Religious Freedom Alive and Well in Hungary

„In short, the court said this: The state must ensure that the procedure for receiving official recognition as a church – and therefore eligible for state subsidy – must be based on clear, objective criteria, include the right to appeal and generally respect the right to religious freedom. The court ruled that parts of the law, as it stands now, are unconstitutional because these criteria for receiving official recognition as a church are not clear and objective enough. That means it does not uphold due process. And together, those two findings mean the law could undermine religious freedom. The court also found that the decision should not rest with parliament (i.e., a political body) and that there should be some reasonable deadline for decisions. Basically, the problem is in the rules, that the criteria is not clear enough for giving a religious community the status of church.

And here’s what the court did not say: The court did not say that the state or the parliament does not have the right to limit the number of religious communities that receive official recognition as churches. The court did not say that the state cannot create distinctions, giving privileges to one group and denying those to another. It’s just that the practice must be based on clear, non-discriminative rules. The court did not say that the state or parliament cannot change the rules, re-evaluate or revoke a status.”