Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

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

Previous comment

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. The Committee observes from the information provided by the Government in its report that the total number of persons convicted to imprisonment, involving compulsory prison labour, or community work under sections 226 and 227 (defamation and slander), section 334 (blasphemy of a national symbol), section 336 (incitement against a decree of authority), section 337 (scaremongering or uttering, publishing a false statement to violate public order) and section 338 (stating or disseminating any untrue fact to disturb public peace) of the Criminal Code was 212 in 2019 and 192 in 2020.

The Committee notes that the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, in her report of 2022, urged the Government to decriminalize the offence of defamation set out in section 226 of the Criminal Code, and expressed grave concern at the attacks on media freedom, independence and pluralism in Hungary over the past decade (A/HRC/50/29/Add.1,). The Committee recalls that Article 1(a) of the Convention protects persons who hold or express political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system by prohibiting the imposition on them of sanctions involving compulsory labour, except in cases of use of violence or incitation to violence (2012 General Survey on the fundamental Conventions, paragraphs 302 and 303).

The Committee therefore requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that, both in law and in practice, no penalties involving compulsory labour may be imposed for the peaceful expression of political views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system, for example by clearly restricting the scope of sections 226, 227, 334, 336, 337 and 338 to situations connected with the use of violence, or by removing punishments involving compulsory labour. The Committee further requests the Government to continue to provide information on the application in practice ofthe above-mentioned sections of the Criminal Code, specifying the number of prosecutions and convictions made under each provision and the type of penalties imposed.