Despite rulings by the European Court of Human Rights and repeated calls by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe over the past 13 years, Hungary still fails to tackle prison overcrowding and inhumane detention conditions. As a result, large-scale rights violations persist.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s replies to requests to provide information by the Hungarian national focal point for the FRANET research network of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA)
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) utilised all human rights CSO tools (research, advocacy, empowerment, strategic litigation, public- and professional awareness raising) to eliminate mandatory glass partitioning between inmates and their family members in Hungarian prisons during visits for seven years. The seven-year-long status quo is currently changing.
Breaches of the freedom of expression of judges have been a long-standing problem in Hungary. The individual instances may not be as blatant as in the case of Poland, however, the issue is persistent: for … Read more
Sweeping public protest of Hungarian judges against a political deal undermining judicial independence
In December 2022, European Union institutions suspended and tied to conditions Hungary’s access to EU funds under various procedures due to severe breaches of the rule of law and human rights. Ahead of the upcoming re-assessment by the Commission and the Council in the framework of the conditionality mechanism in December 2024, Hungarian civil society organisations looked at the steps the Hungarian government has taken to date to address the deficiencies identified by the Commission and the representatives of Member States in the Council.
Six years have passed since the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the Council of the European Union to determine, pursuant to Article 7(1) of the Treaty of the European Union, the existence of … Read more
Over the past years, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and Amnesty International Hungary as human rights watchdog organisations have been closely monitoring the situation of the Hungarian judiciary as part of their activity aimed at defending human rights and the rule of law. Besides keeping track of legislative changes affecting the courts, we also examine and evaluate the organisation of the judiciary, the activities and statements of court administration actors and judicial bodies. In line with our former practice, we will continue to monitor the activities of the National Judicial Council (NJC), the highest judicial self-governing body mandated to supervise the central administration of courts.
A comprehensive research study on how the issue of applicants’ right to know and to access classified information is regulated in immigration-related proceedings in the Member States of the European Union, and whether national frameworks are in line with European standards was published earlier in 2024 by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. The study identified a number of breaches of these standards, which are now specifically highlighted in a policy brief, primarily with the purpose of drawing the European Committee’s attention to these breaches and the need to monitor compliance issues in this area.
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 participated at the 2024 OSCE Human Dimension Conference and took the floor and provided written submissions on the situation of human rights defenders and civic space, on the rights of asylum-seekers … Read more
Hungary, which provided temporary protection to a little over 36 000 Ukrainians, restricts access to temporary protection and available services to beneficiaries of temporary protection to the point where thousands of people, supposedly under the … Read more
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee coordinated a coalition of three civil society organisations (CSOs) working in Hungary to contribute to General Comment 27 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), which focuses on children’s rights to access to justice and effective remedies. In its draft General Comment, the CRC aims to clarify the terms, approaches and actions that States should take to implement the right of all children to access to justice and effective remedies when their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child fail to be respected.
Hungary has been failing to implement judgments of the European Court of Human Rights that established rights violations with regard to applicants sentenced to whole life imprisonment and life imprisonment with the possibility of a parole. In its recent submission, the HHC demonstrates once again how the Hungarian authorities had not only failed to carry out the necessary legal changes, but that individual measures that would be required to bring the violations to an end with regard to the applicants are prevented as well.
In February 2024, the Civilisation coalition conducted a survey among its partner organisations to understand the threats posed by the recently enacted Sovereignty Protection Act for civil society organisations in Hungary and to assess how … Read more
In June 2024, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee provided input to the call of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers for the forthcoming report on the undue influence of economic actors … Read more
The 2024 Hungarian Citizen Election Report is a joint initiative of the most prominent Hungarian election-related organisations: 20k, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Mérték Media Monitor, Political Capital, and Unhack Democracy. It aims to provide a credible picture of the European Parliament and local government election process through the eyes and experience of Hungarians, based on the analyses of experts with decades of experience and the personal observations of nearly a thousand poll workers who followed the voting process this year.
Less than a year after taking remarkable steps to strengthen the independence of courts to gain access to frozen union funds, the Hungarian government is back again on its decade-long agenda to dismantle the system … Read more
The HHC submitted a communication to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe regarding the execution of the judgments in the X.Y. v. Hungary group of cases on pre-trial detention. The communication argues that the group of judgments cannot be considered implemented, and deficiencies regarding pre-trial measures in the Hungarian criminal justice system remain.
The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, K-Monitor and Transparency International Hungary argue in their communication that the non-execution of domestic court judgments by state authorities in freedom of information cases is a severe problem in Hungary with systemic causes.