Hungary's incoming government should take immediate steps to restore fundamental rights, dismantle abusive laws and institutions, and strengthen democratic institutions, after years of backsliding, Human Rights Watch said today.
The incoming government should in its first weeks in office demonstrate a clear commitment to restore for fundamental rights and reinstate democratic safeguards, including by upholding Hungary's EU and international obligations. Early action to restore judicial independence, end rule by decree, and repeal laws used to target critics would indicate a clear break with the antidemocratic policies of the past 16 years.
"The new government has a major opportunity to begin addressing Hungary's rights crisis by restoring the rule of law and reinvigorating democratic institutions," said Lydia Gall, senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Early action to end rule by decree would send an immediate signal that Hungary is turning the page on years of erosion of rights."
Over the past 16 years, Hungary's previous Fidesz-KDNP (Christian Democratic People's Party)-led government under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán steadily fueled a human rights crisis. Constitutional and legislative changes have increasingly concentrated power in the executive branch, weakened judicial independence, and undermined independent oversight bodies.
The previous government pressured independent media and civil society, restricted peaceful assembly, stigmatized lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people through discriminatory legislation, and adopted policies undermining the rights of migrants, asylum seekers, and women and girls.
Hungary's new government should immediately suspend the Sovereignty Protection Office and repeal the law establishing it. The office, established in 2023, has broad powers to investigate journalists, civil society organizations, and academics receiving foreign funding and portray them as threats to Hungary's sovereignty. The office has repeatedly harassed civil society organizations and media outlets critical of the government, including the anti-corruption group Transparency International Hungary and independent news outlet Atlatszo.
The new government should permanently remove the proposed Transparency of Public Life bill from the legislative agenda. The proposed law would allow the Sovereignty Protection Office to investigate and sanction civil society groups and media organizations receiving foreign funding and subject them to intrusive financial oversight.
The new government should also end the prolonged use of emergency powers that have enabled the authorities to rule by decree for extended periods with minimal parliamentary oversight. Hungary has operated under successive states of emergency since 2020, allowing the executive to adopt sweeping measures unrelated to the stated emergencies. Hungary currently has dual states of emergency due to the war in Ukraine and mass migration, though Hungary is neither a party to the Ukraine conflict nor facing significant numbers of arrivals.
Lawmakers should amend Hungary's assembly law to ensure that Pride marches and other peaceful demonstrations cannot be banned. Parliament adopted laws in 2025 that have been used to prohibit Pride-related events and restrict public expression related to sexual orientation and gender identity, citing vaguely defined concerns of "child protection."
The new government should also drop criminal cases brought in connection with Pride events, including the January 2026 charges against Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony, who helped organize Budapest Pride after police banned the event, and February 2026 charges against Géza Buzás-Hábel, the organizer of the 2025 Pride march in Pécs.
Prosecuting elected officials and activists for organizing peaceful assemblies undermines fundamental human rights and has no place in a democratic society based on the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said. The authorities should also immediately drop the investigation into Szabolcs Panyi, a journalist, apparently in retaliation for his reporting on issues of public interest, raising serious concerns about media freedom.
The incoming government should also ensure that charges are dropped against Pastor Gábor Iványi and that financial and administrative harassment of Iványi and his church ends. Iványi leads the Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship which the government stripped of its official church status under Hungary's 2011 church law. The European Court of Human Rights ruled the move unlawful in 2014 and ordered the government to pay a fine. The new government should restore the church's status and pay the fines ordered by the Court without delay.
The new government should also move quickly to meet the rule of law milestones required by the European Commission. Reforms addressing judicial independence, anti-corruption safeguards, and transparency would demonstrate Hungary's commitment to restoring rights protections and democratic safeguards and would allow Hungary to access billions of euros in European Union funds frozen because of the previous government's repeated breaches of EU law.
The government should also reaffirm Hungary's commitment to international accountability by joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office, reversing Hungary's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC), and supporting EU external action to address violations of human rights and of the laws of war.
"The test of whether Hungary's new government intends to rebuild respect for rights and rule of law will be the concrete steps it takes in the first weeks and months in office," Gall said. "Ending rule by decree, dismantling institutions used to intimidate critics, guaranteeing that Pride and other peaceful protests can take place freely, and ending politically motivated prosecutions would show that Hungary is serious about rebuilding rights-based democratic governance."
Human Rights Priorities for Hungary's New Government
Lack of Parliamentary Oversight and Restrictions on Judicial Independence
Hungary has been governed under successive states of emergency since 2020. In March 2020, parliament adopted Act XII of 2020 on the containment of the coronavirus, allowing the government to rule by decree with minimal parliamentary oversight.
A new emergency regime was introduced in 2022 under Government Decree 180/2022 (V.24.), citing the war in Ukraine, replacing the previous one. The decree allows the government to adopt emergency measures across a broad range of policy areas, many unrelated to the war in Ukraine. This state of emergency runs parallel to a more focused state of crisis due to mass migration, repeatedly renewed since 2016.
These emergency regimes allow the executive to bypass parliamentary debate and adopt sweeping measures affecting taxation, economic policy, and public administration.
In February 2026, the government adopted Decree 15/2026 (II.3.), ordering courts to terminate lawsuits brought by municipalities challenging a "solidarity contribution" tax imposed by the central government, which requires wealthier municipalities to transfer significant portions of their locally raised revenues to the central budget for redistribution. The decree declared that determining and collecting the tax is merely a "technical process" and not an administrative act subject to judicial review.
The decree directly interfered with ongoing court proceedings and raised serious concerns about the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary, both central elements of the rule of law.
The new government should terminate ongoing emergency regimes as well as Decree 15/2026 and review legislation adopted under them that undermines judicial oversight.
The Sovereignty Protection Office and Curbs on Civic Space
Act LXXXVIII of 2023 on the protection of national sovereignty established the Sovereignty Protection Office, tasked with investigating individuals and organizations allegedly acting on behalf of foreign interests. The office can gather information on organizations receiving foreign funding, conduct investigations, and publish reports accusing civil society organizations, journalists, and academics of undermining Hungary's sovereignty. It has used this authority to target organizations critical of the government.
The office operates with limited oversight, and many of its core activities are framed as nonbinding acts, making them difficult to challenge through effective judicial review. The European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Hungary in May 2024 over the law and has challenged the office before the Court of Justice of the European Union, saying that it violates EU law and fundamental rights.
The Court has yet to issue its ruling, but a February 2026 opinion by the court's advocate general proposed finding Hungary in breach of EU law, noting that the office's mandate infringes on fundamental freedoms and obligations, including under the Charter on Fundamental Rights.
A government body with sweeping investigative powers to target critics of the authorities that operates without adequate oversight undermines democratic accountability and violates core rule of law principles. The new government should suspend the office's activities immediately and repeal the law establishing it.
Impediments to Media Freedom and Pluralism
During the almost 16 years of the Orbán government's rule, approximately 80 percent of Hungary's media have come directly or indirectly under government control, with affected media outlets turning into government mouthpieces.
In 2018, more than 470 pro-government media outlets were merged into the Central European Press and Media Foundation. The government exempted the merger from competition review by declaring it a matter of "national strategic importance." This consolidation created one of the largest pro-government media conglomerates in Europe.
Independent media outlets have been deprived of state advertising, with the public funds directed toward pro-government media while excluding critical outlets.
The National Media and Infocommunications Authority and the Media Council regulate Hungary's media sector, broadcast licensing, and media regulations. Their members are appointed by parliament, where the previous ruling party Fidesz/KDNP had a two thirds majority. As a result, the Authority and Council are dominated by government loyalists and are not independent.
The concentration of media aligned with the government and the lack of independence of media regulators undermine media pluralism and the ability of journalists to scrutinize those in power. When a large share of the media landscape is controlled directly or indirectly by the government, it reduces the diversity of viewpoints available to the public and weakens democratic accountability. The use of state advertising to financially favor pro-government media while excluding independent outlets further distorts the media market and creates economic pressure on critical journalism.
Recent developments underscore these concerns. The investigation of Szabolcs Panyi for his reporting risks criminalizing journalism and reinforces a chilling effect on independent reporting. The authorities should immediately drop the investigation.
These practices raise serious concerns under international and European standards protecting freedom of expression and media pluralism. The Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights have emphasized that states have a positive obligation to safeguard media pluralism and prevent excessive concentration of media ownership. Politicized control of media regulators and the use of public resources to favor government-aligned outlets undermine these obligations and weaken the rule of law by limiting independent scrutiny of government actions.
The European Media Freedom Act, which entered into force in 2025, sets binding standards for EU member states on editorial independence, media ownership transparency, the use of state advertising, independence of public service media, and oversight of media concentration, among other aspects. Hungary should fully implement the provisions of the law, which the European Commission has already cited to initiate infringement proceedings against Budapest.
The new government should reform the Media Authority and Media Council to ensure transparent appointment procedures and genuine political independence.
Anti-LGBT Legislation and Curbs on Freedom of Assembly
The previous government enacted a series of laws that discriminate against LGBT people and stigmatize sexual and gender minorities. In 2021, parliament adopted Act LXXIX of 2021, which prohibits the depiction or promotion of homosexuality or gender identity to minors in educational materials, advertising, and media. The law amended the Child Protection Act and the Media Law.
The European Commission challenged this law before the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2021 and the case is pending before the Court.
In March 2025, the Hungarian parliament, at the government's initiative, amended Hungary's law on freedom of assembly (Act LV of 2018) in ways that have been used to prohibit Pride marches and other LGBT-related events. The amendments allow authorities to ban assemblies deemed "harmful" to children, a vague standard that aims to stigmatize LGBT people.
An amendment to the Fundamental Law in April 2025, linked to the March 2025 freedom of assembly law amendment, elevated child protection above all other constitutional rights except the right to life, giving the government broad latitude to invoke "child protection" to arbitrarily curtail a host of rights, including freedom of assembly. In doing so, the authorities created a further legal basis to prohibit public events perceived harmful to children, including Pride marches.
The March 2025 amendment also authorizes the authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify participants in banned assemblies and impose administrative fines on those attending such events.
The authorities used the legal framework to ban the June Budapest Pride and October Pécs Pride events. While the police used facial recognition technology during both events, nobody has been fined. However, the organizers of both events have been formally charged with organizing unlawful assemblies, facing up to one year in prison. Those criminal charges should be dropped immediately.
International human rights standards require that restrictions on assemblies be narrowly tailored and necessary in a democratic society. Blanket bans on assemblies because of their subject matter, including events supporting the rights of sexual minorities, violate these standards.
The new government should repeal these provisions and amend the Assembly Act to ensure that peaceful assemblies, including Pride marches, cannot be banned on discriminatory grounds.
Hungary's new government should also restore legal gender recognition procedures. In 2020 parliament adopted Act XXX of 2020, barring transgender people from changing their gender marker in official documents. Parliament should repeal this law, as well as the April 2025 Fundamental Law amendments that enshrined the recognition of only two sexes.
Restrictions on Women's and Girl's Rights
Hungary's Fundamental Law from 2011 states that the "life of the fetus shall be protected from the moment of conception." This provision has been used to frame government policies restricting reproductive autonomy.
In September 2022, the government adopted Interior Ministry Decree 29/2022, commonly known as the "heartbeat decree." The decree requires a woman seeking abortion at any stage in a pregnancy to listen to the embryonic cardiac activity or a fetal heartbeat before the procedure can take place, a stigmatizing and medically unnecessary measure.
Emergency contraception pills are not available over the counter in Hungary, despite a 2015 European Commission recommendation that they be made available without prescription across the European Union. Requiring a prescription creates unnecessary barriers to timely access to emergency contraception and can prevent people from obtaining it within the short time window in which it is effective. The new government should remove the prescription requirement and ensure that emergency contraception is available over the counter in pharmacies throughout Hungary.
Hungary has also refused to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention. The convention sets binding international standards for preventing violence against women, protecting survivors, and ensuring effective investigation and prosecution of abuse. Hungary's refusal to ratify the treaty undermines efforts to strengthen protections for victims of domestic violence and leaves the country out of step with widely accepted European human rights standards.
The new government should repeal the heartbeat decree, amend the fundamental law to remove provisions recognizing fetal life from conception. It should also ratify the Istanbul Convention, and implement its provisions in domestic law.
Restrictions on Access to Asylum and Unlawful Pushbacks
Amendments to the Asylum Act (Act LXXX of 2007) adopted in 2020 require asylum seekers to submit a "statement of intent" at Hungarian embassies in Belgrade or Kyiv before they are allowed to enter Hungary to apply for asylum. In practice, this system prevents many people fleeing persecution from accessing Hungary's asylum procedure and effectively blocks them from lodging asylum claims on Hungarian territory.
Hungarian authorities have also pushed back people entering the country at the border with Serbia, allowing the police to remove migrants and asylum seekers from within Hungarian territory to the external side of the border fence without examining their protection needs.
These measures violate EU asylum law, including the Asylum Procedures Directive, which requires member states to ensure effective access to asylum procedures for people seeking protection at their borders or on their territory. Pushbacks carried out without an individual assessment of protection claims also violate the principle of nonrefoulement under the 1951 Refugee Convention, and that prohibits returning people to places where they risk persecution or serious harm as well as similar protections under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, which also prohibit collective expulsions.
Both the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights have ruled that aspects of Hungary's asylum policies violate EU and international law, and the EU Court of Justice has imposed a daily fine of €1 million on Hungary since June 13, 2024, for failing to comply with its judgment.
Hungary's 2018 "Stop Soros" law criminalized work with asylum seekers, and although the EU's top court ruled it unlawful in 2020, continues to deter and threaten those providing assistance.
The new government should fully repeal these measures, immediately halt unlawful pushbacks, restore access to asylum procedures inside Hungary, and carry out European court judgments on access to asylum, the prohibition against refoulement, and collective expulsions.
