Category: Our reports and analyses

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negative impact on judicial independence, however, in a much more covert and technical way than the earlier, withdrawn plan to put administrative courts under the Minister of Justice.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.

The HHC assessed the activities and independence of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary with a view to its upcoming re-accreditation as a “national human rights institution”. The analysis shows that even though the Ombudsperson was active in a number of areas, he repeatedly failed to address adequately pressing human rights issues that are politically sensitive and high-profile.

Slowly, Steadily, Stealthily How Rule of Law Is Further Undermined in Hungary January – September 2019 On 12 September 2018, the European Parliament voted to trigger proceedings against Hungary under Article 7 of the Treaty … Read more

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health, and cultural rights of children. The implementation of the CRC  … Read more

In the framework of the Guardianship Advanced Instruments for child protection in Europe (G.A.IN.), funded by the European Commission and in partnership with Save the Children Italy, the HHC produced the Toolkit for child protection experts on … Read more

New briefing paper by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and Amnesty International Hungary on the constitutional crisis in the Hungarian judiciary. The paper outlines key developments since January 2018, both regarding the ordinary court system and … Read more

Exactly one year ago, amendments to the Hungarian asylum system came into force that drastically reduced the chances of genuine asylum-seekers to receive protection by fundamentally altering the asylum procedure. This past year saw threats … Read more

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee published a new study on case allocation in Hungarian courts. According to the findings of the study, the rules regulating which case will be decided by which judge (the case allocation … Read more

The general prohibition of residing on public premises for habitation was placed on constitutional level after the amendment of the Fundamental Law in 2018. The Act on Misdemeanors was also amended in October 2018. After … Read more

Hungary started to deprive of food some third-country nationals detained in the transit zones started in August 2018. After 5 such cases successfully challenged by the HHC with obtaining interim measures from the European Court … Read more

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is a UN Convention, adopted in 1965 and is in force in Hungary since 1969. The Convention is monitored by the UN … Read more

In February 2019, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) along with several partner organisations, including the Global Detention Project (GDP), launched the final report of their joint initiative, the Red Line detention project, whose objective is to document and raise awareness of how … Read more

On Monday, the Hungarian Parliament finalised the laws on the country’s new administrative courts. In its current form, even after amendments, the laws do not comply with international standards and do not follow the recommendations … Read more

Contrary to Government claims, the proposed amendment to the laws on administrative courts will not address all concerns. Pro-government MPs submitted a Bill on 12 March 2019 to amend the laws on administrative courts in … Read more

Hungary’s new administrative courts from 2020 will be under full ministerial influence. While the Ministerial model of court administration is not in itself wrong, and it works well in democracies around the World, the Hungarian … Read more