Category: News

A story about Hungary’s dysfunctional asylum system through the experience of HHC’s client, Hasib from Afghanistan.

A special criminal trial has begun in the Pest Central District Court. The accused man, now 35 years old, was sexually molested by his priest several times since the age of 13. This counts as a crime, and amounts to sexual violence against a child. Yet the Catholic priest remained unpunished under secular criminal law. Meanwhile, Attila Pető, the former victim, is now being threatened by criminal sanction

The Hungarian government may very well face firmer measures by the Council of Europe if it continues to fail to fully execute the judgment issued by the European Court of Human Rights in the Baka v. Hungary case. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe calls on Hungary to present the guarantees of the independence and freedom of expression of judges.

This Template presents the relevant EU law and the relevant Court of Justice of the European Union case law, as well as the pertinent provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the applicable … Read more

As part of The Right to Know project funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM), the Comparative report on access to classified data in national security immigration Cases in Cyprus, Hungary and … Read more

The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) are organising an expert legal workshop “Right to know – access to classified data in immigration cases”, to be held on-line, … Read more

‘God bless Hungary! I love Hungary and Hungarians. I have been waiting for this for two years and eight months. Thank you very much for accepting me and for granting me refugee status,’ said the sincerely shaken Abouzar Soltani on 18 August in the notes on his hearing when it was announced that he and his 12-year-old son Armin had finally received protection in Hungary. What follows is the story of what the Iranian clients of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee experienced, and the face that the Hungarian State shows to the persecuted.

Peers of the Hungarian Ombudsperson, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, recommend that the Commissioner’s national human rights institution status is downgraded from “A” to “B”. According to their report, the reason for the downgrading is that the Commissioner has not effectively engaged on and publicly addressed all human rights issues, including in relation to vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities, LGBTI, refugees and migrants as well as constitutional court cases deemed political and institutional. This also demonstrates a lack of sufficient independence. The report echoes concerns voiced by the HHC earlier.

A Hungarian administrative judge was declared unsuitable and therefore forced by her boss to leave the bench in the course of her professional evaluation. In fact, the same judge was the one, who had sent a question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling because she believed the Hungarian asylum law might be in breach of the EU law.

The Hungarian government has for many years been reluctant to take any meaningful action to safeguard the freedom of expression and independence of Hungarian judges. The execution of the Baka v. Hungary judgment is going on since 2016, but the Hungarian state has not lifted a hand yet.

Bring Human Rights Home: A Story from Kazakhstan

Bringing Article 6 of ECHR into play

Bring Human Rights Home Campaign: A Story from Poland

Bring Human Rights Home Campaign: A Story from Ukraine

As part of the Protecting Rights at Borders initiative funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM), the second quarterly report on unlawful push-backs carried out by authorities in Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia, … Read more

The European Commission’s Rule of Law Report shows severe deficiencies in all the areas examined, confirming the concerns of Hungarian civil society organisations. The Commission has not been able to identify any substantial improvement in any of these areas, which is especially worrying in the light of the fact that Hungary may lose EU funds due to rule of law deficiencies. Eight Hungarian civil society organisations assess the report’s findings regarding Hungary.

Bring Human Rights Home Campaign: A Story from Turkey

Bring Human Rights Home Campaign: A Story from Russia

The European Court of Human Rights ruled this morning for the first time that push-backs carried out by Hungary under a domestic regulation are in breach of the prohibition of collective expulsions enshrined in Article … Read more

Our client wanting to seek asylum was pushed back to Serbia without any examination of his individual circumstances. 72 000 such cases occurred in the course of 5 years. The Pakistani man’s case was no … Read more