On June 30th the Inaugural ceremony of the Tom Lantos Institute (TLI) took place in the Upper Chamber of the Hungarian Parliament. The ceremony was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary with assistance from the International Centre for Democratic Transition.

The institute proudly bears the name of Tom Lantos, a great Hungarian-American, the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the United States Congress, Co-Founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. TLI was established to research and to strengthen human rights throughout the world, and designed to work shoulder to shoulder with the ICDT to contribute to the promotion of democratic values.

With the President of the Tom Lantos Institute Rita Izsák as Master of Ceremony, there were speeches by Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, current US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs János Martonyi, Vice President of the European Parliament László Tőkés, US Congresswoman Karen Boss, Vice President of the Hungarian Socialist Party András Balogh, and members of the Lantos Family, who all praised the human rights heritage of the late US Congressman Tom Lantos and the significance of the future works of the Institute named after him.

For further information about the institute please visit its website at www.tomlantosinstitute.hu.

5 July 2011