The Hungarian Helsinki Committee received the European Union Civil Solidarity Prize on Monday morning in recognition of its activities during the coronavirus pandemic. The prize was awarded to the Hungarian human rights organisation by the European Economic and Social Committee. This is the ninth major international recognition of the organisation’s outstanding work in the last five years.  ‘Awarding the Hungarian Helsinki Committee with the EESC Civil Solidarity Prize is of course a great honour for us. But it is much more than that: it confirms that calamities must never be used as a pretext to curb democratic achievements and to scape-goat vulnerable minorities. Such moves are antagonistic to the values on which the European Union was founded, and those who courageously stand up against them do the right thing. The prize gives us a lot of strength to continue our gap-filling work and defend vulnerable human beings and vulnerable human rights values at risk,” said András Kristóf Kádár, co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee at the online awards ceremony. As a leading human rights watchdog in Hungary, the HHC went far beyond the traditional role of a legally focused NGO. It closely monitored and stood up against attempts to use the COVID-19....

This post was originally published on Magyar Helsinki Bizottság.