Helsinki File: European Court of Human Rights cases

The Strasbourg Court has ruled in favour of a former prisoner in a case against Hungary over its arbitrary refusal to allow him to attend the funerals of his mother and brother. This was despite the fact that he had almost no time left to serve on his sentence and that his behaviour had been exemplary. The applicant was represented by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

Hungarian authorities violated an Iranian asylum seeker’s human rights by detaining him under inhumane and degrading conditions for 13 months in the Tompa transit zone, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s client was awarded €4,500 in just satisfaction. With this, the human rights NGO has now won its 110th case in Strasbourg.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) utilised all human rights CSO tools (research, advocacy, empowerment, strategic litigation, public- and professional awareness raising) to eliminate mandatory glass partitioning between inmates and their family members in Hungarian prisons during visits for seven years. The seven-year-long status quo is currently changing.

The Hungarian state violated the human rights of an asylum-seeking boy when it unlawfully detained him for 86 days in prison conditions in the Röszke and Tompa transit zones, the European Court of Human Rights … Read more

The Hungarian state violated a 15-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker boy’s human rights when it unlawfully detained him in a prison-like transit zone in Röszke, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled. The Hungarian Helsinki … Read more

The Hungarian state violated A.P.’s human rights when it unlawfully detained him for more than a year and even starved him in the Röszke transit zone, ruled the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) today. … Read more

Hungarian police forced a family of six asylum seekers into Serbia unlawfully. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Hungarian state had violated the prohibition of collective expulsion. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee represented … Read more

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled against Hungary in another transit zone case. The asylum-seeking mother and her four children were unlawfully detained under inhuman conditions for 17 months. The Hungarian Helsinki … Read more

A young Syrian woman fled both from the war and from forced marriage. She desperately needed help on several levels, yet she was locked up in Hungary. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in … Read more

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Hungary arbitrarily detained two children who applied for asylum in 2016. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee represented the asylum-seeking children against the Hungarian state that violated their rights.

Another client of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee has won a case in Strasbourg. Hungarian police pushed an Iraqi Kurdish boy to Serbia without any investigation. The inhumane Hungarian regulations made this possible – which are in effect even today, despite several international and EU court rulings declaring them to be a severe violation of fundamental rights. The Hungarian state treats children in need of asylum this way.

Since 2017, the Hungarian National Penitentiary Administration ordered prisons to conduct the most common prison visits in groups where several detainees and their visitors are separated by a plastic partition, a so-called plexiglass wall, under control, regardless of their security classification, without an individual risk assessment. Any physical contact between detainees and their visitors is strictly prohibited. In October 2023, the European Court of Human Rights found that this general practice violates the right to respect for private and family life – Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Transit zones have been shut down for 3.5 years in Hungary, but this cruel detention regime has not disappeared without a trace and is still haunting the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Yesterday, the number of its judgments in which asylum seeker applicants won against Hungary, all successfully represented by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, rose to ten.

In a shocking report, The Guardian revealed that Hungarian authorities pushed out even severely injured asylum seekers to Serbia. We have been drawing attention to this issue for a long time and continue to provide legal assistance to … Read more

Hungarian authorities forcibly transferred a Yemeni family of seven and an Afghan three-member family to Serbia in 2019. They all applied for asylum at Budapest Airport but were pushed out via the border fence. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg ruled today that the Hungarian state violated the prohibition of collective expulsions and inhuman or degrading treatment. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee represented the asylum seekers, including a child with Down’s syndrome, in the case.

The transit zones have been shut down for three and a half years, but this cruel detention regime did not disappear without a trace, still haunting the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. On … Read more

The state must not abandon victims of police ill-treatment, even if they are collectively expelled foreigners. Nor can it grant impunity to abusers in uniform, a Strasbourg Court judgment confirmed yesterday. Hungarian police officers had … Read more

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found the detention of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s two asylum seeker clients unlawful in today’s judgement against Hungary. The young men, from Afghanistan and Algeria, were in asylum detention for five and two months, which was not justified for even a single day.

A 14-year-old asylum-seeking child was assaulted by field guards in Ásotthalom and thrown back to Serbia by Hungarian police. A 17-year-old asylum seeker was arbitrarily detained for three months. A 28-year-old torture victim asylum seeker was detained despite severe health problems. All three of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s clients appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, and all won. The Hungarian state violated their human rights and is obliged to pay just reparation.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s client, a 23-year-old Iraqi man, entered Hungary irregularly in 2015. He immediately informed the police that he needs asylum in Hungary. He was then placed in asylum detention, even though the … Read more