Submission to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

On 30 August 2021, the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, and the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier de Schutter, issued a call to both public bodies and civil society to submit reports on legislation in their countries. 

The aim of the call was to provide UN bodies with an overview of legislation that prohibits and sanctions poverty-related behaviours such as begging, littering and homelessness.

In response to the call, volunteer lawyers of the Streetlawyer Association made a submission summarising the situation in Hungary. In their submission, they drew attention to the fact that the Hungarian authorities, both at national and local level, threaten to punish poverty-related behaviours. For example, begging, living and urinating in public places are punishable as misdemeanors. It is still a misdemeanor for a child aged between 14 and 18 to ‘offer sexual services in an abusive manner.’ Anyone found guilty of such offences could easily be sent to prison if the fine is not paid. 

In addition to national legislation, local government decrees often impose sanctions on people living in poverty. Administrative fines can be imposed for begging in silence or storing bags or small items of property in public areas, as a violation of ‘living together in a community rules.’

The epidemic has not helped the situation of poor people either. The economic crisis caused by COVID-19 not only threatened their livelihoods but also gave the authorities another opportunity to punish poor people. The Hungarian legislation in the state of emergency did not take into account that the curfew laws could not always be met by homeless people, for example because of a lock-out or shortage of places in the shelter system.

In its submission, the Streetlawyer Association presented not only the legislation but also its practical application of law. For example, the case of András, who was fined as a homeless man for 25,000 forints by the police when trying to sleep at a railway station at night, under curfew. The case of Anna was also shown. The underage Anna living in extreme poverty was fined by the court - in total disregard of international children rights - for being caught prostituting herself.

(December 2021)