The last piece of the puzzle?
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
As part of undermining the system of checks and balances, the Hungarian governing majority has weakened the independence of institutions vested with the task of protecting fundamental rights, such as the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, the Hungarian Ombudsperson, who also fulfils the role of Hungary’s national human rights institution (NHRI). This resulted in the relevant international body concluding that the way the Commissioner acted compromised its compliance with the relevant UN principles.
In parallel, more and more specialised human rights protection institutions were merged into the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, such as Hungary’s equality body and an independent body vested with examining human rights-related complaints against law enforcement, and the Commissioner remained the national preventive mechanism (NPM) under the OPCAT as well.
This level of concentration of mandates is highly problematic due to the lack of the functional independence of the Commissioner alone, but a recent research report published by Háttér Society and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee also demonstrates that it has resulted in weakened human rights protection in affected areas, namely in
- deficient monitoring of places of detention,
- a diminished level of protection against discrimination, and
- weakened protection against police abuse.
The deficiencies identified by the research clearly show that significant institutional, procedural and practical changes would be necessary to enhance or at least restore the previous level of human rights protection. To that end, the authors of the research report also formulated recommendations to address the deficiencies.
The research report by Háttér Society and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee is available here:
The last piece of the puzzle? Assessing the performance of Hungary’s national human rights institution (2024)
A summary of the main findings and recommendations is available here.
This publication is supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom is not responsible for the content of this publication, or for any use that may be made of it. The views expressed herein are those of the authors alone. These views do not necessarily reflect those of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.