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.
When the Fundamental Law came into force, HCLU publicly voiced its worries about the constitutional clause on the protection of the fetus which could lead to restrictions on abortion. The Fundamental Law states that along with the right to life and human dignity the fetus shall be protected from conception. The law on abortion has not been changed, however, the government has, through legal and non-legal means, tried to influence pregnant women which has come to undermine the right to self-determination. HCLU calls attention to the emerging problem with the following summary.
HCLU and K-monitor provided expert opinion on the government’s draft law on whistleblower protection.
The Hungarian government provided detailed comments on the so-called Tavares Report regarding the situation of fundamental rights in Hungary, which will soon be discussed by Members of the European Parliament. The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) and the Standards (Mérték) Media Monitor responded to the government’s inaccurate and unfounded comments in an analysis submitted to the factions of the European Parliament.
The decision by the County Court (Törvényszék) of Miskolc to sentence nine Roma persons for racism „against Hungarians” for attacking the car of far-right activists in a small Hungarian town, Sajóbábony shows serious misunderstandings in how courts apply the law and demonstrates the wide-spread negative discrimination present in criminal sentencing.
The police failed to consider that the assault on the chairmen of the Raoul Wallenberg Association bears an anti-semitic bias and failed to investigate the incident as hate crime despite the fact that the law provides greater protection for the victims of hate crime. Apparently, the judicial practice presents deficiencies in this area.