“The world is a dangerous place to live in; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.”
(Albert Einstein – refugee from Nazi Germany)

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Judiciary under control of fascistic government


Another step of demolishing the democracy on the way towards the fascism in Hungary can be known by a Guardian article(1):

Victor Orbán
In Hungary, one woman effectively controls the judiciary, and she happens to be married to the author of its constitution
Imagine a European country where one person can pick the judges. And effectively sack them or transfer them to other courts. And draw up court rules. And initiate legislation on the courts. And hold some 60 other specified legal powers
(...)
All these powers are in the hands of Tünde Handó(2), a former judge and president of the newly established national judicial office (NJO). No doubt it's pure coincidence that she is married to József Szájer(3), a founding member of the ruling Fidesz party and the man credited with drawing up Hungary's constitution on his iPad.
(...)
"
When not only the fundamental principles but also very specific and detailed rules on certain issues will be enacted in cardinal laws," it[Venice commission(4)] added, "the principle of democracy itself is at risk."
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Sources:
(1) 20/03/2012, The Guardian, Joshua Rozenberg: Meet Tünde Handó http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/mar/20/tunde-hando-hungarian-judges (The Orbán photo is linked from here.)
      23/03/2012, The Guardian: Unveil the courts? http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/mar/23/1
      21/03/2012, HVG.hu: Guardian: "Ismerjék meg Handó Tündét" - excerpt from the Guardian article in Hungarian, with translation of some parts of it: http://hvg.hu/vilag/20120321_hando_guardian
     Eva S. Balogh 13/12/2011: The end of the independent judiciary, http://esbalogh.typepad.com/hungarianspectrum/2011/12/the-end-of-the-independent-judiciary.html
Tünde Handó
"Until now the appointment of judges was the jurisdiction of an organization consisting of high-level judges, the chief justice, and the minister of justice. This organization was abolished. In its place the Orbán government set up the Országos Bírósági Hivatal (OBH) whose head, appointed for nine years, will be able to pick judges single-handedly. This position as of today is filled by Tünde Handó(2), the wife of József Szájer(3), Fidesz European parliamentary member and one of the founders of Fidesz.
József Szájer
He was the one who wrote the Hungarian constitution on an iPad on the train between Budapest and Brussels. Moreover, Tünde Handó is a very close friend of both Viktor Orbán and his wife, Anikó Lévai. They all lived in the same dormitory in the 1980s as law students. The friendship has lasted almost 30 years. Tünde and Anikó can often be seen together attending concerts or theatre performances."


(3) Tünde Handó on Wikipedia (in Hungarian): http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand%C3%B3_T%C3%BCnde
(4) József Szájer on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zsef_Sz%C3%A1jer

(3) Venice Commission: http://www.venice.coe.int/site/main/Presentation_E.asp
"The European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, is the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters. Established in 1990, the commission has played a leading role in the adoption of constitutions that conform to the standards of Europe's constitutional heritage.

Initially conceived as a tool for emergency constitutional engineering, the commission has become an internationally recognised independent legal think-tank. Today it contributes to the dissemination of the European constitutional heritage, based on the continent's fundamental legal values while continuing to provide “constitutional first-aid” to individual states. The Venice Commission also plays a unique and unrivalled role in crisis management and conflict prevention through constitution building and advice."
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Notes:
"the principle of democracy itself is at risk." - the main problem is not so with principles but as much more rather practise. Fidesz (Orbán) has ability even all of the tools to make the world believe that they are building democracy in Hungary. And the world readily believes it. None of the country needs diplomatic complication, does it? It is more convenient to close their eyes and ears, to believe that there are no any serious problem and to learn what the Fidesz government pretends.

We wonder what if a country doesn't take the advices of this type of commissions(5). As can be seen regarding the case of the Paris Peace Treaty(1947). The international agreement even contained by Hungarian act is good for nothing. None of any signatories (e.g. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa ) does care about the violation of the agreement. So it can happens in the 21th century in the middle of Europe that a little country has been marching on the way towards a new type of fascism even nacizm undisturbed.

After all at this time the world will not have any excuse (e.g.: "Sorry. How could we imagine that those terrible things would happen? We had no any ideas what were going on in Germany and later in Europe?") for why they allowed to happen. Indeed the victims are not/will not be happy knowing about it.

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