The United States issued a report severely condemning Hungary

On Monday, the United States Department of State published its human rights and rule of law country reports for the year 2023, including its report on Hungary. The documents prepared annually are important indicators of American diplomacy, and the findings and tone of the current Hungarian document only confirm that the relationship between Washington and Budapest is becoming increasingly frosty.

The report opens with criticism that the government has begun implementing the Child Protection Act of 2021, which Washington says restricts access to LGBTQI+ books and other written materials. It is also mentioned that a museum director – L. Simon László – was fired due to the law, because he did not restrict access to the World Press Photo exhibition presenting the affected persons.

According to the report, the United States sees the government as using both intelligence services and state media to investigate foreign-funded civil society organizations and independent media outlets, and to brand them as potential threats to the country’s sovereignty. In December, the governing parties submitted the sovereignty protection law to the parliament, which, according to the Washington assessment, provides the government with extensive additional powers to investigate and subpoena civil society organizations and other organizations deemed to “influence the democratic debate and decision-making process”.

However, they appreciate that the government has taken credible steps to identify and punish officials who commit human rights abuses. At the same time, they believe that action against high-level corruption cases with political connections was negligible.

The report also highlights the lack of thorough and effective domestic investigations into allegations of ill-treatment and violations of the prohibition of torture established by the European Court of Human Rights. According to reports, conditions in prisons and detention centers are also said to be inadequate, with overcrowding and varying physical conditions, which the US side criticizes.

As they write, the constitution and the law require an independent judiciary, but they mention from Washington that experts and legal scholars have expressed concern about systemic threats to the country’s judicial independence. The US State Department cites the European Commission’s 2023 Rule of Law Report, which noted that the judicial reforms adopted in May affected many of the justice-related recommendations contained in the 2022 report, but the President of the National Office of Justice maintained the possibility that the relocated appoint judges to judicial leadership positions, which bypassed the normal application process and bypassed substantive criteria for the promotion of judges.

The report also highlights previous press reports that the government used advanced spying programs to monitor journalists, lawyers, businessmen and politicians, violating their privacy.

The report was published after David Pressman, the US ambassador to Budapest, reported similar concerns in March. In his unusually strong speech on the 25th anniversary of Hungary’s accession to NATO, he said that

in light of the systemic challenges in our relationship, the United States pursues the only approach in its Hungarian policy that brings results: contact, honesty and accountability.

At the time, he also stated that the United States continues to strive for dialogue with the Hungarian leadership, and that they will speak clearly, because they see many problems in cooperation. “We will tell you what we see in Hungary and in the country’s relations with its allies. And we will be unwavering in this,” said the diplomat at the time, which many saw as a threat of sanctions, but at least as a very strong message.

The current country report also does not anticipate any retaliatory measures, but it is yet another proof of the soured American-Hungarian relationship.

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