Hungary

Hungary has a violence problem that is structurally anchored in society. This leads to violation of children’s rights in public educational institutions, on the borders or in prison. Positive to mention is that child poverty decreased from 24.9 per cent in 2014 to 15.2 per cent in 2017. The overall situation for children in Hungary could be better.

The Committee is seriously concerned about adolescents’ insufficient access to confidential and child-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, the requirement for adolescents to have parental permission to access sexual and reproductive health services and psychological care and the high levels of pregnancy among adolescents and an approach that aims to unduly influence girls’ reproductive health decisions.

Hungary is urged to rapidly phase out the institutionalization of children with disabilities and urgently close Topház Special Home and other institutions that do not comply with the required standards, while increasing access to community services that are inclusive of children with disabilities, particularly health and rehabilitation services, transport, leisure and sports, in order to promote their inclusion in society. Also, they should ensure that reporting cases of violence, abuse and neglect of children with disabilities is mandatory for all persons working with them.

The Committee recommends that the State party ensure that all children benefit in practice from the mandatory health services free of charge and to ensure that health-care facilities and practitioners, including paediatricians, are available throughout the State party, including in rural areas. In addition to that, the very high rates of alcohol and tobacco consumption and drug use among adolescents are concerning the Committee.

The Committee is seriously concerned about the prevalence of mental health issues, namely anxiety and depression, among adolescents and their insufficient access to support services. To improve the situation, the committee recommends to invest in addressing the underlying causes of mental health conditions among children and adolescents and to promote their awareness of and access to psychological support services.

The Committee recommends to strengthen initiatives aimed at increasing child participation and develop toolkits for consulting children on national policy issues that affect them – in particular the issues that children identified as being of most concern for them, such as education, climate change and security – and ensure that children’s views are taken into account by local and national authorities.

The Committee recommends that the State party bring its child justice system fully into line with the Convention and abolish the practice of sentencing children to prison terms for petty crimes as well as provide children accused of criminal offences with information about their rights and how to report abuses.

The Committee recommends that the State party continue to ensure respect for the child’s right to privacy during political campaigns and prevent the use of children as campaign tools.
There are cases of violence inflicted by border police on children and others staying irregularly in the State party during interception and removal operations.
The Committee is seriously concerned about the lack of information on a national strategy to prevent and address all forms of violence against children.

Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report released on 3 March 2020.