Hungary A 17-year-old girl was imprisoned for ten days for illegal prostitution

August 27, 2010

Comment: The article describes the case of a Hungarian child offering sexual services in Miskolc who was found guilty of repeated „illegal lechery” or offering sexual services at not designated areas. (Local governments are supposed to designate areas where prostitution is legal – but in fact there are no such places anywhere in the country. Outside these areas prostitution is illegal).

Recently the Hungarian parliament passed two rather important modifications of the law on offences: first, people committing offences such as theft under HUF 20,000 (Euro 80), embezzlement, credit card fraud, trespassing, or working in an organisation whose dissolution was ordered by the court, can be detained (before they were only fined). Second, the age limit for all offences (including illegal prostitution) was decreased from 18 to 14. Minors can be detained for up to 30 days – or if they committed several crimes, up to 45 days.

It is the first case when police detained a minor and where the court made a sentence of 10 days in prison. As the Hungarian Helsinki Committee pointed out in its recent statement, this new law goes against the Child Rights Convention that Hungary also ratified. The law does not allow imprisonment as a last resort but as a main form of sentence and provides no alternative justice possibilities. On top of that in this case a child is being prostituted, so the priority should be on her protection and not on her prosecution. The Hungarian law as well as its application in this case go against the rights and best interests of the child.

Comment: Judit Almasi, Senior HR project coordinator, Regional Office for Central and South East Europe, Terre des hommes – Child Relief.