Hungary’s Highest Court Says No To Criminalizing Sleeping Rough
- 22 Jan 2015 8:00 AM
Thanks to Hungary’s highest court, soon this man will no longer be considered a criminal. Hungary’s highest court, the Curia, has nullified a number of Budapest district and city hall ordinances forbidding people from sleeping rough in a variety of public areas. The court found that the legal rationale for the ordinances, adopted over the course of 2013, does not provide sufficient basis for banning people from sleeping in or occupying a number of streets and squares designated as off-limits. The ruling will take effect on May 31, nullifying existing regulations that allow for violators to be prosecuted.
The Curia decision puts an end to a long civil-rights dispute between Budapest City Hall and civil-rights groups seeking to annul regulations they say are discriminative. In November 2014 the Curia ruled that penalizing sleeping rough and rummaging through the garbage was both contrary to effective legislation and violated the Fundamental Law guaranteeing basic human rights. The basis for the ruling was a complaint filed by László Székely, Commissioner for Basic Human Rights (ombusdman).
The verdict is binding and cannot be appealed.
According to the final ruling published in Magyar Közlöny, Hungary’s official gazette, the Curia struck down ten points contained in the original, November 2013 ordinance banning homeless from public spaces within Budapest’s 2nd, 4th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 21st and 22nd districts, while upholding the bans in four locations designated in the 6th, 11th, 18th and 20th districts.
The reason offered by the court for distinguishing between the former and the latter was that the basis for designating the first ten points was unclear. According to the Curia, Hungary’s Misdemeanor Act does not allow criminal procedures in simple misdemeanor cases. Furthermore, it designates “protection of values” as a prerequisite for its application. The court found that such a condition cannot be established in the case of the first ten points.
Homeless advocacy NGO “The City is for Everyone“ (A Város Mindenkié – AVM) offers free legal service to anyone being prosecuted based on the Budapest anti-homeless ordinance. According to the NGO in last December alone 420 such cases occurred in the Hungarian capital. The AVM aims to pressure lawmakers to rescind all such regulations as “ineffective measures.”
(The Budapest Beacon wishes to offer its congratulations to Commissioner Székely and AVM on today’s landmark decision. Of the seventeen who died this winter from exposure while sleeping out of doors, how many did so after being ordered to vacate underpasses or other enclosed public areas?-ed.)
Source: The Budapest Beacon
The Budapest Beacon is a media partner of XpatLoop.com
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