On 18 March, a bill was submitted by MPs of the governing majority amending laws to
ban assemblies that might breach the “substantial element of the prohibition” prescribed in the infamous anti-LGBTQI Propaganda-Law and impose harsh financial penalties for participants of such events. The bill was forced through Parliament within a day and will enter into force on 15 April 2025.
In their detailed commentary on the new legislation, Amnesty International Hungary, Háttér Society, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee presented how the new discriminative amendment violates not only the fundamental rights of LGBTQI people and citizens who support them, but by allowing for the blanket use of facial recognition techniques to identify unknown perpetrators of all petty offences, violates privacy rights of every person in Hungary with the aim to further instil fear among those who voice dissent.
Hungarian human rights organisations urge the European Commission to launch an infringement procedure addressing the entirety of the new changes for breaches of EU law, as outlined below. At the same time, considering the gravity and urgency of the consequences of the amendments, the European Commission shall immediately request the suspension of the application of the anti-LGBTQI Propaganda Law, which serves as the primary basis of the banning of the Pride, in the ongoing, related lawsuit at the Court of Justice of the European Union (C-769/22).
