A nemzetiség és etnicitás jogi operacionalizálása(K-134962 NKFI/OTKA)
Following the first-ever rule of law conditionality procedure in September 2022, a
resolution was adopted by the European Parliament which declared that Hungary could
no longer be considered a full democracy, as it had turned into a ‘hybrid regime of
electoral autocracy’. Against this background, this article explains the business
and human rights (BHR) gap in Hungary and presents its consequences for the Ukrainian
refugee crisis. We first provide a general overview of the role of business in the
development and consolidation of the Orbán regime over the past 13 years, highlighting
how businesses are both agents and victims of legal and political developments. The
paper distinguishes four types of ‘business’: multinational and foreign companies
that are direct beneficiaries of the regime; local companies that are direct beneficiaries
of the regime; multinational companies that are targets of restrictive and repressive
populist rhetoric and economic policies; and the ‘rest’, the remainder that try to
avoid becoming targets of oligarchic takeovers. The article also documents how the
state and other stakeholders are failing to meet their commitments under the United
Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The next part of
the article assesses how companies are responding to the refugee crisis caused by
the war in Ukraine, Hungary’s neighbour. If the government does not adopt Pillar I
and Pillar III of the UNGPs, what room for manoeuvre do companies have? The focus
here is on how companies, domestic and foreign, multinational enterprises (MNEs) and
small and medium enterprises (SMEs), engage in humanitarian (and human rights) crisis
management.
