US State Department issues damning Country Report on Hungary
On Monday, the US State Department released its Human Rights and Rule of Law Country Reports for 2023, including its report on Hungary. The annual documents are important signposts for US diplomacy, and the findings and tone of this Hungarian document only confirm that relations between Washington and Budapest are growing increasingly icy.
The report begins by criticising the government for starting to implement the Child Protection Act of 2021, which Washington argues restricts access to LGBTQI+ books and other written materials. They also note that the legislation led to the dismissal of a museum director - László L. Simon - for failing to restrict access to the World Press Photo exhibition depicting LGBTQ people.
According to the report, the United States sees the government as having used intelligence services and state media to investigate and stigmatise foreign-funded civil society organisations and independent media, portraying them as a potential threat to the country's sovereignty. The ruling parties' submission to parliament in December of a law on the protection of sovereignty, which, according to Washington's assessment, gives the government broad additional powers to investigate and summon civil society organisations and other organisations deemed to "influence democratic debate and decision-making", constitutes a negative development.
However, they appreciate that the government has taken meaningful steps to identify and punish officials who have committed human rights abuses. At the same time, they consider that action against high-level corruption cases with political connections has been negligible.
The report also underlines the lack of thorough and effective domestic investigations into allegations of ill-treatment and violations of the prohibition of torture found by the European Court of Human Rights. Conditions in prisons and detention centres are also reported to be inadequate, with overcrowding and varying physical conditions, which the US side criticises.
Washington says the constitution and law provide for an independent judiciary, but experts and legal scholars have expressed concern about systemic threats to the country's judicial independence. The US State Department cited the European Commission's 2023 Rule of Law Report, which noted that the judicial reforms adopted in May addressed many of the recommendations on the judiciary in the 2022 report, but the President of the National Office of the Judiciary continued to maintain the ability to appoint transferred judges to senior judicial positions, bypassing the normal application process and circumventing the substantive criteria for promotion of judges.
The report also highlights previous press reports that the government has used advanced spyware to monitor journalists, lawyers, businessmen and politicians, violating their privacy.
The report was published after David Pressman, the US ambassador to Budapest, raised similar concerns in March. In an unusually strongly-toned speech on the 25th anniversary of Hungary's accession to NATO, Pressman said that
in light of these systemic challenges in our relationship U.S. policy in Hungary will continue with the only approach that produces results: outreach, candor, and accountability.
He also said at the time that the United States would continue to reach out and seek dialogue with the Hungarian leadership and that they would speak clearly because they saw many problems in cooperation. "We will also speak clearly about what is happening and what we are seeing. We will describe what we see in Hungary and in Hungary’s relationship with its Allies. And we will do so unflinchingly," the diplomat said at the time, which many at the time interpreted as a threat of sanctions, but at the very least a very strong message.
The current country report also does not anticipate any retaliatory measures, but it is further evidence of the deteriorating US-Hungarian relationship.
Cover photo: Getty Images
