Helsinki File: Overcrowding and prison compensation

The Hungarian government’s current attempt to reduce prison overcrowding is absurd. After boasting about its increasingly strict penal policy and communicating about the fight against migration, it has released hundreds of foreign human smugglers from prison, which is damaging and dangerous. We point out the main issues.

Hungarian prisons are overcrowded again, with the highest prison population in 33 years. The steady increase is worrying: on 31 December 2022, there were more than 19 thousand incarcerated people in Hungary, leaving the prison … Read more

The HHC submitted a communication to the Committee of Ministers on the execution of a 2015 pilot judgment on inadequate detention conditions in Hungarian prisons and the remaining issues of the related compensation system. The … Read more

The ratio of people in prisons within the population of Hungary is rather high in comparison to European countries.

The European Court of Human Rights established in 2015 that overcrowding in penitentiaries in Hungary constitutes a structural problem. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe examines the Varga and Others v. Hungary … Read more

Information update by the HHC on the execution of the European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in the Varga and Others v. Hungary case

The HHC submitted a communication to the Committee of Ministers on the execution of a 2015 pilot judgment on inadequate detention conditions in Hungarian prisons and the related compensation system. The HHC is of the view that the Hungarian Government should be under strict scrutiny while carrying out its announced review of the system of compensations for prison overcrowding.

In January, the Government unexpectedly announced that it intends to amend the system of compensations awarded to inmates for poor detention conditions. This may violate Hungary’s international obligations and points to the inadequacy of domestic policy, while the Government’s hostile rhetoric targeting detainees and their attorneys is unacceptable.

HHC briefing papers related to the CPT’s ad hoc and periodic visits to Hungary

In its March 2015 pilot judgment issued in the Varga and Others v. Hungary case (in which three of the applicants were represented by the HHC), the European Court of Human Rights concluded that the overcrowding of penitentiaries in Hungary constitutes a structural problem, and Hungary should produce a plan to reduce overcrowding.

In its March 2015 judgment issued in the Varga and Others v. Hungary case, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) concluded that the overcrowding of penitentiaries in Hungary constitutes a structural problem, and Hungary … Read more

In its judgment issued today, the European Court of Human Rights set out that Hungary should produce within six months a plan for reducing overcrowding in its penitentiaries. The judgment concluded that the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment was violated with regard to the applicants detained in overcrowded cells, three of them being the clients of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

The HHC submitted a communication to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe with regard to the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights related to the overcrowding in Hungarian penitentiaries.

HHC met members of the CPT delegation to Hungary in April 2013.