Parlement européen

Workshop on the paneuropean penalization of Genocide denial held in the European Parliament

German, Austrian, Belgian, British, Spanish, French, Dutch, Luxembourg, Slovak and Swiss citizens participated in the workshop organised by the European Armenian Federation

The workshop organised on Wednesday 21st January by the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy drew great interest across several European countries. Held under the auspices of the Honorable Presidency of Mrs. Martine Roure, Vice President of the European Parliament, the meeting focused on the Framework Decision recently adopted by the Council calling for the pan-European penalization of genocide denial.

Martine Roure, vice présidente du PE et Hilda Tchoboian, présidente de la FEAJD

An impressive number of activists, leaders of Human Rights organizations and legal experts came from about ten European countries to learn more about this new European penal provision and discuss how it could be implemented in their respective countries. In her welcoming speech, Mrs. Roure stressed that, as the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the Framework Decision, she would follow the conclusions of this meeting. Then, Mr. Csonka, the head of the Criminal Justice Unit of the European Commission, presented the text of the Framework Decision as well as the limitations brought by Member States.

salle comble

Mr. Csonka explained that this Framework Decision had the merit to exist, emphasizing the challenges that impeded consensus among the 27 EU member states. He especially insisted on the stage report that will be released by the Commission after the two-year period dedicated to the implementation of the Framework Decision. He also explained that, if the Lisbon Treaty comes in effect, the provision’s prerogatives would be reinforced.

Peter Csonka (EC) et Inge Drost (Pays-Bas)

Legal experts from seven European countries (Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland) presented the jurisprudence and the instruments related to the campaign against denial in their respective countries. They also tried to extrapolate what the transposition of the Framework Decision will add to the existing code in their respective law.

Me Frédéric Krenc

Mr Krenc (Belgium), lawyer and general secretary of the Institute for Human Rights of the Brussels Bar, gave a detailed analysis on the Framework Decision’s provisions and especially discussed whether this new text leads to a legal regression taking into consideration previous Member States’ commitments, in particular in comparison with the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial discrimination.

Me Sarkis Bezelgues

M. Sarkis Shahinian

Reacting on the specific problem of the Armenian Genocide – a genocide that occurred before the existence of the appropriate international jurisdictions and that drove their very implementation – Mr Bezelgues (Germany) advocated for the definition of “open lists” and revisable of “proven genocides” or “undeniable genocides” in order to implement the penalisation of denials on objective factors.

Me Lagarde

le sénateur Roelants du Vivier

He has been supported by the Belgian Senator François Roelants du Vivier, who initiated the bill that aims to penalise the denial of the Armenian and Tutsi genocides. Mr Lagarde (France) castigated the lobby of the historians who “want – for lucrative reasons – to write books on the immediate history” while exempting ordinary laws on insult, slander, distribution of false information or denial.

The summaries of the speeches and their audio recordings will be published soon on the European Armenian Federation website. The workshop ended with a dialogue full of questions from the audience. During the meeting, we noted that in several European countries, we are very close to the promulgation of a law penalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide; paradoxically, the Framework Decision offers this as anoptional measure to the national legislations.

“After the adoption of the European Framework Decision, it would be unacceptable that the countries that have already recognized the Armenian Genocide exclude the denial of this genocide from the penalization framework” declared Hilda Tchoboian, the chairperson of the European Armenian Federation.

“We had overcome the rationale of Realpolitik at the time when European countries recognised the Armenian Genocide; our countries must succeed today in the European fight against this racist plague of denial, and for this reason they must once again give up their logic of Realpolitik” concluded Hilda Tchoboian.