Hungary disregards CoE interim resolution on life sentences

The European Court of Human Rights established a violation of the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in a series of Hungarian cases both with regard to life sentence without the possibility of parole (whole life sentence), and, in certain cases, life imprisonment with parole, in the case of which the minimum term to be served before being eligible for parole can be set as high as 40 years, in violation of European Court of Human Rights standards.

The respective group of judgments will be on the agenda of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (in charge of supervising the execution of European Court of Human Rights judgments) again in June 2025. The HHC, which has been advocating for over a decade for the abolishment of whole life sentence, submitted a communication to the Committee of Ministers ahead of the June meeting to show that the judgments remain unimplemented. In particular, the Hungarian authorities have not complied with the Committee of Ministers’ interim resolution of September 2024, and have taken no legislative steps to align the Hungarian legislation with the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of either types of life sentences. Moreover, the rights violations established with regard to the individual applicants have not been remedied either, and they remain without any hope of release.

The HHC’s submission is available here:
NGO communication with regard to the execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in the László Magyar v. Hungary group of cases (22 April 2025)