HCLU News & Projects

Freedom can’t protect itself! Support the HCLU by donating your 1%!

23 April, 2012 - 17:31

99% of your taxes are swallowed by the Hungarian state, which the HCLU is continuously monitoring in order to protect your rights. If you do not donate the remaining 1% to an NGO, the state will swallow that too. Please donate your 1% to the HCLU!

HCLU Tax number: 18067109-1-42

Inadequate response to the Venice Commission’s criticism

2 May, 2012 - 13:09

In March 2012 the Venice Commission issued an opinion regarding the new Hungarian cardinal laws on the court system and the judiciary, stating that “the reform as a whole threatens the independence of the judiciary”. The Hungarian Government has initiated an amendment of the two cardinal laws in question, apparently as a result of the Venice Commission’s opinion. However, the proposed amendments do not eliminate the conceptional problems of the new regulation.

Profit-making through FOI?

26 April, 2012 - 10:43

A draft bill on the re-use of public sector information submitted to the Hungarian Parliament by the government would make the national FOI legislation highly unpredictable - according to the HCLU and K-Monitor, major Hungarian NGOs working for transparency and freedom of information. The proposal intends to harmonize Hungarian freedom of information legislation with the EU law by implementing the 2003/98/EC Directive on the re-use of public sector information. The latter is to be revised soon, due to a proposal of the European Commission. The HCLU and K-Monitor ask legislative authorities to withdraw their draft proposal due to the following reasons.

Gyöngyöspata: Government Fends Off Responsibility

25 April, 2012 - 12:49

The opportunity for the government to make good on the mishandling of events and its series of mistakes in Gyöngyöspata has come and gone. It failed to condemn politicizing and operations based on the theory of collective criminality and it also failed to lay blame on the right-wing political party Jobbik for inciting hatred against the Roma minority.

Instead, the government made the reasoning of Jobbik its own and it is more worried about its international reputation, while clearly, any government is judged upon its own actions and failures.

Hungarian Government and Parliament should respect European Court of Human Rights judgment

24 April, 2012 - 10:42

On Friday 20 April 2012, the Hungarian Minister of Justice and Public Administration, Mr. Tibor Navracsics submitted to Parliament a draft Parliamentary Resolution to not execute the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) taken in the case of Fratanolo v Hungary. The judgment, handed down by the Strasbourg-based court in November 2011, is the second such decision establishing that Hungary had violated the right to freedom of expression protected by the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by criminalizing the wearing of the red star in public. Under the minister’s proposal, the penal provision should remain in effect and Hungary should not pay the just satisfaction awarded by the ECtHR.

Pride is Free, Court Puts Police Back in Its Place

16 April, 2012 - 21:58

On 23 April the Tribunal of the Capiptal overruled and repealed the decision of the Budapest Police Chief, which had previously banned the Budapest Pride March. Similarly to last year, the court accepted the arguments of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union's lawyer and rejected the 13-page-long justification of the police. The court ruled that there is no valid legal reason to prohibit the Pride March on the announced route.