Hungary’s National Police force has been accused of discrimination in targeting Roma citizens for trivial fines. NGOs have sent a letter to the police commissioner, who denies the allegations, asking for a working group to study the problem.

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.

Hungary ratified the UN Convention on the rights of the child in 1993. For the third time - after 1998 and then 2006 - the Committee reviews Hungary's compliance with the Convention. A coalition of NGOs - including the HCLU - has reported to the Committee.

The documentary produced by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, a human rights watchdog NGO in Budapest, introduces to the viewer the most common rights violations that Roma people suffer in Hungary.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – On the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s speech the 444.hu news portal investigated what it is like for African-Americans to live in the United States today. We decided to show, using statistical data and the findings of international and domestic research projects and studies, what Romani people’s lives are like in present day Hungary.

Hungarian and international NGOs have responded to police statements about a possible racist attack in front of a primary school in Konyár. The Hungarian Police force has stated that there were no human rights violations on 5 September when a busload of football fans stopped in front of the school. The police based their conclusion on an unclear, mute recording, which they recently released. However, according to human rights organisations, the legality of the police reaction is disputable, and the recording is not sufficient to explain what happened in Konyár.

The HCLU is one of the six human rights NGOs calling on Hungarian authorities to fully investigate an incident at a school in Konyár on 5 September, and the police response. A busload of football fans stopped outside the school, which has a large majority of Roma pupils, and which had to dismiss a teacher for racist comments earlier this year. What happened next is unclear, as police reports differ greatly from eyewitness reports.

Amnesty International, the European Roma Rights Centre, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Legal Defence Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities, and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union welcomed the Budapest District Court decision according to which the series of attacks against Hungarian Roma in 2008-2009 were racially motivated.

The Chamber of Judge Miszori has a difficult task. On August 6, it will announce its first instance judgment in a criminal procedure against the four suspects who were accused of carrying out a series of racist murders in 2008 and 2009 against Hungarian Roma.

HCLU received a special prize from Erste Foundation the same week at the end of June when it won awards from Kreatív Magazin Webvideó.

On June 13, 2013 the trial of the actio popularis against the Heves County Police begins at the County Court of Eger. The lawsuit was initiated by the HCLU against the Police for discriminating against the Roma in Gyöngyöspata based on their ethnicity and skin color during and following the extremist “patrols” of 2011. At stake: will the court hold the state responsible for the discriminative treatment of the Roma?

The decision by the County Court (Törvényszék) of Miskolc to sentence nine Roma persons for racism „against Hungarians” for attacking the car of far-right activists in a small Hungarian town, Sajóbábony shows serious misunderstandings in how courts apply the law and demonstrates the wide-spread negative discrimination present in criminal sentencing.