Announcing that Amnesty International Hungary will not to comply with the country’s repressive new NGO law and register as a ‘foreign funded NGO’, Julia Ivan, Director of Amnesty International Hungary said:
“Amnesty International has every intention of challenging Hungary’s repressive new NGO law in the courts – both domestically and internationally – and no intention of complying with it until all these avenues have been exhausted.
“We have every confidence that we will be vindicated in the courts and look forward to this obstructive law being struck off the books. In the meantime we will, like others, carry on with our work of holding the government to account and standing up for those whose rights have been trampled on.”
Background
At an emergency general meeting convened by its board yesterday, Amnesty International Hungary unanimously decided not to comply with the law and not to register as a foreign funded NGO.
From today (27 June) NGOs have 15 days to register, if not the prosecutor will ask them to do it within 30 days and if not again, in a further 15 days. If an NGO still refuses, the court may issue sanctions for not complying including:
– A fine up to around 3000 euro (2917),
– Convene a General Meeting of the NGO to restore lawful operation
– Eventual dissolution of the NGO