ODIHR Legal Reviews, Assessments and Guidelines

Opinion

• Joint Opinion on Section 253 on the Special Immigration Tax of Act XLI of 20 July 2018 of Hungary Amending Certain Tax Laws and Other Related Laws and the Immigration Tax (in English) [ 2018/12/17 | en | ] Summary

  Summary: Section 253 of the Act imposes a 25 per cent tax (1) on financial support to an immigration supporting activity carried out in Hungary or (2) on the financial support to the operations of an organisation with a seat in Hungary that carries out immigration supporting activity. ODIHR and Venice Commission in this Join Opinion note that the special tax on immigration constitutes an unjustified interference with the right to freedom of expression and of association of the NGO affected. The Opinion further adds that the imposition of this special tax will have a chilling effect on the exercise of basic human rights and on individuals and organisations who defend them, as well as it deters potential donors from supporting these NGOs and puts more hardship on civil society engaged in legitimate human rights’ activities. For all these reasons, ODIHR and Venice Commission recommends to repeal the provision as examined in the present opinion.

• Joint Opinion on Section 253 on the Special Immigration Tax of Act XLI of 20 July 2018 of Hungary Amending Certain Tax Laws and Other Related Laws and the Immigration Tax (in Hungarian) [ 2018/12/17 | en | ]
• Joint Opinion on the Provisions of the So-called “Stop Soros” Draft Legislative Package which Directly Affects NGOs (in particular Draft Article 353A of the Criminal Code on Facilitating Illegal Migration) in Hungary (in English) [ 2018/06/25 | en | ] Summary

  Summary: The OSCE/ODIHR and the Venice Commission note that Draft Article 353A criminalizes a new category of content related restrictions and organisational activities which are not directly related with the materialization of the illegal migration. This on the one hand it runs counter to the role of assistance to victims by non-governmental organizations restricting disproportionally the rights guaranteed under international obligations and on the other hand, criminalizes advocacy and campaigning activities which constitutes an illegitimate interference with the freedom of expression guaranteed under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Venice Commission and the OSCE/ODIHR note that Current draft Article 353A lacks the requisite precision, and does not appear to meet the foreseeability criterion as understood in the ECtHR case-law and thus is not in line with European standards. Joint Opinion further recommends that in its current drafting, this Article should not be adopted since it entails a risk of criminal prosecution for individuals and organisations providing lawful assistance to migrants and asylum seekers.

• Joint Opinion on the Provisions of the So-called “Stop Soros” Draft Legislative Package which Directly Affects NGOs (in particular Draft Article 353A of the Criminal Code on Facilitating Illegal Migration) in Hungary (in Hungarian) [ 2018/06/25 | en | ]