Legislative and policy framework

Hungary introduced gender equality policies and the concept of gender mainstreaming as part of the process of accession to the EU in 2004. In 2003, Hungary transposed the EU acquis communautaire into national law by adopting Act CXXV on Equal Treatment and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunities.

The 2003 Act CXXV on Equal Treatment and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunities, which establishes the principle of equal treatment,[1] lists sex as one of the several grounds on which discrimination is prohibited.

There is no targeted law on gender equality in Hungary. On 1 January 2012, the Fundamental Law of Hungary entered into force, including several references to gender equality. Article XV, paragraph 3, establishes that ‘Women and men shall have equal rights’, while paragraph 5 establishes the protection of women through positive actions. Article L, paragraph 1, declares that the Hungarian state protects marriage as a ‘union of a man and a woman’ and ‘the family as the basis of survival of the nation’.[2]

The most recent gender mainstreaming efforts in Hungary were actioned through the 2010–2021 national strategy for the promotion of gender equality (Nők és Férfiak Társadalmi Egyenlőségét Elősegítő Nemzeti Stratégia – Irányok és Célok 2010–2021)[3] and the 2021–2030 empowering women in the family and society action plan (Az Európai Unió számára készített ‘A nők szerepének erősítése a családban és a társadalomban’ akcióterv (2021–2030)).[4]

The national strategy for the promotion of gender equality[5] aims to achieve its objectives by mainstreaming gender in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation phases of political processes. A further national strategy has not yet been developed.

The empowering women in the family and society action plan, also known as the 2020 gender equality action plan, prepared for the EU, identifies three general objectives.[6]

Objectives of the gender equality action plan[7]

  • Promoting work–life balance.
  • Increasing women’s participation in areas where they are currently underrepresented.
  • Ensuring equal social and economic protection to women and men.

The gender equality action plan working group – based on government decree No 182/2022 (V. 24) – is led by the Deputy State Secretary for Family Affairs of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation.

The content of the action plan and related plans for measures are developed, monitored and reviewed in close cooperation with the Thematic Working Group on Women’s Rights (Nők Jogaiért Felelős Munkacsoport). The Thematic Working Group on Women’s Rights includes 20 civil-society organisations (CSOs) as members, with other 22 organisations participating as invitees.[8] The organisations are listed in Chapter III of the action plan.[9]

The working group is responsible for preparing a biannual report that includes the progress achieved and plans for the measures for the following two years. Each governmental sector has to implement the action plan on its own; therefore, no information on specific financial resources is available.[10] In December 2023, the government adopted the first implementation plan, for 2023–2024, as part of the action plan.

While the action plan mentions one gender mainstreaming measure – namely, providing an online training module in the public administration training system to disseminate gender equality expertise in public administration[11] – the government has yet to commit to gender mainstreaming, as no targeted strategy, action plan or structure is in place yet. Since 2011, the government has been introducing family mainstreaming instead of gender mainstreaming.[12]

Structures

Governmental gender equality body

Since 2022, responsibility for gender equality at the national level has been held by the Minister for Culture and Innovation (a minister without a portfolio), who reports directly to the Prime Minister.

Gender issues belong directly to the Women’s Policy Unit, which operates under the Department of Adoption and Women’s Policy (Örökbefogadási és Nőpolitikai Főosztály). The work of the department is directed by the State Secretary for Family Affairs and the Deputy State Secretary for Family Affairs.[13]

Functions of the Department of Adoption and Women’s Policy

  • Preparing legislative proposals and instruments regulating public bodies related to the adoption system and policies affecting women.
  • Developing and monitoring actions and professional programmes within the scope of policy issues concerning women.
  • Analysing the effects of government decisions on policies affecting women and families.
  • Coordinating statistics, data collection and information systems related to women.
  • Participating in the preparation of management decisions related to domestic tasks arising from adopted legal instruments of EU or international cooperation.
  • Defining strategic directions for mental health promotion, health education and health protection for women and families, contributing to a family-friendly obstetric system and participating in population policy tasks.[14]

There is no binding procedure in place to ensure that the government and other public institutions must consult the governmental body on legislation, policy, programmes and practices in policy fields other than gender equality. The responsible national machinery cannot ensure the effective implementation of gender equality or women’s policies across all government departments.[15]

As of November 2024, the Department of Adoption and Women’s Policy had three employees; no separate budget exists for the department and no information on expenditure is available.

Independent gender equality body

Act CXXV of 2003 ensures compliance with equal treatment principles by state and non-state actors in Hungary. In the act, the Equal Treatment Authority (Egyenlő Bánásmód Hatóság (EBH)) was established and entrusted to deal with complaints related to a list of protected characteristics. The list of protected characteristics includes sex, as well as ethnic origin, race, skin colour, age, mother tongue, disability, state of health, motherhood (pregnancy) or fatherhood, family status, sexual orientation, gender identity, social origin, financial status, religious or ideological beliefs, political or other opinion, part-time or fixed-term employment status, and membership of a representative organisation.[16] The EBH could initiate proceedings against an employer / public institution at the request of an individual.

In January 2021, the responsibilities of the EBH were taken over by the Directorate-General for Equal Treatment, under the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights (Alapvető Jogok Biztosának Hivatala, which serves as ombudsman).[17] The Directorate-General for Equal Treatment continues to act under Act CXXV of 2003. This change led to Hungary’s ombudsman being downgraded to B status by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions due to its lack of functional independence from the government.[18]

As of November 2024, the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights had 192 employees, and fewer than 25 % of them spend time on projects focused on specific grounds of discrimination (e.g. sex and gender). The 2024 annual budget of the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights was EUR 8 825 772, of which 82 % was devoted to administrative costs (personnel and overheads). Data is not available on the percentage of non-administrative costs related to gender equality.

Functions of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights

  • Regularly informing the public and the Hungarian National Assembly about the situation regarding the enforcement of equal treatment.
  • Providing continuous information and assistance to those concerned in taking action against violations of equal treatment.
  • Contributing to the preparation of government reports for regional and international organisations on the requirement for equal treatment.
  • Reviewing draft legislation affecting their duties and powers and making proposals for the amendment and creation of legislation affecting fundamental rights.
  • Cooperating with civil and advocacy organisations, as well as the relevant state bodies, in the performance of its tasks.

Consultation with civil society

Civil-society actors are formally involved in the government’s work on women’s rights through the Human Rights Working Group, established by Government Decision No 1039/2012 (22.II.). Within this framework, the Thematic Working Group on Women’s Rights was created, which includes 20 CSOs and an additional 22 organisations that participate as invitees.[19] The Thematic Working Group on Women’s Rights aims to monitor the enforcement of women’s fundamental human rights in Hungary, particularly in employment, education and healthcare.[20]

The involvement of the CSOs is highly formal, with working group meetings providing the opportunity to offer comments on materials shared by the Ministry of Culture and Innovation. The Department of Adoption and Women’s Policy has not distributed funds to non-governmental organisations in the past five years. Since 2010, no governmental funding has been available to support CSOs working on gender equality and women’s rights, and women’s organisations are not getting operational funds from other governmental grants either.

Parliamentary bodies

There are no representative elected bodies dedicated to gender equality in Hungary, nor is there any regular reporting to representative elected bodies on the progress of gender equality efforts. The Office of the National Assembly produces occasional briefs (e.g. factsheets) on gender-related topics such as work–life balance (in 2019)[21] and the impact of COVID-19 on women (in 2021).[22]

Methods and tools

Note: the methods and tools listed in this section were the focus of EIGE’s 2024 assessment. If certain methods and tools are not mentioned in this section, this does not necessarily mean that they are not used by Hungary.

Gender impact assessment

There is no regular monitoring or systematic analysis of the development of gender mainstreaming actions or gender equality mechanisms and policies.

Gender budgeting

There is no systematic gender mainstreaming or gender budgeting in the national public administration in Hungary.

Training and awareness raising

There is no gender equality training organised for governmental employees in Hungary, on either a mandatory or a voluntary basis.

Gender statistics

There is no legal obligation for the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (HCSO) or other public bodies to collect sex-disaggregated data, as neither the law on official statistics[23] nor the law on equal treatment[24] mandates such collection. However, the 2021 population and housing census, conducted under Law CI of 2018,[25] does include sex-disaggregated data.

The HCSO website has a section on gender statistics and provides freely accessible sex-disaggregated data on topics such as healthcare, living conditions, the administration of justice, education, social care, labour, and income and consumption.[26] Specific datasets and indicators that are sex-disaggregated were updated in 2024, and are due to be updated on an annual basis.

Starting in 2001, the HCSO has published a series of reports titled Women and Men in Hungary (Nők és férfiak Magyarországon). The report is due to be published biannually; however, the most recent report was issued in 2020 and includes data for 2019. The table of contents is available free of charge online, together with some sample pages. The full publication is available in print format, for a fee. The publication contains gender statistics on health and healthcare, education, research and innovation, social protection, employment, wages, consumption and pensions, crime and tourism.

No other public institution actively produces sex-disaggregated data. The Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences issues a freely downloadable annual publication, The Hungarian Labour Market (Munkaerőpiaci Tükör),[27] including employment-related longitudinal data, some of which are sex-disaggregated. Furthermore, the 2018 issue focused specifically on women in the labour market and provides more nuanced sex-disaggregated data on economic activity for 1980–2017. The latest issue, from 2022, maintained the focus on women, further expanding the analysis to aspects such as gender inequality in social mobility, the gender pay gap, disadvantages faced by Roma women in prenatal and obstetric care, and inequalities experienced by young women under 20.[28]

Monitoring progress

Hungary’s institutional mechanisms for gender equality and gender mainstreaming stand below the EU average but show progress compared with 2021.

Explore Hungary’s scores on the four key indicators on institutional mechanisms for the promotion of gender equality and gender mainstreaming developed to monitor progress on Area H of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Hungary: Institutional mechanisms for gender equality and gender mainstreaming

References