Justice

Interactions with the police and courts are commonplace. A police officer can check your identity in the street, and can fine you for speeding or for not having a bell on your bicycle. You can also come into contact with the police as a victim of a crime; for example if you have been attacked because of your skin colour, religion, ethnicity, political convictions, or because someone simply did not like who you were holding hands with in the street.
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New HHC victory at the European Court of Human Rights
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Hungarian prison population reaches a 33-year high
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New rules to reduce prison overcrowding affecting foreign detainees
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Rule of law backsliding from a criminal justice perspective
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STARLIGHT launch webinar on 20/1/2023: The Power of Strategic Litigation in the EU
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Hungarian prison population reaches a 33-year high
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New rules to reduce prison overcrowding affecting foreign detainees
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Rule of law backsliding from a criminal justice perspective
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Our analysis on the imposition of alternative sanctions in the light of domestic legal sources with regard to vulnerable groups
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Input for the report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture on the duty to investigate torture
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Communication to the Committee of Ministers on prison overcrowding pilot judgment, November 2022
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Enhanced police checks still in need of adequate safeguards
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Mass police violence was not confined to 2006, it is still with us today
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Former Altar Boy Abused and then Sued by the Church
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Police violence cases not investigated fairly in Hungary: New ECHR ruling warns
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Coercive interrogation in a timber theft case
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Exposing the appalling conditions at Topház was not only correct but lawful as well
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Promoting non-discriminatory alternatives to imprisonment across Europe (2021-2023)
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Non-custodial sanctions and measures in times of crises (2021)
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COVID-19 Justice Campaign (2020-2021)
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Trial Waiver Systems in Europe (2019-2021)
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Encouraging Youth Civic Participation in the Defense of Individual Freedoms, Democracy and the Rule of Law in Hungary (2019-2021)
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Demystifying Justice: Training for Justice Actors on the Use of Plain Language and Developing Clear and Accessible Letters of Rights (2018-2021)
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Improving judicial cooperation across the EU through harmonised detention standards – the role of National Preventive Mechanism (2019-2021)
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Research project on the new Hungarian assembly law as applied in practice (2020)
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Fighting unconscious bias and discrimination of Roma people in the criminal justice system (2018-2020)
Related Helsinki Files
Thematic collection of related articles
In such a situation, it is your right to have the authorities explain your rights and what is happening to you in an easily understandable manner. You have a right to legal representation and to fair treatment by the police when they take your statement.
Prison conditions reveal a lot about a society. In a democratic European country, a person must never be tortured or held in inhuman conditions regardless of the crime they may have committed. Hundreds of people are currently detained in Hungarian prisons for simple misdemeanours, like being unable to pay a fine. Many people must sit in detention for months before it turns out that they did not commit any crime. One of the stated goals of incarceration is deterrence and crime prevention, but it is equally important to ensure that those being released from prison are able to reintegrate into society upon release, by finding a job and dignified subsistence. However, years spent in overcrowded and depressing prison conditions often produce the opposite effect. This is why we have worked for decades to ensure fair, rule-abiding law enforcement, fair criminal proceedings and humane prison conditions.
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