Lubinets: Ombudsman of Hungary ignored Ukraine's invitation to jointly monitor observance of rights of national minorities
Hungary is not trying to solve problems, but is using the subject of national minorities for political manipulation, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets said.
He said that in 2024 he invited the ombudsmen of Romania, Hungary and Slovakia to visit Ukraine in order to conduct a joint monitoring visit and talk with representatives of national minorities.
"The first colleague who responded to my proposal was Renata Weber. She is a Romanian ombudsman. She physically came to Ukraine for one day. We worked together in Chernivtsi region. And on the second day we went to Romania together. And on the first day we observed and recorded how Ukraine protects the rights of the Romanian national minority. And the next day I watched with my colleague how Romania protects the rights of the Ukrainian national minority," he said at the press conference titled "The Brave Change the World."
Lubinets said Ukraine showed the best practices in protecting the rights of national minorities. In particular, according to him, there are more Ukrainian schools with the Romanian language than Romanian schools with the Ukrainian language.
The ombudsman also said he had invited his Hungarian colleague to Ukraine three times: both publicly and privately.
"I received one letter confirming my readiness to come to Ukraine in the second half of 2024. After that, I sent several more letters with more detailed details. We are ready to offer any options, primarily to our Hungarian colleague. He did not come and officially did not even respond to me after that first letter," the ombudsman said.
He said he always cites this example when it comes to alleged violations of the rights of the Hungarian national minority in Ukraine.
"If there was really a desire to come, monitor, record... If there are violations, we are ready to deal with them, we are ready to make changes to the internal order. But, unfortunately, I see that in the examples this remains simply political manipulation on the part of our neighbor," he said.
