A few weeks ago, at the U.N. General Assembly, the government of Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán voted for keeping “sexual orientation and gender identity” in a resolution on persons with disabilities. Packed into that phrase are all manner of sexual perversity, including trans.
A few weeks before that, the government of Hungary voted to remove “child porn” from a treaty on cybercrimes. They voted only to keep something called “child sexual abuse material,” which, sadly, allows for child porn created by artificial intelligence.
For years, the government of Hungary under Viktor Orbán has voted in favor of abortion language in U.N. documents, usually under the guise of “reproductive health and rights.” This year, Hungary even voted to keep abortion language in a U.N. resolution on children.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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But, you say, how can this be? Hungary is wonderful! Hungary is conservative, pro-life, and pro-family. They are our heroes. Well, not at the United Nations. At the U.N., Hungary walks in lockstep with the most radical of the EU and Nordic countries. They are indistinguishable from the U.K., France, Germany, Norway, Iceland, and all the rest who beat up the developing world on anti-life and anti-family issues.
Hungary has spent millions of dollars, millions of man-hours, over the last 20 years to convince American conservatives and American pro-life and pro-family advocates that Hungary is our ally. The government of Viktor Orbán has courted us for decades, inviting us to meetings with his ambassadors, to conferences in Budapest, and to host our conferences on life and family issues in his capital city.
My organization, C-Fam, has been involved in this courtship for years. We organized a family conference for Hungary in the Library of Congress that featured Katalin Novák, then Minister for Families and later Hungarian president, the youngest ever elected. We were involved in demographic conferences in Budapest, the World Congress of Families in Budapest, and so much more.
To be sure, the Hungarian pitch is pretty good. They have closed their borders to illegal immigration. In order to goose their fertility rate, they offer low or no taxes for women who have more than one child. Hungary is safe. My friend Rod Dreher, who decamped for Budapest many years ago, says Budapest is remarkably safe; women can walk the streets at night totally safe. We have experienced this firsthand. It is a wonderful city—I daresay as beautiful, maybe more beautiful, than Vienna.
Hungary allows abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation and afterward for serious reasons. They only recognize man-woman marriage. They restrict LGBTQ+ material for children. And on all of this, they are willing to stand up to the European Union. But none of this translates to the international arena. At the U.N., they seem to go against their own domestic law and walk in tandem with Brussels.
Why is this? We can only speculate. We have communicated directly with Orbán’s office. We have spoken to the Hungarian Ambassador to the U.N. We have spent time with the Hungarian Ambassador to the United States. Our reporting on this issue has prompted them to respond to people who, like you, are surprised by it and express their displeasure. But nothing changes.
It could be that they are choosing their fights with the EU. The EU likes to negotiate with one voice at the U.N. If one country breaks the EU consensus, and all EU countries have to negotiate on their own, it makes it harder for their sexual ideologies to win. But Hungary has been quite fine with breaking the EU consensus on issues they really care about, like immigration.
An American who moved his family to Budapest a few years ago and who works closely with the Orbán government says no one cares what happens at the U.N., and what happens there does not really matter. Of course, Hungary does not believe that; they work very hard at the U.N. on the issues they really care about. The sexual Left certainly does not believe that, as the constellation of governments and NGOs spends billions of dollars at the U.N. trying to advance their nefarious policies.
There are many actions that Hungary could take. They could break the EU consensus and vote against “sexual orientation and gender identity.” They could vote against “child porn.” They could vote to remove abortion language in resolutions on children. Failing all that, they could issue “reservations,” making their positions on these issues clear. They could issue “statements of position” to make their views clear. But they don’t.
The only way change comes is if American conservative groups and pro-life groups begin to complain directly to Orbán’s office or start to write publicly about Hungary’s anti-life and anti-family actions at the U.N. Pressure works. We can win many issues at the U.N. if and when Hungary begins to vote at the U.N. the way they govern at home.