The Hungarian government “must stop instrumentalising and weakening the human rights of LGBTI people”, Dunja Mijatovic, human rights commissioner of the Council of Europe, said on Thursday. In her statement, Mijatovic called it “deeply regrettable” that the Hungarian government was planning to hold a referendum on children’s access to information on sexual identities simultaneously with the upcoming general election, adding that it weaponised LGBTI rights as an election issue. Referring to Hungary’s child protection law, the commissioner said it “wrongly associates homosexuality with pedophilia and curtails the freedom of expression and education”. “I am worried that the proposed referendum will entrench stereotypes, prejudice and hate against LGBTI people and therefore have a strong negative impact on their rights, safety and well-being, by putting questions to popular vote that are ambiguous and misleading,” she said. “The implication, for instance, that comprehensive sexuality education is detrimental to children’s development is simply false. To the contrary, it is essential to prevent and combat sexual abuse against children, helps build safer, inclusive societies,” she insisted.