Hungary: Alarming ban on Pride Marches undermines fundamental freedoms
On 18 March 2025, The Hungarian Parliament adopted legislative amendments that effectively ban Pride marches and criminalize their organizers. We, the undersigned organizations, express our deep concern over these measures, which represent a serious step backward in the protection of the right to freedom of assembly and expression.
As highlighted by the UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, this legislation constitutes a discriminatory rollback of fundamental rights. The use of real-time facial recognition technology to identify peaceful demonstrators further erodes individual privacy and sets a dangerous precedent within the European Union.
Hungary’s move to ban Pride marches clearly violates the fundamental rights of EU citizens. The European Commission must act. It can either request interim measures within the ongoing infringement procedure related to the 2021 anti-LGBTQIA+ amendments to the so-called Child Protection Act, which form the legal basis of the current law, or urgently open a new infringement procedure specifically targeting the March 2025 legislation and immediately seek interim measures before it enters into force.
We are deeply concerned by reports indicating that neither of these legal avenues is being actively pursued at this stage. Without urgent interim measures, this law will suppress LGBTQIA+ public assemblies for years, causing irreparable harm and severely undermining the EU’s credibility as a defender of fundamental rights.
We call on the EU, the European Commission and Commissioners Lahbib and McGrath to do everything within your mandate to ensure that the European Commission takes decisive action without delay.
The undersigned organisations stand in solidarity with all those affected by these laws. We urge the international community to join us in condemning this regression and to support efforts to safeguard the rights and freedoms of all individuals in Hungary and across the European Union without discrimination.
List of signatories :
- Adala
- Centre Libanais pour les Droits Humains – CLDH
- Egyptian Forum for Human Rights
- EuroMed Rights
- Ligue des Droits de l’Homme
- Women for Women’s Human Rights