Emese Latkóczy

Emese Kinga Latkóczy-Osváths’ grandparents were displaced members of a family belonging to the nobility originating from Slovakia and having several ties to the Smallholders Party. The other branch of the family participated in the 1956 revolution and suffered persecution afterward.

Emese Latkóczy was born in Toronto in 1961. Like other members of the Committee for Human Rights in Rumania (CHRR), she grew up within the large and lively Hungarian community, whose popular activities at the time included the Hungarian weekend school and Hungarian scouting groups. The family moved to New York in 1973, where her parents acquired a travel agency. She met László Hámos, one of the founders of CHRR, in the framework of the Hungarian scouting organization.

She became a professional actress very early and was admitted to New York Film Academy at the faculty of acting. She graduated as a film director. She spent her compulsory high school volunteer period in 1977 –1978 at CHRR, thus supporting the organization from a very early period. She worked in the film industry, with which she became disillusioned at an early stage, while at the same time growing increasingly committed to working for the human rights of Hungarian minorities in East Central Europe.

She is currently Executive Director of the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation (HHRF).