КРИМІНАЛІЗАЦІЯ ЗАПЕРЕЧЕННЯ ГОЛОДОМОРУ У КОНТЕКСТІ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОГО ДОСВІДУ ЗАБОРОНИ ЗАПЕРЕЧЕННЯ ГЕНОЦИДУ

Abstract

The article highlights the problems and prospects of establishing of criminal lability for Holodomor denial in the context of the experience of criminalizing genocide denial, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in European countries. Significant part of western researchers considers that the prosecution of persons who deny genocide should take place primarily in those countries where the mass extermination of large human groups took place in the past and whose society has knowledge of the relevant historical context. Criminalization of denials of genocide in European countries took place in stages. During the 1990s, France, Germany and Belgium established criminal liability for denying the crimes of the Third Reich, including the Holocaust. At the beginning of the XXI century several countries in Eastern and Southern Europe introduced responsibility for the denial of crimes committed by Nazi and communist totalitarian regimes. The next stage of the criminalization of genocide denial began in 2015–2016, it consisted in the establishment of a general ban on denial of all cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, without excluding. Spain, Italy, Germany and others countries of Europe adopted laws of this plan. Currently, international law does not require punishment for genocide denial, but there are noticeable trends leading to the establishment of such a universal norm. Between 2003 and 2008, the European Court of Human Rights and the European Parliament issued a series of decisions that justified the right of democratic countries to restrict freedom of speech on issues related to the denial of the Holocaust and others crimes of the Nazi totalitarian regime of the Third Reich. Genocide denial is a violation of the right to respect for human dignity – not only victims of genocide, but also their descendants are considered victims in cases of this kind.