The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) welcomes the statement by the UN Special Rapporteur expressly and harshly criticizing the Hungarian government in a number of areas.

A new statement by the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, Michel Forst, criticizes the deterioration of the Hungarian constitutional system.

Dismantling justice

The statement points out how curtailing the authority of the Constitutional Court contributes to dismantling the system of checks and balances, and criticized regulations imposed on the judiciary, media and religious organizations. The government's political agenda to stigmatize its critics, especially human rights organizations, was also strongly denounced.

Among the measures intended to weaken the enforcement of rights, Forst mentioned the withdrawal of the legal ability of human rights watchdog organizations to turn directly to the Constitutional Court.

With respect to the ombudsman fulfilling a key role in rights enforcement, the rapporteur pointed out the lack of financing and warned that the ombudsman plays a critical role in protecting human rights defenders.

Media freedom

The statement also discusses the restriction of the freedom of expression by using the threat of sanctions against slander. HCLU's campaign PolitiKuss! was aimed precisely at amending this rule.

In Forst's view, the state excessively regulates the media, with journalists being listed and the authors of openly critical articles risking to lose their job.

The rapporteur expressed grave concerns with respect to the 2015 amendment of the Freedom of Information Act, maintaining that this led to a radically reduced accessibility of public interest data.

Stop the intimidation

Forst specifically mentioned the recently submitted Mail Act, about which HCLU and three other NGOs wrote an open letter to MPs, asking them to vote against the bill.

The statement also includes concerns regarding the right to assembly. The special rapporteur criticized the practice of the police of not providing sufficient protection to demonstrations of minority groups against extremist manifestations, highlighting that a police order had to be reversed in order to allow protests in front of the prime minister's home.

Forst raised his voice against the stigmatization of private individuals and organizations fulfilling a watchdog function. He called on the government to stop defamatory campaigns against civil rights defenders and whistleblowers.

The UN representative sent a very clear message to the Hungarian government: Stop stigmatizing independent civil organizations and intimidating critics of the government!