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HUNGARY: Deregistration of religious communities – A professor of Texas Lutheran University reacts to MEP György Hölvenyi’s comment

Published by Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF)

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(HRWF) – Following the publication of The Economist blog post “A slippery Magyar Slope” (25th September 2014) and MEP György Hölvényi’s comment about it in our Newsletter, we received a reaction of Prof. David Baer from the Texas Lutheran University that we share below with you:

David Baer (13.10.2014) – Mr. Holvenyi’s writes to defend a church law that the ECtHR has found to breach the European Convention and which the Hungarian government refuses to amend. He would thus have us believe that religious communities in Hungary enjoy religious freedom even as they are not protected by the rule of law.

Mr. Holvenyi urges that we stick to the facts. The fact is that in 2011 the government of Hungary retroactively “deregistered”…