Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Hungary (Ratification: 1994)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Article 1(a) of the Convention. Penalties involving compulsory labour as a punishment for expressing political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system. In its earlier comments, the Committee referred to the Penal Code provisions imposing sanctions of imprisonment (which involve compulsory prison labour) in cases of incitement to agitation against the law or authorities (section 268), agitation against communities (section 269) and disturbance of the public order by openly declaring false facts or by spreading rumours (section 270). The Committee recalled that the Convention does not prohibit punishment by penalties involving compulsory labour of persons who use violence, incite to violence or engaged in preparatory acts aimed at violence but, if sanctions involving compulsory labour enforce a prohibition of the expression of views or of opposition to the established political, social or economic system, such sanctions fall within the scope of the Convention.

The Committee observes that the above provisions of national law provide for penal sanctions involving compulsory labour in circumstances defined in terms which are wide enough to give rise to questions about their conformity with the Convention. It therefore requested information on the application of these provisions in practice, supplying copies of the relevant court decisions defining or illustrating their scope.

The Committee notes the Government’s statement in the report that Hungarian courts are not authorized to disclose personal data in relation to criminal proceedings, but may disclose sentences in an anonymous form, without violating privacy.

While having duly noted this indication, the Committee again requests the Government to supply, with its next report, sample copies of the court decisions (or description thereof made in an anonymous form), which have been passed under the abovementioned sections 268, 269 and 270 of the Penal Code and which could define or illustrate the scope of these provisions, in order to enable the Committee to assess their conformity with the Convention.