Category: Our reports and analyses

Safeguards against abuses when it comes to the restriction of the freedom of expression of Hungarian judges are still missing. This is also evidenced by new, intense smear campaigns launched in 2022 against critical judges, with government politicians joining the propaganda media. In their submission to the Council of Europe, Amnesty International Hungary and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee argue that this goes against the judgment delivered by the European Court of Human Rights over six years ago in the Baka v. Hungary case.

For the fourth year in a row, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee is contributing to the European Commission’s annual Rule of Law Report in coordination with other Hungarian human rights and anti-corruption CSOs. This year, Amnesty … Read more

Rule of law backsliding affects all policy areas and all areas of life, including the performance of law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system. With a view to the stakeholder consultation regarding the European … Read more

Three recent high-profile corruption cases clearly show that an independent judiciary is essential to fight corruption and eliminate risks for the EU budget, and arbitrary and uncontrolled court management powers are not only a theoretical … Read more

In an attempt to capture the Hungarian judiciary, in the past years several judges have been granted appointments and/or leadership positions through either formal breaches of the relevant laws, or using legal loopholes. In our … Read more

With the 19 November deadline given to the Hungarian government to enact the remedial measures it committed to in the framework of the conditionality mechanism nearing, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, K-Monitor and Transparency International Hungary … Read more

Corruption in Hungary has been in the forefront of the discussions about the country’s rule of law backsliding in the past months. However, rule of law concerns with regard to Hungary are much more diverse, … Read more

The Hungarian government terminated the state of danger as of 1 November 2022, and then re-declared as of the same day, referring to the war in Ukraine. This was necessary because the constitutional rules on the special legal order, including the state of danger, have changed as of 1 November. According to expert opinion, the amendment to the Fundamental Law and to related laws served one purpose: to provide the Government with exclusive and effectively unlimited power in any exceptional situation.

Capturing independent courts – both the Constitutional Court and the ordinary court system – has been in progress for over ten years and has nearly come to full completion in Hungary.  One weak, but independent … Read more

The ongoing negotiations between the Government of Hungary and the European Commission regarding the conditions for Hungary’s access to the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility as well as the conditionality procedure under the Regulation to … Read more

As a result of the negotiations between the European Commission and the Hungarian Government following the triggering of the Conditionality Mechanism, 17 specific and one general commitment have been included in the Commission’s proposal for … Read more

The ongoing negotiations between the Government of Hungary and the European Commission regarding the conditions for Hungary’s access to the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility as well as the Conditionality Regulation, triggered by the European … Read more

The legislative framework and the practice of secondments, entailing the transfer of judges from one court to another, endangers the independence of Hungarian judges. Moreover, it may result in the violation of the right of parties to lawsuits to a fair hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law.

Unlawful Judicial Appointments at the Kúria   András Zs Varga, the President of the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, unlawfully appointed several judges to the bench in 2021. The National Judicial Council, the self-governing body of … Read more

Hungary held its general elections and a national referendum on 3 April 2022. The Parliament adopted an omnibus bill after the elections based on a package of proposals of the National Election Office. Some of … Read more

Non-execution of domestic court judgments by state authorities in freedom of information cases is a severe problem in Hungary. This violates the European Convention on Human Rights. In our submission with the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union to the Council of Europe, we show the systemic causes of non-compliance with judgments, and propose recommendations to ensure access to public interest data.

On behalf of the Hungarian Government, Deputy Prime Minister Semjén submitted two bills to Parliament on 19 July 2022, in the afternoon of the last day of Parliament before it went into summer recess. Both … Read more

The European Commission’s 2022 Rule of Law Report, released on 13 July 2022, repeated the stark findings of previous years and found no progress as regards judicial independence in Hungary. Two out of the Commission’s … Read more

On 8 June 2022, the governing majority in the Hungarian Parliament adopted the Fourth Authorization Act, which completes the Hungarian Government’s efforts to keep its excessive regulatory powers acquired first with a view to the … Read more

Our briefing paper provides an overview of the emergency regimes introduced in Hungary due to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020 until the present day and explains the consequences in terms of the executive’s powers.