Hungary to ratify treaty protecting women after 12 years
"We are making a clear and accountable commitment to putting an end to the era of inaction," Magyar said in a Facebook video, adding that 44 women MPs in his governing Tisza party had proposed the move.
Judit Varga, former Minister of Justice in the government of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban and ex-wife of current Prime Minister Peter Magyar, arrives at a hearing of the Committee of Inquiry on Abuses in Judicial Enforcement at the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest on November 11, 2026, accompanied by her former State Secretary, Robert Repassy (not pictured). The committee is questioning the two former government officials as part of its inquiry into the circumstances surrounding abuses within the enforcement system. (Photo by AFP)
________________
Hungary on Thursday announced a raft of measures aimed at improving women's rights, including ratifying the Istanbul Convention and scrapping a controversial "fetal heartbeat" regulation that required women to listen to vital signs of the foetus before an abortion.
Pro-EU conservative Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who won a landslide election victory in April, is looking to turn the page on the 16-year hardline rule of nationalist premier Viktor Orban with wide-ranging reforms.
He said Hungary -- one of the last holdouts within the European Union on the Istanbul Convention -- planned to ratify the treaty aimed at combating violence against women.
Orban's government opposed the Istanbul Convention, alleging its text supported "gender ideology".
"We are making a clear and accountable commitment to putting an end to the era of inaction," Magyar said in a Facebook video, adding that 44 women MPs in his governing Tisza party had proposed the move.
The Istanbul Convention was created by the Council of Europe -- an international human rights institution distinct from the EU -- and entered into force in 2014.
All EU countries signed the treaty but five of the 27 member states -- Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia -- have not ratified it.
Magyar also said the government would scrap a controversial 2022 "fetal heartbeat" regulation, which required listening to vital signs of the foetus before an abortion.
Emergency contraceptive pills would also be made available without a prescription to help prevent unwanted pregnancies and reduce the number of abortions, he added.
Under current Hungarian law, abortions may be performed up to 12 weeks but may be extended up to 24 weeks in case of severe genetic or developmental abnormalities.
Women must meet with family service workers before being allowed to terminate their pregnancies.
Women's rights organisation Patent welcomed Magyar's announcements as an "important" development, adding that years of advocacy work "have finally been heard".
"We still have a great deal of work ahead of us, and we are starting from a very low base, with the worst figures in the European Union," Patent said on Facebook.
More than 54 percent of Hungarian women say they have experienced physical, psychological or sexual abuse by a partner, the highest rate in the European Union, according to a 2024 survey conducted by the bloc's Agency for Fundamental Rights.
The central European country also has the lowest reporting rate of such cases, with less than 16 percent of abused women turning to authorities or other services, the survey shows.