Helsinki File: Ill-treatment and coercive interrogation

On 21 January 2026, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) submitted a new Rule 9(2) communication to the Committee of Ministers concerning the execution of the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments in the Gubacsi v. … Read more

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), together with the Support Network for Detainees and Their Families (FECSKE), has contributed to the call for input by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or … Read more

In March 2025, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) conducted an ad hoc visit to Hungary. To highlight pressing issues regarding conditions in Hungarian prisons, the HHC Justice Programme prepared a submission for the visit.

The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) carried out a periodic visit to Hungary in May 2023. The recently published report on the visit highlights several issues, also raised by the HHC, which undermine humane detention in Hungary. In particular, the Committee identified ill-treatment by police and prison staff as a critical issue that remains unresolved in the country.

In October 2024, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee submitted its observations to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the Gubacsi v. Hungary group of cases for the 7th time. This group of … Read more

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee received a request to provide information to the Hungarian member of the FRANET research network of the EU’s Fundamental Right Agency on investigations of fundamental rights violations and criminal offences at … Read more

The Justice Programme of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee prepared the following submission for the upcoming periodic visit of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) Our submission focuses … Read more

Upon the call of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee submitted an input for the Special Rapporteur’s thematic report “The duty to investigate … Read more

The HHC found that Hungary has failed to achieve any tangible progress with regard to preventing, investigating and sanctioning ill-treatment by the police since last year, and so continues failing to execute the respective judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee released its documentary film By the Power of the Force on its YouTube channel. The subject of the film is the largely unpunished mass police violence of 2006 and its aftermath. The film by civil rights activists shows that the domestic judiciary still fails to prevent, detect and punish police violence to this day.

In its communication submitted to the Committee of Ministers, the HHC warns again that Hungary has been failing to address systemic deficiencies with regard to handling ill-treatment by the police, and so has been failing to execute the respective judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

On 15 April 2021, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in a final judgment that the Hungarian State violated Zsombor Csúcs’ human rights when the Prosecutor’s Office did not investigate his abuse by the … Read more

Hungary has to change its laws and practice in many respects in order to prevent, investigate and sanction police ill-treatment more effectively, shows a decision published today by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

In our new policy brief, we discuss the key systemic deficiencies that the Hungarian authorities should address in order to prevent, investigate and sanction police ill-treatment adequately and more effectively – and in order to execute the ECtHR’s related judgments.

The HHC provided input for the upcoming report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture on psychosocial dynamics conducive to torture and ill-treatment.

The HHC’s input for the Special Rapporteur’s report on “Psychosocial dynamics conducive to torture and ill-treatment”

In its communication submitted to the Committee of Ministers, the HHC warns that Hungary has been failing to address systemic deficiencies with regard to handling ill-treatment by the police, and so has been failing to execute the respective judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

Zsolt Csonka was taken to Sellye police station for questioning as witness in relation to timber theft in February 2013. According to the police record, he waived his right to counsel at the beginning of … Read more

Ill-treatment has been prohibited by international and regional instruments and conventions for many decades. Yet torture and other forms of inhuman or degrading treatment at the hands of state officials, and particularly those engaged in … Read more