Knocking at the Gate: The ECHR and Hungarian Roma

Abuses against Roma feature in the greater part of Hungarian domestic human rights litigation and reporting since 1989. Concentrating in the early nineties on police violence, legal activities have gradually evolved to confront also the widespread discrimination in employment, housing and education. Arguably, some of these cases involve violations under the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols.

But although the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has examined a number of factually strong applications relating to police ill-treatment of Hungarian Roma, no violations have yet been found. In fact, cases of this kind are rarely if ever admitted to the court, and are all but invisible in the court records.

This article discusses how Hungary's Strasbourg case law profile bears little resemblance to the human rights situation on the ground, and human rights lawyers are uncertain of the likelihood of ever achieving the support at the European level for the changes needed at home.