DEVAS: Project on the Detention of Vulnerable Asylum-Seekers in the EU (2009-2010)
DEVAS: Project on the Detention of Vulnerable Asylum-Seekers in the European Union.
Category: Projects
ASPIRE: Assessing and Strengthening Participation In Refugee Resettlement to Europe (2008-2010)
More and more countries get engaged in resettlement every year, accepting to provide asylum for a certain number of refugees resettled from a conflict zone or from a temporary host country where no effective protection can be offered to them in the long run.
HHC project on consultative forums between civilians and local police wins Austrian Sozialmarie prize
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.
Promoting Independent Prison Complaints Mechanisms (2010)
The system of prison complaints is dysfunctional due to systemic and procedural reasons and does not meet international standards throughout the CEE-FSU region.As previous discussions and presentations suggest, in most of these countries the prison … Read more
End of the Dubliners project – final conference in Rome
The results of the Dubliners project (link to the project) were presented at the final conference in Rome. Officials from Sweden, Hungary and Italy, and representatives of partner NGOs highlighted the difficulties in the application of the Dublin regulation.
Towards the Equality of Roma Defendants before Courts and in Penitentiaries (2010-2014)
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
STEPSS Follow-up project (2009-2011)
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s STEPSS (Strategies for Effective Police Stop and Search) project was aimed at assessing the practice of ID checks and monitor ethnic profiling while improving the relations of the police and the Roma … Read more
Anti-discrimination trainings for police officers and Police College students (2009)
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
Steps Towards a Transparent Appointment System in Criminal Legal Aid (2009-2011)
In June 2008 the HHC sent a public interest information request to all Budapest-based police stations to find out in how many cases the police had appointed ex officio defense counsels in mandatory defense cases … Read more
Advocating the Abolishment of Actual Life Sentence (2008-2009)
Lifelong imprisonment without the possibility of parole (actual life sentence) was introduced into Hungarian criminal law in 1998. Hungary and the UK are the only EU Member States whose legal system makes it possible to impose a so-called “actual life sentence” on perpetrators of serious crimes.
Equal Treatment Law Clinic (2008-2009)
Building on its training experience, the HHC launched its Equal Treatment Law Clinic in December 2008 in cooperation with the ELTE University of Budapest and the University of Miskolc. The program was aimed at sensitising … Read more
Promoting the Idea of Establishing Independent Police Complaints Bodies in the CEE Region (2008-2009)
Partly as a result of the HHC’s advocacy efforts, a new body for examining complaints against the police, the Independent Police Complaints Board (IPCB) was established by a June 2007 amendment of the Police Act. … Read more
Promoting Ratication of the OPCAT and the NPM’s operation (2008-2013)
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has been advocating for the ratification and the proper implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. Below the most important steps and developments of the project can be consulted.
Anti-discrimination trainings (2008)
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee provides anti-discrimination trainings to various actors. In 2008, a training was delivered to NGO activists and trade union representatives, and a diversity management training was devised and provided to HR managers of 25 … Read more
Effective Defense Rights in the EU and Access to Justice: Investigating and Promoting Best Practices (2008-2009)
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee takes part in a comparative research project ‘Effective Defence Rights in the European Union and Access to Justice: Investigating and Promoting Best Practices’ project. The project is the initiative of four … Read more
Reforming Police Complaint Mechanisms (2007-2008)
The Hungarian system of complaints against unlawful police action has been criticised being dysfunctional due to systemic and procedural reasons. The most important flaw was that the police rather than an independent body decided all … Read more
The Right to Effective Defense and the Reform of the Ex Officio Appointment System (2007-2009)
The lack of an efficient criminal legal aid system is especially detrimental to indigent pre-trial detainees and defendants in general. Fair and effective access to criminal justice to those who cannot afford to retain a … Read more
Strategies for Effective Police Stop and Search (STEPSS) project (2007-2008)
ID check is the most frequently used police measure in Hungary: on average, more than 1.5 million checks have been conducted in recent years. However, the practice of ID checks has not been analyzed so far. Therefore, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee sought to assess the typical grounds of ID checks and the efficiency of this police measure in the framework of a project financially supported by the European Commission’s AGIS Program and the Open Society Institute. It was also examined whether there is a discriminatory tendency regarding ID checks, namely if members of the Roma minority are ID checked in unjustified and disproportionate numbers compared to their non-Roma peers.
Model Legal Aid Board Program (2005-2007)
Analysing the system of ex officio appointed defense counsels
Police Jail and Prison Monitoring Program (1996/2000-2017)
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s Police Jail Monitoring Program started in 1996, on the basis of an agreement concluded with the National Police Headquarters. The goal of the project is to monitor the conditions of detention … Read more