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GÁBOR HALMAI as something the state ‘shall strive’ for, which is a step backward in comparison with the 1989 Constitution. Social insurance is not a constitutional institution any more, and the provisions of the Fundamental Law do not guarantee equal dignity and the former level of property protection. The recent case law of the Constitutional Court reaffirms the initial concerns: dignity supported social solidarity got lost in the illiberal backsliding of the past ten years. One of rules of the new Fundamental Law contradicting the principle of dignity — and societal solidarity, humanity in wider sense - after the Seventh Amendment of 2018 is the issue of criminalizing homelessness. Article XXII(3) of the Fundamental Law reeds as follow: ‘Using a public space as a habitual dwelling shall be prohibited.’ The amendment overrode a former decision of the Constitutional Court on the Misdemeanour Act, in which the Court stated that the punishment of unavoidable living in a public area fails to meet the requirement of the protection of human dignity. Right after the Seventh Amendment the Misdemeanour Act was also modified, and introduced the regulatory offence of habitual dwelling on a public place accompanied with a humiliating procedure: police officers are empowered to order homeless people into shelters and can arrest them if they disobey after being ordered three times in a 90-day period. Punishments include jail, community service and their possessions being destroyed (also pets are taken away)." Five judges from different courts of first instance challenged this piece of legislation before the Constitutional Court from October 2018 and in the subsequent months, stating that the new regulation infringes human dignity, legal certainty, right to fair trial and personal liberty. The Constitutional Court has published its shocking decision in early June 2019,”° and declared that the criminalization and imprisonment of homeless people is in line with the Fundamental Law.”! According to the majority decision: 1° Hungarian Constitutional Court Judgement of 12 November 2012, Decision 38/2012 (XI. 14.) AB. Cf. its press release available at https://hunconcourt.hu/announcement/provisionsof-the-act-on-contraventions-criminalizing-people-living-at-public-areas-permanentlyare-against-fundamental-law/. 1% New Hungary Law Bans “Rough Sleepers”, Rights Groups Complain’, Reuters (15 October 2018), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-homeless/new-hungary-law-bansrough-sleepers-rights-groups-complain-idUSKCNIMPIEB. ?° Hungarian Constitutional Court Judgement of 6 November 2018, Decision III/1628/2018 AB (not available in English). 2 Streetlawyer Association, The Constitutional Court has Made an Inhumane Decision on the Confinement of Homeless People, https://utcajogasz.hu/en/resources/misdemeanourcases/the-constitutional-court-has-made-an-inhumane-decision-on-the-confinement-ofhomeless-people/. + 376 +
