Anybody may become defenceless in the face of the state’s power.
Háttér Society, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) have jointly submitted input to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association for her 2026 thematic report … Read more
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) and the Support Network for Detainees and Their Families (FECSKE) have submitted input to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief for her forthcoming thematic report on … Read more
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), together with the Support Network for Detainees and Their Families (FECSKE), has contributed to the call for input by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or … Read more
The Hungarian Government uses its power arbitrarily to discourage people from attending the Pécs Pride in 2025. According to an amendment adopted by the Parliament, attending Pride will be considered a petty offence. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) and the Streetlawyer Association (Utcajogász) teamed up to answer your questions. Most importantly, the more people attend Pride, the less risky it becomes for everyone. Our Q&A will help you prepare for possible outcomes, and if proceedings are initiated against you, you can count on us!
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee submitted a communication to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe regarding the non-execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Magyar Helsinki Bizottság … Read more
In recent years, detention conditions in Hungary have attracted increasing international attention. This has further intensified following the 2024 extradition of a non-binary German defendant. However, the German Federal Constitutional Court deemed the extradition unlawful due to the risks of inhumane and degrading treatment in Hungarian detention facilities.
The court convicted a man for violence against a member of the community, after he, along with his accomplices attacked antifascist youths, motivated by political hatred. It is notable that the prosecution had previously refused to press charges against the perpetrator, who has now been sentenced to one year suspended prison. The victims could only achieve a conviction through a substitute private prosecution, with the help of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.
In March 2025, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) conducted an ad hoc visit to Hungary. To highlight pressing issues regarding conditions in Hungarian prisons, the HHC Justice Programme prepared a submission for the visit.
The Hungarian government is disregarding an interim resolution by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which exhorted the government to align legislation on life sentences with the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.
The Strasbourg Court has ruled in favour of a former prisoner in a case against Hungary over its arbitrary refusal to allow him to attend the funerals of his mother and brother. This was despite the fact that he had almost no time left to serve on his sentence and that his behaviour had been exemplary. The applicant was represented by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) carried out a periodic visit to Hungary in May 2023. The recently published report on the visit highlights several issues, also raised by the HHC, which undermine humane detention in Hungary. In particular, the Committee identified ill-treatment by police and prison staff as a critical issue that remains unresolved in the country.
Recent legislative proposals threaten with the “suspension” of Hungarian citizenship, violate freedom of assembly, and effectively ban Pride. These changes represent a significant escalation in the Government’s efforts to suppress dissent and weaken human rights protection, and elevate exclusion and the threatening of dissenters to a constitutional level.
How the Ombudsperson’s weak independence and concentrated mandates weaken fundamental rights protection – Human rights defenders assess the performance of Hungary’s national human rights institution
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee is participating in a European research project examining the impact of digitalisation on procedural rights in criminal proceedings in Hungary. The project aims to promote the implementation of digitalisation in criminal proceedings in a way that ensures the consistent and complete enforcement of procedural rights, providing a uniform and adequate level of protection across the EU.
Despite rulings by the European Court of Human Rights and repeated calls by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe over the past 13 years, Hungary still fails to tackle prison overcrowding and inhumane detention conditions. As a result, large-scale rights violations persist.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) utilised all human rights CSO tools (research, advocacy, empowerment, strategic litigation, public- and professional awareness raising) to eliminate mandatory glass partitioning between inmates and their family members in Hungarian prisons during visits for seven years. The seven-year-long status quo is currently changing.
The aim of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s project is to improve the quality of contact in prisons. The preservation of family ties is fundamental to the reintegration of prisoners, so it is not only in … Read more
In October 2024, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee submitted its observations to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the Gubacsi v. Hungary group of cases for the 7th time. This group of … Read more
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee participated at the 2024 OSCE Human Dimension Conference and took the floor and provided written submissions on the situation of human rights defenders and civic space, on the rights of asylum-seekers … Read more
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee coordinated a coalition of three civil society organisations (CSOs) working in Hungary to contribute to General Comment 27 of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), which focuses on children’s rights to access to justice and effective remedies. In its draft General Comment, the CRC aims to clarify the terms, approaches and actions that States should take to implement the right of all children to access to justice and effective remedies when their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child fail to be respected.