The government has submitted an amendment proposal that would exclude protests from the most important, symbolic public squares of Budapest during national holidays. Furthermore, it would empower local governments to remove further areas a no-protest zone.

The Punitive State: if you can’t solve it, ban it!

Whenever there’s public dissent or the government finds no solution to a social problem, governments of the Fidesz party resorts to prohibition or punishment. Harassment and discrimination of the homeless has been ongoing for long, but this new level of persecution of homelessness began at the time of the second Fidesz government and has continuously been on Fidesz’s agenda ever since. In summer 2018, the two third majority of the parliament banned homelessness in the whole country, making the lives of one of the most vulnerable social groups even harder. The Law on Petty Offences was modified along the seventh amendment to the Fundamental Law, which enters into force on 15th October 2018.

The Hungarian Government introduced a draft Bill (T/707.) on the right to assembly, to replace the current law which has been in effect since 1989. The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union is of the view that the entire Bill should have been withdrawn and the current Act III of 1989 on the Right to Assembly should be modified where necessary. Executive summaries and a longer version of the analysis below were sent to all MPs as well as political parties with parliamentary presence before the Bill reached committee stage and second reading in Parliament. However, the Parliament enacted the new law on the right to assembly on July 20th, 2018.

Over the past number of years, law enforcement and security forces have increasingly turned to the use of crowd-control weapons (CCWs) to respond to popular protests. Today, the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) release "Lethal in Disguise: The Health Consequences of Crowd-Control Weapons", a report documenting the health effects of these weapons.

In the face of the most serious migration crisis to hit Europe in the many years, the Hungarian government took legal and physical steps to stop refugees at the southern border: the Serbian section of the country’s border was sealed with barbed wire fences while arguably unconstitutional criminal sanctions were introduced. The new border control measures took effect on September 15, 2015. As a result, thousands of refugees were stopped at the Serbian side of the Röszke-Horgos border crossing point, where they were not provided with any relevant information, accommodation, medical treatment, and only faced a quite slow official border-crossing procedure.

On the afternoon of September 16th, 2015, behind a cordoned gate at the border crossing point, Hungarian riot police troops were arrayed since a group of refugees started to protest and tried to convince the police to open the gate and let them through. At 2:30pm stones were thrown over the cordon; first line police officers responded by using pepper spray against the first line of refugees. This led to an escalation in the violence; the crowd became aggressive and started throwing stones, pieces of wood and plastic bottles. The police then fired tear gas and used water cannons against the refugees from the other side of the gate. Due to the kinetic impact and indiscriminate effects of these weapons, peaceful refugees, children and women were also affected.[1]

At 5:30pm that day, the police removed the cordons – only the gate remained – and the troops were pulled back. Some refugees then opened the gate and hundreds of peaceful people – including women, children and elderly people – started to cross the border, yelling “Thank you!”, believing that the border had been officially opened. Though the crowd behaved peacefully, suddenly the troops of the Hungarian Counterterrorism Centre (CTC) – which is an independent body, separate from the police forces – ran from behind the police lines and attacked the calmly walking people and started to beat them indiscriminately with truncheons and telescopic batons. The people turned back and tried to run, but CTC officers hunted them down. During the attack, journalists with cameras were also beaten and hit with rocks, even those who lay on the ground or tried to help others. The injuries and unlawful treatment of journalists are well-documented.[2] The press reported that around 300 refugees had been injured, while the police reported that about 20 policemen had been injured.[3]

During the attack, the CTC officers were wearing protective gear but did not wear identification numbers, and there is no information so far on who ordered the attack. There is no evidence either to show that the crowd had been previously warned three times, as required by law, before the attack began, as claimed by the police. The CTC refused to comment on the incident, and neither the police nor the CTC published any pictures taken – in spite of the fact that recordings of many other operations were publicized. The internal investigation conducted by the head of the police concluded that all the actions were lawful, skillful and proportionate. However, the police is currently conducting investigations against 14 people for rioting.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has asked the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights to initiate an investigation regarding fundamental rights violations in the incident. The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union tried to acquire the police incident reports through freedom of information requests, but these requests have so far only been partially answered, and partially denied based on inadequate reasons. A proper investigation that could offer transparency and accountability by the police for these actions remains pending.

[1] Csata a horgosi határon

[2] See OSCE Representative calls on authorities in Hungary to ensure the safety of journalists covering the refugee crisis; see also HCLU-report on infringements of freedom of the press

[3] Growing controversy surrounding migrant clashes at Hungary’s southern border – new details emerge

In the face of the most serious migration crisis to hit Europe in the many years, the Hungarian government took legal and physical steps to stop refugees at the southern border: the Serbian section of the country’s border was sealed with barbed wire fences while arguably unconstitutional criminal sanctions were introduced. The new border control measures took effect on September 15, 2015. As a result, thousands of refugees were stopped at the Serbian side of the Röszke-Horgos border crossing point, where they were not provided with any relevant information, accommodation, medical treatment, and only faced a quite slow official border-crossing procedure.

On Tuesday, November 18th, a representative of the ACLU, CCLA, CELS, EIPR, HCLU, KHRC, LRC and Liberty, who are part of the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations (INCLO), made a presentation at a public hearing on the right to protest organized by Brazil’s Federal Attorney General’s Office and Sao Paulo State’s prosecutors’ office. The purpose of the hearing was to exchange data, information, criticism and proposals related to exercising that right.

Two actions were launched by the HCLU regarding the right to peaceful assembly in December, 2013. Both actions concern to the same problem: lockdown of a public area around the Prime Minister's residence. In the first case, the police dispersed an ongoing peaceful demonstration on the grounds of closing off the area, for which the organizer filed a claim against the police with the help of HCLU. In the other case, another demonstration planned by the same organizer at the same venue was banned by the court, which was then challenged before the Constitutional Court. Both decisions are ill-unfounded and misinterpret the constitutional limitations of the right to protest.

Instead of struggling with corruption the government is battling accusations from whistleblowers. An ex-tax surveyor, András Horváth, alleges that the tax authorities have a more lenient stance towards accentuated preferential tax payers. Consequently, it has caused trillions of forints in state debt. The people who reported may expect retaliation coming their way.

In response to increasing restrictions on personal freedoms and civil protest, independent national human rights organisations from ten countries today launched the International Network of Civil Liberties Organisations (INCLO). They also released “Take Back the Streets: Repression and Criminalisation of Protest Around the World,” a collection of nine case studies showing patterns of police crackdown and abuse against peaceful assembly, accompanied by concrete recommendations to expand free speech.

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.”