OREANDA-NEWS. “Hungary is nominating itself for membership of the UN Human Rights Council”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced in his speech during the General Debate of the ongoing 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister also took the opportunity to thank the countries that have declared their backing for Hungary’s nomination for their support.

Mr. Szijjártó said that he had taken the podium “as the representative of a free country that is proud of its traditions, culture and Christianity, and which has struggled to achieve its freedom in the past”, and at the beginning of his speech referred to the fact that he was speaking during the General Debate of the UN General Assembly on the 60th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence. On the subject of 1956, Mr. Szijjártó said that at the time Hungary had not received help from outside, but that the heroic efforts of its freedom fighters had given the Hungarians the strength to survive the communist dictatorship and to finally achieve freedom in 1990.

In his speech, the Hungarian Foreign Minister explained: “The world is facing huge challenges, challenges that have led to dramatic changes in the usual world order; with the globally experienced spread of terrorist organisations, the destabilisation of some of the world’s most vital and vulnerable regions, and as a result of the fact that some 60-65 million people are migrating or have been forced to leave their homes”. “It is now not an exaggeration to state that we are in the twenty-fourth hour if we want to move these changes in a positive direction”, he said.

Next, Mr. Szijjártó reported on Hungarian political achievements, which, he said, had successfully contributed to moving global challenges in the right direction. With relation to this he mentioned that Hungary is one of the 23 countries that is sending troops to fight against the Islamic State. 143 Hungarian men and women are serving in Iraq in defence units and training Peshmerga. He also mentioned that Hungary is urging the International Court of Justice to investigate the crimes committed by the Islamic State against Christian communities. “We regret and regard it as unacceptable that we have received no reply to the letters we have sent to the Court’s chief prosecutor, and are equally saddened by the fact that the Security Council has not put the situation in Syria before the International Court of Justice”, he declared.

Mr. Szijjártó took the opportunity to inform the UN General Assembly that Hungary has set up a deputy state secretariat to monitor the status of Christian communities around the world and provide assistance to communities that are in danger or under threat.