The following is based on a communication written by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Government of Hungary on 18 November 2025. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Government time to reply. The Government replied on 19 January 2026.
While thanking the Government for their reply, the Special Rapporteur regrets the tone of it and the failure to address concerns about the fundamental incompatibility of the March 2025 legislative amendments criminalizing LGBTIQ-themed assemblies with Hungary’s human rights obligations.
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: criminal investigations against the organizer of Pécs Pride, Géza Buzás-Hábel.
Mr. Géza Buzás-Hábel is a teacher and a human rights defender in Pécs, and the director and co-founder of Diverse Youth Network. He has been the long-term organizer of Pécs Pride.
Special Procedures mandate holders have previously raised their concerns about the amendments to a number of laws, including the constitutional Fundamental Law[1], in HUN 1/2025, dated 9 April 2025. We thank the government for its reply, dated 11 April 2025. However, concerns remain regarding the compatibility of the legislative amendments with Hungary’s obligations under international human rights law.
ALLEGATIONS
In March 2025, the Parliament of Hungary adopted legislative amendments concerning the right to assembly, aimed at preventing and criminalizing LGBTIQ-themed assemblies. As a result of these amendments, organizing such events is now punishable by up to one year in prison, and participants can be fined up to EUR 500 for committing a misdemeanour.
While the Budapest Pride 2025 event eventually went ahead as a municipal cultural event, and not as a public assembly, this approach was deliberately not chosen by the Pécs Pride organizers.
The Pride march in Pécs was scheduled to take place on 4 October 2025. The organizer, Mr. Géza Buzás-Hábel, duly notified the police about the planned event, in accordance with applicable law. The police banned the event, and the Supreme Court of Hungary (Kúria), upheld the ban.
The organizer proceeded with the event, despite the Kúria’s decision and it became one of the largest Pécs Pride events, with the participation of several thousand participants.
On 4 October 2025, the Pécs Pride march went ahead peacefully. The police did not intervene to disperse the crowd.
Two weeks after the Pride, Mr Géza Buzás-Hábel was summoned for interrogation by the police as a criminal suspect for ‘organizing a prohibited assembly’, which is an offense punishable by up to one year in prison. The interrogation took place on 28 October 2025. Following the interrogation, the police reportedly closed the investigative phase of the process and reportedly recommended the indictment of Mr Buzás-Hábel. The lawyers of Mr. Buzás-Hábel have not been informed yet of any indictment.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express our concerns about the summons and interrogation, and potential indictment of Mr. Buzás-Hábel, for his peaceful acts of organizing the Pécs Pride march. We reiterate our strong concerns about the legislative amendments introduced in March 2025, which effectively ban LGBTIQ themed assemblies in Hungary.
The legislative amendments established a basis for unlawful restrictions on the human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. In particular, they rely on the discriminatory assertion that the peaceful expression of gender-diverse identities poses a threat to public health and morality, especially that of children. The criminalization of speech and assemblies related to the human rights of LGBT persons, as well as those advocating for their human rights, also infringes on the right to privacy, through amendments expanding the use of biometric facial recognition technology in the context of peaceful assemblies, with the effect of threatening, deterring, and targeting individuals seeking to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
[1] T/11152, Fifteenth Amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, currently under consideration by the Legislative Committee); to amend related legislation, including the Equal Treatment Act (T/11153, On certain amendments related to the fifteenth amendment to the Fundamental Law, currently under consideration by the Legislative Committee); and to amend the Act on the Right of Assembly (T/11201, Amendment of Act LV of 2018 on the Right of Assembly related to the protection of children and related acts, enacted and published on 18 March 2025)
