Act Locally: Women in Decision Making Local Elections in Hungary, 2014
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Act locally: Women in decision making Local elections in Hungary, 2014 Conference in Budapest Venue: Budapest, XIII. Teve u. 7-11. (Kerületi Piros Pon – 13th District 'Red Point' Local) József TÓBIÁS was born in 1970. He is married and father of three. He attended secondary school in Nyíregyháza, and got his diploma in 2005 at the chair of human resources management at the University of Pécs. At present he is a law student of the Károli Gáspár University. His work career started in 1988; he held several posts mainly linked to retail commerce. He was co-founder of the Youth Association of the Left in 1991. Later he was member of its national leadership: vice-president and president from May 1997. He kept this position until 2002 in the succession organisation that was created under the name of Young Left. J. Tóbiás joined the Hungarian Socialist party in 1998. In 2000 he became member of its national presidency. In 2001 he played an active role in the campaign team of the party's PM-candidate, Péter Medgyessy. From 2002 to 2004 he was the general director of the party. He got elected to the National Assembly from the party list in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. Between 2006 and 2010 he was member of the Youth, social and family affairs committees of the Hungarian parliament. He was elected president of the Hungarian Socialist Party on 19 July, 2014. He is chairman of the parliamentary group as well. Vilmos SZABÓ has been for a long period a key member of the Hungarian Socialist Party. He is a former member of the Municipal Assembly of Budapest as well as of a district assembly of Budapest. Member of the Hungarian National Assembly (parliament) between 1998-2014. Inside the Socialist Party he has been mainly in charge of international relations. He is a former vice-chairman of the Foreign affairs committee of the Hungarian National Assembly, political state secretary of the Foreign Ministry and deputy chief of the Hungarian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Since December 2011 he has been chairman of the Táncsics Foundation. Maari PÕIM a policy advisor in FEPS on gender equality and migration. Maari, originally from Estonia, is a graduate of the Gender Studies MA programme in the Central European University in Budapest. She has worked as a project manager in the Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Centre and is also a youth trainer in the field of gender. In addition, she has been involved in the activities of several international women’s organisations as well as the Western Sahara Resource Watch. In the local level in Estonia, she has helped to build a network of young women in favour of gender equality. Zita GURMAI graduated from the University of Economics of Budapest in 1988 and entered business life immediately. From the very beginning of her professional career she made her own the ideas of gender equality and sustainable development. She tried to implement these ideals, be it at employee's level or head of a company, or simply as a responsible citizen in the civil society. She understood very early that the objectives of gender equality and justice are worth being and can be served and promoted best as politicians. She joined the Hungarian Socialist party already in 1993. Zita Gurmai has worked since 1995 as chargée d'affaires, and later, from 2001 as president in the party's women section. She was the president of the Women's organisation of the Socialist international (1998-2009), and since 2004 she has been serving as president of PES Women, and she was secretary of the French Socialist party in charge of the women rights for several years. Mrs Gurmai holds the conviction that the "eyes, the considerations and the prudence of women" are really needed in politics. She considers that gender equality is not a case only for women but for the whole society, this is in the interest of both men and women. Between 2004 and 2014 she was member of the European parliament during two mandates. At present, she is member of the presidency of the Hungarian socialist party. Judit DEMETER 1981 Graduated from ELTE of Budapest, Chair of State and legal studies. 1986 Passed her exam of law-adviser, and worked until her retirement in 2010 as public lawyer in various state-owned and local government-owned enterprises as a subaltern employee, and later as high responsible for 20 years. She worked as expert of the Hungarian Socialist Party on public administration, private secretary of the Minister for privatisation, head of the Parliamentary secretariat of the Ministry of Justice, private secretary of the Minister of justice. There she was charged of setting up and managing the Roma Antidiscrimination Clients' Service as well as the desk of legal advice services. In 2003 she participated in the elaboration of the law on the equal treatment and was asked to organise the Public Authority for Equal treatment. Later she was nominated by the Prime minister to head the Authority with the rank of state secretary. She held this office between 2005 and October 2010. After retirement she acted professionally as adviser to MEP Zita Gurmai, in the field of gender equality until 2014. She is author of numerous professional articles, studies and chapters of manuals on the subject of equal treatment. At present, she is contributing to the work of social and civic organisations (NGOs) in this field. She holds with pleasure lectures and contributes to training people. Her Ars poetica: „In justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (M.L.K) Emília RYTKÓ graduated from the ELTE university of Budapest, chair of history. She has spent 20 years in the public administration. Between 2002-2009 she was chairperson of the National Electoral Bureau. Her main professional field is the management of the elections. She is a former president of the Association of European Election Officials, at present she is member of this Association. Tibor KISS is diplomat, Ambassador, former State Secretary. Born in 1954 in Budapest; completed his secondary education int he Netherlands; graduated as dipl. economist at the International studies dept. of Karl Marx University of Economic Sciences, Budapest. Fluent in English, French, German and Dutch. Starting in 1977 employed as public servant at the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, mostly working in fields related to W.-Europe and the N.-Atlantic region. Rising through all diplomatic ranks completed several tours of foreign assigments at embassies in The Hague and in Brussels. From 1992 headed the first MFA directorate- general for EU (EC) affairs. In 1995-2000 Ambassador in Belgium, also accredited to Luxemburg, in 2002-2004 Ambassador in the Netherlands. Following Hungary’s EU- accession in 2004 served during six years as the country’s EU Permanent Representative and Coreper II Ambassador. In 2010, until the change of government managed the Hungarian EU-presidency preparations as MFA State-Secretary for EU Affairs, also Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committe coordinating EU matters. In 2011-2013 Senior Political Adviser of the Brussels-based Dutch consulting company PA Europe; since 2013 member of the Board of PA International. Starting in July 2014 senior adviser to Hungarian MEP Tibor Szanyi. Andrea PETŐ is an Associate Professor at the Department of Gender Studies. She edited thirteen volumes in English, seven volumes in Hungarian, two in Russian. Her works appeared in twelve languages. She has also been a guest professor at the universities of Toronto, Buenos Aires, Stockholm and Frankfurt. Her books include: Women in Hungarian Politics 1945-1951 (Columbia University Press/East European Monographs New York, 2003), Geschlecht, Politik und Stalinismus in Ungarn. Eine Biographie von Júlia Rajk. Studien zur Geschichte Ungarns, Bd. 12. (Gabriele Schäfer Verlag, 2007) and together with Ildikó Barna, Political Justice in Budapest after WWII (Politikai igazságszolgáltatás a II. világháború utáni Budapesten. Gondolat, Budapest, 2012 and upcoming by CEU Press). Presently she is working on gendered memory of WWII and political extremisms. She was awarded by President of the Hungarian Republic with the Officer’s Cross Order of Merit of The Republic of Hungary in 2005 and Bolyai Prize by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2006. Eszter SOÓS is a political scientist who has worked a lot on gender issues in the past few years as a consultant. She has an MA in French language and literature, an MA in political science, and currently she is working on her PhD. Her narrow research area is French politics, gaullism, French conservative and right-wing ideas and parties. Lately, she began to study the French anti-gender movements as well. Janosné BALLA is founding member of the Hungarian Socialist Party. She is a decisive and really opinion-shaping politician. Throughout 3 periods she was mayor of the city of Nyirbátor on behalf of the socialist party. The city has grown into one of the most developing communes in the county. Her achievements are highly appreciated; her opinion and advice do matter and are sought for in the world of local governments. Two years ago she was elected national vice-chairperson of the Association of Left- wing Municipalities. She has initiated many actions of charity, supports the local civic communities, and she has pioneered different campaigns and actions. Szófia HAVAS studied between 1974 and 1980 at the Semmelweis medical university of Budapest. In 1990 she became professional internist (physician), in 1996-98 she finished a two-year upgrading course and got the degree of an economist with specification in health-care management at the Corvinus University in Budapest. She started her professional career as internist, later became assistant professor and head physician.