Secular minimum for Hungary

Human dignity is rooted in personal autonomy, and autonomy requires freedom of conscience, which in turn includes the freedom to choose—or not to choose—a religion. The right to the freedom from religion is a prerequisite for exercising the freedom of conscience and religion one needs must be enforced, since anyone who is directly or indirectly forced to approve of a religious doctrine or to comply with its rules is not free.

The Hungarian State first guaranteed freedom of conscience and religion to all adult citizens in 1895—including the right to freedom from religion. Today, the Fundamental Law of Hungary still guarantees the freedom of worldview and religion—at least in theory.

The religious neutrality of the state is not an abstract value but a necessary condition for maintaining civil liberties and democracy, because if special treatment is granted to religious communities and if such groups are allowed to override the principles of equality and the rule of law by invoking transcendent authorities and divine legitimacy that they derive from their doctrines, the arguments-based dialogue that is essential for democratic decision-making becomes impossible.

The functioning of the state and its laws and policies need to respect the equal rights and dignity of all and must be based on the reality that is physically perceptible to all of us irrespective of religious convictions and worldviews, because this is the fundament on which persons with different life-stances and religious convictions can build a shared state.

In order for freedom of worldview to be effectively realized in practice, the following principles and policies must be implemented:

1. The state, local governments, their institutions, as well as leaders and employees acting on their behalf towards citizens and clients, must not be allowed to express their preferences for or against particular denominations, life-stances or religiosity neither openly nor covertly or indirectly (e.g., through the allocation of public funds). All laws must be neutral regarding religion.

2. Any rule that is based on religious beliefs is binding only for those who share that belief; therefore, all laws and policies that were adopted based on a religious doctrine (such as “the order of creation”) must be abolished.

3. The principle of equality before the law must be upheld also with regard to religious beliefs and life-stances, including in law enforcement. Leaders and employees of church institutions and religious communities, as well as other church personnel, must not receive special treatment before the law, during police investigations, or in judicial proceedings.

4. The protection of the freedom of speech and of privacy rights as well as the banning of hate speech must be enforced in a way that is neutral with respect to religious and non-religious worldviews: it is those who call into question another person’s right to equal dignity, and those who spread false claims about others who must be held accountable. It is individuals that are entitled to protection, not ideologies: all views, beliefs, and doctrines may be subject to free and reasoned criticism based on facts. Vague legal provisions prohibiting the "offense of religious feelings" must be abolished, because they undermine the equality of all those who participate in public dialogue. Caricatures and satires serve to expose social and political malfunctionings, and thus the person who is in a position of power in the depicted situation must tolerate being made into a caricature.

5. The religious activities of churches must be financed by their followers themselves via membership fees, donations, and the 1% income tax contributions dedicated by taxpayers. State funding for religious activities must be discontinued, and the state may only forward the 1% of the income tax that has been actually dedicated to the beneficiaries. Funds that were received directly or indirectly from the state budget (such as normative funding for education) may not be used to pay for church employees, and employees financed from such sources must be covered by laws prohibiting discriminatory treatment.

6. For the “second 1%” donation of the personal income tax, meaningful secular alternatives must be provided. Taxes of citizens who do not dedicate their second 1% to any church must not go organizations with religious affiliations, therefore, life-stance organisations with non-religious worldviews must be eligible for “second 1%” donations.

7. The state must take back state and municipal real estate property that has been transferred to churches without compensation since 2010.

8. The institution of the “perpetual annuity” that essentially forces the state to “lease” for perpetuity the real estate nationalized in 1949 and not returned after the regime change of 1989 must be abolished. The concept of this "irrevocable" contract violates fundamental legal and ethical norms.

9. Secular criteria and religiously neutral financing must be applied when public services such as education, care homes and social services are outsourced to non-state providers. When public services are outsourced, equal criteria must be applied and equal financing must be provided for a given task irrespective of whether the service provider is an association, a church, a church-affiliated, municipal, state, or other non-profit organization. It must be also ensured that the state funding provided to organisations operating several services is used for the benefit of those who were the basis for claiming the funds. The quality of the service must be evaluated based on secular, objective, and professional criteria.

10. Churches, religious and non-religious organisations must be subject to the same rules for taxes, social security contributions and transparency as non-religious associations, and any concessions should be based exclusively on the size of the organization.

11. The state must guarantee that the provisions of the Vatican Agreement, concluded in 1997 under Socialist Prime Minister Gyula Horn, do not violate the equality of citizens who follow other religious denominations or are non-religious (such as those without faith, atheists, agnostics, etc.). Since EU and constitutional fundamental rights already guarantee all legitimate rights that were granted to the Catholic Church in the agreement and also prohibit any preferential treatment of the Catholic Church, the agreement is outdated and unnecessary, and thus to be also formally abolished.

12. The state must guarantee that all individuals are able to access the public services they are entitled to from non-religious providers with no additional burdens. At institutions with a religious affiliation anyone who does not wish to partake in religious activities is inevitably excluded from social life, unlike religious people using the same service in a secular institution, who are free to participate religious activities elsewhere without any risk of being excluded. Therefore no extra burden (time, travel, additional expenses, inquiries, settling for lower quality services) should be placed on those who wish to access public services without religious ties. It is particularly unacceptable that children, the elderly, people with disabilities, socially disadvantaged individuals, the homeless, and other especially vulnerable social groups are forced into residential institutions where community life has a religious character.

13. Organizations affiliated with a religious community or church must be obliged to inform those who turn to them about their religious affiliation. It is not acceptable that a school accepting a drug prevention programme or a young mother taking her kid to a toddler group realises only afterwards that a religious organisation is attempting to draw them in, just as it is unacceptable that fundraisers are unaware that they are volunteering for an organisation with a religious affiliation.

14. Since children are particularly vulnerable, the state and society as a whole must pay special attention to the protection of children's rights. To redress the negligence of Hungarian society, the state must set up a research group to carry out a comprehensive, scientifically sound investigation into both state-run, church-run, and other non-state residential institutions and the networks supervising foster care in order to identify the factors contributing to the various forms of abuse and hindering the enforcement of children's rights.

15. Parents' right to decide on the upbringing of their children must be exercised with respect for children's rights. Irreversible procedures and body modifications must not be performed on minors without a compelling medical or public health justification. Parents are not entitled to deprive their children neither of discovering the world beyond their family and close community, nor of accessing scientifically sound information.

16. In educational services children’s rights to access information must be upheld without regard to the operator of the institution. The right of children to access information obliges the state to ensure that children in every school receive scientifically sound information and acquire the skills necessary to thrive in the world and become autonomous, responsible citizens. Therefore, religious contents must be clearly separated from scientific knowledge. This also applies to knowledge related to the rules of human coexistence: ethics education and civic studies cannot be replaced by teaching children the rules of the religion inherited from their parents, as it is precisely the ability to reflect on such topics that children need in order to thrive in today's world. Thus, every child has the right to an ethics education taught by a qualified philosophy teacher. Freedom of teaching and research must not be compromised in religiously affiliated public and higher education institutions that receive state funding.

17. Since the declared priority for children placed in foster care is to reunify them with their parents, conflicts may arise if a child is placed with foster parents who introduce them to religious practice different from the one of their biological parents. Therefore, it should be avoided to place children in foster environments that require them to follow religious practices contrary to that of their families.

18. Because persons who live in fear of losing their livelihood and home are not free regarding their religious and life-stance choices, the welfare system must be reformed in order to guarantee the right to social security, which is one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It is unacceptable and a disgrace to Hungarian society that persons with a low-income, the unemployed and workers with disabilities have to rely on the benevolence and caritative work of others, and that they, in order to obtain food and shelter, are forced to turn to organizations whose religious activities may contradict their faith or secular life-stance.

19. Everyone is equally entitled to the respect for and protection of their private life and intimate relationships, regardless of their form. Any regulations that concern private life must take into consideration that citizens fulfil their needs for intimate relationships not only within marriage, but also in other forms—such as in partnerships without marriage or even without cohabitation, or in non-sexual friendships, and maintaining such relationships must be possible—among other contexts—also under epidemiological measures, for individuals staying in hospitals and other institutions, and when housing is provided by the employer (e.g. in the case of armed forces).

20. Access to healthcare services and decisions on the authorisation and funding of various procedures and methods must be regulated neutrally and based exclusively on scientific data.

21. The right of healthcare staff to refuse treatment for religious or conscientious reasons must not violate patients' rights. During emergency service and whenever the employee refusing to provide care in unable to refer the patient to a provider where they can access care without delay, the procedure requested by the patient must not be refused. The state must provide retraining for staff who, for religious, ideological, or conscientious reasons, are unwilling to able to take part in certain services participate in certain types of care, so they can reorient towards professional fields where their religious views and their conscience does not come into conflict with their patients’ rights.

22. The individual's right to bodily autonomy cannot be overridden. Everyone has the right to make decisions about their own body according to their personal judgment, worldview, or religious beliefs.

23. Foreign aid policy and refugee affairs must be based on the principle that all humans are equal. It is unacceptable that the persecuted individuals are protected not due to their persecution, but due to their religion.