EU compromises on religious hatred
After six years of heated political debate, EU member states are set to agree on a common anti-racism law, under which offenders will face up to three years in jail for stirring-up racial hatred or denying acts of genocide, such as the Holocaust.
The latest draft – cited by the Reuters news agency - foresees an EU-wide jail sentence of at least one to three years for “publicly inciting to violence or hatred, directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin.”
According to the Reuters article, Britain has narrowed the scope of the legislation so that EU states are required to punish incitement to hatred against religion only if it is a pretext to incite hatred against a group or person because of national or ethnic origin, race or colour.
The “pretext to incite” clause is - I think - a good thing in that it should prevent religious groups from using the legislation to block any criticism of their activities although care will be needed as there is no consistently objective way of determining when something is a pretext for something else.
The same rules would also apply to people “publicly condoning, denying, or grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes” as defined by international crime courts.
According to the Financial Times, this wording has been carefully chosen so that it covers denial of the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Diplomats also stressed that the wording was designed to avoid criminalising comical plays or films about the Holocaust such as the Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful.
The bill isn’t in the bag yet, though. Poland and the Baltic states are still pushing for “crimes under the Stalin regime in the former Soviet Union” to also become part of the bills scope.
Update: Looking back at this post, my reaction has been a pragmatic - or unambitious - one that assumes that some sort of legislation will be pushed through and, therefore, the weaker it is and the more safeguards it has, the better. For a more principled reaction, go and read Jonathan Calder.
Thursday 19 Apr 2007 | Paul | EU
