Press releases

Within the frames of a general project called the "Losers of the Crisis" the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights organised a workshop on 29 November 2012. The conference focused on three social issues; the changes in the system of pensions and disability allowances, the wage of employees in medical fields and the costs of enforcement proceedings.

Budapest, 10 December 2012, Monday (MTI) – Protecting lives is one of the main missions of the state – Parliamentary State Secretary for Foreign Affairs said at the ceremony organized by the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday on the occasion of the unveiling of the memorial plaque dedicated to Janusz Korczak, killed in the Treblinka extermination camp seventy years ago.

Máté Szabó ombudsman holds the Constitutional Court's decision of 12 November exemplary in terms of the enforcement of the rights of the affected vulnerable people and the protection of fundamental rights in Hungary in general. The Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional and annulled the provision of the Minor Offences Act on the basis of the petition of the Commission for fundamental rights, which qualified the permanent living in the public place as a minor offence. The Court annulled those legal provisions as well which authorized the local governments to pass a decree for the definition of finable anti-social behavior.

The provisions on the integrated settlement procedure of the recently amended Construction Act are contrary to the Fundamental law and the international conventions. Consequently, based on the proposal of the deputy ombudsman responsible for the interests of future generations, Marcel Szabó, Máté Szabó, the Commissioner for fundamental rights initiated their annulment at the Constitutional Court.

The Hungarian government did not violate international norms, it acted within its powers when approved the repatriation of the Azerbaijani prisoner. However, the requirement of legal certainty may have been violated in several aspects and it has raised doubts about the adequate interpretation of the rule on the fulfillment of international obligations in good faith – found Máté Szabó, as a conclusion of his ex-officio conducted inquiry.

According to the commissioner for fundamental rights, the amendment of the National Archives Act adopted on 1st July 2012 violates the right to property and the freedom of scientific research since, as a result of it, all documents of political parties owned by the Institution of Political History and documents of trade unions preserved by the institution have been declared state property. Ombudsman Máté Szabó asked the Constitutional Court to examine the constitutionality of the regulation and to eliminate it because it provides general expropriation without compensation and makes the research of documents more difficult.

Asylum seekers who are minors are now placed in the children's centre of Fót instead of a refugee camp. This is one of the results of the previous proposals of Ombudsman Máté Szabó. The new inquiry of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, however, uncovered further problems.

87 percent of the respondents know the Ombudsman institution by hearsay, 85 percent of them know about the position of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Fundamental Rights. While four years ago only 32 out of 100 respondents mentioned the ombudsman as an institution to which citizens may apply, this November their number has raised to 54. Four years ago, it was ranked second and third, this year the Office of the Commissioner has been ranked first in public trust.

In Hungary one of the tasks of the commissioner for fundamental rights that requires priority under the law is the protection of children's rights. As part of a project which has been running since his entering upon duties, Ombudsman Máté Szabó will explore the issue of children's right to a healthy environment in 2013.

Máté Szabó Commissioner for Fundamental Rights concluded that the children's fundamental right to protection and care is violated if the experts caring about them fail to signal or delay their signaling that there is a suspicion of sexual abuse of the children entrusted to their care. The same fundamental right is directly endangered if the legal representation of the children interrogated as a witness is fulfilled by a person having an employment dependency relationship with the head of the institution suspected of committing the crime.

According to the commissioner for fundamental rights the authorization to the police for the application of coercive measures against children under the age of 14 is an unnecessary and disproportionate restriction of rights, which can be even worse considering the basic deficiencies of the regulation and the risk of uncertain and arbitrary application. The ombudsman therefore asked the Constitutional Court for the urgent revision and the suspension of the entry into force of said provision

Assisting the social reintegration of prisoners who have served their sentence requires an active attitude and expenditures both from the state and the society. Considering this, the state can not rely solely on the voluntary activity of civil organizations. As part of his project on the investigation of the penitentiary system, ombudsman Máté Szabó drew the attention of the competent authorities on the importance of parole, after-care and employment of ex-prisoners.