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.
In its decision today the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) echoes the Hungarian civil society’s opinion of past years: the law on the transparency of foreign-funded organisations (commonly known as the law on NGOs) is stigmatising, harmful and goes against EU law. According to the CJEU ruling, the restrictions in the law run contrary to the obligations on Member States in respect of the free movement of capital, the right to respect for private and family life, the right to the protection of personal data, the right to freedom of association, and undermines the general confidence in NGO-s.
Human rights organizations in nine EU countries, members of the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) network, are simultaneously filing freedom of information requests to their national authorities regarding the new contact-tracing, symptom-tracking and quarantine-enforcing applications introduced to control the spread of Covid-19.
Fourteen members of the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO) express deep concern over the escalation in police responses to protests in the USA over the past week. The protests erupted in response to the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis on Monday. INCLO condemns the disproportionate use of force against protesters and calls on police to act in accordance with international standards on the use of force and the management of assemblies.
The speaker of the House violated the freedom of the press when banning journalists from the Hungarian Parliament building, ruled the European Court of Human Rights today. The six applicant journalists were represented by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union.
Eight Hungarian NGOs, participating in the stakeholder consultation launched by the European Commission for its first annual Rule of Law Report, trust that the EC will make concrete, enforceable recommendations to EU Member States, hence also for Hungary on how to advance rule of law in the EU.