Controversial Hungarian Anti-LGBT Law to Be Heard by EU Court.
The initial hearing regarding the Hungarian Child Protection Act is scheduled for today at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg.
Hungary’s contentious Child Protection Law, which has faced significant criticism for its perceived anti-LGBT stance, will be presented before the EU’s Court of Justice on Tuesday.
This legislation asserts a policy of zero tolerance towards convicted paedophiles. However, it also imposes prohibitions or stringent limitations on the portrayal of homosexuality and gender reassignment in media and educational materials aimed at individuals under the age of 18.
Consequently, the law has been criticized for equating paedophilia with homosexuality, as its stated objective is to enhance the safeguarding of children from sexual offenders.
Following the enactment of this law, the children’s rights organization Eurochild has expressed concerns, stating that children are entitled to healthy development and freedom of expression, and that this legislation “violates all these rights and risks harming the very children it claims to protect.”
The statement indicates that it fosters an atmosphere of fear, raising alarms regarding the welfare of all children and society as a whole. The European Parliament has passed a resolution denouncing the law in the strongest terms and has also criticized what it perceives as the erosion of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.
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In a show of defiance, Hungary referenced a 2022 referendum in which citizens were asked to express their views on the contentious law.
For the referendum to be considered valid, participation from half of Hungary’s registered voters was required. Although this threshold was not achieved, a significant majority of those who did participate expressed support for the government’s stance.
Infringement proceedings were initiated against Hungary concerning the law, but these efforts did not yield success.
In December 2022, the European Commission brought Hungary before the EU’s Court of Justice, asserting that the law infringes upon fundamental rights protected by the bloc’s legislation.
Fifteen EU member states joined the lawsuit as third parties: Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, Ireland, Denmark, Malta, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, France, Germany, and Greece.
The framework of the law was derived from a comparable legislative measure implemented in Russia. The “anti-gay propaganda” law, first proposed by Putin’s administration in 2013, was deemed unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights four years thereafter.
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