Holocaust and Genocide Denial: A Contextual Perspective

This book provides a detailed analysis of one of the most prominent and widespread international phenomena to which criminal justice systems has been applied: the expression of revisionist views relating to mass atrocities and the outright denial of their existence. Denial poses challenges to more than one academic discipline: to historians, the gradual disappearance of the generation of eyewitnesses raises the question of how to keep alive the memory of the events, and the fact that negationism is often offered in the guise of historical 'revisionist scholarship' also means that there is need for the identification of parameters which can be applied to the office of the 'genuine' historian. Legal academics and practitioners as well as political scientists are faced with the difficulty of evaluating methods to deal with denial and must in this regard identify the limits of freedom of speech, but also the need to preserve the rights of victims. Beyond that, the question arises whether the law can ever be an effective option for dealing with revisionist statements and the revisionist movement. In this regard, Holocaust and Genocide Denial: A Contextual Perspective breaks new ground: exploring the background of revisionism, the specific methods devised by individual States to counter this phenomenon, and the rationale for their strategies. Bringing together authors whose expertise relates to the history of the Holocaust, genocide studies, international criminal law and social anthropology, the book offers insights into the history of revisionism and its varying contexts, but also provides a thought-provoking engagement with the challenging questions attached to its treatment in law and politics.

Table of Contents:
List of contributors Introduction Paul Behrens, Nicholas Terry and Olaf Jensen Part I Development and concept of genocide denial 1. Alexander Ratcliffe: British Holocaust denial in embryo Mark Hobbs 2. Countering Holocaust denial in relation to the Nuremberg trials Michael Salter 3. Holocaust denial in the age of web 2.0: negationist discourse since the Irving-Lipstadt trial Nicholas Terry Part II Holocaust and genocide denial around the world 4. Silence and denial in Gulag testimonies: listening for the unspeakable Elisabeth Anstett 5. The presence of the past: on the significance of the Holocaust and the criminalisation of its negation in the Federal Republic of Germany Christian Mentel 6. The prohibition of ‘glorification of National Socialism’ as an addition to the criminal provision on genocide denial: (Sect. 130 (4) of the German Criminal Code) Björn Elberling and Alexander Hoffmann 7. Reckoning with the past? Rwanda's revised Genocide Ideology Law and international human rights law on freedom of expression Sejal Parmar 8. A view of the impact of genocide denial laws in Rwanda Niamh Barry 9. Confronting genocide denial: using the law as a tool in combating genocide denial in Rwanda Freda Kabatsi 10. Srebrenica and genocide denial in the former Yugoslavia: what has the ICTY done to address it? Dejana Radisavljević and Martin Petrov 11. Holocaust denial in Iran: Ahamdinejad, the 2006 Holocaust conference and international law Paul Behrens 12. A centenary of denial: the case of the Armenian genocide Nariné Ghazaryan Part III Dealing with Holocaust and genocide denial 13. From introduction to implementation: first steps of the EU Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA against racism and xenophobia Paolo Lobba 14. Combating genocide denial via law: état des lieux of anti-denial legislation Caroline Fournet and Clotilde Pégorier 15. Why not the law? Options for dealing with genocide and Holocaust denial Paul Behrens 16. Concluding thoughts Paul Behrens, Nicholas Terry and Olaf Jensen Index

About the Author :
Dr Paul Behrens is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Law at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Nicholas Terry is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Department of History at the University of Exeter. Dr Olaf Jensen is an Honorary Associate Member of the Stanley Burton Centre of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Leicester.