Call for Papers: Punishment of Negationism

Call for Papers: Punishment of Negationism

The deadline for submissions is 30 June 2019

The obligation to punish public condoning, denying or grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes against peace was imposed on European Union member states by the Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law. A similar obligation was also introduced in theAdditional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems (2006). 

Poland subsequently took action with a threefold intention: to implement this obligation; to combat the use of misleading expressions such as “Polish concentration camps” (instead of German Nazi concentration and extermination camps) and to prevent attempts to attribute responsibility for German Nazi crimes to the Polish state and/or nation. The measures included the introduction of new regulations into the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance in January 2018 (see section in Polish Yearbook of International Lawno. XXXVII with a focus on this Act). The new regulations met with severe criticism. Several of them were referred by the President of Poland to the Constitutional Tribunal for further scrutiny or there were repealed by the Parliament. This is an excellent example of the legal and political pitfalls inherent in the attempts to criminalize negationism. In consequence, the question if and in what way negation of international crimes should be addressed by legal measures is of great importance. 

The aim of the conference organized jointly by the Institute of Justice and the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Warsaw is to contemplate the answers the following questions:

• To what extent does international law oblige states to punish negation of international crimes?
• How can punishment of negationism be reconciled with the obligation to guarantee freedom of expression?
• In what way is negationism addressed in other states?
• What criminal measures can be used to successfully address negationism?
• What civil law measures can be used to successfully address negationism?

The conference will take place at the University of Warsaw on 7-8 October 2019. The language of the conference is English. 

You are kindly invited to submit a proposal for a paper related to the above questions. The organizers have publication plans for the papers to be presented at the conference.

Applications: 

Please email the proposals for papers to patrycja.grzebyk(at)uw.edu.pl by 30 June 2019.

Each submission must include:

• the author’s name and affiliation;
• a 500-word abstract [Word file and PDF];
• the author’s CV, including a list of relevant publications;
• the author’s contact details, including email address and phone number.

The organizers will communicate the selection results by 10 July 2019 individually.