The replies of Christian Union faction, published in a document of 23 pages, to the questions of various factions in the Dutch parliament take the bill to penalise public and deliberate denial of genocide, one step further. The bill which was introduced in 2006 by the Christian Union faction in Dutch parliament (The Dutch House of Representatives), could so far not count on a majority support. This was evident from many critical questions of the factions in the parliament during the written preparation. One of the issues raised was whether such a bill is necessary, assuming that the articles on discrimination and insulting of a group already present in Dutch Penal Law sufficiently cover the criminalisation of genocide denial. Also restrictions on freedom of expression in present Dutch public debate are weighing seriously. There are also many questions about the scope and definition of the term genocide.
The Christian Union party has recently held a roundtable discussion in which several groups have commented on the bill and some like the Centre for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) and the Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands (FAON) have brought forward arguments to move to the explicit criminalisation of genocide denial. The Christian Union faction, as the author of the bill, has in a memorandum of reply among others emphasised the need for explicit criminalisation of genocide denial based on the text and the objectives of the EU Framework Decision of 28 November 2008 on “Combating certain forms and manifestations of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law”. This decision explicitly assumes the criminalisation of the genocide denial by the Member States. The author of the bill also considers that clarity of legislation is needed, which can not be inferred from the existing case law. In this case law, for example, the fact that the denial of the Holocaust was offensive to surviving Holocaust victims and their immediate families played a role. It is not clear what a judge would decide if there are no longer (Holocaust) survivors or their next of kin.
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, in the current political situation in Holland regarding the election results to Dutch parliament in 2010, a majority in the Dutch parliament will support the bill. It can be expected that later this year the plenary debate will take place on the bill in the Dutch parliament.
Panorama
