Definitive Report - Report No 39, 1960

Case No 203 (Hungary) - Complaint date: 20-JUN-59 - Closed

1. 4. In a communication dated 20 June 1959 addressed directly to the I.L.O, the International Federation of Free Journalists of Central and Eastern Europe and Baltic and Balkan Countries (New York) presented a complaint of alleged violation of freedom of association against the Government of Hungary.
2. 5. As the complaint contains allegations that persons have been arrested and sentenced to death, it was dealt with according to the procedure for dealing with urgent cases established by decision of the Governing Body in November 1958 (140th Session).
3. 6. In accordance with this procedure, the Director-General, by a letter dated 3 July 1959, brought the complaint to the notice of the Government of Hungary and requested the Government to furnish as speedy a reply as possible in respect of the matters alleged.
4. 7. The Government of Hungary replied by a communication dated 4 August 1959.

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 8. In their communication dated 20 June 1959, the complainants explain that the complaint is supplementary to that which they submitted on 14 March 19574 and in which, among other things, they cited the names of eight journalists and writers, members of occupational organisations, who were alleged to have been arrested.
2. 9. As the result of its subsequent inquiries, declares the complaining organisation, it has ascertained that many other Hungarian journalists and writers have been executed, imprisoned or sentenced to death. The names of 34 persons are given and the complaining organisation gives indications of the alleged fate of each person. Of the persons listed, only three, it is alleged, have been released. The complainants declare that the measures taken against the persons in question were occasioned by their efforts to defend the right of free expression and individual liberties.
3. 10. The complaining organisation regards these measures-taken after the uprising in Hungary-as violations of human rights and of the principles of freedom of association and calls upon the International Labour Organisation to compel the Government of Hungary to respect the obligations which it has undertaken by reason of Hungary's adherence to the United Nations and the I.L.O.
4. 11. In its reply dated 4 August 1959 the Government states that it has received the text of the complaint of the International Federation of Free Journalists and the accompanying request for its observations thereon. In view of the fact that, in its opinion, such a request for observations amounts to an attempt by the Governing Body to interfere unconstitutionally with the internal affairs of the Hungarian People's Republic, the Government declares that it does not intend, either in the present case or in respect of similar communications in the future, to furnish any reply beyond that already furnished on 21 May 1957 with regard to the first series of complaints made on 14 March 1957 by the International Federation of Free Journalists.
5. 12. On that occasion, the Government declared that the complaint of the International Federation of Free Journalists was based on a tendentious presentment of the events, distortion of the truth and calumnies and was expressly directed to political ends. With respect to the arrest of certain Hungarian journalists and writers, the Government made the following observations. It follows from the principles set forth in article 49, paragraph 1, of the Hungarian Constitution, to the effect that citizens are equal before the law, that every person-irrespective of his occupation-who commits an offence constituting a breach of the rules of law for the time being in force must be prosecuted according to the rules of procedure. This applies equally to journalists and writers; those who were on trial had not been prosecuted "for having exercised freedom of expression", as stated by the complainants, but for having committed crimes and for having pursued activities leading to murders and acts of terrorism. For having taken part in the commission of acts of subversion they were sentenced pursuant to the Penal Code already in force before October 1956.
6. 13. The Government went on to express the view that every State has the unquestionable right, in the normal exercise of its sovereignty, to indict for trial persons who commit offences aiming to overthrow the legal Constitutional order. In consequence, it firmly maintained the view that the question of the arrest of certain Hungarian journalists and writers constituted a matter within the domestic jurisdiction of the Hungarian People's Republic, and that any examination of the question was, therefore, outside the competence of international organisations.
7. 14. In conclusion, the Government expressed the hope " that the competent organs of the International Labour Organisation, after making an objective investigation, on the basis of the information supplied by the Hungarian Government, of the complaint lodged by the International Federation of Free Journalists, would be bound to come to the conclusion that discussion of the complaint (which was, moreover, devoid of any foundation) was not within the competence of the International Labour Organisation, and even less within that of the Committee on Freedom of Association ".

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 15. The question as to the competence of the Committee has already been answered in the affirmative by the Committee in the previous case relating to Hungary. The situation being substantially similar in the present case, the Committee considers that it is competent to examine the complaint now before it.
2. 16. Furthermore, as the latest complaint from the International Federation of Free Journalists deals in part with the same facts as were alleged in Case No. 160, supplementing the complaints made in that case by the addition of a new list of persons stated to have been arrested or executed, and as the Government, in reply, refers to its observations in the earlier case, the Committee considers it appropriate to submit to the Governing Body recommendations on the merits similar to those which it submitted, after concluding its examination of Case No. 160, in October 1957.
3. 17. While doing so, however, the Committee wishes to emphasise a new event which has occurred since it examined Case No. 160, namely the fact that the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), both ratified by Hungary, came into force for Hungary on 6 June 1958. The reports of the Government of Hungary on the application of these Conventions were received too late in 1959, however, to permit of their examination by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 18. In these circumstances, the Committee, rejecting the contention of the Government of Hungary that the matter is not within its competence and deploring the refusal of the Government of Hungary to give information concerning the grave allegations made by the complainant that members of trade union organisations have been imprisoned, condemned to death and in certain cases executed, recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to note that the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) entered into force for Hungary on 6 June 1958 and, therefore, to draw the attention of the Hungarian authorities to the importance of securing full application in practice of all the provisions of these two instruments;
   • (b) to reaffirm the importance which it attaches to the principle that, when trade unionists are accused of political or criminal offences which a government considers to be outside the scope of their trade union activities, they, like all other persons, should be judged promptly by an impartial and independent judicial authority ;
   • (c) to appeal to the Government of Hungary to give urgent consideration to commuting the sentences of death alleged to have been pronounced in certain cases.
     • Geneva, 9 November 1959. (Signed) Paul RAMADIER, Chairman.