The Hungarian government has been promising to close down / merge institutions belonging under the governance of ministries and this plan has finally been realized. Why did it happen and why is it such a problem? What were the responsibilities of these institutions so far and what will happen to their previous tasks now? Let us explain.
Although parents, teachers and child protection professionals have jointly called on MPs during the past weeks not to vote for the restriction of the Child Protection Act, the Hungarian Parliament has passed an amendment of the law.
This past Saturday, September 17th, 2016, the Cairo Felony Court issued an order freezing the assets of Hossam Bahgat, the former director and founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), as well as Gamal Eid, the director and founder of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI); the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies and its founder and director Bahey eldin Hassan; the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and its director, lawyer Mustafa al-Hassan; and the Egyptian Center for the Right to Education and its director, Abd al-Hafiz Tayel.
The Hungarian Government wishes to fight against terrorism on two levels. There is an ongoing procedure that aims to amend the Fundamental Law with a new state of emergency. There is also a legislative package for peacetime. It would amend several Acts in order to enhance the effectiveness of the state in combatting against terrorism. Previous versions of this bill would have banned end-to-end encryption, and imposed criminal sanctions for their users and providers. While the current version is much more moderate, there are several provisions that would impose disproportionate restrictions on fundamental rights.
According to an action plan to fight terrorism being drafted by the Hungarian Ministry of Interior, a person using a service providing encrypted communication could be imprisoned for up to two years.
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.
Even though 2015 saw the rule of law further undermined in Hungary, HCLU managed to adapt to the changed conditions and achieved some genuine results. In recent years we not only fought against isolated human rights violations, but also against the systematic and high-level dismantling of human rights. Our Annual Report summarizes our professional challenges, successes and most important achievements in 2015.
You can download our annual report here.
The Strasbourg court's decision in a case from Hungary declares once and for all that uncontrolled government surveillance is incompatible with European human rights standards.
Leading human rights and consumer organizations have issued a letter to urge the US and the EU to protect the fundamental right to privacy.
Leading human rights and consumer organizations have issued a letter to urge the US and the EU to protect the fundamental right to privacy.
Hossam Bahgat, journalist and founder of human rights group Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, was released on Tuesday, November 10th after being detained arbitrarily for two days.
The Supreme Court of Hungary has issued a judgment that local governments are not allowed to make decisions forcing certain groups to leave a municipality or creating difficulties for their settlement there.