The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has rejected the referral request of the Hungarian government, making the Court's original ruling against the government final.

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union has approached the authors of the UN report on the freedom of association and the situation of legal defense agencies regarding the Hungarian government's control of civil society, which breaches both national and international law. In its letter, HCLU asks the addressees to use all available means in order to stop the violation of Hungarian civil organizations' rights.

The Minority Rights Group (MRG), an international rights organization published today its Annual Report focusing on hate crimes and hate speech against minorities in European countries. State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2014 presents compelling examples and case studies from Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. The author of the Hungarian case study is Eszter Jovánovics, Head of the HCLU’s Roma Program.

During Thursday's demonstration of solidarity, more than 60 organizations from 20 countries expressed their support for Hungarian civil society organizations against the actions of the government.

Since its re-election, the Hungarian government launched a campaign attacking the credibility of Hungarian NGOs and trying to gain controlling power over their funding distributed independently from the government. On June 12th, the Hungarian Government meets the representatives of Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein to discuss the European Economic Area / Norway Grants. While talks between the Norwegian and Hungarian officials is under way, a number of NGOs from around the world, from Kenya through Egypt to Slovakia are showing solidarity with Hungarian NGOs by publishing a joint statement at 9am in support of the Hungarian civil sector’s independence and calling upon politicians to refrain from pressuring NGOs.

"No country for civil society - What strategies can human rights organizations follow under increasingly authoritarian regimes?" is the title of the international conference organized by INCLO on 30 May that, thanks to HCLU, you can follow live online.

Hungarian Europe Society, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, Eötvös Károly Public Policy Institute, Standard (Mérték) Media Monitor put forward a joint position paper to the High Level Group on Media Freedom and Pluralism created by the European Commission on the Hungarian Media Law and its Application.