Office of the commissioner for fundamental rights of hungary

According to the commissioner for fundamental rights, the current national implementation process of international legal obligations concerning child friendly justice is contrary to the requirement of legal certainty and fair trial, it is against the interests of the child and raises concern over the adequate protection of the rights to special protection and care.

On the basis of the incoming complaints to the ombudsman, the signals of the representatives of the jurist profession and the recent press releases, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights is planning a comprehensive inquiry into the Hungarian judicial enforcement system in the first semester of the year 2013.

Although in recent years Máté Szabó has witnessed significant progress in the enforcement of the right of assembly, he is still waiting for the implementation of some of his legislative proposals which would strengthen the guarantees for this fundamental freedom.

The rules of the state action against the crime of usury are not applied, which is linked principally to the victims' vulnerable situation. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights proposes integrated government measures for facilitating the efficiency of law enforcement.

In his letter addressed to the state secretary of the Ministry of Human Resources the commissioner for fundamental rights stated that he finds unacceptable the draft which aims to drastically cut the number of treatments requiring expensive drugs. In the view of Máté Szabó, the Ministry's concept raises serious constitutional concerns over the requirement of equal treatment and the right to life and human dignity of patients in a vulnerable situation.

Contesting the State Motorway Management Company's (SMMC) HUF 15,000 claim may lead to response from SMMC with a HUF 60,000 surcharge note. Since contesting the claim does not delay the payment's due date, the 30 days' term of payment will have expired by the time the SMMC's response arrives. It infringes the motorists' right to legal remedy – states the Ombudsman's report.

According to the commissioner for fundamental rights the amended law on arbitration constitutes a violation of international treaties signed by Hungary and it is an infringement of the requirement of legal certainty. The ombudsman therefore asked the Constitutional Court to review the provisions of said law.

While investigating an event that took place, simultaneously with a hunger strike, back in September, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights stumbled upon a problem which is not covered by the Act on the Freedom of Assembly and which may even lead to conflicts.

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights deems exemplary the way the police handled the sometimes hardly followable student demonstrations, helping the students to exercise their right of peaceful assembly. The Ombudsman's co-workers, present at the venues, did not experience any irregularities in police actions, the police followed and secured the demonstrations in a proportionate way, being observant of the right of assembly.

The rights of the disabled students are not enforced in a uniform practice by the higher education institutions, moreover, in certain cases, by the faculties within the institutions. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has concluded from this that the legislation is inadequate or ambiguous. Máté Szabó asked the Minister of Human Resources to establish a clear legal context.

It infringes upon the principle of legal security if the child welfare service acting on a reported child abuse requests the action of another authority having similar legal competence in the matter simultaneously with its own proceedings. Investigating a complaint, Ombudsman Máté Szabó established that it runs contrary to the requirements of a fair procedure when the authorities impose restrictions, with no legal authorization, on the decisions of a parent exercising his/her supervision right.

A nine-month inquiry of the commissioner for fundamental rights has revealed improprieties constituting an infringement of the requirement of legal certainty and violating basic rights of persons in community employment. In his report Máté Szabó has urged the competent ministries to the early implementation of several measures to eliminate problems and improprieties concerning the regulation on community employment and its application.