“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 Eötvös Károly Public Policy Institute, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union analysed the draft of the new Constitutional Court Act, to be adopted under the new Hungarian Constitution. The three NGOs found that under the proposed new rules, the Constitutional Court would only be able to ensure respect for constitutional provisions to a limited extent. In turn, the powers of Parliament would increase and fundamental rights protection would weaken.

Eötvös Károly Policy Institute, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and Hungarian Helsinki Committee informed the President of the European Commission on the failure of the Hungarian lawmaker to fulfill its obligation to guarantee the complete independence of the Data Protection Commissioner. Hungary therefore breached its duty arising from EU law.

On 21, September representatives of several human rights non-governmental organisations (NGOs) met with delegates of the Hungarian Government at the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice to have a discussion about the future steps of implementing the recommendations accepted by the government in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The NGOs were critical of the government's demonstrated unwillingness to have effective and meaningful consultation with civil society prior to deciding which recommendations to accept and decline in the UPR process. The NGOs raised further concerns about some of the recommendations that were rejected by the state. Finally, the NGOs proposed that the government set up working groups consisting of NGO and government representatives, which would regularly convene to develop steps and measures required to implement the recommendations accepted by the government, and to monitor the implementation process. The representatives of the government indicated that they would respond to this proposal by the end of October.

The Hungarian Capitol Court has overruled two police orders prohibiting trade unionists from demonstrating in front of the Parliament and the Buda Castle on the first weekend of October. The Capitol Court fully shared the HCLU’s opinion that the reasoning of the police was faulty and their prohibiting measures were unfounded. The planned demonstrations will be held.

“We bring human rights to those living in total isolation, communities needing all the opportunities for just law enforcement that they can get,” says the HCLU’s web page. There are currently 15 working TASZPOINTs in Hungary, and our series of interviews will show how they work. Here, we discuss the TASZPOINT in Tomor, with Laci Siroki, the director.