Failure to assess risks of ill-treatment of asylum-seekers

/

Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary (Application no. 47287/15)

Briefed on: September 15 2023, and September 16, 2022

The case of Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary concerns the authorities’ failure to comply with their procedural obligation under Article 3 to assess the risks of ill-treatment before removing the two asylum-seeking applicants to Serbia in 2015. The Court found in particular that “there was an insufficient basis for the government’s decision to establish a general presumption concerning Serbia as a safe third country”, that “the expulsion decisions disregarded the authoritative findings of the UNHCR as to a real risk of denial of access to an effective asylum procedure in Serbia and summary removal from Serbia to North Macedonia and then to Greece, and that the authorities exacerbated the risks facing the applicants by inducing them to enter Serbia illegally instead of negotiating an orderly return”.

Hungarian Helsinki Committee has been actively involved in the process of the examination of the case. The organization has highlighted that the practice of push-backs and that domestic legislation has not been amended to bring Hungary in harmony with its obligations stemming from international law and the law of the European Union.Returns to Serbia continued in a summary manner with no examination as to whether that would amount to refoulement, and the procedural leg of Article 3 of the Convention thus remained to be systemically breached.

Documents from the 2023 briefing:

Documents from the September 2022 briefing:

  • Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

Read More

Judicial independence at risk

/
Judicial independence at risk

Baka v Hungary (Application No 20261/12)

Documents from the November 2023 briefing:

Documents from the February 2023 briefing:

The presentation was given by Erika Farkas, Legal officer at the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

Documents from the September 2021 briefing:

Documents from the September 2020 briefing:

You can find the video of their briefing here.

This case concerns the undue and premature termination of the applicants’ mandates as President of the former Hungarian Supreme Court through ad hominem legislative measures adopted in the context of a major reform of the judiciary. The legislative act was of constitutional rank and thus not subject to review by the Constitutional Court. The Strasbourg Court found violations of the applicant’s right of access to court and freedom of expression.

The presentation was given by András Kádár, Co-Chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, and Dávid Vig, Director of Amnesty International Hungary.

Read More

Life emprisonment without parole

/

Laszlo Magyar Group v Hungary (Application No 73593/10)

Briefed on 28 May 2018

This group concerns the execution of the judgment reached by the ECtHR in the case of Laszlo Magyar v Hungary, establishing that life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (whole/actual life sentence) imposed upon the applicant violated Article 3 of the Convention; and the judgment in the T.P. and A.T. v Hungary case, establishing that, irrespective of the new “mandatory pardon procedure” introduced for whole lifers, Hungarian rules on life imprisonment without parole still violate Article 3. In the case of Laszlo Magyar, the Court also found violation of the right to a fair trial (Article 6) because of the excessive length of the criminal proceedings against the applicant, which lasted from 2002 to 2010.

Read More