Press releases

It is contrary to the Fundamental Law that pursuant to the Act on Legal Aid persons submitting a constitutional complaint may not receive legal aid – the Ombudsman has found on the basis of the petition of an individual. Máté Szabó has requested the Constitutional Court to examine whether the relevant provision is in compliance with the prohibition of discrimination and the obligation of the State to promote equality of opportunities, both laid down in the Fundamental Law, and whether they are not infringing the right to effective legal remedy.

The British Green House Think Tank has launched its latest report Guardians of the Future at a packed meeting at the London House of Commons on 10th January 2012. The report argues that we need a specialist jury of Guardians to protect the interests of future generations, who are disenfranchised within our existing political system. The Hungarian ombudsman for Future Generations, Mr. Sándor Fülöp sent a message of support to the meeting, this message can be downloaded here : Ombudsman Further infromation on the initiative: http://www.greenhousethinktank.org/page.php?pageid=whatsnew

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights is of the opinion that the Transitional Provisions of the Fundamental Law adopted by Parliament in December 2011 in a separate document gravely violate the principle of the rule of law, may cause problems of interpretation and endanger the unity and operation of the legal system. According to Máté Szabó it raises concern that the Transitional Provisions contain, in many instances, rules that are obviously not of a transitional character. The Ombudsman has requested the Constitutional Court to examine whether the Transitional Provisions comply with the requirements of the rule of law laid down in the Fundamental Law.

The Equal Opportunities Regulation of the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights

The fact that protesters conducting a sit-down strike in the Mayor's Office in the 8th district of Budapest were taken to the police station was contrary to the right to peaceful assembly and to the right to liberty of the person. Instead of facilitating the resolution of conflicts between the people demonstrating in front of the building of the Public Service Television and the institution, the police have not even made an attempt at the resolution of the conflict and have thereby infringed the right to assembly and freedom of expression.

Ernő Kállai, the Deputy Ombudsman responsible for the Protection of the Rights of Nationalities living in Hungary makes plans for the next year and a half and builds upon the experience of the past years. Extracts of the recently finalised plans:

The Hungarian police are not yet prepared for the info-communications challenges of the 21st century – this has been revealed in an international project which focuses on elaborating new methods for dealing with demonstrations by the police. The staff of the Ombudsman have been actively participating in the GODIAC project for two years already, and they are making use of newly acquired information for studying demonstrations in Hungary.

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has received the Constitutional Court's decision, in which it acceded to the motion of Máté Szabó and annulled with immediate effect a local government decree of Kaposvár which made dustbin scavenging a regulatory offence. The Commissioner expressed his hope that other organs affected by similar cases will not await a further negative ruling of the Constitutional Court.

Besides finishing his inquiries started last year, Sándor Fülöp has drawn up the tasks partly for his own secretariat, and partly for the Office of the Ombudsman, which is already a unified office in accordance with the relevant Act of Parliament

The normative instructions on the professional rules and methods of the inquiries of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights have been drawn up. The restructuring of the organisation of the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has started in accordance with the provisions of the new Act. Independently of this internal reorganisation, the Office's system of receiving complaints functions without interruption.

According to the views of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil Rights, the new regulation (the Act on the shaping and protection of built environment, 2010) enables the use of boarder police actions on public places against homeless people - thus criminalizing the homeless people – cannot match the Hungarian constitutional and the European human rights norms.

The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe's treaty (www.coe.int) guaranteeing basic social and economic rights which concern all individuals. The right to work and to a fair remuneration, the right to social security, the right to protection against poverty and social exclusion and the right to housing are regarded as particularly significant.