“The ‘culture of impunity’ most be put to an end; crimes against humanity and ‘the aggressive violation of international law cannot remain unpunished’, otherwise we will be incapable of successfully ending even the currently most serious international conflicts”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in New Work on Friday.

The Minister gave a short speech at a meeting on protecting minorities held within the framework of the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, during which he highlighted: “At a result of the armed conflicts in Iraq and Syria, and the terrible atrocities committed by the Islamic State terrorist organisation, Christianity has now become the world most persecuted religion”. “80 percent of people who have been persecuted or murdered in recent years have been Christian”, he said.

Mr. Szijjártó stressed that “This makes the responsibility of the international community clear with regard to the fact that it must guarantee that Christian communities who have been displaced can return to their homes following the establishment of peace in the middle East, and that those who are able to remain can live in peace”.

In the interests of enabling Christian communities to live in peace and security in the Middle Eastern region, Hungary has joined the UN group initiated by Liechtenstein and Qatar, the most important task of which is to make it clear that the violation of international law and crimes against humanity cannot remain unpunished, the Minister explained. “This group is gaining strength within the United Nations, and Hungary is contributing 50 thousand euros towards its successful operations”, he added.

“The ‘culture of impunity’ most be put to an end, crimes against humanity and ‘the aggressive violation of international law cannot remain unpunished’, otherwise we will be incapable of successfully ending even the currently most serious international conflicts”, the Foreign Minister emphasised.

Mr. Szijjártó also states that having discussed the issue with Middle Eastern church leaders, and in accordance with their wishes, Hungary’s standpoint is that “instead of bringing Christians away from their homes in the Middle East, they must be given assistance to enable them to live there in safety and help their communities gain strength”.

“Hungary had contributed over one billion forints (EUR 3.2 million) towards the humanitarian activities of Middle Eastern churches recently, has provided hundreds of scholarship places to Christian university students from the Middle East, has enables some two hundred Christian families to return to their homes via the reconstruction of a whole village, has paid for the pharmaceutical requirements of a Christian hospital for a period of six months, and is building a Christian school in Northern Iraq in cooperation with the Catholic Church”, he listed.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister said that in his view the task of the international community is to not weaken Christian communities in the Middle East by bringing Christians out of the region, but to provide them with assistance to ensure that in future they can live in peace and security in their own homes, ‘where their rights were violated and from where they were displaced”. “Hungary is contributing to this by having joined the Liechtenstein-Qatar initiative in the United Nations and by providing over one billion forints in aid to Christians in the Middle East”, he pointed out.

(MTI)