Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has submitted its response to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders for her forthcoming and final report to the 61st session of the Human Rights Council. The call for input, entitled “Raising their voices: Human rights defenders respond to the human rights crisis,” invited contributions on how human rights defenders operate in increasingly restrictive environments and how international mechanisms can better support their work.

In our submission, we outline how we continue to protect human dignity and the rule of law in Hungary amid a decade-long campaign to curtail civic space. The document sets out our multifaceted approach – combining strategic litigation, international advocacy, and capacity-building – to defend those targeted by state-led attacks and to preserve democratic participation. It also highlights key achievements, including ending the arbitrary detention of asylum-seekers, contributing to EU rule of law mechanisms, and maintaining independent oversight of law enforcement and criminal justice practices despite official exclusion from detention facilities.

We also put forward recommendations to strengthen the international protection of human rights defenders, including improving the accessibility and responsiveness of UN mechanisms and reinforcing cooperation between global and regional bodies. The submission underlines that safeguarding civil society’s engagement with international human rights institutions is vital to upholding a rules-based international order and ensuring that fundamental rights remain meaningful even in hostile domestic conditions.

Read the Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s submission to the Special Rapporteur here.