[open-government] Meanwhile in Hungary

[Julia Keserű]

FYI everyone.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/09/08/dispatches-hungary-s-police-raids-squeeze-civil-society

Dispatches: Hungary’s Police Raids Squeeze Civil Society
<http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/09/08/dispatches-hungary-s-police-raids-squeeze-civil-society>
SEPTEMBER 8, 2014
<http://www.hrw.org/bios/lydia-gall>
Lydia Gall <http://www.hrw.org/bios/lydia-gall>

   -
   <http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media/images/photographs/2014_Hungary_protest.jpg>
   Crowd protesting police raid on Hungarian NGOs, Budapest, September 8,
   2014.
   © 2014 HRW/Lydia Gall

Hungary’s government has taken yet another step to intimidate civil society.

On Monday morning a dozen police officers raided the offices of two
nongovernmental organizations in Budapest. The two groups, Ökotárs and
Demnet, are part of a four NGO-consortium that administers foreign donor
money for civil society organizations in Hungary.

According to a social media post
<https://www.facebook.com/barbara.eros.98/posts/10152682210706624?fref=nf> by
the head of Demnet, its employees were prevented by police from using their
phones while police were on the premises, and had laptops and servers
confiscated by police. Police sources quoted in media said the reason for
the raid was “misappropriation and unauthorized financial activity”
committed by “an unknown perpetrator.”

Protesters gathered later outside Ökotárs office in Budapest in response.

This is only the latest in the Hungarian government’s assault on civil
society. In May it ordered surprise financial inspections
<http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/05/dispatches-harassing-civil-society-hungary>
of
the NGOs raided today, together with a third member of the consortium. At
the time, Hungary accused Norway of interfering in its internal politics by
funding Hungarian NGOs. Linked to the May raid, Ökotárs was first accused
of “being strongly linked” to an opposition political party. The NGO and
the grant recipient organizations, among them prominent human rights and
anti-corruption organizations, were subsequently investigated by Hungary’s
government for alleged “organized fraud.”

This is only further evidence of Hungary’s authoritarian slide
<http://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/05/16/wrong-direction-rights>, which has
become particularly steep since the government won a new term in April. In
July, Prime Minister Viktor Orban went so far as to declare that he wanted
to put an end
<http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/29/dispatches-end-liberal-democracy-hungary>
to
liberal democracy in Hungary.

These moves have raised alarm bells on the other side of the Atlantic with
editorials in the New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/opinion/a-test-for-the-european-union.html?_r=0>
 andWashington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hungarys-illiberalism-should-not-go-unchallenged/2014/08/16/b2dc72d4-1e5c-11e4-82f9-2cd6fa8da5c4_story.html>.
But Europe remains complacent. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human
Rights sent a letter
<https://wcd.coe.int/com.instranet.InstraServlet?command=com.instranet.CmdBlobGet&InstranetImage=2564455&SecMode=1&DocId=2164762&Usage=2>
on
July 9 to the Hungarian government, condemning the government’s
stigmatizing rhetoric and its questioning the legitimacy of NGO work. The
government responded
<http://www.statewatch.org/news/2014/jul/hungary-coe-ngo-letter-gov-reply.pdf>
that
it has a “moral obligation to order every measure” for the investigation of
the case. The EU has said nothing about the pressure on NGOs, and declined
to comment on Orban’s July speech.

Will the Hungarian government’s latest anti-human rights action finally
prompt the EU to respond?  We hope so. If the Union is not prepared to
defend its rights values at home, how can it credibly do so abroad?

-- 
Júlia Keserű
International Policy Manager

1818 N Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036
(1) 202-742-1520 *246

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