On 5 December 2025, our organisation won an important court case against the guardianship authority in Pest County, Hungary, reinforcing the right to independent oversight and effective access to justice for persons with disabilities.
In its decision, the Budapest Environs Regional Court ruled that the authority acted unlawfully when it twice refused to allow our lawyers to meet with a person with a disability living in a group home, a closed residential institution. Serious concerns had been raised about possible sexual violence and other forms of abuse.
Despite the heightened risk of abuse in closed institutional settings, the guardianship authority first, in October 2024, informally denied the request and later, in December 2024, issued a formal decision striking it out. A similar practice of restricting access to justice was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Validity Foundation on behalf of T.J. v. Hungary (no.31970/20, 10/10/2024), a case in which the Validity Foundation had to engage in prolonged legal efforts in order to represent a person living in an institutional setting.
Consequently, the Budapest Court annulled both decisions of the Guardianship Authority as unlawful, emphasising that denying access to legal counsel in such circumstances violates fundamental rights. The Court ordered the authority to reopen the procedure and issue a new, lawful decision.
This judgment is a significant step toward greater transparency, accountability, and the effective protection of persons with disabilities, who are often deprived of timely access to lawyers and independent oversight while living in institutions, sometimes for indefinite periods. The girl with a disability was still under 18 when the legal proceedings began, but she is now an adult, bearing the consequences of prolonged justice that has taken several years of her life.