Christian Union feels Europe¹s support for its draft law
³Penalise the denial of genocide²
Trouw
Dutch daily newspaper
2 December 2008
By Cees van der Laan
The Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) has little sympathy for the idea, but the
Christian Union pushes ahead its draft law for penalising the offending
denial of genocides. The Armenian issue simmers just below the surface.
It has been quiet for a time since Christian Union in 2006 initiated the
draft law for penalising the public denial of genocide. The vehemence of the
debate on Armenian Genocide during the elections of 2006 may have been the
reason of this silence. In addition to that, Christian Union, an advocate of
punishment of genocide denial, and PvdA, an opponent of it, are now
coalition partners in the government. In that circumstances, it would be not
ill-advised to let the issue just cool down.
However, the Christian Union (CU) now feels the support of Europe for going
ahead with its draft law. The European Commission, European Parliament and
the EU ministers of justice, are of the idea that the member states should
make the denial punishable in their respective legislations. On Saturday,
this European Framework Decision was published and now is official. ³A clear
expression of the European attitude², according to Christian Union Member
of Parliament Mr. Joel Voordewind. Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain and
Luxemburg already have legislation to punish denial of genocide.
Monday, the CU organises a roundtable discussion in the Parliament on its
draft law. It is a closed meeting so that the members of Parliament, the
invited genocide scholars and the jurists can exchange views freely. Another
reason could be that the Armenian Genocide will also be a subject of
discussion, since the Federation of the Armenian Organisations will also be
present.
This is an exceptionally emotional issue for Turks living in the
Netherlands, since according to most Turks there was no genocide. In 2006,
three Turkish candidates of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the
Labour Party (PvdA) for parliamentary elections, withdrew from the campaign
because they had denied the Armenian Genocide. State Secretary Ms. Albayrak
(Labour Party) thinks that massacres have been perpetrated at the time, but
whether those massacres can be defined as genocide under international law
remains a question for her.
Mr. Voordewind expects to submit officially the draft law to the Parliament
after the hearing. The bill has been amended on some points after the
remarks of the State Council, but the purport remains intact. The coalition
partner, PvdA, however, does not support it. Also, the minister of Justice,
Mr. Hirsch Ballin does not advocate a separate legislation. He supports the
European Framework Decision, but finds that the present legislation already
provides this option. According to him, deniers of the Jewish Holocaust and
other genocides (Srebrenica, Rwanda, Armenians) can be apprehended on the
strength of the present laws criminalizing discrimination and insult.
The CU does not agree with this argument. According to Mr. Voordewind,
falsifying of the facts consciously in combination with hurting, insulting
or discriminating of the victims or their descendants must be a recognised
penal act in itself. Besides, a special legislation will work more
effectively than the present more general provisions of the Criminal Law.
The origin of the draft law lies in a motion by Christian Union back in
2004, which was adopted by the Parliament. In that motion, the Armenian
Genocide was recognised. At the time, the government had no problem with
that. In 2006, the Christian Union submitted the draft law for penalising
the ?negationism¹, i.e. offending denial of crimes against humanity in
general, with up to one year imprisonment or an equivalent pecuniary
punishment. The draft law is not particularly directed to the Armenian
Genocide, but applies to all internationally established genocides.
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* Note by Abovian Cultural Centre:
The hearing took place on 15 December 2008 and was organised by Christian
Union parliamentary faction, initiator of the draft law, with participation
of Dutch MP¹s, genocide experts, jurists, Centre for Information and
Documentation on Israel (CIDI) and the Federation of Armenian Organisations
of the Netherlands (FAON).