Anybody may become defenceless in the face of the state’s power.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has been monitoring places of detention, prisons and police cells for 20 years. We believe that prison overcrowding is one of the most severe problems of the Hungarian penitentiary system, being … Read more
The HHC’s client, a young man, was placed in pre-trial detention in November 2007. In March 2008, he was transferred to the Bács-Kiskun County Penitentiary Institution for five days, where he was placed in a … Read more
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has been monitoring the law and practice related to the rights of defendants for years and has been participating in numerous national and international projects related to the issue. In addition, … Read more
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has been monitoring the law and practice related to the rights of defendants for years and has been participating in numerous national and international projects related to the issue. In addition, … Read more
Punishing someone for being homeless and ordering him or her to pay a fine or go to prison is meaningless. Putting a mother (a sex worker) of a little child into prison for littering is … Read more
In the last decade, the HHC’s attorneys have successfully litigated cases before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in relation to ill-treatment by the police. Therefore, the HHC has special interest in the execution … Read more
The project titled ‘Youth engagement for conscious citizenship’ aimed to raise awareness of youth in secondary and higher education about select topics of democracy and human rights. The education materials prepared by the project partners … Read more
The project „SUPRALAT: Strengthening suspects’ rights in pre-trial proceedings through practice oriented training for lawyers in criminal proceedings” was coordinated by the Maastricht University and co-funded by the European Union. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee participated in … Read more
As of 15 September 2015 three new provisions were introduced to the Criminal Code, which violate the human rights of the refugees concerned. Short analysis of the HHC.
Promoting access to case materials of defendants and their defense counsels in criminal proceedings has been a long-standing priority of the HHC, and is related to activities involving a series of successful applications submitted to … Read more
“If arrested, you cannot appeal your detention if you do not understand how you should do it, or that you’re even entitled to it. Knowing your rights during your detention is fundamental to a fair … Read more
Fair Trials and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee organized a practitioner training on 19-21 June in Budapest attended by lawyers from Croatia, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Hungary. The training provided presentations delivered by experts of the Fair Trials on the roadmap directives and a forum for discussion about the relevant practical experiences of the participating lawyers.
In its judgment issued today, the European Court of Human Rights set out that Hungary should produce within six months a plan for reducing overcrowding in its penitentiaries. The judgment concluded that the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment was violated with regard to the applicants detained in overcrowded cells, three of them being the clients of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.
The HHC submitted a communication to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe with regard to the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights related to the overcrowding in Hungarian penitentiaries.
Increasing the Capacity of Law Enforcement Authorities to Tackle Racist Crime, Hate Crime and Homophobic Crime through Experiential Learning
Ill-treatment has been prohibited by international and regional instruments and conventions for many decades. Yet torture and other forms of inhuman or degrading treatment at the hands of state officials, and particularly those engaged in … Read more
On 17 September, a juvenile client of the HHC was set free after 13 months of pre-trial detention imposed for the alleged robbery of a T-shirt. The HHC turned to Strasbourg in the case earlier on.
Summary of HHC main human rights concerns
As an implementing partner organization of Fair Trials International the HHC is launching its new project to provide a unique evidence-base about the practice of pre-trial detention.
The HHC was a partner of Fair Trials International in the “Practitioner Training on Roadmap Directives” project, partially funded by the European Union. The overall objective of this project was to provide defence lawyers from … Read more