38 With a view to monitoring the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe set up an Advisory Committee, which supports the activities of the Council of Europe in the area of minority protection by country visits and the preparation of reports. The members of the Advisory Committee are recognised experts in the area of the protection of national minorities. The Book launch of the volume prepared for the anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child at the Aquarium Club – 20 November 2019 Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe elected Deputy Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, Ombudsman for the Rights of National Minorities Dr. Elisabeth Sándor-Szalay as a permanent The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and his Deputy member to the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention responsible for national minorities living in Hungary take all the for the Protection of National Minorities. Her mandate runs for four opportunities available to the Ombudsman to step up against all years, and it began on 1 June 2016. forms of racism and discrimination. In the spring of 2019, the CPT (the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Office took an active role as an independent speaker in the session Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) was established of the 98th session of the committee monitoring the operation of under the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of the Council of Racial Discrimination, where Hungary’s periodic report was dis- Europe, which took effect in 1989. Head of OPCAT NPM Department cussed. For more details on that, see Chapter 2.6.2. Mr. Gergely Fliegauf was elected the Hungarian member of CPT by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe at its meeting The United Nations Development Programme, i.e. UNDP is the global development network of the UN. The United Nations Development Programme provides support to the promotion of social development and the development of democratic institutions. In the framework of the United Nations Development Programme, the Hungarian Ombudsman was pleased to share the ten-year experience gained in the area of the protection of future generations, as well as the fiveyear experience obtained in the protection of the interests of whistleblowers with the Moldavian Ombudsman’s Office, i.e. the People’s Advocate Office of Moldova and the Moldavian National Anti-corruption Centre. on 15 March 2017. His mandate runs from 20 December 2017 until 19 December 2021. The fight against xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance is headed by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). One of the first Hungarian Ombudsmen was an ECRI member for seventeen years, before becoming Deputy Chair and eventually, Chair of the organisation. The Office regularly cooperates with the main bodies, committees and rapporteurs of the Council of Europe, among others, with the Congress Local and Regional Authorities, the Commissioner for Human Rights and the Venice Commission. On 19 March 2019, the Commissioner received in his Office the delegation of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe on its monitoring visit to Hungary. Such visits – generally repeated every five years – are a regular routine In the framework of the training cooperation between the in the practice of the Congress, and involve the visiting of several Hungarian and Moldavian Ombudsman Offices on the protection local municipalities, authorities, ministries and other institutions. of whistleblowers, our expert colleagues held presentations, as well as This time the aim of the monitoring visit was to assess the current theory- and practice-oriented training sessions in Chisinau in May. situation of local and regional democracy in Hungary, as well as Cooperation with the Council of Europe to verify whether the provisions of the European Charter of Local The Council of Europe is a key partner for European defenders of fundamental rights. One of the major achievements of the organisation is the European Convention on Human Rights: in the case of a violation of the rights included herein, an action may be brought before the European Court of Human Rights, the judicial practices of which are closely followed by our Office. The Council of Europe has put in place a high number of conventions that are significant for human rights defenders, as well as mechanisms that support and monitor the observance of these conventions. Self-Government, ratified by Hungary in 1994, are properly implemented. The delegation’s focus of interest was Congress Resolution 296 (2010) REV on the role of local authorities in the implementation of human rights at local and regional level. During the meeting, the Ombudsman, his staff, and the members of the delegation discussed the role of the Ombudsman with regard to local and regional authorities, and the most common types of complaints submitted to the Office regarding local affairs, as well as the involvement of the national minority communities living in Hungary in local politics and public affairs. In 1999, the institution of the Commissioner for Human Rights was established by the Council of Europe. The role of the Commissioner is to help the individual member states REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF HUNGARY AND HIS DEPUTIES – 2019