Justice minister: Hungarian judiciary keeps to ECtHR practices

Hungary’s judiciary gives proper consideration to criteria set out by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR); Justice Minister Judit Varga told a conference in Budapest on Friday. Varga said Hungary took an active role in the process of improving the implementation of verdicts.

She said compliance with the criteria set out by the Strasbourg court was an important factor when it came to drafting legislation in Hungary, and that both regular courts and the Constitutional Court were increasingly using the ECtHR’s legal practices as points of reference.

The minister added, at the same time, that it was important that the court’s decisions were “clear and consistent and shouldn’t go beyond the given state’s commitments stemming from international treaties”.

The ECtHR’s function is to interpret the provisions laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights and to ensure the enforcement of human rights norms, Varga said, adding that this needed to be in balance with the sovereignty and human rights obligations of the Council of Europe’s member states.