Reports

“I Can’t Do My Job as a Journalist”

The Systematic Undermining of Media Freedom in Hungary

The 29-page report, “‘I Can’t Do My Job as a Journalist’: The Systematic Undermining of Media Freedom in Hungary”, documents the increased obstacles and constraints independent journalists and media face under the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

A man holds a banner showing the eyes of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a protest
Nadia, a Sudanese refugee who has fled the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, hugs her friend Khadidja, beside makeshift shelters near the border between Sudan and Chad in Koufroun, Chad on May 11, 2023. 

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  • December 1, 2022

    Trapped in a Web

    The Exploitation of Personal Data in Hungary’s 2022 Elections

    The 85-page report, “Trapped in a Web: The Exploitation of Personal Data in Hungary’s 2022 Elections,” examines data-driven campaigning in Hungary’s April 3, 2022, elections, which resulted in a fourth consecutive term for Fidesz and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Human Rights Watch found that the government repurposed data it collected from people applying for services to spread Fidesz’s campaign messages. The blurred lines between government and ruling party resources, including data, and the capture of key institutions by the government led to selective enforcement of laws that further benefited Fidesz.

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  • November 6, 2013

    Unless Blood Flows

    Lack of Protection from Domestic Violence in Hungary

    The 58-page report documents chronic brutal violence against women by their intimate partners and the challenges women face in seeking state protection and services. It documents the gaps in Hungary’s legal and policy framework, despite a recent legal reform, in responding to domestic violence and the failure of the authorities to adequately protect women who experience such violence.

  • May 16, 2013

    Wrong Direction on Rights

    Assessing the Impact of Hungary’s New Constitution and Laws

    This 29-page report analyzes the new constitution and laws and their negative effects on human rights and the rule of law. It shows how the government has largely ignored criticism from the EU and the Council of Europe and, through further constitutional changes, sought to reverse binding rulings by Hungary’s Constitutional Court upholding fundamental rights.
  • December 16, 2010

    Buffeted in the Borderland

    The Treatment of Asylum Seekers and Migrants in Ukraine

    This 124-page report is based on interviews with 161 refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers in Ukraine, Slovakia, and Hungary. It shows that although some conditions in migration detention facilities have improved, Ukraine subjects many migrants to inhuman and degrading treatment and has been unable or unwilling to provide effective protection for refugees and asylum seekers.

  • November 29, 2005

    Ukraine: On the Margins

    Rights Violations against Migrants and Asylum Seekers at the New Eastern Border of the European Union

    This 77-page report documents the routine detention of migrants and asylum in appalling conditions, including severe overcrowding, frequently inadequate bedding and clothing, and little or no access to fresh air, exercise and medical treatment. The report also documents the physical abuse, verbal harassment, robbery and extortion suffered by those in detention.
  • July 1, 1996

    Rights Denied: The Roma of Hungary

    The major social and structural upheavals in Hungarian society since the collapse of communism, coupled with increasingly open discrimination, have had a disproportionately large and negative impact on Roma, whose low social status, lack of access to education, and isolation make them relatively unable to defend themselves and their interests.
  • November 1, 1993

    Threats to Press Freedom

    A Report Prepared for the Free Media Seminar Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

    The Free Media Seminar of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe is taking place at a critical time. First, because developments throughout the region suggest that protection for media freedoms fall well short of international standards.
  • July 1, 1993

    The Gypsies of Hungary

    (From our " Struggling for Ethnic Identity" series) Since the demise of the Communist regime in Hungary, the country’s Gypsy or Roma population has benefited from the suspension of decades of assimilationist, and at times overtly racist, government policy and from an increased tolerance for the expression of Roma identity.