EU AGREES TO PENALTIES FOR RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA
by Fabrice Randoux

Agence France Presse — English
April 19, 2007 Thursday 7:48 PM GMT

The European Union on Thursday made inciting racism and xenophobia
crimes throughout its 27 member states in a landmark decision tempered
by caveats to appease free speech concerns.

The new deal specifies one- to three-year prison terms be available
for incitement to violence or hatred "against a group of persons
or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour,
religion, descent or national or ethnic origin".

That could include the sending of "tracts, pictures or other material."

The deal, reached by EU justice ministers in Luxembourg, display’s
"Europe’s "common moral values", EU Justice Commissioner Franco
Frattini told reporters.

It comes after almost six years of wrangling and falls short of
Germany’s ambitions of specifically outlawing Holocaust denial.

The text also notes that "member states may choose to punish only
conduct which is either carried out in a manner likely to disturb
public order or which is threatening, abusive or insulting."

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries nonetheless hailed the
decision as "an important political signal" following failures in
2003 and 2005 to reach such a deal.

Germany had wanted to outlaw the denial of the murder of six million
Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II before
its six-month term at the helm of the EU runs out at the end of June.

Holocaust denial was made a crime in Germany in 1985 and the use of
Nazi insignia is forbidden.

Building on the most recent attempt, spearheaded by Luxembourg in
2005, the measure has consistently run up against the problems that
it might pose for free speech.

To make the text acceptable to Britain, Ireland and the Scandinavian
states — particularly concerned about curbs to their freedoms of
expression — Holocaust denial will only qualify under the EU-wide
rules if it is deemed likely to incite hatred.

It is covered in a clause that states that the penalties will also
apply to "publicly, condoning, denying or grossly trivialising crimes
of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes," as defined by
the International Criminal Court and the post-World War II Nuremberg
trials.

The wording could also apply to crimes against humanity perpetrated
in Srebrenica, Rwanda and elsewhere.

The EU sentencing framework can of course be higher under national
rules and Holocaust denial is already specifically targeted by laws
in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Romania.

"Attempts to harmonise EU laws on hate crimes are both illiberal and
nonsensical," European Liberal Democrat Leader Graham Watson said in
a statement summing up the British opposition.

"The proposed list risks opening the floodgates on a plethora of
historical controversies — like the crimes of the Stalinist regime or
the alleged Armenian genocide — whose inclusion could pose a grave
threat to freedom of speech. The EU has no business legislating on
history," he added.

"The text is in a sense more symbolic and political than judicial,"
said a French diplomat while stressing "the importance of having the
EU 27 on the same platform against racism".

Debate on the measure lasted several hours, largely due to the Baltic
states wish to include Stalinist crimes in the text. That idea was
rejected by the other EU members who argued that such crimes were
not principally racist.

In a compromise move, the EU member states also adopted a declaration
deploring all crimes committed by totalitarian regimes.

After the new rules are adopted, member states will have two years
to comply with the decision.

The Baltic states — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — indicated that
their parliament would first have to agree to the text.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress