Those Hungarians who decided not to return fully to the state’s pension scheme from their private pension funds lost their right to the portion of the state pension they would have received based on future contributions.
Projects could be submitted to the Sozialmarie which attempt to deal with a social problem from a new point of view applying creative, original methods. The program of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee in which we organized local “civil-police consultations” won a 1000 euro prize.
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a new and unique human rights mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council aiming at improving the human rights situation in each of the 192 UN Member States. Hungary’s human rights performance will be reviewed on 11 May 2011.
During a demonstration organized on 4 May 2011, human rights organizations called on the Hungarian government to take immediate steps to stamp out racist aggression.
In 2006, the police restricted access to the square in front of the Parliament of Hungary. Thus, for a while, it was not possible to demonstrate on the square. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has claimed that the … Read more
The first civil-police consultation between the Budapest VIIIth District Police and the local organizations representing the Józsefváros inhabitants was held in April by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. The aim of the consultation was building trust … Read more
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee organized a meeting for the embassies of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, The Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden and the United States. The HHC presented the list of issues and recommendations as well as its shadow report in advance of the Universal Periodic Review.
In its decision issued on 15 February the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously that the provisions on the unreasoned dismissal of civil servants are unconstitutional. However, the Court annulled the provisions only by 30 May 2011. The HHC stressed that those dismissed before 31 May 2011 may launch a constitutional complaint with the Constitutitonal Court, and has prepared a sample in order to help civil servants affected to submit their complaint.
The Eötvös Károly Policy Institute, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee have examined the draft Constitution of Hungary submitted to the Parliament on 14 March 2011. According to the NGOs the draft Constitution undermines democratic political competition and makes political change more difficult by transforming institutional structures, weakens the system of checks and balances and alters the framework of the political community by extending the right to vote. The draft Constitution decreases the level of protection of fundamental rights and significantly limits the enforceability of these rights through curbing the Constitutional Court’s powers. Since there is no information available on the planned content of the acts of Parliament requiring a two-third majority to be adopted, it may be stated that the adoption of the new Constitution will be only the beginning of the constitution-making process, not the end of it.
16 March 2011 – The Eötvös Károly Institute, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee compiled a joint analysis on the process of framing the new Constitution of Hungary. The three NGOs … Read more
Open letter to MEP József Szájer by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and the Eötvös Károly Institute concerning Mr Szájer’s blog post on the English translation of the draft Constitution of Hungary.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights after the Supreme Court of Hungary had ruled that the names of appointed counsels and the number of cases in which … Read more
The second tripartite report on the border monitoring project that is internationally considered as a best example for the cooperation between state authorities and non-state actors.
A prison guard ill-treating a detainee in July 2010 in the Budapest High and Medium Scurity Prison was found guilty by the Regional Court of Budapest on 30 March 2011. The decision is final. The … Read more
Three Hungarian NGOs, the Eötvös Károly Policy Institute, the HCLU and the HHC have submitted background materials to the leaders of the European Parliament groups concerning the draft Constitution of Hungary, such as the list of the most problematic substantive issues, a document drawing attention to those instances of erroneous or missing English translation of the draft text that concern the issues that are the gravest from the point of view of human rights and the rule of law, and comments on the background materials distributed to MEPs by the Hungarian Government.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) submitted a joint petition to the Constitutional Court, requesting the Court to repeal the Act of Parliament nullifying the court decisions brought in connection … Read more
The Eötvös Károly Institute, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee compiled a joint analysison the process of framing the new Constitution of Hungary. The three NGOs submitted their comments to the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters, which will form an opinion in the near future on the process of framing the new Constitution of Hungary. According to the analysis, the current way of designing the Constitution makes one doubt whether this document will be worthy of being called the Constitution of Hungary. The NGOs claim that the need for a new Constitution was not supported by adequate reasons, the new Constitution has been prepared in secret, the open public debate and the debate of experts over the text was missed and due to procedural rules of adopting it, the new Constitution will be the product of one political party.
The HCLU, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Legal Defence Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities wrote a joint letter to Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér. The human rights NGOs requested the Minister to immediately … Read more
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee requested the Constitutional Court to repeal the legal provisions setting out that those remaining members in private pension funds lose their future state pension.