Lawyering on the Margins

Video of the discussion forum at the CEU in Budapest with Wolfgang Reinicke (CEU), Sandeep Chawla (UNODC), Niamh Eastwood (Release), Martin Jelsma (TNI) and Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch (OSF).

Under the guise of observations "in service of the residents”, uniformed men terrorize children and harass adults based on their ethnicity or national status in Magyarbánhegyes. According to this, it seems as if police did not defend locals against persecution. (The Civil Guard Association for a Better Future with other extremist anti-Roma groups – pretending to be militiamen and vindicating the right to maintain public order – have started a systematic campaign of intimidation against the Roma for weeks in Gyöngyöspata, Hungary in April 2011. They illegally patrolled the village and provoked the Roma adults and children.The HCLU published its Shadow Report and a documentary video about the events. The summary of the Shadow Report can be found here.

This is another example of teachers’ sadism which happened almost at the same time as the head butting incident. The teacher tied the eight year old little boy to a chair with a skipping rope, because he did not ask for permission to take his eraser to his sibling. The child was tied down for approximately ten minutes and finally his sibling untied him. The boy felt so ashamed that he did not dare to tell the story to his parents at home. The father visited the headmaster at the school where the teacher admitted her act, pleading that did it because she could not handle him. As the headmaster did not want to take any measures against the teacher, the father reported the case to the police.