Ágnes Osztolykán (born 3 November 1974,

Csenger Csenger is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. It is known for being the poorest town in Hungary. In 2023, the Hungarian Prison Service Headquarters announced that it is constructing a ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

) is a Hungarian politician and

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

activist. She was a member of the

National Assembly of Hungary The National Assembly ( ) is the parliament of Hungary. The unicameral body consists of 199 (386 between 1990 and 2014) members elected to four-year terms. Election of members is done using a semi-proportional representation: a mixed-member m ...

for the

LMP – Hungary's Green Party LMP – Hungary's Green Party ( ) previously known as Politics Can Be Different ( , LMP) until 2020, is a green-liberal political party in Hungary. Founded in 2009, it was one of four parties to win seats in the National Assembly in the 2010 ...

between 2010 and 2014. She is a recipient of the 2011

International Women of Courage Award The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have ...

from the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

Life

2011 International Women of Courage Awards 2011-03-08

Osztolykán graduated from the

University of Miskolc The University of Miskolc (before 1990: ''Technical University of Heavy Industry'') is the largest university of Northern Hungary. Location Most of the buildings can be found in Egyetemváros ("University Town"), a part of the city of Miskolc. ...

in 1998 with a degree in political science. She subsequently worked for the

Soros Foundation Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the st ...

, and then was head of the Decade of Roma Inclusion Program at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor for six years. She was elected to Parliament in 2010 and was a member of the parliamentary group of Lehet Más a Politika (LMP), or

Politics Can Be Different Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies poli ...

Party. On 26 November 2012, she was appointed deputy leader of the LMP parliamentary group. Osztolykán is an activist for Romani children's education, Roma and minority rights, and the social integration of

Roma in Hungary Romani people in Hungary (also known as roma or Romani Hungarians; ) are Hungarian citizens of Romani descent. According to the 2011 census, they comprise 3.18% of the total population, which alone makes them the largest minority in the countr ...

. She is a strong supporter of vocational training which gives students marketable skills for the job market. Outside of her parliamentary duties, she works as a volunteer teacher at a primarily Roma vocational school in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

’s poorer Eighth District. She was appointed a counselor for Romani affairs in the Ministry of Human Resources in 2016.

References

External links

US Department of State website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osztolykan, Agnes 1974 births Living people Romani activists Romani women politicians Romani politicians Hungarian Romani people LMP – Hungary's Green Party politicians Women members of the National Assembly of Hungary Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2010–2014) 21st-century Hungarian women politicians Recipients of the International Women of Courage Award