The Lantos Foundation is thrilled to announce the relaunch of the Lantos Congressional Fellows Program, following a two-year pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Tom Lantos, the program’s namesake, first came to the United States on a scholarship and was a professor, himself. He had a profound belief in the power of education and practiced the art of lifelong learning. The Lantos Congressional Fellows Program honors his commitment to educating the next generation.
Lantos Fellows are carefully selected from an elite pool of post-college and post-graduate level students from Europe and Israel. Through fellowships hosted by U.S. congressional offices, they have the opportunity to work in the United States and gain a better understanding of the role of human rights in American politics and the legislative process. The Fellows participate in weekly meetings with leading human rights activists, policy experts and other professionals.
More than 100 fellows have participated in the program from countries including Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Nearly 50 congressional offices have hosted Lantos Fellows, and the program is fully bipartisan – both Republican and Democratic offices host Lantos Fellows.
This year, three outstanding Lantos Fellows have been selected to participate in the program. They arrived in Washington, DC and began work at their respective congressional offices this week. Read on to learn more about the 2022 class of Lantos Fellows.
Zita Barcza-Szabó
Country of origin: Hungary
Languages spoken: Hungarian, English, German
University degrees: MA in Law from Eötvös Loránd University (2016); LLM (advanced law degree) in Human Rights from the Central European University (2021)
Zita is an accomplished legal professional, who has a range of experience in human rights law. As part of her work for the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, she developed a European litigation guide for a project on classified data in asylum and return procedures. It was used before a Slovenian court and resulted in the release of the applicant from unlawful detention. She is an affiliated researcher for the organization Human Rights Nudge and was a co-author of the annual country report on Hungarian asylum law and practice for the last six years, published by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles. She has successfully litigated before the Court of Justice of the European Union, leading to a ban on psychological tests to determine sexual orientation in asylum procedures. She has provided legal advice and representation for asylum seekers before Hungarian and international bodies, helping secure refugee status, statelessness status and Hungarian citizenship for many.
What motivated you to apply for the Lantos Fellows Program?
Right before applying for the fellowship, I was working on a research project that examined the compliance of Hungary with judgments delivered by the European Court of Human Rights. Therefore, my focus turned to the work of, in American terms, the legislative and executive branches. I realized that, both on the domestic and international level, human rights judgments are dead letters unless there is political will from both branches of government work together to implement them. The Lantos Fellows Program offers the opportunity to gain insight into how human rights can be strengthened through the legislative processes, therefore it was an ideal way to continue pursuing this research. My initial enthusiasm about the program only grew when I learned more about Tom Lantos and his legacy.
What do you hope to learn or gain from your time as a Lantos Fellow?
I hope to gain on-the-job experience in legislation and political negotiations and learn how human rights can be successfully placed at the forefront during such processes. I am confident I will meet people who will inspire me and hopefully be examples that I can follow. The program will also give me greater knowledge of the U.S. Constitution, American society and will enrich my worldview by exposing me to new and different perspectives other than the European way of thinking.
How do you think being a Lantos Fellow will help you on your career path?
The most important thing to me is that my job has the potential to make complex changes in societies to maintain or (re)establish democracy and the rule of law. I think a greater understanding of how a legislative body works will be a great benefit to me, whether in my home country or wherever I live or work around the world in the future. Being a Lantos Fellow is an honor and responsibility at the same time, and I will work hard to live up to the legacy of Tom Lantos.
What will you miss the most from your native country while you are living in America?
I moved abroad in 2018. Since then, the things I have missed most have been my family, the Hungarian theatre and the neighborhood around the dearest building to me in Budapest, the Dohány Street Synagogue.
If you could have dinner with any human rights figure (living or deceased), who would it be? What would you talk about or what would you ask them?
There are so many people I respect and whose personalities, faith and strength stand as examples for me to follow: the Dalai Lama, Edo Jaganjac (Bosnian doctor and writer who provided medical care to many, regardless of their ethnic origin, during the siege of Sarajevo), Gábor Sztehlo (Lutheran pastor in Budapest who saved hundreds of Jews during WWII), Jenő Setét (a prominent Roma civil rights activist in Hungary), John Lennon, John Lewis, Malala Yousafzai, Margit Schlachta (the first woman Member of the Hungarian National Assembly, social activist and nun), Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nóra L. Ritók (founder of the Real Pearl Foundation in Hungary). As I’m just at the outset of the Lantos Fellowship, I wish I could have had the chance to talk with Tom Lantos and hear his views about the current political and social state of Hungary. I would ask him how unity and trust can be established in society. How can one “work across the aisle” in deeply polarized times? Perhaps I will have the chance to have this conversation with Annette Lantos, which would be an honor.