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11 Int'l J. Educ. L. & Pol'y 47 (2015)
The Role of Ombudsman for Educational Rights in Hungary

handle is hein.journals/ijelp11 and id is 47 raw text is: The Role of the Ombudsman for Educational Rights in Hungary Lajos Airy-Tamis* Education directly affects the present and future of millions of people. When so many people spend so much time together, conflicts are bound to occur in their day-to-day interactions. In our view, the problem is not that conflicts arise in educational institutions, the problem is that there are no satisfactory mechanisms to resolve such conflicts. Law statutes determine the environment of the educational system. They set out the rights and obligations of the participants in the educational system and also set out the decision-making powers of the authorities. Besides the specific legislative acts on education, the Constitution, various international agreements and a number of other laws also provide rules that govern the relationships between the participants in education. In the course of teaching, various decisions are made and measures are consequently taken. However, sometimes the decisions may infringe upon the rights of others, despite or regardless the best of intentions. A total of 22.000 complaints have been submitted, thousands of telephone calls have been received and, at conferences, hundreds of problems have been disclosed to the Office thus far. The annual reports on our operations may be of assistance to all actors of education, but especially to pupils, students and 47 their parents. They are those who need to identify cases of infringement, those who seek legal remedy, those who want to make proposals and those who want to file initiatives. The law may offer help in all of these areas but it cannot substitute co-operation. We are convinced that all of us may contribute to promote the development and consolidation of democracy at schools and in higher education. This Office has joined the awareness process; so as to make additional contributions to an open, honest and professional dialogue on children's rights, and on the democratic operation of local and higher education institutions. Our Office may act if educational rights are infringed or directly threatened. Educational stakeholders will only trust the Commissioner for Educational Rights if they can see that his actions are unaffected by politics or political interests. In addition to autonomy, another prerequisite of trust is impartial and unbiased inquiry. The Commissioner for Educational Rights may examine the unlawful decisions and measures of educational institutions providing public service. This office was set up by the state to protect its citizens - especially the children - from the unlawful decisions of public service providers. The initiatives and recommendations of the Commissioner for Educational Rights protect the weak, the party who suffered a violation of rights, using legal means exclusively. The complaints received since 1999 allow us to draw a few general conclusions. One of these is that we received many petitions reporting corporal punishment. It has been always known that there is a serious lack of transparency in such issues, many cases are not reported or do not receive publicity outside the school. In our view, the most serious offence at school is physical aggression against children and students. Ombudsman for educational rights, Hungary. IJELP - VOLUME 11