PanARMENIAN.Net
Germany Calls for Punishment for Genocide Denial
12.01.2007 15:09 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries has called
for a Europe-wide initiative to tackle right-wing extremism to be put
in place and plans to push ahead with the idea using her country’s
current presidency of the EU. The minister told German daily Bild that
officials are worried about the rising levels of extremism being
carried out across Europe, with the perpetrators taking advantage of
the different rules in member states. "That is why during the EU
presidency we are immediately going to make a new attempt to finally
lay down uniform standards when it comes to fighting right-wing
extremism," she said. She added that Italy, which had blocked
previous plans to get an EU law on the issue off the ground, had now
signaled its support for the idea. An EU law combating racism and
xenophobia has been stuck in the legislative pipelines since 2003 with
Rome objecting to it in the past on freedom of speech grounds. The
proposed law says that member states should make punishable "public
incitement to discrimination, violence or hatred against a group of
persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race,
color, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin". It also calls
for punishment of "public condoning, denial or gross trivialization of
crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes."
Political discussion on the law in 2005 came unstuck when it was
overshadowed by divisive debate on whether Nazi symbols should be
banned, reports the EUobserver.