Category: Our reports and analyses

Information update

Eight Hungarian NGOs, participating in the stakeholder consultation launched by the European Commission for its first annual Rule of Law Report, trust that the EC will make concrete, enforceable recommendations to EU Member States, hence … 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 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 its communication submitted to the Committee of Ministers, the HHC warns that Hungary has been failing to address systemic deficiencies with regard to handling ill-treatment by the police, and so has been failing to execute the respective judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

On 31 March 2020, the Hungarian Government issued a decree that overrode certain provisions of the Hungarian Code of Criminal Procedure with a view to state of danger declared by the Government due to the … Read more

Information update

  The Hungarian Helsinki Committee strongly recommends that everyone who is able to stay home should stay home! This is exactly what we are also doing, because this is how responsible citizens act now. Cooperating … Read more

The Authorization Act allows the Government to introduce significant restrictions, practically without any time limit, without any debate in the Parliament, and without any guarantee for the swift and effective constitutional review.

Assessment of the proposed law to extend the state of emergency and its constitutional preconditions A carte blanche mandate for the Hungarian government with no sunset clause is not the panacea to the emergency caused by … Read more

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee was granted leave to submit a third-party intervention in the case of R.M. and Others v. Poland. The case concerns a Russian family with small children who were detained in Poland … Read more

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.

A new law adopted on 17 December 2019 seems to be yet another attempt to make sure that politically sensitive court cases are decided in a way that is favourable for the executive power. It does not only make it possible to channel politically sensitive cases out of the ordinary court system, but also makes it harder in practice for individuals to enforce their rights vis a vis the state.

Judicial independence has been under constant threat and has been systematically undermined by the governing majority in Hungary in the past seven years. How did they do it? A timeline prepared by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and Amnesty International Hungary outlines the major steps.

Judicial independence is being systematically undermined in Hungary. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee and Amnesty International Hungary recommend specific steps that would remedy the long-standing systemic deficiencies of the system, thus restoring and safeguarding judicial independence.

The new Bill amending rules on courts, submitted on 12 November to the Hungarian Parliament, should not be adopted in its current form.

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (GC) delivered its judgment in the case of Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary on 21 November 2019. In its judgment the GC affirmed the Chamber’s … Read more

On 12 November 2019, the Hungarian Government submitted a Bill to the Parliament which, if adopted, will have a significant negative impact on judicial independence, however, in a much more covert and technical way than the earlier, withdrawn plan to put administrative courts under the Minister of Justice.

Hungarian NGOs rebut the Hungarian Government’s false or misleading statements and point out its lack of adequate reaction to EP concerns in the Article 7 procedure against Hungary

A description of the “starve and strangle” policies used by the Hungarian governing party to shrink space for free civil society in the country, applied behind the smoke screen of hate propaganda

Following a judgment concluding that the removal of the Supreme Court President in 2012 was prompted by the criticism he voiced, the CoE called on Hungary to protect the freedom of expression of judges, but to no avail: today, judges are facing retaliatory measures and media attacks once again for voicing professional criticism.