The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union is a human rights NGO. Since our foundation in 1994, we have been working for everybody being informed about their fundamental human rights and empowered to enforce it against the undue interference by those in position of public power.
The Metropolitan Court of Budapest invalidated the decision of Budapest’s chief police officer that effectively banned an announced demonstration at the Prime Minister’s residence. The decision also found that closing the area, in order to prevent the demonstration, violated the law. The HCLU welcomes the decision by the court which stated that “limiting a peaceful demonstration because it is held in the presence of a high level official but otherwise serves as an expression of a political opinion is unnecessary in a democratic society.”
The Chamber of Judge Miszori has a difficult task. On August 6, it will announce its first instance judgment in a criminal procedure against the four suspects who were accused of carrying out a series of racist murders in 2008 and 2009 against Hungarian Roma.
Stefánia Kapronczay, the former Head of Patients’ Rights Program, is the new Executive Director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU).
Today constitutional democracy is shrinking in Hungary. Rule of law institutions, which normally should protect the rights of the individual against the state are less and less able to fulfill this objective. Using its two-third majority in Parliament, the government has dismantled, weakened or conquered these institutions to protect its power instead of the rights of the citizens.
HCLU received a special prize from Erste Foundation the same week at the end of June when it won awards from Kreatív Magazin Webvideó.