On 10 and 11 October, the Director of Human Rights and the Execution Department carried out a visit to Hungary on the implementation of the ECHR judgments concerning several important cases and groups.
As regards the case of Szabó and Vissy, which concerns the need to align with the ECHR the legislation on secret surveillance measures for national security purposes, consultations were held with representatives of the State Secretariat Supervising Civil Security Services. It was emphasised that, for the implementation of the European Court’s judgment, a comprehensive legislative reform is urgently needed in this field and the authorities undertook to provide shortly more detailed information on the ongoing legislative process. Regarding the groups of Ilias and Ahmed and R.R. and Others, concerning various violations of the Convention related to the entry of migrants and asylum seekers and access to asylum, meetings were held with representatives of the Ministry of Interior, the National Directorate-General For Aliens Policing and the National Police Headquarters, inquiring about possible future legislative changes in this field. As regards the Gubacsi group of cases on ill-treatment by law enforcement officers and lack of effective investigations into these events, a fruitful discussion was held with representatives of the Prosecution Service and the National Police Headquarters. The authorities provided information on investigative steps taken in respect of the applicants’ individual cases, as well as on targeted training of police officers.
Meetings were also held with the President of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, the President of the Kúria (the Hungarian Supreme Court) and the President of the National Judicial Office to discuss the adoption of measures in the Baka case, which concerns the premature termination of the mandate of the former Hungarian Supreme Court’s President through ad hominem legislative measures, to ensure an independent judicial review of the possible future removal of the President of the Kúria and to address the “chilling effect” of the case on other judges’ freedom of expression. The delegation had also exchanges regarding possible measures in the László Magyar group concerning violations of the Convention due to the excessively lengthy waiting period for prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment before they are eligible for release on parole or clemency, in the case of Rana which concerns the authorities’ refusal to change the transgender refugee applicant’s name and sex marker in his official documents, and in the X.Y. group concerning the domestic courts’ failure to give sufficient reasons for continued pre-trial detentions. As regards this latter group, as a measure to address the issues raised by the delegation, the Kúria decided to include a specific training session for judges on the reasoning of pre-trial detention decisions in its next training event on 3-4 November 2022.
