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National law and policies on minimum ages – Hungary

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

 

Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/70/Add.25, 24 May 2005
Initial report: CRC/C/8/Add. 34, 24 September 1996
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From 2nd report
83. Compulsory schooling commences in the year in which the child reaches the age of 6, provided that he/she is mature enough to attend school. Compulsory schooling ends in the year in which the student is 18 years old. Compulsory education until the age of 18 applies to students who started the first grade of primary school on 1 September 1998. For pupils who had started school earlier, compulsory education lasts until the age of 16. Compulsory education of children with physical, sensory or mental disabilities or impaired speech may be extended by two years.
From initial report
66. Public education in Hungary is compulsory and free of charge for all up to the age of 16. […]
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 2nd report
84. Pursuant to the provision of the Labour Code, persons having attained the age of 16 may be employed in regular employment. Pupils attending the regular day session of primary schools, vocational schools or secondary schools may be employed in regular jobs during the holidays provided they are 15 years old.
From initial report
19. […] The minor above the age of 16 years, for whom schooling is not compulsory, may independently enter into a work contract […]
91. It is prohibited to establish labour relations with a person incapable according to Hungarian Civil Code and labour law. The minor having no or restricted disposing capacity may establish labour relations without the consent of his or her legal representative over the age of 16. […]
92. Hungarian labour law prohibits the employment of a minor in work that may have harmful consequences to his or her physique or development.
 
Minimum age for marriage
From 2nd report
85. In accordance with the Family Welfare Act, only males and females of (legal) age may marry. Minors may marry only with the preliminary approval of the guardianship authorities. The guardianship authorities shall grant the approval only in well-founded cases and only if the intending spouses are at least 16 years old.
From initial report
17. In Hungarian law, a child is a person below the age of 18 years, unless the person is married. If a person is above 16 years of age, the guardianship authority may issue a marriage permit, which also means that adulthood has been attained.
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 2nd report
511. Pursuant to the penal law, children are not liable to punishment. The Penal Code defines the legal fact of being under 14 years of age at the time of committing the criminal act as a factor that rules out culpability. Legislators felt that the physical and intellectual development of a child of that age - especially since children normally finish elementary education around this time - reaches a level that makes it possible to make them liable for their actions.
From initial report
20. A child cannot be held accountable under criminal law. A person below the age of 14 at the time the act was committed cannot be tried for criminal offence. Criminal law prescribes separate rules for persons (juveniles) who are above 14 but below the age of 18, providing for more lenient sentencing and different criminal procedures and correction rules containing specific guarantees in order to protect the interests of the minor. […]
 
Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/70/Add.25, 24 May 2005

Initial report: CRC/C/8/Add. 34, 24 September 1996