Justice Prevails Over Discrimination by Hungarian Municipalities

Hungary’s National Police force has been accused of discrimination in targeting Roma citizens for trivial fines. NGOs have sent a letter to the police commissioner, who denies the allegations, asking for a working group to study the problem.

“Besides the fact that we find half of the tasks in the Gyöngyöspata Committee’s resolution to be disquieting, we find great flaw in that fact that none of the tasks involve the government, nor the examination of the responsibility of any police organizations,” said Eszter Jovánovics, Head of the Roma Program in the HCLU during the hearing held on October 27th 2011. In this meeting, the agenda of the Gyöngyöspata Committee (whose full name is “The committee investigating the process of uniformed crime, its background and events in Gyöngyöspata, as well as helping eliminate such crime) included the questioning of nonprofit organizations.

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, within the context of its Roma Program, is providing legal assistance to a woman and her child, who were manhandled by the police and have issued a formal complaint, as well as the man who rushed to their assistance. The Miskolc Detective District Attorney has ordered an investigation on the suspicion of violent misuse of authority.