European Court of Human Rights

Shocking: 19-year-old asylum seeker starved and illegally detained in a transit zone in Hungary

Migrants Hungarian government

A young Iraqi man separated from his family was denied food for 8 days in a transit zone. The asylum seeker was released after 10 months and is now suing the Hungarian state as a client of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee in Strasbourg.

According to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the young man was separated from his parents and siblings because he was older than 18 years old. He had fled Iraq with his family, and his request for asylum had been rejected twice, for which he was placed in detention, of which 306 days he was held in the Tompa transit zone.

However, the Immigration and Asylum Office (BMH) no longer gives food to adults at the immigration detention centre, which is why H.L. was deprived of food for 8 days. Until then, his younger brothers and sisters gave the young person food from theirs. He was only given food by his captors after the Hungarian State was ordered to do so by the Strasbourg Court, through the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

The young man has taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights with the help of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. H.L. was detained in particularly harsh conditions. He was housed in a container and was not allowed to leave his detention centre for any purpose unless accompanied by armed police or security guards, and neither UNHCR nor charity workers were allowed to visit. His captors did everything possible to make him give up and “leave voluntarily” for Serbia.

However, following the European Court of Justice ruling, the government was forced to close the transit zones on 21 May 2020. H. L. was then released and has been living in Austria since then.

The Strasbourg Court ruled last week that the Hungarian state had violated the law, as no one may be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in particular starvation. The Strasbourg judges therefore ordered the Hungarian state to pay a total of EUR 3,000 in just satisfaction.

Róbert Miskolczi, the lawyer of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, who represented the asylum seeker in the Strasbourg case, said, “our client has received compensation after five years. They (transit zones) have been abolished since then, but asylum seekers are paying a high price: those who do not come from Ukraine are no longer allowed to enter the country. We are working to put an end to the forced returns that often occur.”

Several recent injustices against asylum seekers

asylum seeker, border
Photo: depositphotos.com

This was not the first case recently of an asylum seeker winning a case against the Hungarian state. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee reports that an anxious Arab woman was detained in a container for patients with suspected infections, who also recently won against the Hungarian state.

The European Court of Human Rights has ordered the Hungarian state to pay EUR 3,500 in reparations after a woman from an excluded Arab minority filed a lawsuit over the trauma she suffered in a transit zone. The 27-year-old woman was kept under 24-hour observation because of her anxiety, in a container where patients with suspected infections are usually confined. She was not allowed to turn off the lights at night, claiming suicide risk, and she was not allowed to close the door in winter. She was detained in solitary confinement for 14 days in total, and since her release, she has been living in Germany, studying engineering.

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Woman in Hungarian prison with severe allergies given bread and lard to eat, loses 13 kgs

Hungarian prison

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has taken on the case of a woman with severe allergies who has been in prison for 22 months. Over the course of her incarceration, she lost considerable weight, going down from 56 to 43 kilos. Despite her deteriorating condition and having repeated allergy attacks due to inadequate care, she remained behind bars. Now, the Hungarian state will pay her EUR 5,200 in reparations.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has made progress in a case representing a 53-year-old woman who has been detained since 20 January 2020 for crimes against property. The Committee alleges that although the woman is in a potentially life-threatening situation in prison, she has not been provided with adequate care. Strasbourg declared the state has to pay her EUR 5,200 for the violation of her rights.

Woman suffers from severe allergies but neither the prison nor her relatives can provide adequate care for her

Corroborating the Committee’s claims is a report from a doctor who works in one of the prisons where she was held, which stated that “[t]he institution cannot ensure the complete exclusion of certain allergens. Given her medical history, this could lead to a serious, even life-threatening condition.”

The woman suffers from severe allergies. She is sensitive to various cosmetics, preservatives, and certain foods (e.g. milk, bran, soya), but also to many cleaning products, dust, dog hair, and plant pollens. Moreover, as the Helsinki Observer blog reported back in 2022, she also developed new allergies in prison, so she now cannot have eggs.

Her condition is so acute that if she comes into contact with these substances, for example, if they get into her food, she may suffer a potentially life-threatening attack, known as anaphylactic shock.

This, as the Committee highlights, has happened four times during her incarceration: she had to be taken to an outside hospital multiple times to receive life-saving treatment. Three of the cases were presumably because of food contamination, and the fourth because she received medication from a spoon that had residues on it to which she was allergic.

The woman’s relatives are also unable to send parcels to the prison to provide her with food and toiletries that she would be safe to interact with. Under current Hungarian legislation, food can only be purchased from prison canteens or from the prison’s webshop. However, almost all of the food available there contains preservatives that are dangerous to the woman’s health and life.

Her meals are thus lacking, and possibly dangerous. The Helsinki Committee reports, for example, that there were weeks when she received a total of 2 kilos of lard a week, in addition to the 0.4 kilos of daily bread she was given in the morning. To add “variety” to her meals, she was given a red onion or an apple at dinner, and smoked bacon twice a week.

The scarce meals themselves would be enough to make one lose weight, however, fearing another allergic reaction, she often simply does not eat the food if she is uncertain whether or not it would be safe for her.

As a result, the 167-centimetre-tall woman’s weight has fallen from 56 kilos to 43 kilos. “Her body mass index (BMI) is 15.42, which is below the World Health Organization (WHO) critical level of 16, meaning her extreme thinness could lead to death,” writes the Helsinki Committee. Despite her severe situation, she remained imprisoned without any meaningful investigation.

The court erred in imposing the prison sentence, argues the Helsinki Committee

“Chronic illness or severe allergy alone does not exempt you from arrest. The rule on this is correct. However, the medical condition of the individual is also a factor to be weighed when the court decides whether the arrest is absolutely necessary or whether a less severe restriction, i.e. criminal supervision, is sufficient,” said Ivóna Bieber, lawyer for the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

According to the group, in addition to her serious illness, the state should have taken into account that the 53-year-old woman had reported her own crime, had cooperated with the police during the proceedings, had a normal family life, had no accomplices and was no longer in a position to repeat the offences, when giving its sentence.

Considering all these factors, the Committee thinks that placing her under house arrest would have been a sufficient measure at the time of sentencing, which could have prevented her health from deteriorating so.

Following this reasoning, the woman successfully appealed to the European Court of Human Rights with the help of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which declared that her rights had been seriously violated. The court made a settlement offer to the litigants that was accepted by both the complainant and the government: the state will pay her EUR 5,200 as reparations.

At the same time, Bieber stressed that the woman, already detained as a convict, “remains in danger. Our civil rights association is working to ensure that she is provided with proper, safe care.”

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Mijatovic calls on Hungary parliament to reject sovereignty package

Dunja Mijatovic

Dunja Mijatovic, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, on Monday called on the Hungarian parliament to reject a package of bills for setting up a sovereignty protection office “that would be vested with broad powers to investigate any organisation or person suspected of serving foreign interests or threatening national sovereignty”.

As we wrote before, The government has submitted to lawmakers a draft bill on protecting national sovereignty and an amendment to the Fundamental Law which opens up the possibility of establishing a Sovereignty Protection Office, details HERE.

The bill, if adopted, posed “a significant risk to human rights”, she said.

According to the commissioner, the new office would have “unlimited authority to request sensitive data and private information from anyone, without oversight and without any legal remedy.”

The draft is “so vague that the invasive scrutiny of the proposed office could be weaponised against anybody who may be considered an adversary due, for instance, to activities aimed at influencing democratic debate,” she said.

Mijatovic recalled her earlier warnings in connection with measures by the Hungarian government “to impose arbitrary restrictions to the indispensable work of human rights NGOs and defenders in the country.”

“If this proposal is adopted, it will provide the executive with even more opportunity to silence and stigmatise independent voices and opponents,” she added.

“Draft laws with such far-reaching consequences on the functioning of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Hungary should undergo comprehensive scrutiny and meaningful consultation before they are submitted to Parliament,” she said.

“I call on the Hungarian Parliament to shelve these proposals and use its legislative and oversight powers to uphold human rights and fundamental freedoms in line with the European Convention and the core values of the Council of Europe,”

Mijatovic said.

EU Court: Hungary to pay compensation to a refugee for assault

Hungary refugee compensation EU court

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled against the Hungarian state on Thursday. In 2016, the Hungarian police brutally assaulted a Pakistani refugee. The prosecutor’s office did not open an investigation at the time. The Hungarian state must pay the victim EUR 20,000 in compensation.

The assault of the refugee

24.hu writes that on 12 August 2016, the 30-year-old Khurram Shahzad, a client of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, was assaulted along with other foreigners by police officers who “escorted” them to the other side of the border fence. They were kicked, and beaten with metal and rubber batons and tonfa. The Helsinki Committee writes that the investigating prosecutor’s office had a lot of hard evidence at its disposal. However, as expected, it did not investigate the perpetrators.

The evidence

One such piece of evidence is a video recorded by the police themselves, which emerged after Khurram Shahzad’s complaint. There is a picture taken shortly after the assault that shows him with a bloody head. He went to the hospital in Subotica, where his condition was examined. In addition, his two head injuries required stitches. He also managed to remember the exact five-digit identification number of one of the police officers and even said that he had three stars on his shoulder pad. However, that was not enough for the prosecution.

The ruling

The European Court of Human Rights in its ruling states that there was no effective investigation into the case. In addition, the State did not provide an acceptable explanation for Khurram Shahzad’s injuries. The court also ruled that the man had been ill-treated by Hungarian police officers. This is a rare occurrence, according to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee: in cases of ill-treatment, the ECHR practice is to condemn the state for inadequate investigation. However, in Shahzad’s case, the evidence, the contradictory statements of the police officers, the video footage, and the complete lack of evidence of explanation for the abuse convinced the court. The court believes that the abuse took place in the way the Hungarian Helsinki Committee’s client claims.

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Strasbourg: Hungary violated the human rights of even underage migrants

Strasbourg illegal migration Hungary

Field guards of Ásotthalom harmed a 14-year-old migrant then police threw him back to Serbia. A 17-year-old migrant was held in custody for three months. A 28-year-old migrant was arrested and held captive despite his health problems. They all turned to the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights and won. Hungary violated their human rights, so Budapest will have to pay compensation, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, their aid during the court process, said.

According to a statement published on their website, those are not the first cases in Strasbourg condemning Hungary concerning the treatment of migrants. The Hungarian authorities take into custody all illegal migrants trying who broke through the Hungarian (and Schengen) border and regularly send them back to Serbia. However, sometimes that process lasts too long and does not have a firm legal basis. Therefore, the Strasbourg court regularly condemns Hungary. For example, a similar verdict was issued two days before the aforementioned cases.

M.M. came from Afghanistan and was 17 when he entered Hungary. He asked for asylum, but authorities held him captive for almost three months. That happened before 2014, when authorities were not entitled to hold an underage person in custody. Later, the teenage boy was transferred to Fót, where he learnt Hungarian, and a Hungarian court acknowledged him as a refugee. Today he lives in a relationship with a Hungarian girl. They raise their child together and operate a buffet.

Refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan turned to Strasbourg

H.N., who was 28 in 2014, was chased away by the Taliban. He suffered from injuries and was under medical treatment. However, Hungarian authorities held him captive for more than three months. Afterwards, he was granted asylum, and still lives and works in Hungary.

R.N. came from Pakistan and was only 14 when he crossed the border in 2017 near Ásotthalom. Field guards caught, harmed and humiliated him. László Toroczkai, the current head of the radical Mi Hazánk party, reported about the issue back then with pride. Afterwards, Hungarian police threw him and ten other illegal migrants back to Serbia.

The statement of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee did not share what the Hungarian state would have to do for compensation towards these three people.

Due to “racial segregation”, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Hungary in a case

eu european union hungary flag priority areas

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Hungary in a case related to the educational segregation of the Roma. The court called on the government to come up with a policy that would not allow this practice. 

A Roma student wanted to transfer to a different school

Between 2013 and 2014, the plaintiff of the case, who is of Roma origin, attended a primary school attended exclusively by Roma students, writes MTI. According to the complainant, the curriculum taught at the school was substandard. Less than 10 percent of the students there continued their education. The complainant’s mother applied to the education office to transfer her son to another school that would better accommodate his mild learning difficulties due to hearing loss.

The request was rejected by the Constitutional Court

The mother’s request of switching schools was rejected as the child did not live in the affected school district. According to the plaintiff, the school was only five minutes from his place of residence by public transport. In December 2015, the applicant filed a constitutional complaint, citing his right to non-discriminatory education, but the Hungarian Constitutional Court rejected it. They thought the case did not raise a constitutional issue.

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Hungary

The European Court of Human Rights found that the complainant was “educated in segregated conditions”. Therefore, the state should have been obliged to take steps to eliminate these inequalities and to avoid the perpetuation of discrimination against the Roma. The judgment states that social coexistence free of racial segregation is a fundamental value in democratic societies. To ensure this, integrated education is a key element.

Hungary must pay the plaintiff EUR 7,000 (HUF 2.7 million) as moral damages and an additional EUR 4,537 (HUF 1.7 million) in court costs.

School graduation of Roma women is expected to increase in the future

The number of women of childbearing age is decreasing nationwide. Therefore, fewer children will be born in the next 40 years. This trend is not characteristic of Roma society, in their case the number of women of childbearing age was 155,000 in 2011, which is expected to increase in the future. At the same time, school graduation of Roma women is projected to increase in the future. However, this also means that they will have fewer children and their fertility ratio will decrease. There is a close connection between education and fertility: as the education level increases, the average number of children decreases. Nevertheless, changes in the fertility “behaviour” of Roma women will affect the number of women of childbearing age only 15 years later.

Justice Court Igazság Bíróság Legal Rights
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Human rights committee wins in court against the Hungarian government

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Hungarian authorities unlawfully detained an Iraqi asylum seeker for three months in 2015, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee reported on Tuesday.

As reported, the 23-year-old dentist was forced to cross the Ukrainian-Hungarian border irregularly, Index reports. He then immediately reported that he would apply for asylum in Hungary. The procedure was started and at the same time the man was placed in asylum detention in Nyírbátor.

According to the reasoning of the domestic court, the identity of the border crosser could not be established due to the lack of valid papers. Furthermore, they said that he had no contacts in Hungary. The court initially ordered his detention for two months. It was then extended by one more month.

The Iraqi man, fed up with his situation, turned to the European Court of Human Rights with the help of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. He claimed that his detention was unnecessary and therefore a violation of his fundamental rights.

The Strasbourg court has now ruled that the Hungarian authorities arbitrarily violated the man’s personal freedom by detaining him for three months as a refugee. The Iraqi man was awarded just satisfaction of EUR 6,500 (roughly HUF 2.5 million at current exchange rates) for the damage he suffered.

Putin Russian president Viktor Orbán
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Court of Justice of the European Union takes action against Hungary

pride-gay-parade-rainbow
Spread a new EU-wide initiative that will help to get rid of the Hungarian ‘anti-LGBTQ propaganda’ law and all similar laws once and for all in the EU, says Budapest Pride statement.

On 15 June 2021, the Hungarian Parliament adopted Act LXXIX of 2021 on taking more severe action sexual criminal offenses against minors. Last minute amendments introduced by government members added anti-LGBTQ provisions in this law to introduce a ban on access of minors to any content that “propagates or portrays divergence from self-identity corresponding to sex at birth, sex change or homosexuality.” With these last-minute amendments, the so-called ‘Child protection law’ became the Hungarian version of the ‘anti-LGBTQ propaganda law’ adopted in Russia in 2013, the statement said.

On 15 July 2021, the European Commission launched a procedure against Hungary – something called an infringement procedure – because they considered that this ‘anti-LGBTQ propaganda’ law violated EU law and treaties.
From today, EU Member States will have six weeks to submit ‘written observations’ on the case. By doing so, they would declare their support to the Hungarian LGBTQ community and signify that this anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda law is not welcome anywhere in the EU. This court case looks like to become the largest human rights trial of the European Union.

A petition is published by Forbidden Colours, Reclaim Europe, Háttér Society and Budapest Pride with which citizens can send a letter to their representatives to call them to join the court case against Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ law.

The petition is here: forbidden-colours.com/petition and live until Tuesday 28th of February.

Fidesz reaction

Fidesz’s parliamentary group leader, Máté Kocsis, has vowed to “fight to protect our children” in connection with “our anti-paedophile legislative package”, and he slammed “the imperial center in Brussels” for “prosecuting us” over the law.

Kocsis added in a Facebook post that a teacher who made “strange explanations” with regard to abuses of children could not be “held accountable” because he was “protected by” the legal charity TASZ, the Helsinki Committee NGO and the teacher union PDSZ, and had “threatened to sue”.

“Our child protection law has come under attack … so the fight continues,” he wrote.

“As a father of two children and an author of the law, I declare that as long as a single pedophile seeks legal loopholes or to nullify our law against the will of 3,600,000 Hungarians expressed in a referendum, we have work to do. We will fight for our children’s protection,” he wrote.

Court: Hungary responsible for the death of a 22-year-old Syrian migrant

Hungary border migrant Syrian

The 22-year-old Syrian national crossed River Tisza, but the Hungarian authorities did not let him enter Hungary and made him swim back. However, he suffocated in the river, and the police could only find his dead body. The sad events happened in 2016, but the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg made its decision on the issue only yesterday.

According to telex.hu, the Syrian man crossed the river with his brother, cousin and an Iraqi family with three kids in June 2016. However, the Hungarian authorities did not let them enter Hungary. “Go back to Serbia”, they shouted at them and threw rocks, let dogs on them and forced them back into the river.

The 22-year-old Syrian got injured and could not make it to the other bank. His brother and cousin turned to the Strasbourg court seeking justice. Interestingly, authorities rescued the Iraqi family. The mother and her three kids were transported to a local hospital.

However, the court’s verdict says the Hungarian authorities did nothing to save the man in trouble. Furthermore, they stated that authorities did not do everything to investigate the issue in detail. Therefore, the Hungarian state must pay EUR 34,000 as compensation. Hungary also has to pay the costs of the process. Hungary did not accept the sentence and submitted an appeal.

EP votes to recommend freezing Hungary funding — UPDATED

The European Parliament has proposed freezing European Union funding, saying that the 17 measures taken by Hungary aimed at unlocking its EU funding were not sufficient to offset the systemic risks to the bloc’s finances.

In a resolution adopted on Thursday with 416 votes in favour, 124 against and 33 abstentions, MEPs called on the EC and the European Council to “resist pressure from Hungary and go ahead with adopting the proposed rule-of-law conditionality measures to suspend EU cohesion funds.”

The measures should be lifted only “only after the Hungarian remedial measures have had a sustainable effect,” a statement on the EP website said.

Regarding Hungary’s recovery and resilience plan to access the funds set up to counter the fallout of the coronavirus epidemic, MEPs said “they deplore that, because of the government’s actions, recovery funds have not yet reached the Hungarian people,” the statement said.

The risk that further funds would be misused remained, the statement said. “[The] Commission should not approve Hungary’s [recovery] plan until the country has fully complied with all recommendations in the field of the rule of law and all relevant judgments of the EU Court and the Court of Human Rights,” it added.

The statement said Hungary was “exerting pressure” on EU bodies by blocking decisions such as aid for Ukraine and the introduction of a global corporate tax, and called on the EC and the European Council not to cave in to it.

“This abuse of the rule on voting by unanimity should not have any impact on the decisions regarding the Hungarian recovery plan and the application of the rule of law conditionality legislation,” the resolution said.

At the same time, beneficiaries of the funding should not be deprived of the means due to their government’s non-compliance, it said.

The EP protested that the proposal to trigger the conditionality procedure against Hungary had long been overdue and did not go far enough. Also, it urged the commission to take action in connection with other breaches of the rule of law, particularly those relating to the independence of the judiciary, the statement said.

In a statement, the Fidesz European parliamentary group said Hungarian left-wing MEPs did not want Hungary to receive EU funds. Fidesz’s MEPs, by contrast, had represented the interests of the Hungarian public by dismissing the text “condemning Hungary and Hungarians” which Hungarian left-wing opposition MEPs had “shamefully supported”.

Tamás Deutsch, the group’s head, said that what was a stake was “EU money that is rightfully ours”, and he declared the vote had been an act of “political punishment”. Without the EU funds, teachers would not receive pay rises and municipalities, small and medium-sized firms, hospitals, transport, environmental protection and energy investments would all suffer as a result, too, he added.

Hungarian opposition MEP István Ujhelyi said in a statement that the Fidesz government and the homeland were not synonymous and “Hungary is not equatable to the Orbán regime”. The Fidesz government would bear sole responsibility were Hungary to lose a single cent of EU funding, he said, adding that in a democratic rule-governed state Viktor Orbán and his government “would resign today”.

Refugee family detained at Hungarian border for months wins lawsuit against the state

Refugee family Hungarian border

A refugee family was detained for seven months at the Hungarian border. They have now won a lawsuit against the state. Read our article to get to know their horribly sad story.

The Strasbourg court has ruled that the Hungarian state unlawfully detained an Afghan family of four in the Röszke transit zone for 211 days in 2018, and ordered the state to pay EUR 15,000 in damages, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee said in a statement.

The case against the Hungarian state

The asylum-seeking family was represented by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee in the case against the Hungarian state before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The court ruled on Wednesday that the Hungarian state had detained the family in unlawful and inhuman conditions, without any effective legal remedy.

The Strasbourg court awarded the family EUR 15,000 in damages because the detention of the seriously ill mother, young children and starved father in a transit zone for seven months constituted inhuman, degrading and unlawful treatment, against which Hungary did not provide a judicial remedy.

They came to Hungary in April 2018

The family was forced to flee Afghanistan because the father, who was working as an interpreter for the US military, was threatened with death by the Taliban. After a long wait in Serbia, the Hungarian authorities allowed them to enter the transit zone in Röszke on 23 April 2018 to apply for asylum, Telex reports.

The mother and the older child, aged three, were in need of special health and psychosocial care due to the physical and psychological trauma they had suffered. The younger child, then one year old, had already broken their arm as a result of the unsuitable conditions in the container prison.

Family members who have experienced severe abuse and trauma have not received adequate care and accommodation from the asylum authorities during their detention for nearly 7 months, despite repeated requests. In the meantime, the European Court of Human Rights has issued two judgments ordering the Hungarian state to relocate the family to appropriate conditions in view of their vulnerable situation.

The father was starved

The second time, the request for urgent action by the Strasbourg court was made because the family, although still in the asylum procedure, was transferred to even worse conditions than before in the transit zone: they were placed in the pre-deportation sector, where the father was starved for six days. The starvation lasted until, following a petition by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Strasbourg Court issued a new interim measure ordering the Hungarian state to feed the father.

They were finally released from the transit zone on 19 November 2018, when the Metropolitan Court of Budapest granted their transfer request. They have since found refuge in Germany.

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Teachers’ union to take all legal steps to defend right to strike!

Teachers' protest on Budapest's Kossuth square in front of the parliament

The teachers’ union PDSZ is prepared to take every possible step to enforce the right to strike; if need be, it will turn to the European Court of Human Rights, the union told MTI on Saturday.

The union, which held a congress on May 27 and 28, decided to uphold its strike demands and continue legal procedures to protect the right to strike.

Earlier this week, PDSZ and another teachers’ union, PSZ, called on President Katalin Novák not to sign a recent legislation seen as restricting the strike rights of teachers and to refer the contested law to the Constitutional Court for a review.

Earlier, the strike committee of teachers voiced protest against stipulations under which teachers would be obliged to continue teaching classes during a strike action, and said the new legislation was “discriminative, retaliatory and intimidating”.

Pinter Interior ministrer hungary orbán cabinet
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Even a former Hungarian Prime Minister would put Putin on trial!

Vladimir Putin

Helló Magyar reported that Gordon Bajnai, a former Hungarian prime minister, would put Russian President Vladimir Putin on trial. Mr Bajnai is among, for example, former British prime ministers Gordon Brown and Sir John Major. The cause of the petition is the assault on Ukraine and the horrors the Russian army commits in the country.

Prime ministers, foreign ministers, court heads

Based on avaaz.org, almost 1.3 million people signed the petition. It aims to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the international court. The signers would like the Russian president to answer for the war crimes the Russian army allegedly committed against civilians in Ukraine. “As citizens from across the world, we urgently call on you to hold Putin and his accomplices personally accountable for their illegal invasion of Ukraine by creating a new Special Tribunal for the punishment of the crime of aggression. We also call on you to fully support the International Criminal Court’s separate 

investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. 

There will never be peace without such accountability – we are counting on you” – the petition says.

According to Helló Magyar, there are two former British prime ministers among the signers: Gordon Brown and Sir John Major. That is what all Hungarian media outlets spotted. BBC and other international news websites highlighted Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was the originator of the petition. Besides, the American-Hungarian former Nuremberg prosecutor, Benjamin Ferencz, and the former Head of the European Court of Human Rights, Sir Nicolas Bratza, also supported it. However, Helló Magyar’s author, Tamás Ulicza, noticed that even a former Hungarian Prime Minister signed the petition.

Gordon Bajnai was a Hungarian PM between 2009 and 2010.

The Socialists and the liberal SZDSZ elected him after Ferenc Gyurcsány’s resignation. Mr Bajnai was followed by Viktor Orbán, after Fidesz’s landslide victory in 2010 April.

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War crimes against Ukrainians?

Gordon Brown told BBC that since the fall of the Berlin Wall “we’ve assumed that democracy and the rule of law will prevail”, but that Mr Putin “is replacing that by the use of force”. “If the message is not sent out now then we face aggression in other countries which may go unpunished as well,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme. When asked if he considered the Russian president a war criminal, he replied:

“That’s what President Biden said, and that’s my view.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) launched an investigation in early March because, allegedly, Russian troops committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Interestingly, Ukraine is not a member of the ICC but accepted its jurisdiction after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

However, the options of the ICC are restricted because they need the approval of the United Nations Security Council. And Russia has a right to veto in the body. Last week President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a war criminal.

Nuremberg-style tribunal

The petition writes that “as terrified mothers and children flee the bombs and bullets, Putin is committing the ‘supreme international crime’ — aggression — right before our eyes. There is a powerful way to hold him to account: a new Nuremberg-style tribunal to prosecute him personally for this heinous act.

The Ukrainian foreign minister, 

Dmytro Kuleba, is calling for the world to create this new special court and support is growing fast. 

Massive public backing would give this idea irresistible momentum and it would send Putin and his cronies a powerful message – the world is going to hold you personally to account.

This new court is key to defending not just Ukraine but the entire world from an attack that was illegal from the minute it began. Join the global call to prosecute Putin’s crime in a new Nuremberg-style tribunal – and Avaaz will work directly with renowned experts to get this moving.”

You can sign the petition HERE

Vladimir Putin
Read alsoEven a former Hungarian Prime Minister would put Putin on trial!

Teachers and students held demonstrations in Budapest

teachers Strike in Hungary Budapest 3

Speakers at a teachers’ “checkered shirt” demonstration in front of the parliament building on Saturday stressed that the right to strike is a fundamental right.

The demonstration was held as part of a teachers’ strike that started on March 16.

Erzsébet Nagy of teachers’ union PDSZ said that the “miserable” salary situation cannot be remedied with “allowances scattered like crumbs”, adding that “superfluous administration” makes teachers’ work more difficult and the accreditation system is “completely unnecessary and useless”. She also pointed out that teachers are leaving the profession “en masse”.

teachers Strike in Hungary Budapest 2
Photo: MTI/Bruzák Noémi

Nagy said the public education system “fell apart long ago” but is being “held together by the professionalism of teachers”.

She added that if the government had invested as much energy in negotiations as in working to prevent the strike, “the promised land would already be here”.

teachers Strike in Hungary Budapest 1
Photo: MTI/Bruzák Noémi

Nagy said teachers are prepared to turn to the European Court of Human Rights.

She also said that the number of teachers who joined the strike was 20,000 higher than the figure mentioned by Gergely Gulyas, the prime minister’s chief of staff.

Leaders of public sector workers union MKKSZ, the Hungarian Unions Association and other organisations spoke at the demonstration, as well as teachers, students and parents.

Teachers strike Hungary
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EU court ruling not implemented in Hungary – here is what the Committee of Ministers said

Top Court Hungary Migration Law Ruling

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has expressed concern about Hungary delaying the implementation of an European Court of Human Rights ruling in the case of former supreme court president András Baka, the court said on Thursday, calling on the Hungarian government to fully respect its decisions.

The Committee of Ministers, which supervises implementation of the Strasbourg court’s rulings, adopted an interim resolution earlier in the day, calling on Hungary’s authorities to submit an updated action plan no later than Sept. 30 to dispel concerns about the freedom and independence of Hungarian judges.

The committee also urged the Hungarian authorities “to introduce required measures to ensure that a decision by Parliament to impeach the President of the Kúria (Supreme Court) be subject to effective oversight by an independent judicial body.” They added that the committee would launch a re-investigation of the case before March next year in view of the information received in the meantime.

According to the 2016 ECHR ruling, the Hungarian authorities curbed Baka’s right to free expression. The court said at the time that Baka’s human rights had also been violated through the premature removal from his position when the new Hungarian constitution terminated the former supreme court and established the Kúria, its successor.

The committee said in July last year that the Hungarian government had failed to dispel concerns about the independence and freedom of expression of judges and asked for further information.

Migration Migráció Bevándorlás Border Határ Röszke
Read alsoStrasbourg condemns Hungary for detaining Afghan family for 209 days

Strasbourg condemns Hungary for detaining Afghan family for 209 days

Migration Migráció Bevándorlás Border Határ Röszke

According to the latest decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the Hungarian state illegally detained an Afghan family of six in the transit zone of Röszke.

The conditions of detention for the children were so bad that they constituted inhuman and degrading treatment under the European Convention on Human Rights. The family represented by the Helsinki Committee was therefore awarded EUR 17,000 in damages.

Inhuman conditions

An Afghan family fleeing the Taliban waited nine months in Serbia to enter the transit zone back in 2017. The law enforcement agency said they lived in the hottest container prison during the warm summer months, with no shade at all in the whole transit zone. The injured and sick father did not receive adequate medical treatment, writes Telex.

The school-age children were not dealt with by the authorities for five months. One child, on the other hand, was used as a translator: he had to communicate between the two sides. He was severely traumatised when he regularly witnessed police transporting asylum seekers, including pregnant women, outside of the transit zone, handcuffed.

They were finally recognised as refugees

The release of the Afghan family, even after the interim measure of the Strasbourg court, took place only when they finally received a decision recognising them as refugees. After they were released, they found a new home in another European country.

“Of course we welcome the verdict. Although the Strasbourg decision does not erase the traumatic memory of the 209-day detention, it does confirm that what the detained children and their parents experienced as inhuman was inhuman under written law,” said Barbara Pohárnok, a lawyer at the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the legal representative of the Afghan family, according to the Helsinki Committee’s announcement.

Similar decision was made last March, more to come

According to his assessment, an important judgment was delivered in a more general sense because the Strasbourg court was again in line with the 2020 decision, which declared detention in transit zones as illegal detention. “It can also give hope to the many, many clients of the Helsinki Committee who are still waiting for a decision by the Strasbourg court.”

A similar verdict was declared last March about another Afghan family in Strasbourg; they had been detained illegally for months as well.

European Court of Justice says Hungary violated EU law with the transit zone system

In 2020, the European Court of Justice decided that Hungary had violated EU law with the transit zone. The court said that the Hungarian government had breached its EU obligations by failing to provide effective access to a fair asylum procedure. It was also unlawful, according to the judgment, for the Hungarian state to illegally detain asylum seekers in the transit zones and to limit the number of applications processed per day.

Illegal Migrant Border Fence Hungary
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Hungarian government was harshly criticised by Human Rights Watch

Hungary government Europe terror

The organisation called out a variety of issues regarding the rule of law.

Submitting a public interest data request has been more difficult than ever. In the past, the data was issued within 15 days, but now the process can take up to 45 days. The pandemic is named as the reason behind it, as many requests have been turned in lately. It often takes a lawsuit to acquire the data. – RTL reported. They asked Bernadett Szél, an independent member of the parliament about the issue.

“As an independent member of the parliament, recently we have spent more time at court, than in the Hungarian Parliament. We see that the restraining or delayed transfer of public interest data is making it almost impossible to inspect the politics of the government.” – she said.

orbán
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Human Rights Watch also expressed its concerns.

Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening all over the globe. They direct their advocacy towards governments; therefore, they refuse government funding. They also carefully review their donations so that they can remain independent. Human Rights Watch has recently criticised the Hungarian government, calling attention to a number of issues regarding the country’s politics. RTL writes that the civil organisation mentioned the LGBTQ community’s situation, the hardships independent media faces, negative discrimination against gypsies, and the fact that acquiring a refugee status is almost impossible in the country. The organisation also found it unacceptable that regulatory governance has been still in place due to the prolongation of the crisis. The Pegasus spyware, issues in the healthcare system, educational and workplace discrimination, and defamation campaigns against human rights defenders were also mentioned. In addition, Human Rights Watch called out the recent changes regarding universities. Many universities have been privatised and put under the control of government-led asset management foundations.

The summary on their website states that

“the government used the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext for attacks on the rule of law and democratic institutions. The government has made access to asylum close to impossible, interferes with independent media and academic freedom, and undermines the rights of women and LGBT people, including blocking the implementation of the Istanbul Convention that aims to prevent violence against women. Hungary’s Roma minority face widespread and systemic discrimination. Neglect of the public health care system and deficiencies in hygiene practices in hospitals creates grave health risks for patients and may contribute to the spread of Covid-19.”

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UN expert: Freedom of expression and media freedom under threat in Hungary

March Budapest protest

Irene Kahn, the United Nations expert on the protection of freedom of speech and freedom of expression, has recently visited Hungary to conduct a report about the country’s current situation concerning her area of expertise.

According to Euronews, Irene Khan has met several government institutions, civil rights organisations, news journalists, scientists, and activists fighting against discrimination and violence towards those with gender issues. Irene Khan will finalise her report to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in June 2022, but she has already shared some of her findings on the Internet.

“The interferences from the Hungarian Government in the past decade into the media sector, the hatred incited by politics and the ‘toxic environment’ they have created could pose a serious threat to the upcoming elections” – Irene highlighted at the end of her visit to Hungary.

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Justice minister: “Fortress Hungary is still standing”

According to Telex, Irene Khan has warned the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and its principal institution, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), to keep close attention on the Hungarian media before the 2022 elections. According to Khan, the “Government tried to stifle differing opinions, undermine the credibility of civil society and weaken the protection of human rights”. Khan said that the Hungarian Government used political decisions and measures to interfere with the media and the information flow. 

“There should be no monopoly of information in a democracy.” – Khan said.

The rapporteur also raised her voice about the ongoing hate-mongering against migrants as well as against journalists and right defenders who support asylum seekers and members of the LGBTQ community.

Euronews reported that Irene Khan asked Hungarian authorities to grant editorial freedom and freedom to access information sources. She also asked them to pay more attention to the independence of regulating bodies and the distortions of the media outlets.

Irene Khan proposed that the political parties should have equal access to news channels during the election. In this way, voters would find it easier to access information about the different campaigns of each parties. 

szijjártó
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