enter the official records, due to their illegal migrant strategies, such as smuggling non-Europeans to Austria and illegal labour and trade from former commu-nist countries. Meanwhile official and institutionalised migration is controlled, and illegal or semi-legal migrants are a steady provocation to border control, foreigners, offices and employment policy. The Yugoslav "invasion" of Hungary is resolved with Western help.

• There are constant shifts in the policy, sometimes without any official declaration. Gen-eraIly, the Conservative government has a "law and Older" policy in internal affairs, uses more control mechanisms and"tougher" means toward non-Europeans and immigrant work-ers. This policy is backed by Western governmental models and by fears in a broad range of the population; it is eriticised and rejected by the "left" Liberal and Socialist parties.

• There is a decrease in the number of violent ac ts against Roma and foreigners by skinheads. This is due to many reasons, such as the tougher government reactions towards immigration and to the increased police activities towards skinheads. On the other hand, new poIiticaI issues for the extreme right emerge; there is conflict in the media, conflict between Prime Minister Antall and State President Árpád Göncz, and conflict conceruing the communist past of some officials. Right-wíng activism shifts to other issues and be-comes more "institutionalised" in legally organised poIiticaI demonstrations against Com-munists, Liberals, and Socialists. There is a shift from violence to protest in the right-wing strategy, which continues after 1994, although streetfighting is not eliminated totally and conflict with the Roma remains alive.

4.1994-1996

• The government coalition of the "right" was defeated, and "left" Liberals and Social-ists form the new government after the second general elections in 1994. There are new institutional improvements for human rights. The ombudsmen will be elected by Parlia-ment, one on minority groups, one on information and freedom of speech issues, and a

"general" ombudsman. The new officials try their best to help citizens realise their rights and freedoms and to criticise the authorities' actions. There are important steps taken, such as regulating the videotapes of demonstrations taken by police, and protecting pec-ples' rights when under psychiatric guardianship. The Liberal party in the government selects the Minister of Internal Affairs, who is dedicated to improving human rights conditions. For example, he launched a training program for the police on how to treat Roma. Controls on drug addiction were liberalised to a great extent by High Court deci-sion. The Liberal Minister of Culture launched nation-wide education programs and propaganda on multicultural tolerance, involving foreign and Hungarian NGOs.

• The new generation of human rights initiatives is more professional due to govern-ment and Western help. The international networking within Europe extends to the East, involving other former communist countries. Hungarian initiatives and leaders receive important international acknowledgements, such as the alternative Nobel prize given to András Bíró, who established a network ofNGOs concerned about the social, cultural and legal status of the Roma in Hungary. Some important international and European NGO meetings were organised in Hungary. The Helsinki Committee received a UN Award for their human rights work concerning refugee rights in Hungary in 1996.

• The main "shadow" on the Hungarian migration consciousness, the Yugoslav civil war, is concluded by the Dayton agreement, so the problems of the resettlement of ex-Yugoslav refugees and the challenge to reorient imrnigration policy have to be resolved.

This has not yet occurred. Regulations impose controls in response to fears of immigra-tion from the East, pressure from Western governments and a dissatistied home popula-tion. A change of the existing regulations might imbalance the situation, which is proba-bly why the new government avoided essential changes, such as deleting the territcrial exclusion for non-European refugees. Immigration strategies cope with the Hungarian immigration regime. The "underground" form of migration that is targeting Hungary and the West is the most worrying phenomenon for decisionmakers nowadays. In response new, more inclusive and permissive regulations or the extension of law enforcement and border control efforts are considered. There is no dramatic migration of ethnic Hungari-ans to Hungary. Ethnic Hungarians from nearby countries try to benetit from education and economic activities in Hungary, but they continue commuting to their "mother" coun-try so long as no new and sudden obstacles occur there.

• No substantial changes in the refugee and immigration regime had occurred but there are considerable policy changes in preparation, such as the abolition of the so-called geo-graphical limitation. There are politicaI hopes of admission to the European Community and NATO. Accordingly, new regulations should control migration in and via Hungary.

Despite more policies fostering multicultural tolerance, the institutional barriers and con-trols believed tostem mass migration are upheld throughout 1996.

• Mobilisation of violence declines against foreigners, while attacks against individual Roma and their homes remain relatively stable. Extreme right subcultures are more organ-ised and politicorgan-ised. Skinheads are involved in legal and semi-legal politicai associations and support legal demonstrations and other protest actions, where the leaders misuse the rights of free assembly and free speech to launeh Nazi and racist slogans publicly. The ideological and organisational development has brought some parts of the formerly vio-lent right-wing youth subculture to the symbolic protest politics of the right-wing. At the same time the international wave of racist violence in Europe is diminishing, although it has stabilised at a higher level than in the late eighties. Some researchers see links be-tween the stabilisation of refugee-immigrant regimes and their coping with migrant flows from former Communist and Third World countries since 1989 and the decline of racist attacks after the asylum-immigrant conflict and debate in the beginning of the 1990s.

Summing up the results of OUf analysis of the different levels of the human rights is-sues related to asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in Hungary, we may state that many improvements have be en made on ali levels. The conditions for the realisation of human rights improved rapidly in 1989 and after and there has been a constant development since then, which, of course, has not solved ali the problems. Civil rights activism has also developed with some links to pre-1989 activism, but on a new basis, as part of European and global networks of professional volunteers.

Immigration to Hungary did not increase as dramatically as it was assumed at the peak of the Yugoslav war, and the crisis de-escalated. Hungary has become a type of "transit"

country for ali types of Eastern migrants to ward the West, and for a variety of reasons some of the migrants are staying here longer. Only a few of the ethnic Hungarians, and

even fewer of other ethnic groups, try to settle in Hungary and make a living and obtain citizenship here. The immigra.ion regime and mechanisms, created in response to inter-national pressure and internal consensus, try to select and reject immigrants coming to and through Hungary. Different groups of migrants, especially commuters, find their way legally or illegally through Hungary into Western countries, which is a constant irritant to law enforcement authorities and the public.

Despite the change of go vern ment in 1994, the immigration system did not undergo fundamental ch anges, being seen as a means of keep ing a balance between international pressure and the interests of different internal politicai forces, and backed strongly by so-cio-economic problems that trigger hostility against ali foreigners in a wider strata. AI-though xenophobia seems to be a stable element of Hungarian poiiticai culture, its ability to generate racist violence and other forms of hostile outbursts has de-escalated recently.

Counter-mobilisation by civil rights activists, the change of government, a tougher imrni-gration policy and the decrease of the European violence wave have contributed to the de-escalation, as has the institutionalisation and politicisation of extreme right youth groups.

Prejudice, hostility toward foreigners and toward ethnic groups has not mobilised larger scale racist and ethnic violence in Hungary since 1989, unlike the case in many former Eastern and South-eastern communist countries.

THE PROFILES OF THE MAJOR HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISA TlONS DEALlNG WITH REFUGEE, MIGRANT, AND MINORITY ISSUES Sketching of the profile of a small but developing NGO sector cannot give complete insight into the practical work and the problems of human rights activists in Hungary. We do not provide a full description of ali human rights organisations in Hungary, but focus the analysision several well known actors, whose activities are most ly documented.

These few initiatives are selected from a broader spectrum of initiatives based upon media coverage, efficacy, and support.

Raoul Wallenberg Association, Raoul Wallenberg Egyesület (1988)

The association to ok the name of Raoul Wallenberg, an official of the Swedish Em-bassy in Budapest who in 1944-1945 rescued many Jewish persons from being killed in the Holocaust. The organisation works on beha If of ali people whose individual and group rights are endangered.

I Our data is based upon different sources: the documentation, which the initiatives gave us upon request, newspaper content analysis of the leading Hungarian weeklies and dailies from 1989-1995 related to NGO protest activities, statistical reports on NGOs in Hungary, and standardised interviews with each initiative, se-lecting a leader, a rank and file member, and, if available, a"non-conformist" member. The data gathering was organised in the form of a research seminar on "Social Movements and Politics" at the Eötvös Loránd Univer-sity, Faculty of Law and Department of Poiiticai Science, whcre students studying law and political science forrned research teams to study each of the initiatives described here and wrote case studies aceording to

com-moncriteria and questionnaires.

The initiative was established during the crisis of the communist regime. In the begin-ning this was the only initiative with this profile. The monopoly situation and the prestige of Wallenberg gave the association a type of"moral power". The initiative organised or

The initiative was established during the crisis of the communist regime. In the begin-ning this was the only initiative with this profile. The monopoly situation and the prestige of Wallenberg gave the association a type of"moral power". The initiative organised or