Helsinki File: Equal treatment

This morning, the Pécs District Prosecutor’s Office informed Géza Buzás-Hábel, the organizer of last Fall’s Pécs Pride, that charges had been brought against him for organizing Pécs Pride. The prosecutor’s office has turned to the Pécs District Court for violation of the freedom of association and assembly, which could impose up to one year of imprisonment. 

Although thousands protested, and a petition against the law was signed by more than 100,000 people, Parliament showed that is not interested in what Hungarians think. Parliament passed the Propaganda Law, banning LGBTQI-themed educational programmes, products, and advertising seen by those under 18 years of age.

The Hungarian ruling party, Fidesz, introduced an amendment that would severely restrict freedom of speech and children’s rights by banning LGBTQI-themed educational programs and public service advertisements. Out of Hungarian LGBTQI people, 42% have thought about suicide and 30% have attempted it. This new amendment – which eerily mimics the Russian propaganda law – would further poison public opinion.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee contributed to the project “Fighting unconscious bias and discrimination of Roma people in the criminal justice system”, which started in 2018, as a partner. The transnational project was coordinated by the Fair … Read more

Hungarian NGOs warn; abolishing Hungary’s equality body, the Equal Treatment Authority is not only unnecessary and unjustified, but may also weaken the level of human rights protection in Hungary.

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is a UN Convention, adopted in 1965 and is in force in Hungary since 1969. The Convention is monitored by the UN … Read more

The transnational project coordinated by the Fair Trials aims at secondary analysis of existing research papers, interviews of experts and organizing roundtable discussions in order to reveal discrimination against Roma people in the criminal justice … Read more

Authors: Anna Bárdits, András Kristóf Kádár, Nóra Novoszádek, Bori Simonovits, Dóra Szegő, Dániel Vince – Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Budapest, 2014, ISBN 978-615-5215-24-7

The notary of the village Rimóc (Northern Hungary) noticed that petty offence fines for lack of mandatory accessories for bicycles (ring, headlights, reflector prisms) are almost exclusively imposed on Roma people in the area, although … Read more

One of Malév Hungarian Airline’s subsidiaries, Malév GH Zrt.  was fined one million Forints by the Equal Treatment Authority of Hungary in 2010 for discriminating against an employee on grounds of his trade union membership.  … Read more

The HHC lodged a complaint with the Equal Treatment Auhtority on behalf of an individual who suffered severe harrasment and discrimination in his workplace based on his perceived sexual orientation. The employer was ordered to pay HUF 1,000,000. … Read more

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has prepared a document on the signs of intolerance of the Hungarian society and the authorities against the Roma minority, the LGBT community and Jewish people.     The English version … Read more

The HHC’s lawyer brought a lawsuit on behalf of a blind person who had been denied access to a supermarket (Match) because of his guide dog. On 18 March 2010, the first instance court established the … Read more

In December 2008, the HHC set up anti-discrimination law clinics at two Hungarian law schools (ELTE University of Budapest and the University of Miskolc) to sensitize law students to this special legal field and provide them with … Read more

Discrimination against the Roma is widespread in all fields of life in Hungary. Research shows that police officers are also highly biased against Roma – but no research has been carried out yet with regard … Read more

The Report on Measures to Combat Discrimination Country Report 2007 was drafted for the European Network of Legal Experts in the non-discrimination field, managed by Human European Consultancy and the Migration Policy Group, supported for under the European … Read more

This project, carried out in 2009, was aimed at decreasing racism among police officers and contributing to the development of an organizational culture of tolerance within the Hungarian police force. In order to achieve this … Read more

Authors: András Kádár, Júlia Körner, Zsófia Moldova, Balázs Tóth
Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Budapest, 2008
ISBN: 978-963-88228-1-9