HOW CAN WE HELP | Magyar Helsinki Bizottság
×

Manage cookies

Support us
Support us

HOW CAN WE HELP

TAX NUMBER: 19013983-1-42

Customer service policy change

Dear Clients,

We would like to inform you that due to the exceptional situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we are not able to conduct personal consultation in the office until further notice. Still, we are constantly available for you through any other form.

 

If you need legal assistance, please contact us on our online template form (www.helsinki.hu/en/howcanwehelp/ ),

by mail (helsinki@helsinki.hu) or

via post (address: Hungary, 1242 Budapest, PO box 317.).

Our client service by phone is available in the regular consultation hours.

Thank you for your understanding! 

Hungarian Helsinki Committee

DO YOU NEED HELP?


The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has been providing legal assistance to its clients since 1994. We have been working with our legal officers and lawyers to ensure you have an institution to turn to if your human rights have been violated..

Privacy Policies


Client Data Privacy Policy of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee – English

Client Data Privacy Policy of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee – French

Client Data Privacy Policy of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee – Arab

Client Data Privacy Policy of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee – Urdu

Client Data Privacy Policy of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee – Farsi

Client Data Privacy Policy of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee – Pastu


WE CAN HELP IN CASE OF:

If the police unlawfully beat you or you wish to complain against the police measures you were subjected to (e.g. unlawful use of handcuffs).

If you think you have been put to pre-trial detention or house arrest unlawfully, or the length of your pre-trial detention or house arrest is unlawful. (However, we cannot help in the criminal procedure itself in proving your innocence).

If you are detained and you have been a victim of abuse or ill-treatment during your imprisonment, or you have complaints about medical care, right to religion, diet or detention standards. We offer help primarily in cases when the ill-treatment was committed by guards. If you were beaten by other inmates, we provide help only if the detention facility (prison or police jail) is guilty of omission (e.g. the victim was beaten by somebody who should not have been in the same slot with him or her; the penitentiary institution did not report the case to the police after you reported it etc.). However, we do not provide representation in criminal procedures, request for judicial review, request for retrial and merger of sentences.

If you or somebody you know fled from a country and want to obtain refugee status in Hungary or you already submitted your request for asylum but the Office of Immigration and Nationality (BÁH) rejected it.

We help refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection living in Hungary to request their family members can come and live here in Hungary with them.

We provide legal assistance to third-country citizen spouses of Hungarian nationals to come and live in Hungary together with their Hungarian citizen wife or husband.

If you are a foreigner and you were attacked because of your origin or you know about a case when a foreigner was attacked because of his or her origin. We might also help if you are not a foreigner but your attacker perceived you as one.

We provide help if Hungarian authorities want to expulse you or your family member from Hungary unlawfully. The expulsion may be unlawful if you or your family member has stronger connection to Hungary than to the country of origin or the country of origin is not a safe place for the person to be expulsed. Only exceptionally do we provide legal help in cases other than the above mentioned. In detention standard and police measure cases the help we can provide is limited to providing only legal advice. However, we may represent some clients in unique cases of strategic importance or flagrant violation of rights. Due to the heavy workload of our lawyers and colleagues, we do not provide legal representation in cases that fall outside our scope of activity. We no longer answer complaints regarding prison overcrowdedness. If you have such case please read our related materials and contact us only if questions remain unanswered.

WE CANNOT HELP IN CASES OF:

  • Legal representation in criminal procedure (Defence)
  • Representation in claims on overcrowded prisons
  • Social problems and benefits (retired pay, child benefit, unemployment-benefit, nursing benefits)
  • Family law, child custody claims, divorce
  • Request for residence permit (except family reunification cases)
  • Right of assembly claims
  • Discrimination and equality rights claims
  • Right to fair trial claims before the ECHR
  • Medical malpractice claims, patients’ rights
  • Labour law claims
  • Merger of sentences
  • Extraordinary legal remedies (retrial, judicial review)

USEFUL INFORMATION AND DATA PROTECTION:

Staff, lawyers, interns and volunteers of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee share information about its clients’ case only among themselves for consultative professional purposes. We do not share information with third parties.

Both the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and its lawyer dealing with a case reserve the right to decide whether to undertake your case or not based on its professional opinion.

HOW CAN YOU REACH US?

1

ON-LINE CONTACT FORM OR VIA POST

You can write us in our online contact form available on the right of this site, in e-mail (helsinki@helsinki.hu) or via post.
Address: Hungary, 1242 Budapest, PO box 317

IN YOUR COMPLAINT PLEASE INCLUDE:

  • personal data: name, address, phone number and e-mail address (if you have one);
  • summary of what happened (e.g. you were beaten by the police, have a problem with detention standards, you are unlawfully held in alien policing detention, complaint about asylum procedure);
  • where and when did it happen;
  • who took part in the case (both individuals and authorities);
  • is there a legal procedure in progress already, have you exhausted any legal remedy, do you have a lawyer

Please attach copies of all the documents of your case (not only your own requests but also decisions and judgments of authorities and courts, opinion of an expert, medical papers – if applicable and available, etc.).

We can provide legal advice only after reading your materials submitted. Legal representation is only provided after consulting our lawyers about your case.

**If you or your family member (the complainant) is detained please also provide date of birth and mother’s maiden name of the complainant.

We answer all written requests either via e-mail or by post.

In our answer we will provide legal advice if your case falls within our scope of activity and let you know whether we will provide legal representation in your case.

PLEASE ONLY SEND THE COPY OF YOUR DOCUMENTS, NOT THE ORIGINAL ONES. WE ONLY KEEP THEM FOR FIVE YEARS.

Due to the large number of clients please note that we will send our reply in 90 days.

2

VIA PHONE OR IN PERSON

If you wish to consult in person please call us to make an appointment.

For making appointment please only call in consulting hours as our colleagues are available only in these hours. Consultation by appointment is also possible only in these hours.

magyar-helsinki-bizottsag

Támogasd te is
a Magyar Helsinki Bizottság tevékenységét adód -val!

Segíts, hogy őrködhessünk
a demokrácia felett, és hogy Magyarország továbbra is jogállam maradhasson.

Segítsd ügyvédeink munkáját, hogy továbbra is ingyenes jogi segítséget nyújthassanak azoknak, akiknek a hatóságok megsértették emberi jogait.