In a press release published on Tuesday 17 February, Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, calls on the Hungarian authorities to drop the charges brought against the organisers of the Pride Marches held in 2025, to stop using criminal and administrative measures to obstruct peaceful gatherings and, ultimately, to amend or repeal the laws underpinning these restrictions.
Adopted in March and April 2025, they effectively ban peaceful demonstrations in favour of equality for LGBTI people.
The Commissioner refers to the case of the teacher and activist Géza Buzás-Hábel, who organised the march in Pécs in October, and that of the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, who led the march in the Hungarian capital in March.
Their charges “must be seen within a wider context of successive measures that target human rights defenders through legal restrictions and stigmatisation”, says the Commissioner, who urges to “reverse the clampdown on human rights defenders and civic space” in Hungary.
Link to press release: https://aeur.eu/f/krj (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)