Bijay Pandey is a drug user activist from Nepal, a member of the International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD, www.inpud.org) his group operates a syringe exchange program which is not officially supported by the government. He emphasizes the importance of media advocacy for user groups.
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Orosz Béla was fined 50 thousand forints for a minor offence. In a letter sent on August 8th, he informed the police that because of his poverty, he cannot pay the fine, but would like to work off his debts through community service. He did not receive a response from the police. Two months later, the courts informed him that they will hold a hearing regarding the conversion of his fine into a prison sentence. This procedure is illegal; the judicial authorities disregarded the laws relating to offences.
HCLU (Hungarian Civil Liberties Union) and ERRC (European Roma Rights Center) have called into account Máté Szabó, Parliamentary Commissioner of Civil Rights in Hungary, with a corporate submission in order to conduct an investigation, and gain an explanation as to why people living in abject poverty are being evicted from local governments’ tenements- the equivalent of making them homeless. Specialists of HCLU Roma Programme, doing fieldwork in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplém county (Hungary), have received numerous annunciations from Roma families who had been evicted or were on the verge of being evicted by the local governments.