Identity Statement

Reference Code

HU OSA 408-5-1

Title

Legislation on State Security Agents

Date(s)

1991 - 2011

Description Level

Series

Extent and medium (processed)

2 Archival boxes, 0.25 linear meters

Context

Archival history

László Varga's own collection.

Content and Structure

Scope and Content (Abstract)

The series includes laws and bills on lustration and disclosure of the past of the sate security.

As Chair of the Disclosure Committee of 1995, the donor made recommendations for the new law; legislators, however, accepted few of them. In 2002, after the scandal broke out about Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy earlier being a secret officer (D-209) of the state security service, Varga was one of the persons who drafted the first version of the new bill in a matter of a few days.

The law of 1994 dealt exclusively with lustration, in a controversial and occasionally unconstitutional way. The law of 1996 narrowed down the groups of people to be lustrated and at the same time the Constitutional Court heavily restricted access to files. The law of 2001 designated the Historical Office, set up by the law of 1996, as the archives of the operating secret services.

The law passed in 2002 and promulgated in 2003, which is in effect today, made the files more accessible but at the same time extended the category of state secret without limits thereby creating new obstacles to access.

The series includes several draft bills that never were passed.

The series presents the history of the changes in legislation on the disclosure of the secret service past. With regard to the law of 2003, one can see how the original bill was softened to the point that it ended up serving the needs of the secret services.

These documents highlight the practice commonly used elsewhere too: the government has its own representatives amend the government’s original proposal. At a certain point, the state secretary overseeing secret services was put in charge of drafting the bill on behalf of the government, who completely satisfied the needs of the secret services, sometimes even disregarding human rights considerations.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information

No destruction took place in the course of processing.

Accruals

Not Expected

System of arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access

The general rules of research in OSA Research Room apply.

Conditions governing reproduction

A dokumentumok oktatási és kutatási célból digitálisan másolhatók az OSA kutatótermében.

Description Control

Archivist's note

Processed by László Varga, March 2, 2015.