Debates on bill on penalizing genocide denial resume in Dutch parliament

PanARMENIAN.Net - The replies of Christian Union faction, published in a document of 23 pages, to the questions of various groups in the Dutch parliament take the bill to penalize public and deliberate denial of genocide one step further, reported the Federation of Armenian Organizations in the Netherlands.

The Christian Union party has recently held a roundtable discussion in which several parliamentary groups as well as with the Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) and the Federation of Armenian Organizations in the Netherlands (FAON), which brought forward arguments to move to the explicit criminalization of genocide denial.

The Christian Union, as the author of the bill, emphasized the need for criminalization of genocide denial based on the text and the objectives of the EU Framework Decision of November 28, 2008 on “Combating certain forms and manifestations of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law”. With regard to freedom of expression, it is among others argued that its protection for example in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is not intended for such serious offences of a group.

Regarding the concept of genocide, in any case, as examples of genocide are mentioned the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, as well as the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica. Criteria such as recognition and "general consensus" in this context are also discussed.

The coming period will show if the majority in the Dutch parliament can support the bill. It can be expected that later this year the plenary debate will take place on the bill in the Dutch parliament.