Dear Sir/Madam,

We are writing to alert you to a serious human rights issue in the European Union and to ask you to bring it to the attention of the Government and of Parliament.

The Hungarian Government has introduced a law on religious organisations that deprives all but a few Christian Churches and some Jewish congregations of legal recognition and therefore of substantial tax and other benefits. Since many of the excluded organisations do important social and educational work, which is presently backed by funds from the central government, these changes will have a major social impact.

We are especially concerned about an organisation of Gypsy/Roma Buddhists, the Jai Bhim Network, because its members are not only victims of the narrow interpretation of national religious identity that this law expresses, but also to barely covert racism with which the government colludes, making it very unlikely that their Buddhist organisation will be recognised in future. The Network has been registered till now under previous legislation governing religious bodies and runs a number of schools for one thousand Gypsy young people who would normally be excluded from the school system. If the organisation does indeed lose its religious status it will lose half its income and the work will not be able to continue to the same level and extent.

The new law clearly discriminates against all religious organisations apart from some Christian and Jewish ones – there are no Buddhist, Hindu, or Muslim churches recognised at all and many smaller or newer Christian and Jewish congregations are not accepted. This breaches the principles of freedom of worship that are integral to the European Union. We ask you to move vigorous protest against this abuse by one of our partners in Europe and to call for diplomatic pressure to be brought to bear.

Thanking you in advance for any help you can give,

Yours sincerely,