Thousands protest in Hungary against law banning pride marches News
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Thousands protest in Hungary against law banning pride marches

Thousands of protestors in Budapest, Hungary’s capital, blocked major roads and bridges along the Danube on Tuesday in disapproval of a law banning LGBTQ+ pride and restricting Hungarians’ right to assembly.

The protest was organized by Ákos Hadházy, an MP for the Politics Can Be Different (LMP), a green-liberal party, calling for resistance against the government. Participants in the protest occupied Ferenciek Square and roads leading up to Elisabeth Bridge, the Buda bridgehead and the Pest bridgehead of the Liberty Bridge, where traffic was held up for two hours. Hadházy said, “The dirty law passed on Tuesday actually allows not only the banning of Pride, but also the suppression of any future protests”.

Last week, Hungary’s House of National Assembly passed a law that bans events considered to violate Hungary’s Act LXXIX of 2021 and the Child Protection Act, allowing authorities to use facial recognition on attendees. Hosting or attending such events that “depict or promote” homosexuality to children under the age of 18 has been made illegal.

Hungary’s far-right and national-conservative political party, Fidesz, proposed a Fifteenth Amendment to the Fundamental Law of Hungary, Hungary’s constitution, on March 11 to codify banning pride. The bill allowing for financial penalties and the use of facial recognition against participants in LGBTQ+ demonstrations was proposed on March 17 by Fidesz and adopted and signed by President Tamás Sulyok the following day. Human Rights Watch reported that the fast adoption of the law demonstrates a “disregard for the rule of law and democratic checks and balances.”

These legislative proposals may disregard several human rights. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) protects the right to freedom assembly and association. Hungary is also a party to several international human rights law, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), that guarantees a right to freedom of expression in Article 19. The Committee on the Rights of the Child have previously said that “an adult’s judgment of a child’s best interests cannot override the obligation to respect all the child’s rights under the Convention”, which includes the right to access to information and freedom of expression.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán previously passed laws against the LGBTQ+ community that human rights groups and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights criticised. Budapest Pride said the marches will still go ahead for 28 June, 2025 in Hungary.

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