An international organization founded by US billionaire George Soros said in a press release on Monday it had filed an application before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over Hungary's recent laws targeting non-governmental organizations working with refugees.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2018) An international organization founded by US billionaire George Soros said in a press release on Monday it had filed an application before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over Hungary's recent laws targeting non-governmental organizations working with refugees.
"The Open Society Foundations are calling on Europe's highest human rights court to act against Hungary over its so-called Stop Soros laws, which criminalize and tax the work of independent civil society groups, under the pretext of controlling migration," the press release said.
In its application to the Strasbourg-based court, the Soros Foundation argued that the legislation "breaches the guarantees of freedom of expression and association enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights."
"The legal provisions are so broadly written that they will have a far-reaching and chilling effect on the work of civil society far beyond the field of migration," the press release said.
In June, Hungary passed a series of laws, officially known as the "Stop Soros" package, which place restrictions on NGOs and make helping undocumented migrants a criminal act. The lawmakers also passed a constitutional amendment barring any "alien population" from being settled in Hungary.
