This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.
In November 2012 the Hungarian Parliament passed a law defining
homelessness as an administrative offence: people who get caught
sleeping on the street twice in half a year can get punished with
incarceration or with a monetary penalty of 150.000 Forint (490€)
that no homeless person can afford to pay, therefore leading to
incarceration as well.
After the constitutional court annulled the law for violating
the human dignity of the homeless, the legal certainty and the right
to property, the Hungarian Constitution was changed last March to
assert and reinforce the political decision to criminalise homeless
people.
Homelessness is one of the most extreme forms of poverty and
deprivation and an unacceptable violation of human dignity. The
right to housing in Article 31 of the revised European Social Charter
should be guaranteed and Hungary’s obligations of Article 12 paragraph
1 should be fulfilled by taking measures against homelessness. In
contrast the policy of repression and criminalisation of poor people
in Hungary is no answer to social problems.
We call on the Commissioner for Human Rights, the European
Committee of Social Rights, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Committee
of Ministers to monitor the deprivation of liberty of homeless people
in Hungary.
