[open-government] Watchdogs call for OGP investigation into crackdown on Hungarian civil society

[Julia Keserű]

FYI everyone:
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/07/09/watchdogs-call-for-ogp-investigation-into-crackdown-on-hungarian-civil-society-2/

Watchdogs call for OGP investigation into crackdown on Hungarian civil
society
<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/07/09/watchdogs-call-for-ogp-investigation-into-crackdown-on-hungarian-civil-society-2/>

Last fall, the Open Government Partnership
<http://www.opengovpartnership.org/> (OGP) adopted a new policy to help
re-establish an environment for government and civil society collaboration,
safeguarding the Open Government Declaration
<http://www.opengovpartnership.org/about/open-government-declaration> and
to mitigate reputational risks to OGP. Today, members of Hungarian civil
society, including representatives of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union,
Transparency International Hungary and K-Monitor — as well as Sunlight’s
international policy manager, a former employee of K-Monitor — called on
the OGP Steering Committee to take action under the new policy and launch a
thorough investigation into the situation in Hungary, with a special
attention to the deterioration of the space for civil society.

In the past few years, the rule of law, democracy, pluralism, human rights
and the role of independent institutions as checks and balances on
political power have been systematically undermined in Hungary.
Particularly troublesome from the perspective of the OGP are the
government’s actions to reduce the space for nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) to work independently, voice critiques and receive funding from
international sources. Since the summer of 2013, Hungarian government
officials have been engaging in a smear campaign against some of the
country’s independent NGOs; many of these allegations have been directed at
the very transparency and human rights groups which have been most actively
engaged in the OGP process in the country.1
<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/07/09/watchdogs-call-for-ogp-investigation-into-crackdown-on-hungarian-civil-society-2/#footer>

Over time, the allegations have been followed by more direct action on the
part of the government. A criminal investigation has been initiated based
on a governmental audit into Norwegian Fund beneficiary NGOs
<http://eeagrants.org/Where-we-work/Hungary>, including HCLU, K-Monitor,
Transparency International Hungary and many more. A police raid in
September 2014 against two of the NGOs running the NGO Fund involved dozens
of riot police, seemingly intended to create a spectacle and to intimidate.
In a move that puts their very existence at risk, the tax identification of
the four organizations which run the NGO Fund were also suspended in 2014.
This is a clear sign that the Hungarian government is ready to
administratively hinder the operation of civil society groups with a
critical approach to its performance.

Hungarian NGOs which participated in the development of the country’s OGP
Action Plan were very critical of the process, claiming that no real
consultation or meaningful discussion took place between the government and
civil society. Among other things, a coalition of civil society
organizations has called on the government to review the laws which
restrict access to information and transparency, but the Hungarian
government has so far never responded to these requests.

Instead, the government’s newly adopted anti-corruption action plan
envisions the obligation of NGO leaders to declare their private assets.
Moreover, the government, in its latest attempt to restrict freedom of
information, adopted a bill that obliges the refund of costs triggered by
the servicing of public interest information requests. Setting new barriers
to accessing public data restricts the degree to which this fundamental
right can be enjoyed and further hinders civil society in fulfilling its
watchdog role.

In addition to complaints from Hungarian civil society, hundreds of leading
national and international civil society organizations from around the
world have expressed publicly their concerns about the targeting of NGOs
and have called
<http://www.politics.hu/20140612/international-solidarity-action-stop-targeting-hungarian-ngos/>
on
the Hungarian government to stop. A high-profile example of this was when
U.S. President Barack Obama highlighted
<http://www.budapost.eu/2014/09/obama-accuses-hungary-of-clamping-down-on-civil-society/>
Hungary
as a country where “endless regulations and overt intimidation increasingly
target civil society.”

The attacks on civil society and the failure of the government to consult
properly in relation to OGP processes have now reached a breaking point, to
an extent that the ability of the country to engage in a meaningful way in
the OGP process became questionable. In light of this, Hungarian civil
society members asked the OGP Steering Committee to take action under the
OGP response policy to help re-establish the necessary space for civil
society actors to play their democratic role, including by contributing to
the development and monitoring the implementation of Hungary’s OGP Action
Plans.

The letter outlines a series of recommendations, which includes steps to
restore an environment in which civil society’s criticism is taken into
account by government, and a meaningful dialogue between state organs and
non-governmental groups is possible, as well as stopping the harassment of
watchdog NGOs.

*1 The trend on the part of the Hungarian government to increasingly view
members of civil society which are critical of it as its enemies has been
documented in both the IRM report on Hungary
<http://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Hungary%20IRM%20Report%20Pub%20Comm%20version_Hun.pdf>
andassessments
<http://www.osce.org/odihr/124145?download=true> conducted by independent
domestic watchdog organizations. (Return to top
<http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/07/09/watchdogs-call-for-ogp-investigation-into-crackdown-on-hungarian-civil-society-2/#header>)*


-- 
Júlia Keserű
International Policy Manager

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

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