Hungary’s parliament has passed an amendment to the constitution that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ+ communities, a decision that legal scholars and critics are calling another step toward authoritarianism.
The amendment, which required a two-thirds vote, passed along party lines with 140 votes for and 21 against.
It was proposed by the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The amendment declares that children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede any right other than the right to life, including the right to peacefully assemble.
The amendment codifies a law fast-tracked through parliament in March that bans public events held by LGBTQ+ communities, including the popular Pride event in Budapest that draws thousands of visitors annually.
That law also allows authorities to use facial recognition tools to identify people who attend prohibited events and can come with fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints (€481).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_Fundamental_Rights_of_the_European_Union
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
https://fra.europa.eu/en/eu-charter/article/11-freedom-expression-and-information
- Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
I know that this isn’t identical to the First Amendment in the US. It doesn’t explicitly prohibit laws against assembling, for one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
And legal interpretations from cases won’t be the same. But there’s gotta be at least some argument that this runs afoul of the EU treaties and should be challenged under those.
The European Convention on Human Rights does explicitly prohibit restrictions on assembly, but it also explicitly has an exception if it’s to protect morals, which I assume is the grounds under which Hungary is acting in banning LGBTQ+ groups assembling:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_11_of_the_European_Convention_on_Human_Rights
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Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
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No restrictions shall be placed on the exercise of these rights other than such as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. This article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on the exercise of these rights by members of the armed forces, of the police or of the administration of the State.
Thanks for the extensive comment, but unfortunately the EU can’t take Hungary to court. They also ignored the ICC order to arrest Netanyahu. I know I sound very cynical by quoting this, but it seems a very true to me (and Orban) right now.
Laws without enforced consequences are merely suggestions.
unfortunately the EU can’t take Hungary to court.
Hmm. No? Isn’t that what the European Court of Human Rights is for, as to ECHR violations?
There are rulings against countries here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_Court_of_Human_Rights_judgments
For violations of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, I’d think that the European Court of Justice would have jurisdiction, and I see rulings here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_Court_of_Justice_rulings
Like Commission v. Italy.
They also ignored the ICC order to arrest Netanyahu.
I’m not sure as to whether this affects things. I don’t think that this is a matter of law that the ICC deals with.
ICC members have ignored ICC arrest warrants before, so there’s some precedent; I remember that coming up with Putin.
And as far as I know, the ICC isn’t the court that would deal with EU treaty violations, yes? It’s not an EU institution or Council of Europe institution.
EDIT: And I see a list of LGBT cases here:
That includes cases under the European Court of Human Rights and under the Court of Justice of the European Union (which the European Court of Justice is part of).
I don’t know much about legal systems so your comments and sources are nice, but I haven’t really seen the EU having much influence on Orban so far while I feel they have had problems with a lot of stuff he did.
Kick them out of the union.
I am not surprised that Orban would push such a thing. But I am surprised that they would go as far as to amend the constitution for this, with seemingly a very comfortable majority. Is this really a reflection of Hungarian society nowadays? Have so many jumped on the conservative moral panic bandwagon over LGBTQ?
Hungary’s parliament is currently above the constitution because the ruling party has a 2/3 majority. They might as well pass all laws as constitutional laws. The situation is quite similar to the UK where any party with a prime minister can change anything at all.
What’s wrong with LGBTQ? I can’t understand his motivations. I’m not LGBTQ myself but banning public events by them makes no sense to me. Does he think he’ll get more votes this way?
Just like there was nothing wrong with Jews, they need a public enemy and they can’t pick people from the majority so they’ve picked non-whites non-straights and non-females. Also lines up with the Christian believe system, which have been using LGBTQ people as scapegoat since they stopped burning witches.
I truly hope these Fidesz fucks will get kicked out next year…
Is this constitutional?
Oh wait, it’s a constitution change, so it probably is constitutional.But what about EU primary law and the EHRC? Wouldn’t be the first time constitutional law is deemed incompatible with EU or international law.
This probably violates a bunch EU human rights, but what is the EU gonna do? They really need to find tools because freezing the cashflow is obviously not stopping him.
In some countries constitutional ammendments need to be compatoble with whatever constitutional law already exists
a decision that legal scholars and critics are calling another step toward authoritarianism.
I feel like scholars need to get out of the books and into the real world. The same is being said about the US and it’s so obvious where both are going that I really wonder why scholars and press aren’t just calling it what it is
Be glad that there are so few of us that we can’t afford violence. You will pay, though likely on far too small a scale.
Orbi we know that you are gay for Putin, but you really don’t have to project your self hatred onto others…
