"Human rights violations in Hungary have a negative effect on the whole protection system and the rule of law", said the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, in a report made public on Tuesday 21 May.
This text - 37 pages and 167 recommendations - reports on a mission carried out last February (see EUROPE 12192/33). It focusses on the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees, human rights defenders and civil society, as well as the independence of the judiciary and gender equality.
The Commissioner calls on the Hungarian authorities to refrain from using "anti-migrant rhetoric and campaigns which fan xenophobic attitudes", especially since the "crisis situation" decreed by the government is not justified by the number of asylum seekers currently entering Hungary and the European Union.
Noting that asylum seekers - including children - are currently confined in transit zones and often deprived of food, Dunja Mijatović urgently calls for an examination of asylum applications that excludes all violence and complies with international law.
She is also alarmed by the stigmatisation, even criminalisation, of NGOs and human rights defenders through legal provisions aimed only at paralysing their activities and funding.
Other reasons for concern include controversial judicial reforms whose independence has been compromised since 2010 (see EUROPE 12215/25), as well as "the backsliding in gender equality". In this context, the Commissioner urges the authorities to ratify the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women.
In its response, Hungary acknowledges that the report contains some relevant remarks, but reaffirms that it fulfils all its international obligations regarding respect for the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees.
See the report: http://bit.ly/2YHX4uv. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)