Anikó Bakonyi is a human rights defender from Budapest, Hungary. For the past twelve years, she has been working for the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the leading Hungarian refugee rights NGO, where she is now the Head of the Refugee Program. Her work focuses on protecting the rights of refugees through human rights monitoring, counselling, advocacy, and reporting.
In her professional life, Anikó has worked with victims of human trafficking, Roma and Jewish Holocaust survivors and their families, and refugees arriving in Hungary from all over the world. Since 2020, she also serves as one of the co-chairs on the board of the Berlin-based Civil Society Forum, with a membership of 180 organizations from the EU and Russia. Her interests have always centered on social justice, and protecting and empowering disadvantaged groups in society.
She holds degrees from ELTE University of Budapest (MA in English, Russian and American Studies), Central European University of Budapest (MA in Human Rights), and the Harvard Kennedy School (Mid-Career Master in Public Administration).
