NGOs Underline The Failure Of Hungarian Authorities to Address Rising Number of Hate Crimes Against Roma

08 May 2009

Budapest: The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), the Legal Defence Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities (NEKI), and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) released a report criticizing the response of the Hungarian authorities to the murder of two Romani people on 23 February 2009, in Tatárszentgyörgy, Hungary. In the brutal attack, a Roma man and his four-year-old son were shot dead as they were trying to escape from their house that had been fire-bombed moments before.

The report noted numerous examples of official misconduct on the part of police, fire fighters and emergency medical personnel. While some internal disciplinary proceedings were initiated, two months later there has been no information about the results. Moreover, no suspects have been identified or apprehended in the murder.

The report requests that the authorities: 

• disclose the results of all disciplinary actions against officials, and clarify the steps they have taken to investigate the misconduct and ensure that it does not recur in the future;
• provide an update to the public regarding the investigation of the crimes;
• investigate the possibility of racist motivation in the crime and ensure that law enforcement agencies receive appropriate training in addressing racially motivated crimes according to international standards.

The full text of the report is available in English at:
The full text of the report is available in Hungarian at:

For further information, please contact:

Judit Geller, ERRC, judit.geller@errc.org +36 1 413 2200 (English and Hungarian)
Marton Udvari, NEKI, udvari@neki.hu +36 1 303 8973 (English and Hungarian)
Andrea Pelle, TASZ, tasz@tasz.hu +36 1 209 0046 (Hungarian)