Since its inception in 1994, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) (Hungarian: Társaság a Szabadságjogokért, and its acronym TASZ) is a leading non-governmental organization in the field of human rights and harm reduction advocacy in Hungary. Patterned on the successful model of the American Civil Liberties Union's work in the United States, HCLU provides legal aid and advocacy for vulnerable populations, such as drug users, psychiatric patients, and people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as providing public information on related issues. In 2005, HCLU received a grant from the Open Society Institute to further its sex work reduction and policy advocacy.
The HCLU has strongly opposed laws against Holocaust denial saying that "the constitutional liability to act against exclusionary, racist and anti-Semitic speech cannot be solved effectively via criminal provisions, rather than by education and possible new sanctions against such remarks by public figures."
HCLU focuses on:
- its Drug Policy Program;
- Freedom of information and the right to informational privacy;
- Patients' rights, including work with HIV/AIDS patients;
- Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Assembly; and
- Right to self-determination, including abortion and euthanasia.
Additionally, HCLU had been working with the Hungarian Government's anti-corruption co-ordination board, although the organization quit such cooperation late in 2008, saying that it was "irrelevant." HCLU has been recognized as a less biased source for information on human rights issues in Hungary than official sources.
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