The HHC Justice Programme’s Submission for the CPT’s periodic visit to Hungary in 2023

The Justice Programme of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee prepared the following submission for the upcoming periodic visit of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT)

Our submission focuses on, among other issues:

• Key developments since the last visits to Hungary by the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture in 2017 and 2018
• Context on the rule of law backsliding in Hungary affecting the criminal justice system
• Systemic issues such as the primacy of custodial sanctions, the criminalisation of poverty and problems with early release contributing to the growing number of detainees
• Problems with material conditions within Hungarian penitentiaries
• Whole life sentence
• Ill-treatment and increasingly strict contact policies hindering working towards reintegration of people in conflict with the law
• Detainees with special needs
• Police detention