Non secular minorities in Hungary, notably the Church of Scientology, have confronted growing discrimination and authorized challenges lately, in response to a number of studies and statements from worldwide human rights our bodies.
In 2017, Hungarian authorities performed sweeping raids on Scientology church buildings and missions throughout the nation. As reported by specialised non secular freedom journal BitterWinter in March 2023,
“An all-out daybreak raid occurred on 18 and 19 October 2017 in any respect Hungarian Scientology Church buildings and Missions.”
The raids have been a part of a felony investigation accusing Scientology leaders of tax fraud for claiming their core practices as non secular actions exempt from VAT.
Nonetheless, non secular students have argued that Scientology’s practices of “auditing” and coaching are certainly non secular in nature. As American scholar Donald Westbrook said, these are a part of a
“step-by-step soteriological map supposed to take a person to increased states of consciousness and skill.”
And likewise the Inner Income Service in the USA totally reviewed all of the practices and granted tax exemption to all US Church buildings in 1993, because it has been performed in Sweden, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, SouthAfrica and lots of others, based mostly on the identical information that Hungary has used.
The focusing on of Scientology seems to be a part of a broader sample of discrimination towards non-traditional religions in Hungary. In a 2018 letter to the Hungarian authorities, the then UN Particular Rapporteurs on FoRB, Minority Points and the one on Privateness, expressed concern about
“discriminatory measures towards the Church of Scientology on the idea of spiritual perception.”
The UN specialists famous that Hungarian authorities had repeatedly denied Scientology the Certificates of Occupancy for its headquarters in Budapest and launched felony investigations resulting in
“the seizure of a number of paperwork together with of a personal nature and to restrictions on locations of worship.”
Massimo Introvigne, probably the most renown worldwide European specialists and sociologist of faith, and who served because the “Consultant on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a particular concentrate on discrimination towards Christians and members of different religions” of the Group for Safety and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), argues that Hungary’s actions mirror an exported Russian strategy of utilizing accusations of “extremism” towards minority religions. He writes that
“the concomitancy of the actions based mostly on knowledge safety, taxes, and electrical points will not be a coincidence. It’s an expression of the publicly said official hostility to Scientology.”
Hungary Accused of Non secular Discrimination Towards Church of Scientology
In 2011, Hungary handed a controversial new Faith Regulation that stripped authorized recognition from a whole bunch of beforehand registered non secular teams, together with the Church of Scientology. This legislation has been criticized by the European Courtroom of Human Rights and Hungary’s personal Constitutional Courtroom for violating non secular freedom rights.
Since then, the federal government has taken a number of actions particularly focusing on Scientology:
Denying Occupancy for Fundamental Place of Worship
The federal government has repeatedly denied a Certificates of Occupancy for the Church’s headquarters in Budapest, regardless of inspections discovering the constructing secure to occupy. This has left the Church going through potential sanctions for utilizing its primary place of worship.
In response to a letter despatched by the aforementioned UN Particular Rapporteurs to the Hungarian authorities on August 30, 2018:
“The Church appealed the choice to the Administrative and Labour Courtroom of Budapest. On 12 September 2017, the Courtroom remanded the case to the second occasion to be thought-about once more inside 21 days, taking into consideration all of the proof that was beforehand uncared for, which reportedly proves that the constructing is secure and prepared for use. The process began in December 2017, nevertheless, it has not been accomplished to the current date.”
To this date this concern will not be resolved and so they proceed to disclaim the occupancy certificates making a state of affairs of fixed uncertainty about how lengthy will they be capable of function of their place of worship.
Seizing Confidential Non secular Recordsdata: “critical impediments to spiritual freedom” UN says
Hungarian authorities have used knowledge safety legal guidelines to grab confidential non secular recordsdata, together with “preclear folders” containing personal communications between Scientologists and their ministers.
Within the UN Particular Rapporteurs’ letter to Hungary, from August 2018 it may be learn:
“On 7 December 2016, the Information Safety Authority launched a knowledge safety investigation of the Church of Scientology and, to this finish, seized varied paperwork from its places of work in Budapest and Nyiregyhaza, together with ‘preclear folders’ that include confidential communications between penitents and their minister.”
In response to human rights legal professional Patricia Duval, writing in The Journal of CESNUR,
“Hungary is at present the one nation on the earth that has seized and refuses to return such folders consisting of sacred and confidential pastor-penitent communications.”
The federal government has launched felony investigations into alleged knowledge safety violations and tax evasion by the Church, resulting in a number of police raids on Scientology properties.
The UN inquisitive letter to Hungary describes one such raid:
“On 18 October 2017 at 7.30 a.m., round 60 brokers of the Nationwide Bureau of Investigation raided the Church of Scientology headquarters in Budapest, seized paperwork and sealed the constructing. On the subsequent day at 7.00 a.m., the felony part of the tax workplace executed search warrants and seized paperwork from the Church’s places of work in Budapest and 15 different areas with the aim of investigating potential monetary crimes. As well as, the authorities froze the Church’s financial institution accounts and positioned a lien on the Budapest headquarters.”
A Hungarian courtroom later dominated that this raid was disproportionate and unlawful, in response to Duval’s article revealed by the Journal of CESNUR on march-april 2018.
Authorities Statements and Criticism
Hungarian officers have made public statements declaring their intention to limit Scientology actions. Non secular scholar Massimo Introvigne, in a paper introduced at a College of Jap Finland convention, quoted Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén as stating in 2011:
“So long as I’m within the authorities, Scientology received’t be acknowledged as a faith.”
These actions have drawn robust criticism from worldwide our bodies. The UN Particular Rapporteurs expressed
“critical concern that the felony investigations carried out towards the Church of Scientology, which led to the seizure of a number of paperwork together with of a personal nature and to restrictions on locations of worship, could also be incompatible with worldwide human rights requirements.”
They additional said that
“Such acts represent critical impediments to spiritual freedom and to the fulfilment of the rights and freedoms of spiritual minorities as enshrined within the relevant worldwide human rights requirements that Hungary has dedicated to.”
The Church of Scientology maintains it’s being unfairly focused for non secular discrimination. The state of affairs highlights ongoing considerations about Hungary’s therapy of minority faiths underneath its 2011 Faith Regulation, which has been criticized by worldwide our bodies however stays in pressure.
Critics argue that these actions violate rules of spiritual freedom and state neutrality in direction of faith. The case of Scientology in Hungary raises broader questions in regards to the safety of minority non secular rights within the nation and the usage of administrative and authorized measures to limit unpopular non secular teams.
The UN Particular Rapporteurs urged Hungary to make sure its actions are “suitable with worldwide human rights requirements, notably concerning the best to freedom of faith or perception and the best to privateness.” They known as on the federal government to supply “detailed and up to date data on the concrete measures undertaken by the Authorities of Hungary to make sure safety and promotion of spiritual freedom and of the human rights of spiritual minorities within the nation.“
Because the authorized battles proceed, human rights advocates argue that Hungary is utilizing tax and privateness legal guidelines plus different measures to discriminate towards Scientology particularly and likewise towards different minority faiths in violation of worldwide non secular freedom rules. The continuing state of affairs highlights ongoing tensions between nationalist ideologies and protections for non secular minorities in elements of Europe.