Category: Our reports and analyses

Hungarian NGO’s send alternative answers to Viviane Reding, EU Fundamental Rights Commissioner

Country information (COI) is widely considered as determinant evidence in most asylum cases, but national courts’ practices relating to the access to COI and its judicial interpretation are also divergent.

Each year hundreds of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) asylum seekers arrive to Member States of the EU. European countries regularly reject the asylum applications of LGBTI asylum applicants on the basis of prejudices and stereotypes.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee commented the draft law on the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture (OPCAT). The HHC welcomes the ratification of the OPCAT and the designation of the ombudsman as the national preventive mechanism. We are dissapointed however that the draft law does not cover all types of places of detention. We are concerned that NGOs which already acquired significant experience in monitoring detention are excluded from the national preventive mechanism which would start its operation only in 2015.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s study examines the negative stereotypes in the Hungarian media related to the topics of migration and refugees. The research was based on 300 articles collected and evaluated in 2011.

The Eötvös Károly Public Policy Institute, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union analysed the draft of the new Constitutional Court Act, to be adopted under the new Hungarian Constitution. The three NGOs found that under the proposed new rules, the Constitutional Court would only be able to ensure respect for constitutional provisions to a limited extent. In turn, the powers of Parliament would increase and fundamental rights protection would weaken.

In their letter sent to the President of the European Commission, the Eötvös Károly Institute, the HHC and the HCLU claim that Hungarian legal provisions on the Data Protection Commissioner of Hungary violate relevant EU directives. The NGOs suggest the Commission to initiate a proceeding against Hungary.

Hungary refuses to examine on the merits asylum claims of asylum-seekers arriving in Hungary through Serbia, based on the wrong presumption that Serbia is able and willing to provide protection to these persons. This practice is in breach of Article 3 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

According to the NGOs’ view, the proposed amendments would allow the prosecutor to prohibit the attorney to attend the hearing of the witness. On the other hand it is a positive step that the draft law would ensure the right of appeal in case of placement in special security cells.

In recent years, country information (COI) has become one of the main issues on the European asylum agenda, partly as a result of the spectacular advancement of information technologies.

The Eötvös Károly Institute, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and Transparency International Hungary jointly evaluated the first three months of the newly formed Parliament.