From Hungary around the clock

Human rights groups have appealed to the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of Europe to appeal the family defence bill, calling it discriminatory.

Háttér Társaság a Melegekért (Background Society for Homosexuals) official Tamás Dombos told Népszabadság that the bill could push hundreds of thousands of couples into a position of legal uncertainty.

The draft stipulates that families are solely based on heterosexual marriage or common-law partnerships.

The human right groups noted that the European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that all co-habiting couples constitute a family, regardless of sexuality.

Christian Democrat chairman Tamás Lukács told Magyar Hírlap on Monday that Parliament’s human rights committee had ruled that the bill was “fit for general debate”.
The national society of large families also welcomed the bill, saying it could increase family stability in Hungary.