Office of the commissioner for fundamental rights of hungary

On September 28, 2017, Commissioner for Fundamental Rights Dr. László Székely and some experts from our Office (OPCAT experts Head of Department Dr. Gergely Fliegauf and Deputy Head of Department Dr. Katalin Haraszti) paid a visit to the Sopronkőhida Prison together with three experts from the Austrian Ombudsman Board (Volksanwaltschaft), in order to exchange their experience focusing on the OPCAT NPM.

On October 5, 2017, within the frameworks of his two-day visit to Hungary, Michael O’Flaherty, Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), paid a visit to the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary. Members of the delegation headed by Director O’Flaherty included Adviser on Fundamental Rights Issues John Kellock and Legal Research Officer Tamás Molnár.

The Judiciary Committee supported, with ten yes votes and two abstentions, that the National Assembly put the report on the activities of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights in 2016 on the agenda of its plenary meeting.

The Ombudsman for Future Generations has already expressed his concerns, in agreement with the professional water management organizations, concerning the Government’s having submitted a bill, without any preliminary social or professional coordination, which would allow the establishment of household wells of a maximum depth of even 80 meters without the obligation to obtain any prior permits or make any such announcements. This directly jeopardizes the sustainable management of underground waters and the safety of water supply, and may also prevent efficient state protection.

The Hungarian Department of the International Federation of European Law, i.e. FIDE held its general meeting at the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, i.e. at its new headquarters. FIDE was established in 1964 and today it promotes that the national member associations in the European Union jointly research into and study the development of the institutions and law of the European Union. The Hungarian Department of FIDE was established after our country’s accession to the EU. The current president is Deputy-Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, Ombudsman for Future Generations Gyula Bándi. In this position, he followed the President of the Curia Péter Darák. Thus, the headquarters of the Federation were also moved from the Curia to the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights.

Under the patronage of Gyula Bándi, Ombudsman for Future Generations, the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has finished third in two categories in the domestic competition of the international project “Save@Work”, aimed at reducing energy consumption. In nine countries, 180 public buildings and some 17 thousand employees joined the project.