Freedom of peaceful assembly
In October, the police let a Palestine solidarity assembly take place in the capital, Budapest, having banned such assemblies in previous years.
In March, parliament passed a law providing a legal basis for banning LGBTI-related assemblies. The new law imposed criminal sanctions of up to one year’s imprisonment on organizers and fines of up to HUF 200,000 (EUR 500) for participants of prohibited events.1 It also expanded the circumstances under which police could disperse any kind of assembly. It revised notification rules, reducing the earliest possible submission of notice from three months to one month before the planned assembly, making it more difficult for organizers to effectively organize and promote their event.
The police used the legislation to ban multiple assemblies. Where challenged by the organizers, all such prohibitions were upheld by the Supreme Court. Among the assemblies banned were a demonstration calling for transgender people’s rights and another protesting against its prohibition. Others included the Budapest and Pécs Pride marches, as well as a human rights celebration event. Despite the bans, Budapest Pride and Pécs Pride went ahead in June and October respectively with record numbers of participants and without police interference.
Freedom of expression and association
Attacks on independent civil society organizations and media intensified in 2025. On 15 March, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán publicly compared “politicians, judges, journalists, bogus civil society organizations and political activists” to “stink bugs”.
In May, the ruling coalition submitted a draft bill that would allow the government to blacklist a broad range of independent civic and media organizations, as well as commercial companies, based on arbitrary criteria. Where such organizations were deemed to “threaten Hungary’s sovereignty”, their funding would be blocked, including any revenues from abroad.
In September, the government created Hungary’s first “national anti-terrorism list”, giving a terrorist designation to the “Antifa” anti-fascist movement in general and specifically to the German group Antifa Ost (also known as Hammerbande or “hammer gang”). Anyone connected to a listed organization could face financial sanctions and, in the case of non-Hungarian citizens, expulsion and denial of entry.
Right to a fair trial
According to the European Commission, Hungary made no progress in seven of the eight recommendations included in the commission’s 2024 Rule of Law Report. It found that Hungary had failed to address systemic deficiencies in judicial independence, media freedom and the country’s anti-corruption framework.
After several years of salary decline, which had caused concern over risks to judicial independence, judges received a 15% salary increase in January. However, the increase followed parliament’s adoption of a number of judicial reforms, raising new concerns. The reforms included contentious provisions over appointment criteria for new judges, lacked mechanisms to preserve the value of salaries over time and left salary decisions to the discretion of the executive and legislature. As such, the reforms left the judiciary still vulnerable to political leverage.
Refugees’ and migrants’ rights
The government denied housing aid for mostly Hungarian-speaking refugees from Ukraine’s western Transcarpathia region – an area known to include a significant minority Hungarian community. The denial of aid followed the omission of Transcarpathia from a government list of war-affected regions of Ukraine.
Hungary’s legislation continued to allow often violent, forced returns of asylum seekers at its borders. There were 4,100 such cases at the border with Serbia in 2025. In June, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) condemned Hungary’s mass forced returns as unlawful, ordering compensation and systemic change. The court also criticized Hungary’s non-functional embassy asylum procedure, which stipulated that asylum applications could be submitted only in two designated Hungarian embassies. The ruling reinforced the ECtHR’s determination that Hungary must stop mass forced returns, which did not involve any assessment of individuals’ circumstances.
Discrimination
In July, a new law empowered municipalities to set local requirements, which would have to be met by anyone wishing to buy property or register an address in the area. Despite protests from Roma organizations, around 180 municipalities set discriminatory requirements – for example, no criminal record, a minimum level of education, or no debts to the state – which mainly targeted Roma people.
LGBTI people’s rights
In March, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that individuals in Hungary had the right to rectify inaccurate personal data stored in public registers, including data on gender identity, without undue delay.
In April, parliament amended the Constitution to state that “human beings shall be male or female”. The amendment further weakened the protection afforded to gender-diverse people by eliminating “gender identity” as an explicitly prohibited ground for discrimination and harassment.
In June, the Constitutional Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the legislature not to provide legal recognition for same-sex marriages performed abroad by not allowing them to be registered as partnerships.
Unlawful surveillance
The new law banning LGBTI-related assemblies allowed blanket use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement agencies to identify perpetrators of even the pettiest offences.
The global research organization Insikt Group reported suspected use of highly invasive spyware – dubbed “Devils Tongue” by tech researchers – in Hungary.
Women’s and girls’ rights
The 2025 Gender Equality Index, published by the European Institute of Gender Equality, ranked Hungary 26th out of the 27 EU member states, and placed it last in the domain of gender equality in positions of political and economic power.
Impunity
In April, Hungary announced its decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the ICC while hosting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, refusing to arrest and hand him over to court authorities despite an ICC warrant. In June, Hungary formally began the process of ICC withdrawal.
Arbitrary deprivation of nationality
In June, a new law allowed for the suspension of Hungarian citizenship in relation to some categories of dual-nationality citizens, potentially facilitating forcible expulsions. The non-exhaustive list of reasons for suspension contained in the law created uncertainty and risked paving the way for arbitrary decisions.
Right to education
In March, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education expressed serious concerns about “widening inequalities, curriculum rigidity, the marginalization of Roma students and the erosion of academic freedom”.
In November, a report published by the deputy ombudsperson responsible for minorities in Hungary highlighted the segregation of Roma children in church-run schools, as maintained and reinforced by public education legislation.
Right to a healthy environment
In June, the Constitutional Court annulled the national climate law’s target for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, ruling that the target was insufficient. The court also ordered parliament to draft comprehensive regulations by 30 June 2026, covering all areas of climate protection.
In July, the European Commission’s 2025 Environmental Implementation Review found that Hungary needed to take measures on various aspects of nature conservation and restoration. It specified the need for action to improve biodiversity, recycling, landfilling, green innovation, wastewater treatment, air quality and climate adaptation.
